wacky error w/ FW 410

[jonathan jetter]

computer is a Dell Dimension 4600, P4 3ghz w/ HT, 2gb RAM. running XP Home w/ SP2

audio playback stutters.....speed changes. eventually i get a 9128 DAE Error saying that CPU usage has been maxed out. except we're just running 1 audio track with no plugins.

the problem is least severe (though still crippling) with the DAE Buffer set at 0. as i increase the size of the DAE buffer...it gets to the point where playback wont even start.

i've tried the following:

turning off Hyper Threading in the BIOS
de-selecting CPU affinity on CPU O
setting RTAS processors to 1 instead of 2
swapping the FW cable.
checking for any IRQ conflicts on the FW card

this has been tested on PT 7.0 and 7.1

what could be causing this? any chance its a hardware problem? M-audio tech support was pretty useless when i called them, and i would be grateful for any assistance. thanks,

jonathan jetter

[Jim Roseberry]

What Firewire controller are you using?
(I'm guessing it's an onboard Firewire controller with a Via chipset)
Firewire controllers with a TI (Texas Instruments) Oxford chipset are the best choice for performance/compatibility.

Are you using the latest driver for the FW410?
This is important.

In any event, don't panic... you'll get it working.
Worst case, you may need to pickup a new PCI Firewire controller.

One last thing.
You may want to download a PCI latency adjustment applet (double dawg works well) to up the PCI latency setting for your Firewire controller. If it defaults to 32, bump it up to 64 (or even higher). This allows more PCI bandwidth for the Firewire controller.
I don't believe this is your problem... but it can help you achieve lower latency (once the system is functioning properly).


Jim Roseberry