Troubleshooting - M-Audio Firewire 410 User Manual

12. Troubleshooting

The FireWire 410 has been designed to give you high performance and professional quality audio. It has been tested under a wide range
of systems and operating conditions. In the real world, however, there is a nearly infinite number of possible operating scenarios, any of
which could affect your system's performance. Much like owning an automobile, "your mileage may vary." This section can not begin to
cover all possible issues you may encounter, however we want to give you some suggestions on common problems you may experience.
One thing to avoid is connecting too many devices. The FireWire bus is a dependable, high-speed, high-bandwidth protocol which is ideally
suited for digital audio. Nonetheless, it's important to remember that audio and multimedia streaming places considerable demands on
your processor and the FireWire bus. Although it is theoretically possible to chain many multiple FireWire devices in series, doing so may
potentially degrade your audio performance.
Generally, FireWire devices do not suffer from the IRQ conflicts sometimes encountered with PCI cards. If you are having trouble getting audio
into or out of your FireWire 410, please check the following.
If you have no sound:
• Check to see if the FireWire 410 drivers are properly installed. In WindowsXP, go to the Control Panel and double-click the System icon
(under Performance and Maintenance if you're in Category view). Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button. Click the
plus sign ("+") next to Sound, Video and Game Controllers," and locate the FireWire 410 listing. If you see a question mark or exclamation
point next to it, or if you don't see it listed, you may need to reinstall the driver software.
• Make sure your audio software has been set up to use the FireWire 410. Open your application's audio settings page and check to see if
the FireWire 410's ASIO or WDM drivers have been selected.
• If you're certain the FireWire 410 is correctly installed and configured for your audio software, check your signal path. Make sure your inputs
are routed correctly by verifying that your application is receiving audio signal. Make sure your outputs are routed correctly so that your signal
is sent to your headphones, amp and/or monitors.
• Check your audio connections to make sure everything is plugged in correctly.
If you are trying to record a digital input to the FireWire 410 and have no sound:
• If you see the S/PDIF LED flashing, it indicates a valid signal at the wrong input. Open the FireWire 410 control panel and select the correct input
on the hardware page.
• Make sure your audio software is configured to receive digital input, and that the input source is set as clock master.
If you are experiencing clicks and pops in your recordings:
• Make sure your input levels are not too hot, as this can cause distortion and clipping. Check the input level meters in your audio application.
• If you are recording a digital input source, make sure the FireWire 410's sync source, as well as the sync source in your audio software,
are set to external.
• You might want to try using a larger buffer size. Larger buffer sizes can increase input latency time, but if you're mixing, for example, this
is not an issue. Increasing the buffer size can be helpful, particularly in the case of older or lower-powered systems
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