Unfortunately you will have to send the card in for a service. I did that with Hand In Hand distribution here in the UK and it cost me about £150.- including postage. They changed the internal firewire card.

Really? Was that your only option? I had them just send me the part and I replaced it myself. It took like ten minutes. If I remember correctly I also had the option to send it in but chose to do it myself since it would be faster.

I had the same problem with my AF12, you should've just got them to send you the card, thats what i did, much cheaper and quicker. Like Quint said it was easy to install.

I'm experiencing clicks and pops on recordings with my mac pro 8 core (2009) on a brand new AF12 I really hope to fix this for free... it would be the least after it screwed up a paid job!

Just as a word to the wise...

There are an unearthly number of drivers which need to be updated to keep a modern pc interfacing properly with all the various systems we insist upon attaching to them. Chipset drivers. USB drivers. Soundcard drivers. PCIE card readers. Ethernet controllers. Intel memory controllers. System control and status registers. USB hub controllers. Etc.

All of which, it turns out, need to be kept updated.

I had issues with my Audiofire12 losing its connection to the pc, and I can't tell you how many ways and days I spent troubleshooting that unit and its drivers, when I had the time. But the issue was, in fact, elsewhere.

There are little inexpensive apps you can get that will assess your pc's driver situation and even download and install the drivers for you, if the above list boggles your mind — DriverMax, among others — and the small investment is more than worth it imho to keep your particular box of rocks rocking.

With a full complement of updated drivers (and my computer's not that old), my Audiofire12 problems vanished.

Imagine that.

Again, just a word to the wise.


Cheers all.

I stuck to my ADATs until I was a laughing stock among my peers.
My first "computer" recording rig was a Toshiba Satelite running XP pro. I was using the early Presonus Firepod at that point.
Few things to note...

* I went through what felt like 10 different Firewire PCMIA cards, until I found one that worked...A cheap Hewlett Packard card was the answer to my prayers...

* Not sure if your on XP, hopefully not this day in age...Anyways, it's terrible for supporting audio recording. Microsoft has online information for optimal background settings, including rewritting your registry editor. Not a good time.

* An IMac would be a huge step up. I hated Mac, until I owned one. They work correct right out of the box. Really took my workflow to a new level.

J

One of the firewire ports on my echo 12 has gone out. I'd rather do an install myself if the process is easy. Is there somewhere I can find schematics to do the repair?

Thank you,
syz

Just contact the distributer, they should be able to help ;-)
Thats where you should get the exchange firewire card from too.
In this case you just need to exchange the firewire card inside, I don't think you would need schematics ....
Good luck. After the repair my card held up well and the audio quality is great.

Thanks so much.

I have the same problem as some in this threat, pops and crackles occur from time to time, most of the time getting worst over time until I restart my system. Also, it sometimes refuses to work right away and I have to wait until it's warmed up. When that is the case ALL lights on the AF12 go on and off repeatedly accompanied with loud pops. I've had the same issues with two different types of Macbook Pro's, the first with an actual Firewire 8 port (using a FW4 to FW8 cable) and a second with a Thunderbolt port (using the same cable with an adapter).

The thing is very unreliable, so I'm not very into it taking to gigs. I've read the threat and I think it has to do with the chipset in my Macbook and in the unit, or I think so.

few years ago I used three different Echo Audiofires 12, and at some point all of them failed. Then I had Audiofire 2, same story (pops and clicks at random). I replaced all of them with RME and had no issues for the last 5 years. Don't buy Echo, especially now when they don't exist, one of the worst interfaces I've ever used.

Funny, mine's been trouble-free. But it's a 4.

You guys running a dedicated 1394 network? Did you try syncing to an unstable clock? Maybe you just didn't allow enough buffer for your computer?

Since the RME requires that you use a PCI slot for one of their interfaces, it might have been your Firewire card all along.



-tINY

There were some compatibility problems with firewire interfaces. Since they charged a license fee, you'd expect that there'd been a decent compliance test involved...

But, that may explain why it's died on the vine.



-tINY

I did everything they said in the manual, tried them with 4 different computers (white iMac, aluminium iMac, two different MBPs), all of the combinations were unusable, but with different issues. All of the AF just broke after warranty, I never cared to fix them as the company discontinued all of their interfaces. The best combination I found, was one AF12 with white iMac but at 48kHz, for some reason it was mostly stable. I had similar problems with Audiofire 2 and different computer (mac mini 2012). For some reason the company doesn't exist anymore and now I know why. I don't know what do you mean about PCI slot and RME, I don't use tower computers for the last 10 years, and RME UFX uses USB and FW. You really think I haven't try increasing buffer during the 4 years I struggled with them?
I'm glad it worked for you, I'm sure there are more of these working units, but to balance things and especially now, people should know what they can get into.

Guess I got lucky. Nice pre-amps and coverters..

The Focusrite saphire converters looked suspiciously similar. But those are USB.


-tINY

What is their direct contact number the online form seems useless they dont respond..is there a tele #? I have two AF12 which arent connecting thru firewire

Hi there TrakLite2020!
When I fixed it about 8 years ago the company was called Hand In Hand distribution, but Echo doesn't produce product any more as far as I know since a few years ago, they shrank their company to supply to the corporate world, streaming etc. But anyway you can get in touch with them here in the UK and ask them.
It's probably cheaper to just buy a second hand card though on Ebay or Gumtree as the repair cost about £150.- to exchange for a new firewire card.

https://www.handinhand.uk.net

Thank you. Do you happen to know a model number for the firewire card module? Is it off the shelf or some proprietary module?

It seems my AF12's have to warm up for an hour before they make connection via the 1394 port. I suspect the caps on the PSU are dying, does anyone know of an adequate replacement, or perhaps the values of the caps that need replacing?

Hi!
The firewire board is a component board inside the unit. I doubt you will still be able to buy a new replacement board, but just try and get in touch with Hand In Hand distribution.
Otherwise you have to buy another AF12 which would cost approximately the same amount like the replacement card.....

Thanks again. I think it may be the Caps on the PSU are dried or failing my Emu Emax exhibited similar behavior before I replaced it's PSU. I wonder if Hand In Hand has power supplies

A Echo rep thankfully got back to me via email and recommended replacing two capacitors on each unit going to give it a go and report back

Interesting that Echo support still replies (had similar with a pot in an af4), otherwise looks outofbusiness.