• Registered: 2018-03-10
  • Posts: 5

Topic: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Hi there,

I've owned the RME UFX for over a year and overall it's been running well, with the occasional hiccup. Last night, I wanted to try out the 192khz sample rate in my DAW, but as soon as I made this switch there was a sudden loud chattering digital sound coming out of my UFX for a couple seconds, all the meters in total mix jumped up (even inactive channels) and the interface would no longer function with my pc (the firewire light on the interface also went off).

I've had trouble with my interface crashing like this in the past (with and without a sample rate change) but it's usually solved by rebooting my PC (restarting the interface didn't help). This time rebooting my PC has not helped either. The interface is now not connecting to my PC. The "state: firewire" light on the front remains off, and the RME Fireface settings on my PC will not open (nothing happens when I click it, was going to switch the sample rate back down to 44khz).

I'll provide these additional notes:

I currently have the latest driver software installed.
My interface is connected via firewire
I have also reinstalled the latest driver
My cable is good
I've tried changing firewire ports (reconnecting to a different one)

None of the above has solved this issue, so I'm now reaching out for more help. I tried searching the forum, but had difficultly finding the same topic, so my apologies if this has already been posted.

Hope someone can offer some insight into this issue, thanks.

  • Registered: 2016-06-22
  • Posts: 83

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Have you tried connecting via USB, to see how that fares in getting it recognized by your system?

  • vinark
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Just to be sure. Did you try a real cold boot, with all power disconnected from the PC. It looks like the firewire card or chip of the computer crashed hard and wont recover with a reboot.

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

4 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2018-03-11 11:18:15)

  • ramses
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

andrewhenderson wrote:

Have you tried connecting via USB, to see how that fares in getting it recognized by your system?

Good idea, on top of that:

If you can use USB then use it. Preferred are USB2 (alternatively also USB3 ports in compat mode) from the chipset.
Dont use a HUB, directly attach to the port.

USB can be more reliable in terms of using other sample frequencies than 44.1
and if you need to flash the UFX, then you can perform this only via USB, this saves you the work of re-cabling or haveing an additional cabel connected solely for this purpose.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2018-03-10
  • Posts: 5

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Thanks for the replies.

I tried connecting via USB (direct to port). For USB, the light goes on, on the interface (state: usb) but then the PC is not detecting it and the device disappears from Window's playback devices. (Totalmix also does not open when connected via USB, but does open when connected via firewire [but with no working signals]. I also tried a different USB port, and am still having the same problem.

I also shut down my computer, disconnected power, and rebooted after several minutes. This hasn't seemed to help either.

RME Fireface settings won't open as well, does it simply not function when the interface is not detected?

6 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2018-03-11 19:40:12)

  • ramses
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Does the UFX show up in Device Manager under Audio Devices ?

Am not sure whether the UFX also had a Dignose function in the display which can display an error code,
where RME can comment to ...

Options -> HW / Diagnosis -> Test Results ...

For me on the UFX+ the results look like this when you turn the encoder:
0 0000 0000 19 0 151

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2018-03-10
  • Posts: 5

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

ramses wrote:
andrewhenderson wrote:

Have you tried connecting via USB, to see how that fares in getting it recognized by your system?

Good idea, on top of that:

If you can use USB then use it. Preferred are USB2 (alternatively also USB3 ports in compat mode) from the chipset.
Dont use a HUB, directly attach to the port.

USB can be more reliable in terms of using other sample frequencies than 44.1
and if you need to flash the UFX, then you can perform this only via USB, this saves you the work of re-cabling or haveing an additional cabel connected solely for this purpose.


Thanks guys.

I now have it working with my PC after connecting via USB and reinstalling the USB driver. I was previously using firewire as I heard this was a faster connection. Why would USB be more reliable with other sample frequencies than firewire?

The crashes are very frequent when I change sample the sample rate.. requiring me to restart my PC in order for the interface to stay operable with my PC. Does anyone know a way around this? I've even tried disabling and re-enabling the driver via device manager as a workaround to not having to restart my PC, but this hasn't helped. It doesn't seem like I should have to restart the PC everytime I change the sample rate because the interface or driver crashes in the first place.

Also, my other pc applications such as my web browser audio.. only functions when switched my interface is set to 44khz.. is there a way around this? I imagine it's because of a sample rate mismatch, but is there a way to configure this to work? I'd like to be able to operate at 96khz in my DAW, without other PC appllications' audio no longer working.

Appreciate the help.

8 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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  • Registered: 2007-04-06
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Pretty unique behaviour. What kind of computer is this?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2018-03-10
  • Posts: 5

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

MC wrote:

Pretty unique behaviour. What kind of computer is this?


Just a PC with 64-bit Windows 7, not anything unusual about it as far as I know. Are these problems uncommon? Something I've always wondered about is how the Windows Audio settings are supposed to be configured. Are they just a slave to the RME settings? (if I switch to 48khz in the RME settings are they automatically applied to the windows playback device?) Haven't seen much information on setting the Windows Audio settings to best operate with the Interface, maybe it's not important, but just a thought.

10 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2018-03-12 08:27:20)

  • ramses
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

musicdude99 wrote:

I now have it working with my PC after connecting via USB and reinstalling the USB driver. I was previously using firewire as I heard this was a faster connection. Why would USB be more reliable with other sample frequencies than firewire?

When I tried years ago with old PC / UFX all sample frequency / ASIO buffersize combinations then it turned out that some combinations didnt work without crackles. Most was due to bad TI XIO2200A chip.
The issue was mostly, but not entirely, gone with another Firewire card with more reliable TI chip
and also switching to a better mainboard / CPU combination didnt change that.
With USB no issues, all combinations of sample frequency and ASIO buffer size worked.

As the difference in round trip time between Firewire and USB is very low (at least for RME recording interfaces),
I decided to use USB.

And if you look now to an UFX II and UFX+ you will notice that Firewire has entirely gone.

Here in my blog article you can see / compare the RTT that the RME ASIO driver needs to communicate to the DAW.
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … 8-RME-UFX/

https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.php/Attachment/1931-UFX-UFX-RayDAT-Latencies-jpg

Maybe in the old days Firewire was on some PC better, but these times are IMHO over.

And if you should have issues with your USB bus, becasue maybe too many connected devices should influence each other, like i.e. additional USB3 bridges or USB Bluetooth adapter, then you can get an additional USB3 card to fully isolate the recording interface.

The sonnet cards run very nicely .. you can have the normal card with 4 ports sharing one FL1100 USB3 chip or the PRO model where each of the 4 USB3 ports have a dedicated USB3 (4 x FL1100) chip.

For you this should not be necessary, but for me it was because I operate 2 x UFX+ which has a lot of channels and an ADI-2 Pro. This in total with USB bridges, bluetooth adapter, etc was a not so good working combination.

Another advantage of the Sonnet card (see signature) is a nice driver model which uses more efficient message shared interrupts (MSI). The Win7 driver is very stable, under Win10 it is being recognized automatically.

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

11 Reply by strangedays (edited by strangedays 2018-03-12 10:13:13)

  • Registered: 2008-03-22
  • Posts: 124

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Really unfortunate story to hear.  I have used many different sound interfaces over the years and I used to own an RME fireface 400.  After sometime the cost of my not new went up in value and I needed the cash.  I decided to sell.  The other unit I used were ok but I always regretted it -  how good the Fireface was. 

When I bought the Babyface Pro I was excited.  I was lucky as it worked fine, although in one occasion the jog wheel fell of. 

I think moving production to places like China does have its consequences, I feel that RME are still making some of the best kit, but quality can suffer with he Chinese made products.  QC is very important here.  Shame as the benefits of RME once you have used their products in the way they should be seen is at the top.

12 Reply by Gary (edited by Gary 2018-03-12 14:17:31)

  • Gary
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

USB vs Firewire is really a machine by machine comparison.  FW is faster on paper, but if your machine is setup right (and the UFX is on an isolated USB bus), RME has worked some magic with the USB drivers.  On my UFX, I got slightly better performance out of USB.  On top of that, the USB was more reliable, and you can only update firmware via USB...So USB for me, on my machines, was a win-win all the way around.

  • Registered: 2018-03-10
  • Posts: 5

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Thanks for the advice guys. So it's considerable that performance could improve if I upgrade to a dedicated USB card?

Even if I'm only using one UFX? I've been experiencing crackles with my audio even when connected to USB, so I'm willing to make upgrades to improve this. Any recommendations for a good USB card for this? Even just one port will do if that's helpful.

  • ramses
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

For the reasons mentioned (more efficient driver, MSI, message signalled interrupts)

This (requires PCIe socket with x4 PCIe lanes), because it has one dedicated USB3 chip behind each of the 4 ports.
https://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/son … 79334.html

or that one USB3 chip shared between the 4 ports:
https://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/son … 48037.html

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2017-03-22
  • Posts: 63

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Hi there

I have a similar issue, starting up the studio this morning my pc windows 10 64bit does not see my Fireface UFC ll.
The device was working without any issues for 2 years or so.

Its usb connected to a seperate PCI card USB3. changed the cable and tried multiple usb sockets, no luck.
The HOST light is off, CC mod off, Total mix does not start.
Its not showing up in Devices, i did a reset, cold boot, no luck.

test results 0 0000 0000 19 0 232
SW version 11, 03/2018

shall i try to uninstall all drivers? i thought i will ask first.

really hope i can get this to work again.

buy the ticket take the ride..
  • Registered: 2017-03-22
  • Posts: 63

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

It does show in devices and printers, but as a unknown usb device (device descriptor request failed).
Troubleshoot couldn't gather information about the device.
I also uninstalled and reinstalled all software, no luck there either.

Floyd

buy the ticket take the ride..
  • Registered: 2017-03-22
  • Posts: 63

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

Does anybody knows what it could be if the device is 'connecting' to my pc, but not being specifically recognized as the Fireface ufx?

buy the ticket take the ride..

18 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

You should verify this behaviour with a different computer . If so then it seems the UFX II needs service.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

19 Reply by floyd pepper (edited by floyd pepper 2019-12-30 22:55:16)

  • Registered: 2017-03-22
  • Posts: 63

Re: RME UFX no longer connecting to PC

MC wrote:

You should verify this behaviour with a different computer . If so then it seems the UFX II needs service.

Thank you replying, i did try this on my macbook pro, same results.

I may have found the cause of all this, a big thunderstorm we had early morning might have done some damage.
You know of any other cases similar and what most likely to test or replace in the device?

I opened it up to have look and all seems normal from the outside, capacitors are not bulging in the power supply section and circuitry seem normal.
I hope its a usb socket only problem, i will bring it for service to the distributor.

many thanks
Floyd

buy the ticket take the ride..