MOTU MK2 828 cuts audio

muthafunka · Post by **muthafunka** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 12:56 am

It's more likely to be a problem based on a hardware combination rather than just a single piece of hardware. I recently changed from 828mk2 to RME Fireface and while I like the unit and the sound, there are some things about the whole setup that I'm less than happy about ie no stereo sound using MPlayer or VLC (I use these a lot for work, RME blames the developers), the high level of geek-ness expected to understand the manual (finally starting to get my head round Totalmix), the difficulty in attenuating the gain on a stereo input etc etc. I still have the motu here and to be honest some days I feel like plugging it all back in. So...before you get all amped by the rme hype, take a look at the newsgroup (rme-audio.forum) and check it'll do what you want, how you want. Information is all.

nunrgguy · Post by **nunrgguy** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:26 pm

It can be caused by a chatty ACPICE controller on the motherboard interrupting the datastream. As a quick hack try disabling ACPI in system settings and see if that has an effect.

nunrgguy · Post by **nunrgguy** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:26 pm

ACPIEC rather

sniffio · Post by **sniffio** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 2:44 am

>>nunrgguy

is this in osx ?
I really like to do it.
will you teach me how?

thx

cheers

nunrgguy · Post by **nunrgguy** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 12:43 pm

Sorry - should have read your machine spec....
The problem I'm reffering to happens with some PCs.

The first MOTU 828 2 I had did what you're decribing on 3 different machines (all PC), with various combinations of motherboard/processor/firewire card and MOTU drivers - I sent the unit back and got a replacement. The replacement now works 100% (apart from when the drivers crash/lockup) on my desktop PC but the problem persists on the laptop... (AMD 64 on a VIA KT800 motherboard), and on this machine it turns out that the problem is with the ACPIEC controller on the machine. It's not the machine is faulty as such but the controllers are 'chatty' on these boxes (i.e. they make system calls when they really don't need to and interrupt the data stream) and Windows XP is newly sensitive to this 'problem'. The same boxes installed with Linux don't seem to have this issue. This isn't just an 828 issue BTW - onboard sound is interrupted too (but not with the awful squeels you get out of an 828).
The manufacturer of the laptop disagrees BTW and says nothing is wrong with the system......several other people have this problem too. So on the PC side of things if you're going to be buying any laptop/notebook I would recommend you try the model you're looking out with audio before parting with your cash. If you get stuck with a dud.......

As far as Mac is concerned - dunno....Try the firewire on another box. See if you have the same problem.

.....

Also, on PC, use newer drivers than 3.0 (I think it is) as that driver version swaps the left and right channels over.

enzymex · Post by **enzymex** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 11:11 pm

[quote="nunrgguy"]It can be caused by a chatty ACPICE controller on the motherboard interrupting the datastream. As a quick hack try disabling ACPI in system settings and see if that has an effect.[/quote]

Thanks for the post. Under Win XP In Device Manager under system devices I have a few drivers with ACPI in the name: ACPI Lid, ACPO Power Button, ACPI Sleep Button, ACPI Thermal Zone, and Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System.

Am I on the right track here? These drivers can't be disabled, only uninstalled.

nunrgguy · Post by **nunrgguy** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 4:27 pm

Try this hack

http://www.michna.com/kb/WxACPIEC.htm

nunrgguy · Post by **nunrgguy** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 4:31 pm

As a side note, you don't neccessarily have to be receiving the warning in the system log - under SP1 I never had the warning (but did have the problem). It was only after upgrading to SP2 that the warning started to appear in the log. So....even if you don't see the warning you may (reiterate...may) have this problem