Interesting Thread on Gearslutz about MOTU USB 3.0 Issues

I have an MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid which has both USB 2.0 and Firewire connectivity.  I had two new MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid's.  The first one was sent back and later a second one was purchased (and I still have it).  The MOTU replaced a Roland Octa-Capture that had no problems with the USB 3.0 port so I reused the USB cable from the Octa-Capture with the MOTU.  I would get intermittent dropouts.  With the second one I finally realized I had USB 2.0 ports on the front panel and tried one of those and NO dropouts. 
 
When I built my new PC, back in early December, it only has USB 3.0 ports so I ordered a PCIe Firewire 400/800 card with a T.I. Chipset.  I'm using that and no problems (and same low latency).
 
There is a thread on the Gearslutz forum about "MOTU Windows 10 Stability" which turned out to be others complaining about the USB 3.0 dropouts with MOTU USB units.  Something to be aware of if you buy a MOTU unit with only USB 2.0 connectivity.  In somewhat defense of MOTU they only mention USB 2.0 on the page for the 896mk3 Hybrid, although USB 3.0 port is supposed to be backward compatible with USB 2.0.  I have many old USB 2.0 devices and they work without problems on USB 3.0. Even my old Frontier Tranzport that was built in the Vista days before USB 3.0 was even thought of works OK with USB 3.0 port and Win 10 (although I had to install the Tranzport Vista driver in a compatibility mode when I installed it in Win 10).
 
Here is the link to the gearslutz thread:
 https://www.gearslutz.com...dows-10-stability.html

I'm wrestling with this as well.  For me, its between this one and the Tascam 20x20.  My studio rig has USB 2.0 (its got a few years on it) but my laptop only has USB 3.0.  This would be a no brainer for me if it weren't for the reported driver issues.  I may still end up with it, though.

Its not just Win 10.  I had a dual boot with Win 7/Win 10 when I got the MOTU and I had the same problem on both.
 
From posts on the referenced Gearslutz thread it doesn't look too promising for new MOTU drivers and responses some have got from MOTU.  I opened a problem with MOTU when I had the first unit and MOTU responded timely and was friendly but I got the impression nothing was going to happen even when I reported that it worked OK on USB 2.0 but not with USB 3.0 ports.
 
As I mentioned on another thread, based on responses I got from MOTU, I won't be buying any more MOTU.

Jim, a general question re USB 2/3...my laptop has both. Except for my external disk drive, I just use whichever port is physically convenient. I don't use a USB audio interface, so we're talking slow devices such as mice and MIDI controllers. If speed is not an issue, is there any reason to make a point of matching USB3 devices to USB3 ports and USB2 to USB2? Power limitations, perhaps?

This has to be my problem as my new laptop only has USB 3, which, contrary to popular advertisement, is NOT 100% backward compatible.
 

The beauty of USB 3.0 is its backward compatibility with USB 2.0; you need a new cable and new host adapter (or, one of the Asus or Gigabyte motherboards that supports USB 3.0) to achieve USB 3.0, but you can still use the device on a USB 2.0 port and achieve typical USB 2.0 performance.
www.pcworld.com/article/186566/USB_3_Finally_Arrives.html

 
My MOTU unit is only a few years old but will not work with USB 3.
 
My Behringer works sometimes/sometimes not with USB 3. It also does weird things like slowely light up the transport buttons one by one until they're all lit when using Kontakt player standalone.

My old system had both Intel and ASMedia USB 3.0 ports.  Had dropouts on both. 
My new motherboard has Intel USB 3.0 and ASMedia USB 3.1 controllers.  The motherboard has one internal USB 2.0 motherboard connector but it is being used by the Corsair H100i CPU cooler interface.  I have both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connections on the BeQuiet Silent Base 600 case front panel but I can't use the USB 2.0 because the Corsair is using the motherboard connection.  I could have installed a second PCIe USB 2.0 port card but I opted to install the Firewire card and use that for my MOTU.  I have one 5 port PCIe USB 2.0 port card but that is being used by my 5 USB connected CD/DVD burners stack that I use for audio CD production (I can burn 5 audio CD's at one time using Nero BurningROM).
 
I have a Toshiba touch screen laptop with Intel USB 3.0 ports (only USB 3.0) and the MOTU does not "play well" with it either.

Hello peoples.
I'm kinda new on the Cakewalk websiter.
I took advantage of the platinum lifetime update deal they had at Christmas.
At the same time, Waves was having a screaming deal on their $4,000 Horizon bundle at $900. They also had the $1,200 Abbey Road Collection on sale for $499. I grabbed both.
It's all running on my Sony Vaio laptop. i7ore 8 thread. 7200 rpm, 8gb ram. Win 7 64 bit
USB 2.0, 3.0, FW.

I have a MOTU midi express XT USB (the new model). It was a bear to get it to play nice with my system. I had its USB 2.0 port hooked to the laptop's 3.0. Motu support said not only do I need to hook it to the 2.0 port on my laptop, but it also needs to go through a powered USB 2.0 hub. It CANNOT be hooked up to anything 3.0. And it WILL NOT be happy just going through the laptop's 2.0 port without first going through a powered hub. Well, it seemed to work.
So now my focus is on either the motu 828mk3 hybrid or 896mk3 hybrid. I would prefer a Presonus 192 studio, but now I'm starting to hear bad things. Both motu models has two adat hookups which can be configured as stereo optical connections, which is exactly what I need. While the Presonus has two adat hookups, only one can be configured as stereo optical.
So it's a toss up.
Motu with two optical but only USB 2.0 and FW
or
Presonus with only one stereo optical BUT USB 3.0

Decisions decisions.

I just got the motu 624 and im having a nightmare to make it work with a particular laptop with win 10,4 days i`v been trying in vain.
The funny thing is that it works perfect on a very old pc i have with win 10.
There must be a problem with the new usb 3.0 chipset.
Peace

fireberd
I have an MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid which has both USB 2.0 and Firewire connectivity.  I had two new MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid's.  The first one was sent back and later a second one was purchased (and I still have it).  The MOTU replaced a Roland Octa-Capture that had no problems with the USB 3.0 port so I reused the USB cable from the Octa-Capture with the MOTU.  I would get intermittent dropouts.  With the second one I finally realized I had USB 2.0 ports on the front panel and tried one of those and NO dropouts. 
 
When I built my new PC, back in early December, it only has USB 3.0 ports...

...slightly old thread... updated for posterity.

There is a firmware update for the 896mk3Hy:

896mk3 Hybrid
v1.02 Mac / Win (Release Date 2012-12-11)
Added Windows USB3 compatibility

I have had no problems using my updated unit with USB 2 or 3.