Oh No, Not Again

Astral Fridge Magnet · Sat Dec 13, 2003 7:45 am

Hi everyone. It's been a while,

Well, maybe some of you remember that I was having problems a few months ago with my new PC and 3 Pulsar cards. Basically, one of my cards wasn't getting any audio or MIDI through. I assumed and was told many things it could be.
The computer recognises all three cards and Audio and MIDI work on the other two cards no problem and I have 16 DSPs (Two Pulsar 2 cards and one Pulsar 1).
Eventually, I decided that the Pulsar card was the problem so removed it and returned it to Germany for repairs. They told me there was nothing wrong with it, which in fact was true because stupid me should have first tested it on another machine before sending it off for repairs. After some time and expense, I got my card back (actually Creamware gave me another one). Before installing it in my music pc i tested it on another PC and saw that everything was normal. I have now put it in the music machine with the two other cards and lo and behold the problem I had originally was there again. No doubt there was nothing wrong with the original card. So what the F##K could the problem be???????
I now assume it could be a faulty motherboard or PCI slot, but the computer shop say it is highly unlikely, otherwise the PC wouldn't work. Everything does work in a sense. As I said, I have all the DSPs I should have. Midi and Audio will work on the other 2 cards. But not on the card I installed.
The Pc shop said switch cards around, maybe it could fix the problem. So before I go through another big hassle, could anyone suggest what the problem could be before do anything?
Help!!!!

Regards and thanks in advance.

PS. Below are links to when I originally had the problem

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 0&forum=19

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 0&forum=19

PS. Could it be IRQ conflicts? If so how could I know and what could I do?
I have a lean mean machine with no onboard soundcards running ,nor modems etc...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-12-13 07:50 ]</font>

Astral Fridge Magnet · Sat Dec 13, 2003 5:52 pm

I don't know how, why or what but I placed all the cards down one PCI slot lower, plus changed the order and eureka they all work properly. At fucking last!!!!!
Pardon my language. But it has been months of frustration!!!
Let me also add that I found the thermaltake case quite a bastard to work with!!. Extremely fiddly and not straightforward(at least for an idiot like me). Placing the Pulsar cards needed quite a lot of push and I was nervous that I would accidentally break either the cards or the motherboard. There was no being gentle or careful with handling the cards. And putting the screws in to hold the cards in place was a bugger too. Anyway, it seems to be working now. Though I hope with my rough handling I haven't caused any long term damage. I even touched the gold contact points with my fingers, which apparently you shouldn't do.

Bye

valis · Post by **valis** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:48 pm

Glad to hear it all worked out for you.

I usually have to remove the litepipe dust covers for my cards to seat properly. If that still doesn't work you can loosen the rear bracket next time by loosening the small double sided bolts on either side of the main harness connector...

Mebbe not your problem but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in =]

Astral Fridge Magnet · Sat Dec 13, 2003 11:57 pm

Finally, let me add one more point about all of this.
I spent a year or so asking questions about what would be the best motherboard, hard disks etc...After finally settling on all the components and getting it put together I had nothing but hassle, after hassle. Maybe I was unlucky. But for the last month I have been making music not on my "supercharged, amazing, tweaked to perfection, thermaltake tower 1 Gb of Corsair Ram powerhouse PC", but on a simple PC where I have all kinds of junk, such as games, internet, all kinds of software that is not related to music making at all and various peripherals attached. All the things that you shouldn't have if you want a "professional, music system." Yet despite all this, I was making music virtually, completly problem free. As an audio/midi interface I have been using a TASCAM US-122 and it did the trick. Maybe not as flexible as a Pulsar, but it got the job done. This is not a criticism of Pulsar, but of being too fussy with getting the "right stuff". I was making music on my Dell 450 and one Pulsar card for years with no problems. Since updating I have had nothing but headaches, but hopefully it has finally sorted itself out now.
You figure out what the moral of the story is.

Regards to all.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-12-14 00:05 ]</font>

MrV · Post by **MrV** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 5:10 am

Hello ,
I had similar problems myself a few years back...relating to combining the "older" P1 card with Any of the newer cards...there seems to be an incompatibility and strange stuff happens,as you are no doubt aware !
Suggest getting rid of the P1...get a P2 (or Luna if dollars are an issue ) Good luck. MV

MrV · Post by **MrV** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 5:20 am

...I just remembered...I was advised that if you have to have a multicard system which includes an "old" P1 card,it should be used Only as extra dsp...you will have problems when you attempt to use external devices such as midi in/out , audio in/out , spdif in/out etc ..in the project window.
At the time,I had a 2xP2+1xP1 system and the above advice worked for me.It was annoying though because I wanted those extra connections.
Regards,M

Astral Fridge Magnet · Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:21 pm

Thanks for your reply. But as far as I can tell, all the cards are behaving as they should. Perhaps it was just a case of moving PCI slots.

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Wed Dec 17, 2003 7:43 pm

Same here, no issues with using the extra p1 connections alongside the p2 (ADAT).