Firewire TI chipsets and all that krazy stuff

[fireberd]

The units that use the DICE/DICE II chipsets seem to be the ones that "require" the T.I. chipset. Focusrite and Presonus are two that I know that use the DICE firewire chipset in their devices.

[fastlanestoner]

My Focusrite uses the dice ii

[Lights]

My M-Audio ProFire 2626 has always run just fine with whatever PC it's connected to and never have I owned one with a TI FireWire chipset or worried about IRQs, etc. I just figured it was another one of those audio myths like the one that says you should disable aero (the "new-ish" glossier windows UI) when in fact turning it on improves ASIO performance because it moves processing of the graphics from the CPU to the GPU.

[fireberd]

I know my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 will not work with a Ricoh chipset. I had an Acer laptop with that chip and it would not even connect.

I have a T.I. chipset in my home built desktop system that has an Intel motherboard. The Saffire Pro 40 works great with the desktop.

The Presonus support site notes T.I. chipsets and has a link to a utility program provided by the company that puts out the DICE chips to check the chipset in a PC.

[Finnish]

Originally Posted by Lights

My M-Audio ProFire 2626 has always run just fine with whatever PC it's connected to and never have I owned one with a TI FireWire chipset or worried about IRQs, etc. I just figured it was another one of those audio myths like the one that says you should disable aero (the "new-ish" glossier windows UI) when in fact turning it on improves ASIO performance because it moves processing of the graphics from the CPU to the GPU.

I have VIA chipset in my ASUS mobo and 2626 is running great/flawlessly in my setup

[fastlanestoner]

the whole TI chipset issue is definitely NOT a myth.

as stated, interfaces that use dice/dice ii chipsets require the TI chip.

The only alternative to the TI is the VIA, and even then it might not work.

[work2do]

GS, DUC, and the product forums of many a hardware firewire product is littered with the devastation of people using their off the shelf firewire chips and not being able to get their interface to work...Until they got a TI firewire card.

[blacklion]

It's just a reasonably dependable constant. No mystery (or myth) there.

[fastlanestoner]

FireWire without TI is very much a "cross your fingers and hope" kind of deal. I have a laptop that specs great for my Pro 40. Onboard TI firewire and everything. I tried every tweak, connection, etc known to Google and STILL couldn't get the damned thing to work.

[work2do]

Originally Posted by fastlanestoner

FireWire without TI is very much a "cross your fingers and hope" kind of deal. I have a laptop that specs great for my Pro 40. Onboard TI firewire and everything. I tried every tweak, connection, etc known to Google and STILL couldn't get the damned thing to work.

Below you said you didn't have onboard TI. How many laptops did you buy?

Originally Posted by fastlanestoner

So after months of research I finally got my new laptop today. I promptly applied some OS tweaks and installed all the drivers for my Saffire Pro 40. I hooked it up through the onboard firewire.

The problem is, my PC doesn't recognize my Pro 40 as a device. The FW active light also is not illuminated on the interface.

I have tried the legacy drivers and a few other things and just can't get it to read. My chipset is not TI, but the first issue is getting my laptop to recognize the hardware.

[Finnish]

Originally Posted by fastlanestoner

FireWire without TI is very much a "cross your fingers and hope" kind of deal. I have a laptop that specs great for my Pro 40. Onboard TI firewire and everything. I tried every tweak, connection, etc known to Google and STILL couldn't get the damned thing to work.

I've had success with TI-chipset, jMicron and VIA, M-Audio FW1814 interface. Now I have ProFire 2626 with VIA chipset and I'm good.

I guess it's much related to interface and the chipset in it than the chipset in computer?

Interesting to hear all you Profire 2626 owners claim you have no problems with VIA chipsets; my Profire was totally unable to record audio until I got a TI chipset FW card. It worked on Win XP, but when I got Win7 everything went south. I tried everything, including installing legacy FW drivers. Nothing worked. Recorded audio was full of clicks, crackles and dropouts, completely unusable, regardless of the buffer size. Then I bought a TI chipset FW card and now my Profire works flawlessly. Also, I have no more random DAW crashes.

[Finnish]

Originally Posted by monad

Interesting to hear all you Profire 2626 owners claim you have no problems with VIA chipsets; my Profire was totally unable to record audio until I got a TI chipset FW card. It worked on Win XP, but when I got Win7 everything went south. I tried everything, including installing legacy FW drivers. Nothing worked. Recorded audio was full of clicks, crackles and dropouts, completely unusable, regardless of the buffer size. Then I bought a TI chipset FW card and now my Profire works flawlessly. Also, I have no more random DAW crashes.

I had same kinda problems with my audio laptop (HP dv-5) that had jMicron FW chipset inside. Totally useless with Vista and Win 7, but with XP it was a reliable machine.

[fastlanestoner]

Originally Posted by Finnish

I've had success with TI-chipset, jMicron and VIA, M-Audio FW1814 interface. Now I have ProFire 2626 with VIA chipset and I'm good.

I guess it's much related to interface and the chipset in it than the chipset in computer?

EXACTLY! It also is dependent on the chipset in the actual interface. My Focusrite uses the Dice II, and the Dice/Dice II both need the TI to function properly.

I'm not sure about any others, but I know not all of them need the TI. I would suggest doing everything you can to test any machine you want to buy with the rig you have to make sure it's compatible.

[the_nooon]

hi, i've just found that thread concerning digi003 firewire issues.

bcwiz, when you got the deffective digi003, which led were on or off outside and inside the box?
mine got the rear led on and the front one off, inside the box i got the d9 led blinking and the d10 off all the time.
inside the agere chip seems in good shape, yours were blown? or something or was it in good shape too?

i'm afraid to have the same issue, i pm'd you for more informations

[bcwiz]

Originally Posted by the_nooon

hi, i've just found that thread concerning digi003 firewire issues.

bcwiz, when you got the deffective digi003, which led were on or off outside and inside the box?
mine got the rear led on and the front one off, inside the box i got the d9 led blinking and the d10 off all the time.
inside the agere chip seems in good shape, yours were blown? or something or was it in good shape too?

i'm afraid to have the same issue, i pm'd you for more informations

Hi,

You won't see anything like a burnt or melted part. I have repaired a Digi003, a Digi002 and a Motu (different chip) all with same problem. The light at the back will light but the computer will not recognize the interface.The Physical Link Layer chip or PHY is a transceiver that handles the firewire traffic, it typically gets fried from hot plugging the firewire cable. Always turn the gear off including the computer before connecting/disconnecting cables. The device is a 64 pin quad surface mount chip. The most difficult part of replacing the chip is getting the old one off without destroying the very fragile circuit board pads (If that happens the whole board is junk). Once the old chip is removed the alignment and re-soldering of the new chip is very delicate work as well. If you are not comfortable doing surface mount rework you should hire a tech who is. The beauty of doing it yourself is the part is only about $4 and if it doesn't fix the problem it's only your own time. So far I'm 3 for 3. Let me know if you need more info.

BC

[the_nooon]

Thanks, alot
That was really cool. Im currently waiting for my agere chips to come. I ll try to improve my soldering skill

Envoyé depuis mon GT-I9100 avec Tapatalk

[fastlanestoner]

Originally Posted by work2do

Below you said you didn't have onboard TI. How many laptops did you buy?

My desktop has on-board TI and my laptop gets it via express card. Agere are pretty much in the same class as Ricoh and VIA. It may or may not. Best of luck!

[yosefTux]

I have a Lenovo Ideapad w Richoh FW and no expresscard slot. I have not tried other FW interfaces, but Presonus Mobile works like a champ. This is the exception that shows any given computer can have a good implementation. TI is safest for Dice/Dice II, but it is possible to have even the least compatible chipset work.

I didn't buy the AI, as I didn't like the feature set for the price, but you never really know until you audition the gear.

[rotzbouw]

Originally Posted by the_nooon

Thanks, alot
That was really cool. Im currently waiting for my agere chips to come. I ll try to improve my soldering skill

Envoyé depuis mon GT-I9100 avec Tapatalk

Where does one buy those chips? I think I got the same issue but I'm not sure yet, it may be my onboard firewire slot or fw cable or drivers confusion because.

[the_nooon]

Got the exact model on ebay

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[SixStringSamurai]

Originally Posted by bcwiz

Just fixed a friend's Digi 003R dead firewire port. Required a new chip (PHY). Guess what, it wasn't a TI chip but an Agere (now LSI) FW802B. I was surprised to say the least after all the endless insistance on TI chipsets for compatibility. Strange that Digi wouldn't be using a TI chipset in their hardware. Oh well I run a Digi 003 on a Lenovo w700 with the dreaded Ricoh chipset and it's flawless. Go figure.

just sayin'

I've been searching around (sporadically) for some time trying to find info on what I suspect is a "fried" firewire port/chip on my Digi 003R. I have tested the 003R on multiple different computers, both MAC & Windows PCs, but no go. I tried new firewire cables & two IEEE 1394 cards in the WinPC but no dice. After much troubleshooting I have come to the conclusion that I fried my firewire port/card due to hot-swapping ignorance. I haven't messed with the Digi in months but last I remember when it powers up just fine but my PC/MAC can't detect hardware. I was wondering if you could give me some advice or pointers on how to replace the bad FW802B chip. I was going to send it to an authorized dealer because I couldn't find the part I needed but since finding your post I hope I can do it myself w/ a little help. Thanks!

**EDIT** So in my excitement to post I missed your reply to the_noone up top! Sorry about the redundancy. I have never done any surface mount soldering/desoldering! I would really like to do this myself but of course don't want to kill the board! Do you have any recommendations or tutorials for this kind of work? And perhaps cheap parts I could practice on? I would love to do this by myself if at all possible and am willing to put in the time to learn! Thanks.

[the_nooon]

help i need somebody help..(singin')

ok i had some times to improve my soldering skill, tried to change twice the agere chipset
still not working,
i think i made the job ok but, still no 1394host led and the mysterious d10 led still off on the board too
i've seen like something which had had too hot but it seems that it is a passive component anti parasite bead? thats right ? there like some smoke marks surrounding it?!

here's a link from the board

http://perso.numericable.fr/jeamsler...erelfw802b.JPG

red circle : the chip i changed (i think i've put it in a good way 1st pin front of the dart)
green circle : passibe bead component
light blue circle the d10 led

someone have an idea?

[the_nooon]

more pictures :

http://perso.numericable.fr/jeamsler/digi003agere.jpg

http://perso.numericable.fr/jeamsler/agerechip.jpg

[the_nooon]

Some news,
Ive fixed my second digi 003 and its working again, but this one the d9 led was rock solid. So im guessing the first one with the blinking d9 led (the one next to the firmware memory) means that some problem have occured with a firmware update.

A service manual could be useful

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[Finnish]

Profire 2626 plus jMicron is a no go, no chance it will work

[energizer bunny]

Newegg.com - SIIG NN-EC2812-S2 2-Port FireWire 800 ExpressCard/54