Board communications error

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 8:09 pm

Hi everyone,

I've been happily using my Pulsar II board for several years now without any physical hardware problems. However, all of a sudden last night I went to go play an audio file from Winamp and found that Pulsar II wasn't outputting any audio via the analog outs. I went to go check all the cable connections, including the big cable tree in the back of the card, but still nothing came through, even though all the software connections were right. So I went into the SampleRate box to see what was going on, fiddled with some settings, and all of a sudden I started getting board communications error messages with Pulsar II. Restarting the software didn't do any good, restarting the computer didn't do any good -- I still got communications errors. So I turned off the computer, waited a few minutes, and turned it back on. It seemed to work all right for a while, but then the sound cut out again. That seems to be the pattern -- the sound cuts out, and after I fiddle with settings, I get board communications errors. I've switched back and forth between master and slave wordclock (I have an external wordclock master), and I changed board priorities (I also have a Scope and a Pulsar I). I still get Pulsar II communications errors. I popped out the card and put it back in, making sure it was firmly set in, I made sure all the S/TDM cables were properly set in, and I made sure all my case fans were still running (there's a fan in the front of my case that blows air across the cards). Nothing helped; it keeps throwing up error messages.

Do you think there might be a dirty connection somewhere that I could clean, or do you think something has partially been fried? I've come to the end of my troubleshooting ideas!

System specs:

OS: WinXP Pro SP1
CPU: P5 2.5GHz
Mobo: ASUS P4B533-E
Memory: 1GB DDR 266
SFP 3.1c
300 or 400 watt Power Supply (I can't remember)

Thank you in advance,

Shayne

Post by **garyb** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 10:49 pm

try cleaning the connectors first(95%pure alchohol or better),then see which board is not working by removing one and rebooting w/o it.if that works,you have found the bad board.if not replace it,reconnect stdm and repeat with the next card.

you could try to remove the i/o board on the non-working card(if you find one) and see if the problem is there(make sure to reconnect the stdm cables).

i had a bad card.(no problem getting support)i hope you do better.....

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 12:54 am

Thanks for your reply. I wiggled some optical cables coming of my Scope board, and now everything's working OK. Go figure.

Shayne

Post by **garyb** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 1:57 am

dirt'll do it.
so will a cold solder maybe making contact after things get wiggled.....

*edit*
aaawww,why be cynical! i'm glad it's working and i hope it stays that way!

[ This Message was edited by: garyb on 2004-03-03 02:14 ]

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 2:34 am

Actually, it isn't working. After all evening of working fine, I just got communications errors again.

I'm not too keen on putting alcahol on my card...I'll try to to vacum my computer out as much as I can. I know absolutely nothing about soldering anything; I barely even know what the word means.

I think it probably is a dirt issue. I'll see if it works any better once I've vacumed the place out.

Thanks for your help!

Shayne

cannonball · Post by **cannonball** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 5:50 am

hi

the only way that works with this kind of problem,i have 3 boards with 2 stdm, is connect disconnect the stdm cable for 1, 2, 3, or 4 times, all the time try to open and close sfp.All others settings and hardware
tweak doesn't works i have try all the info find in planetz.

ale

valis · Post by **valis** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 7:04 am

95% alchohol will clean the pci & stdm connectors just fine, it shouldn't hurt the finish and will evaporate immediately.

For optical ports I'd recommend a can of compressed air (check the propellent please) and a route for your cables that doesn't induce any extreme flexing in the cables.

Here's to hoping you can fix it without resorting to support.

Jerome · Post by **Jerome** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 8:09 am

Please be carefull with a vacuumcleaner!!
When using it there's alway the risk of build up static electricity. You could eassely damage your pulsarcard, mobo or proccesor. I personally blew out my videocard vaccuumcleaning my computer ;-(
I advise to use a bus with compressed air which yout can buy in a photograficshop (they use it to clean camera's and lenses).
Besides that, pure alcohol isn't bad for your card. Just use it only on the contacts of your pulsarcard.
goodluck

Jerome

snoopy4ever · Post by **snoopy4ever** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 9:34 am

On 2004-03-02 20:09, Shayne White wrote:
-- I still got communications errors. So I turned off the computer, waited a few minutes, and turned it back on. It seemed to work all right for a while, but then the sound cut out again. That seems to be the pattern --Shayne

Hello Shayne,.. I have two boards, but before I've got the same problem with my pulsar II card, I've solved that problem by somehow "sealing" or "closing" the inputs (analog or digital) that I'm not using on the breakout cable (I used tape for that), I can't explain why that is happening, but it seemed to work just fine. I've noticed the break out cable it's kind of heavy for the base that connects to the pulsar I/O, that's why I guess you've not had that problem along these years. I sometimes unplugg it and check for it's connections and clean the base with pressured air.

Hope this helps

Snoopy

[ This Message was edited by: snoopy4ever on 2004-03-03 09:35 ]

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 11:20 am

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll look into the compressed air. When I vacum I don't actually touch the cards -- I just get up the dust bunnies lying around.

I did contact CreamWare's support, but I haven't heard anything yet; hopefully I can fix it on my own.

Thank you!

Shayne

_________________
Discover Human Music by Shayne White at: http://www.shaynesworld.com

[ This Message was edited by: Shayne White on 2004-03-03 11:20 ]

alfonso · Post by **alfonso** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 1:26 pm

Don't forget also heath issues, they could affect some contacts...

musurgio · Post by **musurgio** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 4:40 pm

Hello,
I think this problem arises because the SFP initialises now the cards in a different sequence than before and thats not the optimal setting.
Try to insert at cset.ini in app/bin the boardid=0 etc thing that is described in the manual to change the sequence of the cards.
I had the same problem and that solved mine...
Cheers
Dimitrios

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 5:20 pm

I went and cleaned everything out. My vacum has the ability to blow air out the back of it through the hose, and because it's an Oreck it's hypo-allergenic and won't blow dust out. So it raised quite a cloud of dust from my computer (I know, I'm terrible), and with another vacum I sucked most (if not all) of the dust up. Then I took out all my CreamWare cards and cleaned them with a photo lens cleaner. The S/TDM connectors were so filthy that I could barely see the metal. (I really must do this more often!) So now everything's cleaned up, and so far I haven't had any problems. I'll let you know if I do.

Thanks for your help, everyone!

Shayne

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Wed Mar 03, 2004 8:38 pm

Hope everything goes well for you.
I regularly clean out my systems to prevent dust build up which goes along way to prevent heat build up which prevents all sorts of problems.
The concern I had was the static build up when using comressed air. So I've ended up using natural bristle brushes which are non static (don't use nylon brushes) and completely strip the systems down. It's slow but thorough.

[ This Message was edited by: bassdude on 2004-03-03 20:40 ]