BSOD's with EMU 1616m PCI in Windows 7 64-bit

Hi,
 
Ok, this is something that has appeared in other threads and is very unlikely to be a Sonar X1 issue. See this thread which also contains posts about the issue, including one I've just added:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2226276&mpage=2#2387959
 
Basically, I've experienced BSOD's in Windows 7 64 bit with my EMU 1616M PCI while arming/disarming tracks or changing input sources in Sonar X1. This problem is driving me crazy and it means I'm afraid to change stuff in Sonar X1 through fear of a blue screen occurring. It seems that any action that opens/closes an ASIO channel can cause the blue screen - rapidly clicking the ARM button will induce a BSOD fairly reliably highlighting 'ha10kx2k.sys' as the cause (an EMU driver) with IRQL_LESS_THAN_NOT_EQUAL as the error.
 
Another less important issue is that the 'Scribble Strip' track names that I put into PatchMix DSP are no longer appearing in the ASIO input names in Sonar - they now just have generic ASIO names which is really not useful, again likely to be an EMU driver issue.  Both of these issues did not occur with Vista 32-bit/Sonar 8. I've tried EMU support and I've not got very far to date.
 
Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I suppose I just want to rule out a configuration issue or conflict with my setup and just put it down to a bug in the EMU driver and take it from there (i.e. get another interface as EMU seem to be stuck in Win7 64-bit BETA since back in mid-2010, unless you get the 'new' PCI Express version)... any help much appreciated.
 
Thanks!

cant really help you,got those blue screens with my new focusrite interface on win7 64. More than likely due to the EMU driver so make sure that is up to date and maybe worth disabling your onboard soundcard if its running also.

Cian

Thanks for replies - I've already tried disabling the onboard sound card but it didn't resolve the issue, unfortunately.

I've looked at the PCIe version (the drivers are non-BETA for Win7 64 bit) but it's hard to part with cash on a device which, unfortunately, offers no better features or performance over the PCI version and worse still I'm not sure it will fix my problem that EMU haven't been able to recreate (apparently) - but I do really like my 1616m and getting the 1010 PCIe card (using the existing microdock) is tempting if it would fix the issue... 

Other than that, I'm hoping for some magical fix...

You will see I have contributed to most of the threads on this subject. My  position is that most of these problems are due to problems with the E-MU x64 drivers. I had none of them on this same hardware under XP.

The "scribble strip" issue is somewhat better in SONAR x86 on WIn7 x64, but all other issues affect both.

Bottom line is I think we are all going to have to give up on these interfaces, because E-MU has officially stopped supporting them, though the beta drivers for the 1616m are "should work".

I'm curious that you didn't mention the "silent outputs after rewind from record state" problem that I have with this interface under Win7 x64, but only with SONAR. Do you not experience this one?


EDIT: Just realized you are running the 1616m not 1820m, so maybe not all issues I experience are applicable.

I'll just add that I would not buy another E-MU interface even if it were guaranteed to resolve all these issues in Win7. The problem is I can't have any confidence it won't happen all over again with Win8. These products are too expensive not to be supported with driver updates for at least two O/S generations, unless it's not technologically feasible. I know of no other manufacturer who has left users so badly out in the cold with Win7 x64 (maybe Tascam?).

I will try and recreate this issue later and let you know.

The only time you would notice it is if you use Input Monitoring of audio inputs, and need to have it work when the transport is not running. As soon a you start playback or another recording take, the ports get opened back up. But if you're trying to rehearse on an input-monitored instrument, you have to cycle the audio engine to wake the ports back up.


Stopping recording with R before stopping the transport avoids the problem.

Have you tried to install Reaper and see if you get the same problems?

If it works in Reaper, I would be knocking on Cakewalks door, especially since EMU says they can't recreate the problem ....

Bub


Have you tried to install Reaper and see if you get the same problems?

If it works in Reaper, I would be knocking on Cakewalks door, especially since EMU says they can't recreate the problem ....

I believe I did try this with Reaper - although, you'll have to forgive my uncertainty, I've been through soooo many changes and iterations of configuration on my PC I'm starting to lose track of them - perhaps I should keep a diary
 
Might be worth reminding myself later with a quick test...  cheers.

I also thought that moving to Win 7 x64 would mean the end of the line for my EMU-1616m. But the Beta Vista x64 drivers (2.30.00) work well in my case, to my pleasant surprise. I can confirm the following:

After almost 3 months of moderate use (ASIO mode), I'm not experiencing:

1] BSOD's while arming/disarming tracks or changing input sources
2] Silent outputs after rewind from record state


But I am experiencing the following:

1] 'Scribble Strip' track names (PatchMix DSP) are no longer appearing in the ASIO input names in Sonar

My needs are pretty straightforward and I will keep this interface until it dies on me. In the meantime, I'm saving up for when that time comes.

Sorry for potentially misleading you Spencil. They are labelled:

E-MU PCI/PCIe Windows 7 Beta Driver - June 2010 (0404/1212M/1616/1616M/1820/1820M)

available here:

http://connect.creativelabs.com/emu/default.aspx

The second item in the download list. Not sure why I mentionned Vista??!! 

I can not help with the EMU thing, but i had a M-Audio 10/10 on my W7 64 machine,
BSOD was driving me nuts. Tried all the help i was given, and nothing changed.
Got a Roland Quad-Capture, and all went away.
I feel for your problem and hope you get it sorted.
Good luck mate.

"brundlefly"
which tells me Creative/E-MU need to address this "sensitivity", whatever it is.

Don't hold your breath. I don't see that happening, period. 

Have you tried to reset the emu? There's a button in pathchmix.
Have you reinstalled the driver and patchmix? They need to be installed in a specific order - I forget which is first. Most folks can run the 2.1 with win 7 in 64bit without any problems. Uninstall then reinstall - should be working.

There is one thing that can be tried as a test of what might be wrong with an ASIO driver: after starting Sonar, fire up the task manager and use it to set sonar's CPU affinity to just one of your CPUs**. If that stops the problem, there's a good bet that the ASIO driver has a multiple-CPU race condition.

It is even possible that some DAW software DOESN'T exhibit the race condition, but not because that DAW is "better", just "different" in how it accesses the ASIO API.

(** Right-click on Sonar's image name and click on "set affinity ..." then uncheck all but one CPU. Naturally, this is not a good workaround because it uses only allows Sonar to use one CPU.)

lowdown, thats worrying for me as I was hoping to chuck my 1010LT into a w7 / 64 machine when it's built... I've already had to dump an m-audio ozone because of their inability to write decent w7/64 drivers (they were told the issues 3 months later , still none working drivers) 2 revision. TBH if I have to drop them, it wouldn't surprise me.

if companies can't be bothered to test / write proper drivers is the problem.. memory "mess ups" would show up far easily and are easily checked with a Live CD with memtest on...as for pci > pci-e.. check the bandwidth improvements. you might as we be comparing usb1 to usb2..