Bad_Pool_caller crash with FW-1884

I consistently get a BAD_POOL_CALLER stop error when closing one of two apps that use the FW-1884.

I spent the entire weekend trying to sort this one out and I am pretty certain the naughtiness is in the fw-1884 driver.

Problem: With any two of the following apps open and switching between them after playing audio via the FW-1884, always produces a BSD Stop error Bad_pool_caller, C2, 7 (which indicates a driver, memory, or hardware problem) when I close one of the apps.

Analysis of the memory dump file suggested that fw-1884.sys is the culprit. The apps are:
1. Sonar P4 and Melodyne Uno
2. Sonar P4 and Wavelab 5.0
3. Wavelab and Melodyne Uno


So it is not a problem with any one of these applications, the feature in common is the FW-1884 driver. Also if I turn off the FW-1884 and use my M-Audio Delta 66, which Sonar can use in ASIO mode but Melodyne uses the WDM mode, the crash does not happen. The Delta 66 drivers are disabled when I run Sonar with the FW-1884 on.

Sonar is set in its driver options to share the ASIO driver. The Tascam control panel is set to its default state, including latency of 256. FW-1884 native mode, internal clock, 44.1 khz sample rate. The wav files are both 16 bit, 44.1khz, different ones in each app.

1. I have the FW-1884 1.5 drivers installed. I downloaded them again and installed again. The FW-1884 is connected via a PCI fw card with the Texas Instruments chip set.
I have no problem using the FW-1884 for normal audio recording and playing, and the Sonar control surface stays connected (well most of the time!).

2. Intel P4 2.6 ghz, used with or without hyperthreading (tried it both ways). Windows XP SP2 with all of the latest patches. Happens with or without the firewall turned on. 750 meg. DDR RAM. Have run extensive ram tests with memest86, found some bad ram, removed it, the 750 meg is clean. Did not fix the problem.

3. Norton A/V auto-protect is disabled. System performance set to favor background processes. In fact I have gone to musicxp.net and tweaked most of the settings as recommended.

4. nVidia gForce 5200 128 meg. dual monitor card with two analog monitors and latest drivers installed. Happens with or without dual monitors active. 3-D hardward acceleration and DirectX 9 is disabled.

At this point I would really appreciate any suggestions. I have also posted this on the Tascam forum.

Hey Jim,

Just out of curiosity, you had some bad ram, and removed it.

I'm pretty sure that motherboards require Ram to bee installed in certain configurations.

I had 2 racks of 512MB DDR making up 1 GB, (there are three slots on MoBo).

So to go to 2GB I thought great, buy a 1GB stick of same ram to fill third slot...My Mobo manual indicated that this set up would not work, so i had to pull the Corsair two sticks aof 512MB (repackage and store them in a cupboard, and then buy 2 x 1GB sticks of Kingston DDR ram)

I wonder if pulling the bad stick has left you with an unmatched ram problem that only occurs when a certain amount of ram or something related to the ram is 2required of your system.

Also can you use the WDM for one application. stop the application and then switch to another stand alone using ASIO.

I use WDM with FW 1884, but have used the ASIO with Melodyne Studio standalone.

Let us know what you find out.

There was a contact name for frontier design chap on the Tascam forums around the back end of 2004. it may be woth giving the guy a direct e-mail (maybe this is what you did).

Good luck

Thanks Jim,

for the detailed report on activities.

Just out of curiosity when you exit Sonar to go to the other apps, is the audio engine still running (green). I notice that even if I stop a project it can be highlighted green.

Maybe switching this off before switching apps may work.

Or

when switching back into Sonar clik the engine off and then play (I'm pretty sure from memory it reactivates it upon play)