How frustrating! Got a new computer - everything is working fine now, except the interface (which worked fine on the last computer). Last set-up was a laptop with a firewire ("passive") card added on. Same driver, same OS, worked fine.

I switched from a laptop to a desktop with firewire built in ("active"). But the computer acts up when I've got it hooked up. It was a pain in the ass to set-up to begin with... after trial and error for an hour... I figured out that the the power and the firewire needed to be connected, even though firewire was providing power to the unit (without the power cable). Now that it is set-up, sometimes the interface won't reboot with the system reboots. Occasionally I can switch the firewire cable from port 1 to port 2 on the interface and it will "wake-up." Other times not. But sometimes the computer won't fully restart if it is plugged in - it appears frozen, but if I unplug the interface (firewire and power) it will restart. I've tried the new firmware (which will only load if the both the power and the firewire are connected, while the drivers will only load with the firewire and no power connected), using their latest drivers, and cannot get this working the right way if my life depended on it!!!

Using a Focusrite Saffire, which I really liked until now, and XP pro with a new Dell (was using XP Pro with a Vaio). This is really pissing me off...

Any suggestions?

Are you using a 6 pin (powered) or 4 pin (unpowered) cable? If you're using a 6 pin, you should have read the manual better because you probably blew something inside the card.

How would I have blown something? By using power and 6 pin? The manual says "if firmware doesn't update and you are using firewire for power, try updating with both firewire and power supply hooked up."

Think about it man...

Your sound card needs, lets say, 9v... If its getting 9v from your computer and 9v from the power supply, thats 18v. Electrical devices only have a 10% tolerance for voltage, you've given it 200% of what it needs. Hence, something could be fried unless they have a relay inside it or something which switches off the firewire power.

You need a 4 pin (normal 6 pin cable unpowered, not mini firewire) cable, presuming no damage is already done.

I'm pretty sure they didn't put it in the troubleshooting manual and answerbase if it would fry the device. The guy I'm talking to at Focusrite didn't say anything either when I walked him through the steps I took - the steps they recommend. The reason I went through their troubleshooting and did it this way is because it was causing problems - not the other way around.

The device "works," it just isn't stable. It isn't always recognized when I restart and sometimes causes XP not to fully load up. If I unplug the device XP will boot, then if I plug it in after XP is fully loaded it recognizes it and will work fine. So, the current work around (if I need to restart) is to unplug it, restart, then plug it back in. Works fine that way.

Working with Focusrite to fix it... probably going to need a different Firewire PCI card - they recommend one with a TI chipset, so that's on its way as of today.

Two nine volt sources wired in SERIES will provide 18v, and I'm sure that's not what they've done here.

"The Saffire wil ltake the power from whicher device is supplying the most..." From the Focusrite website.

So with the unit plugged in and powered, the computer will freeze on bootup? With the unit plugged in and powered, does the computer boot in Safe Mode?

If you haven't tried safe mode (continually hit F8 during startup until the boot menu appears, select safe mode), do so. It will show what files are being loaded/initialized during the startup process.

I had a problem like this with a USB hard drive, froze on Mup.sys. Did some research and there are a number of solutions. Easiest was to turn on the external drive after startup.

I hope Focusrite gets this squared away for you, good luck!

Last edited by 3F05Q on Jun-19-2007 at 01:39

Got the new firewire card today, got a SIIG... put it in, loaded up the drivers, loaded up Saffire install and voila! Working well - better than before.

At the end of this, though, going to have to recommend NEVER getting a product from Focusrite that MAY EVER need support. They suck. First email was good... but they suck, and in my case, appear to get too busy to respond for days at a time (NEVER heard back after the first email). They suck... need a new interface soon (with more inputs) and Focusrite is not an option at this point.

But, I'm back to sound!

Both Good to hear (that you're up and running) and bad to hear (that FR's support was crummy.)

I just bought a FW card with a TI chipset as well... now I just need to get an interface.