Aardvark Q10 Problems

OK, upon further testing..... I don't know what is going on! LOL

I stuck the other vido card back in and the playback devices showed up in the sounds and audio properties, but upon trying to use ASIO drivers in Samplitude it froze up. So I'm quite positive that video card is bad. Then after removing the video card and booting up the playback devices still weren't showing up (waiting well after a minute). I tweaked the graphics accelerator and no change.... So I set it back to normal and rebooted and now it works.

I think I have audio gremlins or something.

-tkr
 
Well it's back down again.... :(

It was working fine last night. Lasted through several tests and reboots, but I tried rebooting it a few times today and it was still working after the first one, but on the second one it stopped working and I've done several reboots after that and it's still not working. I reloaded the Q10 drivers and still nothing.

The other video card is still out and it's not working. I guess that wasn't it after all.

Out of all the computer problems I've had, this is by far the worst one, because it works for a long time, goes through many tests and it seems to be fixed and then nothing. Soooo frustrating!!!! :mad:

I tried running memtest yesterday to test the RAM and there were no errors.

Back at it again.....

-tkr
 
This looks VERY promising....

While trying to look up how to find the BIOS version I found out about this nifty utility in windows called msinfo32.exe which can be used to check your BIOS version.... Turns out it does a whole lot more. I used this to check my IRQ's and sure enough my video card and Q10 are on the same IRQ (IRQ 19).

Here are the list of IRQs:

IRQ0 System timer
IRQ1 Keyboard
IRQ5 Ethernet
IRQ6 Floppy Disk
IRQ8 clock
IRQ9 Microsoft ACPI
IRQ11 PCI system management
IRQ13 numeric data processor
IRQ14 primary IDE
IRQ18 RAID
IRQ19 Q10
IRQ19 Rage Fury Pro {Video}
IRQ20 Standard openHCD USB
IRQ20 Standard enhanced PCI to USB
IRQ21 Standard openHCD USB
IRQ21 1394 {Network}
IRQ22 NvDIA N-Force {Network}

I have no idea how to change it (or what to change it to) but this seems to be a very likely source of the problem here.... :)

-tkr
 
OK, well, um.... It's not the IRQ. :(

I just moved the card around until I got it into an unused IRQ (IRQ 17) and the problem persists. After reloading the drivers and rebooting a number of times the Q10 devices still won't show up in the sounds and audio devices.


Next on the list.... My BIOS version is 1013 created 11/12/2004. Google didn't turn up anything more recent so I think this is the latest one.

-tkr
 
Tekker said:
OK, well, um.... It's not the IRQ. :(

I just moved the card around until I got it into an unused IRQ (IRQ 17) and the problem persists. After reloading the drivers and rebooting a number of times the Q10 devices still won't show up in the sounds and audio devices.


Next on the list.... My BIOS version is 1013 created 11/12/2004. Google didn't turn up anything more recent so I think this is the latest one.

-tkr
Click to expand...

I was actually just looking at my device driver list by IRQ and my card share the video card IRQ 19 as well, but something tells that not the problem. In fact I've been reading up alot on the Q10 and read somewhere that aardvark were design to work in unison with other devices using the same IRQ. Actually I have about 6 devices sharing the same IRQ.

I think they are call virtual IRQ?

The more I read about the Q10. Something tells me there were alot of people who had problems with them and the Q10 problems weren't fully test or not adequtely beta test before being put on the market.

It could very well be that Q10 work only on alimited number of different system and may well very be a futile attempt to try and get to work.

Maybe a better strategy would be to find another system that works well with the Q10 like your family pc.
 
jmarques said:
It could very well be that Q10 work only on alimited number of different system and may well very be a futile attempt to try and get to work.

Maybe a better strategy would be to find another system that works well with the Q10 like your family pc.
Click to expand...
The Q10 been working on my system for over 2 years. This is just a sudden problem that popped up out of the blue. I was even listening to music on it the day before it stopped working. I've done lots of recording with it and also play my guitar through it using VST monitoring (I don't have a guitar amp so this is how I play electric).

The Q10 definitely does work with my system, but for some reason it just stopped working all of a sudden and has been very flaky ever since.

-tkr
 
Tekker said:
Family PC: (Working)
K7T MS-6330 Motherboard
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4GHz
640MB SDRAM (don't know the brand)

My PC: (Not working)
Asus A7N8XE Deluxe Motherboard
AMD Athlon XP2800+ Barton
Corsair VS1GB300C3 1GB DDR SDRAM (x 2)

The weird thing is that the card has been working for a long time on my system. I was even listening to music with it the day before it crashed and burned. The driver has always been really flaky, but a quick reboot (or at worst uninstalling/reinstalling the driver) and it would be up and running again. This is the first time I haven't been able to fix it.
-tkr
Click to expand...

Sorry I'm not trying to act like somekind of jerk, but from this statement I gather the thought process that your q10 has alway had some minor problems, but you could just reboot without too much trouble and it would be working again.

It's sound like from this statement that there was/has always been some problems or bug and it has gotten worse.

I don't know what wrong for sure, but I wonder if your power supply may be going bad or can not handle the power consumption of the q10?

Ok perhaps when the power supply was newer it could, but know something has change perhaps... I don't really know.
 
jmarques said:
It's sound like from this statement that there was/has always been some problems or bug and it has gotten worse.
Click to expand...
I don't know where the problem lies though, because the Q10 does work on the family PC. If it was a software bug/virus then reloading XP should have fixed that. I've also reset the BIOS settings. So I don't know what's left other than some other kind of hardware failure/conflict.

I don't know what wrong for sure, but I wonder if your power supply may be going bad or can not handle the power consumption of the q10?
Click to expand...
The power supply is pretty new (much newer than our family PC) and it's a 450 Watt power supply for servers.

I could try a temporary swap with the family PC's supply and see what happens.

I don't really know.
Click to expand...
+1! :confused::confused::confused:

-tkr
 
Update:

It looks like one problem has been found, one of my sticks of RAM seems to be bad. Even though memtest gave both a clean bill of health, someone on another forum said that memtest is not reliable and told me to swap them out. So I did and sure enough one of them will not boot into windows at all (tried different slots and everything). Windows will never load if it's just this stick of RAM. However, there have been several times where windows locked up with the "good" one in also.

So while this RAM stick does appear to be a problem, removing it did not fix the problem with my Q10. At first the Q10 worked once it was removed, but after several reboots it stopped working and has not worked since.

I'm gonna try swapping power supplies with the family PC next.

-tkr
 
Swapping the power supply has brought the Q10 back to life.... But, we'll see how long this one lasts. It seems to be very up and down. By tomorrow it'll probably be back down again.

-tkr
 
Jesus!

I have no advice for you whatsoever, but I would like to just express my empathy. These type of computer things can drive a person absolutely insane. I feel for you. Good luck, and hold it together!
 
Perhaps buy yourself a new stick of RAM (under $20 I think) to try by itself in your computer. If it works, ditch the old RAM and buy yourself another stick. If your CPU is idling at 52 degrees, that seems a bit on the hot side to me. Under full load it probably gets too hot. Maybe a new power supply would help keep things cooler inside your case?
 
It is still working.

I rebooted about 4 or 5 times today, turned the computer off completely a couple times, and uninstalled/reinstalled the driver and it worked every time.

I even put the "bad" stick of RAM back in by itself and it booted into windows just fine and my Q10 drivers loaded fine also.

Maybe that RAM stick isn't bad after all? It seems like a very strange coincidence because I tried all kinds of slots and rebooted several times and that stick would never load by itself. But the other one worked most of the time except for a couple occasions where it locked up also. It looks like the PSU had something to do with this, but I wonder why one stick would never work by itself but the other one would..... Gremlins maybe? :confused:

But the PSU appears to be the problem.... Well, at least it has lasted longer than all the other "fixes" thus far. I've already taken this PSU one out and put it back into the family PC so I won't be able to test anymore with it (the natives were getting restless and wanting their computer back). But I don't want to put mine back in if it is dying so no more testing there either.

I'll look into getting another PSU (450 Watt), any particular brands you recommend or brands that I should avoid?

-tkr
 
I just happen to replace my psu about 2 months ago not because is had gone bad but was extremely loud. I was told by the computer shop guys that Thermaltake is a good brand to go with.

The new psu (TR2-500w) -I got was definitely quieter than my old one and can handle upto 500 watts output, 3 year warranty and of course has low noise rating.

It was alittle pricey, but think it was worth. I paid almost US$130 - 150 for it brand new and wasn't that hard to install.
 
Connecting Point didn't have much of a selection under $80, so I got a 550 Watt for only $30 (it doesn't mention a brand anywhere on the box or the PSU itself, all it says is WT550i). This one is 100 Watts more than I had before, so hopefully it'll hold up for a while.

I put it in before I had to leave and rebooted it a few times, then I let it run with the minimal stuff I had in before (two hard drives and everything disabled in the BIOS), I rebooted it several more times when I got back and it continued to work. Then I plugged everything back in, put the 2nd video card back in, and enabled everything in the BIOS and rebooted several more times and it still works!

I think this did it!!!!

I've said that before, so hopefully I won't end up eating those words. LOL! But this has lasted much longer than all the other fixes. Ever since I took my power supply out the Q10 has worked every single time. Even with all the other stuff that I "thought" were causing problems back in my computer, it's working just fine.

Thanks a lot for all your help and support!

I'm tired of dealing with computers, it's MUSIC TIME now! :D

-tkr
 
Thanks, I'll keep that bookmarked. :)

The new power supply does seem to have fixed the problem. I just reloaded windows again and installed all my programs and it's still working.

So hopefully the crisis is over.... Until something else breaks! :rolleyes:

-tkr
 
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