Ozonic ASIO connection continually drops out

[dreamfirmware]

Hi All,
I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro SP6000 to which I connect an M-Audio Ozonic keyboard, via a PCMCIA firewire interface. I then use the Ozonic to play VST instruments within my Cubase SX3 host.

The problem is that the ASIO connection to the host regularly stops working, (like every 10 minutes or so). When it stops working there is no MIDI activity shown on the Cubase MIDI monitor and no audio plays from the Ozonic audio outputs.

To all intents and purposes the ASIO interface has stopped working but there are no error messages and the interface can always be restarted using the Cubase 'VST Audiobay' reset button. However after doing this the ASIO link will inevitably fail again a few minutes later.

I have upgraded the M-Audio ASIO driver to the latest version (i.e. 5.10.0.5036) and tried increasing the buffer size with no success. I have also run the same configuration on a newer Toshiba Satellite Pro A30 and get exactly the same ASIO drop out behavior.

Any suggestions to resolve this problem would be much appreciated

[David Muniz]

What IRQ is the PCMCIA FW card on?
What service pack of XP?
have you contact m-audio support?

[dreamfirmware]

- I just checked the IRQ and it's coming up on IRQ11.
- I'm running XP with Service Pack 2 installed
- I hadn't contacted M-Audio when I first posted my question here, but I have now. (I assume I won't get any reply until after the weekend).

Cheers

[dreamfirmware]

I spoke to a very nice chap at M-Audio who confirmed what I had feared... i.e. that the problem was being caused by IRQ sharing.

I tried several things he suggested

1. Disabling as many devices as I could that were on IRQ11
2. Investigating the possibility of moving the firewire controllers IRQ designation, (my PC's BIOS wouldn't allow me to do this).

The conclusion...
Ozonic's ASIO firewire will not work reliably on my PC due to IRQ contention.

I'm going to try my MOTU 828Mk2 into the same firewire port and see if that misbehaves as well?

[dreamfirmware]

I just got back from checking out my Motu 828Mk2, and surprise surprise!!! It works just fine with my Toshiba SP6000 laptop.

Playing VST instruments with a Cubase host through my PCMCIA Firewire interface shows no sign of falling over.

Its using exactly the same IRQ settings, (i.e. IRQ 11) and the MOTU ASIO driver doesn't miss a beat, no dropouts or glitches even with fairly low buffer sizes.

My suggestion to M-Audio would be to hire the MOTU software guys to write their Ozonic software drivers, because from where I'm sitting it looks like they know a bit more about code optimization and avoiding IRQ conflicts.

[David Muniz]

This is an interesting experience.

The one remark I would make - IRQ issues appear when you least expect them. I always think of the hot water in the shower analogy. As long as there's enough hot water to feed the system, you'll stay warm.

I'm sorry the 410 didn't work out. I hope your new device works well for you.

Thanks
David Muniz