[SOLVED] (sort of) MOTU no longer working in ASIO driver mode

Suddenly my MOTU Ultralite Mk3 Hybrid no longer works in ASIO driver mode in Sonar X3e.  It was working fine, I was working on 2 different projects lately.  I closed Sonar earlier today, then opened it again later and when it came up, it told me that there were no audio devices connected for it to use.  I checked and Windows still had the MOTU listed as working and as the default (all other devices have been disabled anyway).
 
I rebooted and that didn't work. 
 
I went into sonar's properties page and changed the driver mode to WDM, let it run the wave profiler and it comes back and says that it can run the MOTU in 16/44.1 only in WDM.  well, that's not acceptable anyway.  I then try to go back to ASIO driver mode and when I do, it's the same as it was before.  there are no ASIO drivers that it has available anymore.  in ASIO driver mode, there are no recording or playback devices listed and if I click on the ASIO button, nothing happens.
 
What in the world could have caused this and how do I fix it? 
 
thanks in advance for your help.
 
[SOLVED] SEE SOLUTION BELOW

Maybe try System Restore? (Of course, first back up any project data if necessary).
 

Thomas, I've had mine for a long time and have never had it behave that way.  I leave it on a lot.
 
but I did try powering it off and on before the reboot and that didn't solve it.  I'm currently connected via Firewire.
 
John - I was downloading the latest drivers while I was away.  That didn't solve the problem either.
 
JonD - ugh.  I might have to go that route, it might have been a windows update that broke it. 
 
I also tried resetting sonar using SHIFT-click to launch and let it reinitialize.  that didn't help either.

Awkward.
 
 
 
 
 
Hardware forum? 
:-)
 
 
 
I don't have any useful ideas about why you can run WDM and not ASIO, but seeing how you have mentioned that you did a recent Windows update, you may want to check this out as a basic early troubleshooting step:
 
from: http://avid.force.com/pkb...oubleshooting/en349411

Enable Legacy FireWire Controller Driver (FireWire interfaces only)

This will change the FireWire controller on your system to the legacy controller previously used on Windows XP and Vista. In many cases, the legacy controller improves FireWire performance on Windows 7 and can resolve many Pro Tools issues such as DAE errors, freezes, and pops and clicks.

• Open the Start menu. Right-click on Computer and choose Properties.
• Click on Device Manager in the upper left corner.
• In the Device Manager window, double-click on IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers.
• Double-click on the controller (or port) that your FireWire interface is connected to.
• Click on the Driver tab.
• Click on Update Driver.
• Choose 'Browse my computer for driver software'.
• Choose 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer'.
• Choose '1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)'.
• Restart the computer.

 
Windows updates have been known to install the newer drivers that don't seem to work as well as the legacy driver.
 
Another thing I might try is to completely unplug the device rather than just power it down. Restart Windows so it can cycle through fresh and then shut it down.
 
Connect and power up the MOTU, then start Windows again from a cold boot. See if that gets you up and running.
 
If that doesn't work you might try the old driver that you have been using recently. Don't count on MOTU's more recent drivers making things better. Use one that you know did work. If you try newer ones make sure you have a back up plan to go back to the last known good one, because MOTU, Windows firewire and progress don't always go hand in hand.
 
If that doesn't work use a disc image backup (Acronis, Paragon etc.) to get to the pre update state and see if that gets you back to where you were running as you are accustomed to. If that works... don't re-install the update, until MOTU can comment on the situation.
 
If none of that works, try a different piece of MOTU hardware to see if it is appliance specific.
 
Good luck.
 
 

ah, McQ humor! 
 
thanks Mike.  I had the legacy drivers set for 1394 before, I checked and they were still being used, but I reinstalled them anyway just in case, but to no avail.
 
and yes, the audio console works fine, actually, windows media player and streaming audio works just as it always did, it's only in sonar that I can't choose ASIO driver mode where the problem is.
 
I do wish I had another MOTU device to check.  I used to have a MK2, but I wasn't using that many channels, so I sold it. 
 
However, I'm not convinced yet that this is a sonar issue because I tried connecting the MOTU up via USB.  I use firewire because I get better latency with firewire than I do with USB, but USB does work.  or it did.  now it doesn't.  when I try to power the MOTU on connected via USB (even with the power adapter ON), it doesn't boot at all, it just has a blank screen.
 
so this might be a MOTU hardware problem.

Trying to cover across the board here...

Update chipset drivers (Intel driver update or AMD equivalent).
Update the audio interface firmware if possible.
Update the motherboard BIOS.
If it's a FireWire card check for latest firmware.
Windows update.
Is there a way of resetting the hardware? (Not sure about this interface)...
Have a go at renaming AUD.INI

Cheers..

FastBikerBoy
I did notice that Windows (7) ran some sort of huge update on both my systems recently with at least one if not two reboots before it was applied which may or may not be relevant. 

I don't know if it's my imagination or not, but it does seem the number of reports of weird behavior increases after Windows updates. 

I tried deleting and rebuilding the AUD.ini, no change.  ASIO driver mode has no I/O to report in the Driver settings and the devices tab.
 
super G - as I said above, it doesn't work in USB mode at all now.  when I plug it in to USB, even with the power adapter plugged in, it doesn't even boot up.  the screen is blank (but the backlight is on).  if I plug it into firewire, it does boot up, but no longer works in ASIO mode in Sonar.
 
alex - I did reinstall the latest MOTU drivers, but I haven't updated the firmware yet, I'll try that.  I haven't done the bios on the motherboard in a quite a while, I might try that as well.  I do not want the latest firewire drivers, I'd rather stick with the legacy which have not changed in several years.
I might be able to reset the hardware, but I assume it will reset anyway when I update the firmware.
 
Craig - yeah, I'm probably also going to roll back the last updates and see what happens.  something funny is happening with my IE, also, the security settings changed with this last update which wouldn't let me download anything and I had to go reset the security settings. 

Wow! I am really sorry that an update put you through this!

Good news!
 
That's why I keep my DAW offline... I don't need security updates.
 
People say it's ok to put your DAW online.
 
I say that people that say that don't have your best interests in mind and are just rationalizing placing their own music making at risk and trying to get everyone else to agree so it doesn't seem so obvious that it was going to happen when, not if, it happens.
 
Heck, my backup DAW, circa 2005, works just as good as the day I bought it. It runs XP and has a lower real life round trip latency than my current Win7 SuperDAW, because I never updated to MOTUs more recent drivers or Windows 1394 updates. Neither have ever been online since I've owned them. It keeps me happy. :-)
 
Glad you got it figured out.
 
 

We seem to get a lot issues with offline DAWs here that don't get the benefit of performance fixes or library updates (e.g. C++), far more than MS Update issues. It's the first time I've heard of MS Updates causing an issue like this in these forums. I'm not saying you are wrong I'm just saying it's really rare (yes it happens). Consequently I always recommend running Windows update regularly with a good backup/rollback strategy.
 
What I would do is attempt to reinstall the updates again in case they didn't install properly, also check the documentation, if it's buggy the update may have been superseded. You can always roll back again if necessary.
 
Cheers...
 
p.s. Any idea of the kb numbers?

I could list the kb's when I get a chance, but haven't had time.  I was down for several days, so I'm behind now.
 
I will likely try the updates again to see if they do the same thing or not.

Who knew an audio interface could be a security risk?
 
Actually, it can. An old trick I learned back in my Unix days was how to activate a microphone on a remote computer and route it to my own workstation. You don't even have to be a super-spy lock-picking ninja to plant a listening device - just use the microphone that's built in to every laptop.

Sorry to hear that, Beagle.