Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

This is a longshot, but here goes:

Did you try disabling the onboard Realtek audio card?

Or, alternatively, installing the drivers for it from the Realtek website and not those included on the CD.

The hackintosh scene seem to have some problems with this board and the Realtek setup too...

MB Pro - 2 X FireFace 400, FF800 & DigiFace USB
ADAT gear: Korg, Behri, Fostex, Alesis...

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

try running OCCT cpu stress test for couple minutes to determine if the problem is in your PC

HDSPe AIO, ADI-2 DAC, Fireface UFX, Octamic D, Octamic II
Reaper, High Sierra

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

The onboard sound was deactivated. No crashes with the audiokontrol 1. The problem is related to the combination with madiface! I don't accept that this incompatibility is my problem after paying so much money...

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Is anybody interested in swapping a PCIe MADI card with my Madiface USB (temporarily)? I really would like to see if a different setup with madi is stable. The computer runs stable with my old USB interface so I strongly believe it will with a PCIe card. I don't have the time anymore to try out 1000+ settings and wait for days to see the effect. Again I payed more than 4000 Euro (incl. the Converters) for a system that isn't working. And the support I got from RME was pretty disappointing. Sorry to say that, but I expect some support however to get this stable without long testing. The only way this can be done is with a different hardware combination...
If I don't get this support I will end up buying a second MADI interface, but we all know the pricetag of those..

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Silentmaxx is taking the PC back after 8 months returning me 1900 Euro!!! Thanks a lot guys! Going for the new Macbook Pro now...

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

... Some months later, two more computers with the same madiface. RUNNING WELL ON A MACBOOK. SAME ISSUES ON A BRAND NEW PC with all different components. But now I found out that there is a stable state, where the computer is running a couple of days without crash and an instable state, where it crashes all 4 1/2 hours. I am not sure what the difference makes, but I believe I need to plug in the madiface after booting to have a stable state. If this is the case, I will next try to find if it is related to the start of total mix, which occurs on boot, if the card is plugged in.  Definitely I sometimes still have falsely initialized asio drivers after cold start as before (the crackling). So most certainly there is an issue with the windows driver. One thing I also changed lately was adding a wdm device in the driver settings. I also will check this..

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Ok.. computer ran stable After plugging in the madiface After boot. Instable after next coldstart with madiface plugged in. Come on guys.. Any ideas? I can't be the only one having issues after i tried 4 different computers and 2 had problems.. i will remove totalmix and thr driver panel from autostart to see what it changes..

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Chris T wrote:

The onboard sound was deactivated. No crashes with the audiokontrol 1. The problem is related to the combination with madiface! I don't accept that this incompatibility is my problem after paying so much money...

IF you tried already to remove all USB devices except mouse + keyboard and
THEN tried the RME device on every available USB 2 and 3 port..

Then I see the only option to make a last attempt by adding a quality USB card where the chipset has been validated by RME even for an UFX+ with even more channels.

I have such a card with Fresco Logic FL1100 Controller chip with 4 dedicated USB3 controller which needs a x4 socket, but this card is also availabe with only one chipset shared by 4 ports. You can decide which makes more sense for your system.
https://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/son … 79334.html
https://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/son … 48037.html

On Windows 10, if I remember right, its directly supported, I use it successfully on Win7 with the driver from download page.

With this you could have eventually a chance to isolate USB from the rest of the USB infrastructure of your system.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

onbord sound is disabled.. Trying different usb ports in the meantime. But I don't see much sense in this. All ports on 2 different Computers and 2 different pci-e Cards caused this problem. I am wondering if there's many users that run the madiface on a pc. The Drivers must have a bug. I really don't understand why this doesn't get fixed. Again I had crashes all 4.5 hours when booted with madiface. Removing total mix from autostart didn't help. Now I am testing with connecting madiface after booting. I bet it will be stable again. I let you know later...

60 (edited by ramses 2017-10-01 13:26:32)

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Sorry no idea. Trying out all ports is a must, as some ports are from chipsets that are known not to work reliably, i.e. most of not all ASMedia USB3 chipsets and surely some other.
And as usually nobody really knows which ports are at the computer case (either from Intel or AMD chipset or from additional chipsets mounted on the mainboard), its more pragmatic to ask people, to simply try all ports.
Additionally USB devices can influence each other.
Therefore the other recommendation to unplug all 1st (except mouse and keyboard) to have "greenfield" in terms of USB ports to be better able to identify those who work. Later you can then experiment, whether its save to re-plug all the rest or by choosing a different combination of ports.

Other strategy is to buy an addition USB3 card which is supported.

And eventually to check your PC whether the current BIOS and Windows settings are suitable for recording purposes.

But there can also mainboard exist, that simply have a bad design / layout / BIOS.

Especially difficult it is with Laptops to optimize them for audio, as energy saving parameters are usually not accessible .. otherwise the heat could become too much if you disable energy saving, which is a recommendation for desktop PCs.

Every PC is a bit different, you need to see it more differentiated. Best guarantee for best performance is to optimize whats possible this gives you more headroom, the machine is more agile to accept higher load with a tendency to be able to use smaller ASIO buffersizes compared to a machine which has deficites in one or more areas.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Hello RME,

after a long struggle with the madiface usb, I finally found the condition which leads to reproducible crashes as well as a procedure to set up a stable system. Unfortunately, the latter is only a workaround, which is not desirable.

First of all, I have to mention that the performance is very good, until the system crashes. I am running at 32 samples latency and also can handle complex live setups. Also, I would call myself very experienced with recording and live setups using a pc or mac. I have had a couple of Audio Interfaces, but never had any trouble like this. I am quite sure, there is a simple solution in the driver to avoid this problem.

Unstable Setup: Madiface plugged into pc. Then cold start of win 10. System crashes after 4.5h no matter what, even if I stay at the login Screen, so no daw running.

Stable Setup: cold start or restart. After booting win 10 plugging in the madiface. No problems!

I bet there is a buffer overflow that is not handled or something alike. Honestly, from what I have heard that RME drivers are the most stable, I would expect that you take this issue serious and work out a solution. Trying out all possible usb connections to find what works out doesn't sound like professional performance. I have had audio Interfaces from Egosys, M-Audio, Native Instruments, Steinberg, and more and never had any issues with compatibility. I have been testing the madiface with two different PCs, one with a Gigabyte the other with a ASRock motherboard. Same issues on both.

Thanks in advance for your support! 

Chris

62

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Unfortunately the error logs/memory dumps are completely useless to find the cause here. We MUST be able to reproduce the effect on our machines, and so far we weren't. I tried your instructions/setup on two different machines and stopped the test after around 8 hours. Another developer did the same with no result.

Note that the MF USB is a Pro device, used in locations and applications where it typically runs for a long time. Therefore a bug should have been reported from others already before, but was not.

A possible explanation is that you have set something in the Settings dialog or TotalMix FX in a very unusual way, so you are the only one seeing that bug now.

Or the crash is caused from an external device that you used on all the different computers.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

63 (edited by vinark 2017-10-12 11:02:53)

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

I understand you suspect the RME unit, but in my experience crashes after long periods are often hardware related. One thing you could try is run prime95 in stress testing mode (default one) for a very log time. 24h minimum, unless of course there is an error earlier. I could tell you my experiences but maybe just try this first.

You could do this both with or without the Madiface and even from a cold boot with the madiface connected. If prime95 produces an error before the crash it is definitely hardware.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
Babyface pro fs, HDSP9652+ADI-8AE, HDSP9632

Re: High-End Computer crashes with Madiface USB

Hi, I don't know if this helps, but I'm experiencing similar issues with crashes the last years. I'm on windows 8, and i own a fireface 800. The one thing I can tell you for sure, is that the crashes disappeared once I disconnected the midi keyboard (and this happened for a period of time, like months). The other thing I can tell for sure, is that the crashes reappeared when I connected the midi keyboard.

The midi keyboards connects to the FF800 via midi cable.