Is it me, or do Firewire interfaces suck in windows?

[JACKAL & HYDE]

Hey everyone,
I was wondering if any of you can help me shed some light on my current interface issues?
I run a Macbook Pro + use bootcamp, my interface is a motu traveller. I do a lot of work in windows, however, it's come to my attention that the Motu doesn't seem to be as robust in windows as in OSX, with the largest buffer size set on the traveller, I'm still likely to get audio dropouts. The motu connects with firewire and I have the latest drivers installed. However, in windows, if I use the NI guitar rig 'rig kontrol' pedal (USB) it is much more tolerant, dropouts very seldom occur.

Now... do you think this is a USB vs Firewire connectivity issue? or are motu just making crappy drivers?

I'd be grateful to hear what you think.
Thanks
Tom

Its not Firewire its MOTU. MOTU works better with Mac and has problems on certain XP setups, it always has. Thats why most people go MOTU/Mac - RME/XP

[unition]

I have Firewire 400 and 800 devices. I needed to apply
the patch that Rune just mentioned, otherwise I got very
poor Firewire response and hard disk timeouts.

If you plug Firewire 400 into a Firewire 800 port,
the whole device chain drops to Firewire 400 speed
so I got a second interface -

SIIG Firewire 800+Hi-Speed USB Combo interface.
Part # NN-8US212-S2

I had to play around with the PCI slots to get the proper
interrupt sharing, but in the end I got great Firewire
connectivity in WinXP.

I have a HP DV9000 running XP, and I bought a Siig firewire 800 expresscard to gain the full bandwidth of my RME fireface 800. However I have never been able to get it to work as a 800 port, only at 400 speed, Siig support has been no help, the MS update mentioned above didn't help either. Any ideas? Rather annoying as it was quite expensive for the FW 800 expresscard.

[mikemc]

I have Firewire 400 and 800 devices. I needed to apply
the patch that Rune just mentioned, otherwise I got very
poor Firewire response and hard disk timeouts.

If you plug Firewire 400 into a Firewire 800 port,
the whole device chain drops to Firewire 400 speed
so I got a second interface -

SIIG Firewire 800+Hi-Speed USB Combo interface.
Part # NN-8US212-S2

I had to play around with the PCI slots to get the proper
interrupt sharing, but in the end I got great Firewire
connectivity in WinXP.

I have a HP DV9000 running XP, and I bought a Siig firewire 800 expresscard to gain the full bandwidth of my RME fireface 800. However I have never been able to get it to work as a 800 port, only at 400 speed, Siig support has been no help, the MS update mentioned above didn't help either. Any ideas? Rather annoying as it was quite expensive for the FW 800 expresscard.

That really stinks, it seems like you were doing the smart thing. The expresscard unit support seems like they shoiuld be the ones to help solve the problem. I would wonder if exists/look for some kind of diagnostic tool that could verify the card was able to run at 800, to isolate the problem.

[edit] I've noticed some talk of 9 pin vs 6 pin fw cables, as if 9 pin was 800 and 6 pin was 400, not sure if that has anything to do with anything..

[Amberience]

Do you have a wireless connection setup? Do your problems go away when you disable the wireless?

I had problems also. It was traced back to either poor wireless management in the Windows software, or a bottlenecking issue with firewire+wireless.

Without wireless connection active, the card performed fine. With it active, it stuttered, droped out, and generally was crap.

This does not happen in OSX at all with the same card and the same wireless device.

This also happened on my PC machine.

[Clearscreen]

I bought a Siig firewire 800 expresscard to gain the full bandwidth of my RME fireface 800

i could be wrong about this, but i thought the fireface 800 still worked exactly the same at 400, just you couldn't daisy chain the interfaces and link them... maybe thats what you meant though...

[unition]

I always have the wireless switched off when making music, so I can't imagine its that. Clearscreen, yes I think you may be right, but the issue for me is the fact that I bought a product which doesn't do what it says it does. And Siig support make out like I'm the only person in the world with this problem. Which I doubt, my computers pretty standard. Oh well, at least its not stopping me from making music which is the important thing. Just annoying cause I have to look at it all the time. Cheers for the suggestions.

[eyeknow]

At times, I've had quite a bit of issues with my motu traveler and windows.

At the present time, the latest drivers from motu seem to be working ok, though I use a mac most of the time.