cannot chain my firewire drive through my interface

[Chris98]

when i try to start protools with my firewire drive plugged into my profire 610 it doesn't detect the 610 it says "protools hardware not installed or used by another program" ? when i use the drive via usb protools does launch but i experience recording and playback problems. For instance i can only record one track. when i try to put another track in and send a signal while in playback the signal is lost till playback is turned off .... ?????



macbook 2.2 1gb ram osx 10.5.8
profire610
xponent
triggerfinger
protools m powered 8.01

[mindnoise]

sounds like a faulty cable or (hopefully not) device to me,

I´d contact M-Audio support.

best

[Eric Seaberg]

I think the order should be Macbook -> FW drive -> Interface.

[mindnoise]

BTW you should definately add another 1GB of RAM at least to your Macbook.
it will feel like a totally different machine!

the MacBook 2,2 is the one with the GMA X3100 graphics I think. so you can go 4GB.

best

[DigiTechSupt]

Your two best options in this case are:

1. Get a FW800 to FW400 cable and connect the drive to the FW800 port on the computer, the 610 to the FW400 port.
2. Get a firewire expresscard (this one is a good bet and connect either the drives or the 610 to the card and the other device to the built in FW400 port on the computer.

[JonesH]

Try all possible connection orders for your setups. For me with my PF2626, I had the same trouble when doing the reccommended setup but got it working by having the interface before the harddrive.

[Kevin Windrem]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

Your two best options in this case are:

1. Get a FW800 to FW400 cable and connect the drive to the FW800 port on the computer, the 610 to the FW400 port.
2. Get a firewire expresscard (this one is a good bet and connect either the drives or the 610 to the card and the other device to the built in FW400 port on the computer.

Interesting that M-Audio recommends the interface first but DigiTechSupt's recommendation to connect to the drive first does seem the most stable. I'm running FW800 between the computer and an OWC drive (with 924 chip set), then FW800 to Fw400 cable to the 2626.

Windows is another story. Putting the drive first doesn't always work (FW400 out of the laptop.) Putting the interface first, then on to the drive seems to be the most stable. I'm considering a FireWire interface. Anyone have a recommendation for a FW800/FW400 cardbus/PCMCIA card (for the PC)?

[Chris98]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

Your two best options in this case are:

1. Get a FW800 to FW400 cable and connect the drive to the FW800 port on the computer, the 610 to the FW400 port.
2. Get a firewire expresscard (this one is a good bet and connect either the drives or the 610 to the card and the other device to the built in FW400 port on the computer.

I put the drive first in the chain and everything seems to be working fine.....mac laptop fw 400>fw 800 simple tech pro ext hd :fw400>profire 610. Should i Power the interface off the bus or should i use the power supply ????

its odd that the Manual included informs you to run the drive first ...... M Audio should start including Fw 400 to fw 800 cables if this is the solution to our problems..... it sucks when you spend thousands of dollars and stress out for a week when one $15(cdn) cable and the order of how you chain your gear is the solution .......

Thanks to the Tech support guys and everyone else who helped me out!!!! i just put 4gb of ram in my mac book and my set up is Flying now

[Eric Seaberg]

I would always use the supply on the interface. If it's getting the proper amount of current from the power supply it will sound better. You can't always guarantee that when powering off the buss.

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by Chris98

I put the drive first in the chain and everything seems to be working fine.....mac laptop fw 400>fw 800 simple tech pro ext hd :fw400>profire 610. Should i Power the interface off the bus or should i use the power supply ????

its odd that the Manual included informs you to run the drive first ...... M Audio should start including Fw 400 to fw 800 cables if this is the solution to our problems..... it sucks when you spend thousands of dollars and stress out for a week when one $15(cdn) cable and the order of how you chain your gear is the solution .......

Thanks to the Tech support guys and everyone else who helped me out!!!! i just put 4gb of ram in my mac book and my set up is Flying now

I'm going to let you in on a little secret - sometimes voodoo trumps science.

In other words - sometimes with computers you'll have to play around with the configuration to find out which way works best for your particular system. There are so many device variations between the computer, interface and drive (not to mention any other peripherals that may be attached..) that saying 'THIS method will work on every computer' with 100% accuracy is almost unheard of.

Obviously I'm being a bit dramatic here - of course if we had time to look at every system that wasn't working with the recommended configuration, we could probably figure out why. What these instructions should say is that in most cases the recommended configuration will work but, if you do that, you almost have to list the possible 'if' situations below it...which would be a right mess if you're trying to account for even a small percentage of possible combinations.

So - we work with what we have. Most cases work, the others we figure out as we go.