Motu's using PIII's and Window ME

[smartmonkeystudio]

I too have been experiencing a very high rate of reboot's since installing my PCI 324 with 3 1224's. I am running a P3 866 Mhz on an Abit mother board (socket 370). I have had all sorts of problems, including lockups, reboots, blue screens - you name it. I have also tried just about everything that I can think of (and believe me, I am NOT inexperienced at this sort of thing...) and the problem persists. I have also given up on Motu solving this problem. a) can't get through on the phone to tech support and can't get them to respond to my emails - they SUCK! If ANYONE has any idea - and I am willing to try anything - please let me know. Thanks,

A (not so) smart monkey - i guess..

[khamlin]

I'm having the same problem with Win98SE. I have a 1.3Ghz Dell with lots of ram (512M). I changed to 98 from ME because I thought the drivers were the problem. I ran the PCI-324 on a 300Mhz Dell and 98 for a year or more with zero problems. Since moving the card to the 1.3G box it reboots periodically. Without a lot of investigation to back up this assertion, I'm beginning to think it's a HW problem with the card itself and bus speeds on faster processor boxes. The ONLY difference between the 300M and 1.3G box is the box itself. In fact, there's actually less HW in the 1.3G box to have an address conflict with. Keep me posted to what you find and I'll do the same. I would like to resolve this without having to eBay my 2408 and get another solution.

KH

[smartmonkeystudio]

KH,

I have now run for four days now(knock on wood) without any problems. Here is what I did:

1. Make sure you have another sound card besides the PCI 324 in your system and make sure they don't have conflicting IRQ's - duh.

2. Make sure all Windows sound events are TURNED OFF!

3. Make sure that any applications that use a sound device DO NOT use the PCI 324 except for the software you are using to produce your music. I even have my wave editing software playing through the stereo outs of my normal sound board which is then sent through two playback channels on my mixer.

I believe also, like you said, that the PCI 324 has 'issues' with faster processors/motherboards/etc... and that part of the problem is that it can't handle the way Windows is handling routing of sounds through the PCI 324. Of course, as usual, I can't get MOTU to even respond to my email's and of course their lines are ALWAYS BUSY making it impossible to get through to them.

Good luck - hope this helps!

Smart Monkey

[khamlin]

Thanks for the input. I don't have another audio card in this system, but I did go to the Sounds dialog and turn off any Windows sounds. The Audio tab in the Multimedia dialog says to "Use any available device" but since there are no sounds to reproduce, then that shouldn't be a problem. I'll post here after a few days with results.

Thanks again for the tip.

KH

[khamlin]

Follow up. You're definitely on to something. I worked fine after turning off the Windows sound events, much longer than ever before. Then I went on the Web and browsed to the AOL site for email. The "You've Got Mail" wav file started downloading and my machine came to a HARD stop. It looks like a combination of HW speed and Windows handling of sound events. I may need to get a cheap sound card just to redirect Windows stuff through it the way you've done.

KH

[Jim Beam]

The 2408 is probably just fine. You have 2 probles from the way you described your setup:
1) Windows ME drivers are comming out next week.... so the drivers you currently have installed will not work

2) Also sounds like you have an IRQ conflict. MOTU technical support cannot help you there, you must contact your motherboard or computer manufacturer for help.

Jim

[khamlin]

Thanks for your input, Jim. I've checked the IRQs (first thing I looked into) and didn't see a problem. Also, in an earlier post, I mentioned that I was running ME but wiped the disk and installed 98SE.

KH

[smartmonkeystudio]

KH,

I think it would be a good idea to get another sound card. I, like you, had mine disabled on the mother board and I still had lot's of hangs. As soon as I enabled it and played back all sounds from Windows applications through the sound card (not the Motu), my problems went away. I'm on my fifth day without so much as a hung app! Good luck!

Smart Monkey

PS - I'm even running an application that generates samples as waves through the sound board which is then sent through my mixer and back into the Motu's. I then start up Cooledit in another window and record the session through the Motu's. This used to just absolutely KILL my system. Haven't had a problem since changing....

[khamlin]

As an update, I got a confirmation that the PCI-324 has a problem with fast bus/processor speeds. I put a cheapo sound card in to route Windows sound stuff through which helped some. However the 324 still locks the machine (or reboots it) every 10 minutes or so, especially in highly interactive sessions where the audio is being played then stopped (like scrubbing). I've finally called it quits on the MOTU stuff and bought a RME Hammerfall. It went in at the same IRQ and hasn't failed me. This is a rock solid card.

KH

[jaq]

Throughout this thread I've seen multiple mentions of problems with "Fast bus/processor speeds and the MOTU" But I don't recall anyone actually posting what bus speed they were using??????

I'm researching building a new box for my brother's DAW. He's already got a MOTU 2408 MKII.

Lets get some details:
My MOTU Model:
My Motherboard make/model:
My Front Side Bus speed:
My PCI Bus speed:
My Processor Make/model/clock speed:

Feel free to add similar info on memory/hard drives/other peripherals etc. ALSO, if you don't know, that's ok, just gimme what info you've got....

Thanks,
jaq

[khamlin]

My MOTU Model:
2408 (first version of the outboard stuff). I don't think the 324 card changed. Current versions of the drivers, of course.


My Motherboard make/model:
Not sure. Whatever Dell places within their 8100 line.


My Front Side Bus speed:
400Mhz (quad pumped off of a 100Mhz clock)


My PCI Bus speed:
64-bit wide running at 66Mhz (approx. 528MB/sec)


My Processor Make/model/clock speed:
Intel P4 (1.3Ghz) with Intel 850 chipset


Hope this helps. Good luck with your system. I just got tired of working with the 324 card, especially MOTU tech support. I now use the 2408 as a standalone converter.

KH

[jaq]

Khamlin,
Thanks for the info.
I wonder if it is the PCI speed that is freaking out the MOTU. Considering the fact that most PCs with 100 MHz FSB were running the PCI 32 bits @33MHz when the PCI 324 was developed, 64 bits @66MHz is a bit of an increase!!!

JAQ

[Keith W]

I use the 1224 with the SBLive Value. I have sound events turned on, win me, and everything runs perfectly. I don't even have the updated drivers yet for winme.
In the manual it recommends the PCI-324 to be on its own IRQ. I experimented with this and discovered that it helps. Having it on its own interupt and set aside for your recordings only is probably the best way to configure any pro-level recording card. Hope this helps.