Ableton Forum

I just bought a FW 410, and this thing hasn't worked properly yet.

Read the boards, I have the TI chipset, good cable, fast drives et al.

Both M audio and HP told be it has to do with virtual IRQ in XP.

My IRQ# for IEEE 1394 is 22. They said that this is the reason for the issue, as it's swapping with so many other devices, and is so high on the chain. They suggested I swap to USB, my firewire port is basically useless for audio.

I have a feeling that there is more to it than that...

Any thoughts?

......................
HP 8430 laptop
3.4 HT
1GB Dual ch DDR RAM
800 fsb
7200 Hitachi Travelstar
7200 Seagate ext. (USB)
FW 410

i think if you switch to 'standard pc' mode, then you can regain manual control of irq's (????) check your bios to see what kind of control would be possible in the event you made the change.

not that i'd necessarily recommend the switch. i can't really remember why but i went back to acpi. and i don't think you can switch back without reinstalling windows (again ???)

can you get like a pcmcia firewire card that would hopefully use a different irq?

just ideas to look into

just reading on another thread about poor performance of external drives on laptops

also investigate disabling hyperthreading.

also investigate overheating problems. i've heard bad stories of pentium laptops getting way too hot

Thanks for the input. My computer has everything under the sun but a PCMIA slot (I would have done that right away to troubleshoot the device)


I'm thinking it’s a combination of:

Poor drivers on the M audio side

Live being a pain (first real problem with live. I run it with a delta 1010 on a 2.8 and it’s rock solid, this laptop is twice the computer and is dying under this task)

…and shite support for firewire in XP.


Anyone out there using a similar set up with a firewire interface comparable to the 410 without issue at 24/96? I'm about ready to cough up the money for the RME, though it is serious overkill for my mobile rig.

I've disabled HT... no change.


It seems to be and virtual IRQ issue after further investagtion. The only way to resolve it would be to reinstall Windows and diable ACPI on the install so you can manually change these settings.

I'm going to think about it, as a install would take 4 days.Got to love vsti's with massive sample libaries and questiosnable install procedures (I'm looking at you RMX)

I just thought people might want to check thier settings for conflicts


run>msinfo32 If you see that your IEEE is above 15, that would be a strong case for your firewire interface not playing along.