I would like to keep the Saffire Pro 40, if I had one, but I have the original Saffire from 10 years ago.

57Gregy
I would like to keep the Saffire Pro 40, if I had one, but I have the original Saffire from 10 years ago.

Hello Greg ,
seems that I cannot read ,
it´s the third time you have written that.
Hope you will finally get it fixed.
 
regards



 
 

Quick followup to the comments made earlier in this thread. I got my new system (Win10 Pro i7-8700K) in yesterday along with the Syba SY-PEX30016 Firewire card and my Saffire (PRO 24 DSP) came online without issues using MixControl 3.4 (same version I was running over Win7) on Win10 Pro.
 
Ironically, I went hunting for Roland A-300 PRO drivers and got messages on Roland's site to simply connect it and turn it on, and that Win10 installs the drivers automatically. Even blowing that off and downloading the "drivers," they were nothing more than pdf notices saying the same thing . Turns out it was accurate... just plugged it in, turned it on, and a few seconds later it came online. No configuration utility though, so will have to look into that later.* I was sorta spooked it wouldn't work from the comments I saw when Win10 first came out.
 
It is refreshing in a way loading a machine from scratch, since I am only going to install things that I use, not just because I have them. A lot of things are getting kicked to the curb on this machine.
 
*Quick Edit: I guess the A-PRO Control Map and A-PRO Editor are not OS specific, they are way down near the bottom of the Support page on Roland's website.

Pretty much gave up on getting the Saffire to work, then on a whim yesterday, I plugged it in and got a message "Installing Saffire" then "Setting Up Saffire" followed by a message that set up couldn't be completed because there were no drivers installed. Checked Focusrite's web site and of course there are no drivers for Win 10 as I expected.
Previously, I downloaded the Windows legacy firewire driver from their web site, as some of you noted that it's the driver that will (may) work.
Where is it and how do I try it? The download is in my 'downloads' folder, and I ran it (weeks ago) but nothing seemed to happen.

The Win10 device driver for FireWire is already included [Texas Instruments 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller] with Windows 10.
 
I remember having to install that driver separately when using Win7.  But Win10 found and installed my PCIe FireWire card automagically.
 
You will also need a driver (audio device driver) for your audio interface from the manufacturer [Focusrite]. 
 
My suggestion would be to see if Focusrite has a Win7 or 8 driver for that interface and try it.  As with my M-Audio experience, using a Win7 driver can be good under Win10. 

abacab
The Win10 device driver for FireWire is already included [Texas Instruments 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller] with Windows 10.
 
I remember having to install that driver separately when using Win7.  But Win10 found and installed my PCIe FireWire card automagically.
 
You will also need a driver (audio device driver) for your audio interface from the manufacturer [Focusrite]. 
 
My suggestion would be to see if Focusrite has a Win7 or 8 driver for that interface and try it.  As with my M-Audio experience, using a Win7 driver can be good under Win10. 

Thanks. The FW card works fine (as far as I can tell. Windows says it's enabled and working, but I have nothing to connect to it except the Saffire, and it ain't talking), it's the Saffire drivers that don't work.
Tonight, I tried something else; when installing the driver from the disk there is supposed to be a pop-up during the installation to "Continue anyway" when a Windows notice about unsigned software pops up. I get neither the Windows message nor the "Continue anyway" message, and the driver doesn't load.
So I thought maybe there was something in the Win 10 security overzealousness which was preventing the pop-up from... popping up. I disconnected from the internet and turned off all the UACs I could find, including virus scan, and that didn't work, either.
Went to the Focusrite sire and downloaded the 2.7 driver, again, same result. I must be crazy, if you go by the definition of insanity, "doing the same thing over again and expecting different results", but I sure would like to continue using the same interface on each of my machines.
I guess I'll have to do that with a new FW device.  

One other quick comment about that card above, there is a power supply connection (4-pin from the computer P/S) on the end of the card to provide power to units which get power from the FW cable itself (i.e., no wall wart). Initially, I had installled the card without that, and although the unit ran, it had EMI noise from the GPU. I did the Win8.1 driver install from the above post (it does seem a newer build), but the EMI didn't go away until it had an active P/S connection.
 
I wanted to throw that out just to make sure you have that P/S connection made if your Saffire is powered from the FW cable itself (it may not come on otherwise). Be sure to power off the computer at the plug if you are making/breaking that P/S or FW connection though so you do not send a voltage spike to the unit.

Thanks, Jim. The Saffire came with a wall wart; it's still in the box, unwrapped after all these years.
The computer I use it with came with a FW card already installed (VIA, works great), so when I plugged it in when I first got it, everything worked fine so I never saw a reason to use the power supply.
I did connect the power connector when I installed this Syba card, despite you mentioning years ago to me in another thread that it wasn't necessary. But that's the only thing that works with this Saffire. The lights are on but nobody's home.
I'm looking at getting a MOTU Express, which has both FW and USB, but they seem to indicate that when using FW, you must use bus power.

deleted

Jim Roseberry
If the audio interface doesn't have a 64Bit driver, there are *zero* workarounds.
 
Switching from a PCIe Firewire controller to Thunderbolt>Firewire adapter will have no benefit.
Even if the audio interface HAD a 64Bit driver, there would be zero advantage to using Thunderbolt>Firewire verses a PCIe TI chipset Firewire controller.
 
Thunderbolt provides access to the PCIe bus.
By very definition, it can not out-perform PCIe.
Another facet: Some audio interfaces will not be compatible with some Thunderbolt>Firewire adapters.

Hi Jim.  I'm not trying to pick a fight, but some of the points you made above are inaccurate (knowing you have much more experience on computers than I do).  First, a 64bit driver wouldn't make a difference, a 32bit driver would work just as well in Windows 10. Next, switching from a FW PCIe card to a TB one would be beneficial because it eliminates the conflict of TI vs DICE etc. controllers.  Further, the adapter I was referring to was one that you would use to connect a FW device to a TB port.  There was no suggestion that an adapter would "out-perform" in any fashion.  It's all about the connection, that's all.  Although some interfaces may not be compatible in this scenario, I am talking about a Saffire interface which is compatible as verified by Focusrite and by myself as this is the way I have my Saffire interface working with my PC (via the TB card).  So, I just want to clarify that.
 
Kind regards,
 
tecknot

tecknot
 
Hi Jim.  I'm not trying to pick a fight, but some of the points you made above are inaccurate (knowing you have much more experience on computers than I do).  First, a 64bit driver wouldn't make a difference, a 32bit driver would work just as well in Windows 10. Next, switching from a FW PCIe card to a TB one would be beneficial because it eliminates the conflict of TI vs DICE etc. controllers.  Further, the adapter I was referring to was one that you would use to connect a FW device to a TB port.  There was no suggestion that an adapter would "out-perform" in any fashion.  It's all about the connection, that's all.  Although some interfaces may not be compatible in this scenario, I am talking about a Saffire interface which is compatible as verified by Focusrite and by myself as this is the way I have my Saffire interface working with my PC (via the TB card).  So, I just want to clarify that.
 

No intention of arguing on this side... but where are you getting this information?
It's absolutely wrong...  
 
Have you ever tried loading a 32Bit driver when using 64Bit Windows?
The driver won't install/load/operate...
 
Regarding running Firewire protocol via Thunderbolt>Firewire adapter:
There are compatibility issues with certain combinations of audio interfaces and TB>Firewire adapters.
There are zero issues when using a quality PCIe TI chipset Firewire controller.
At best, you'd have performance equal to using a PCIe TI chipset Firewire controller.
At worst, you'd be trading one set of (incompatibility) variables for another... with the same result.
 
DICE-II is the Firewire chipset on certain audio interfaces.
Cheaper to integrate than chipsets used by MOTU and RME, but has significantly higher round-trip latency (requires larger "safety-buffer" to avoid glitches).
 
When it comes to a Firewire audio interface, there are varying degrees of "incompatibility" with certain Firewire controllers. 
Incompatibility with the Firewire controller could cause anything from diminished performance, flaky behavior/symptoms, to full on crashes. 
 
MOTU and RME units are typically more "forgiving" about the Firewire controller.
They'll work fine with many VIA chipset Firewire controllers.
 
M-Audio units would typically not work with non-TI chipset Firewire controllers.
 
Some audio interfaces (Apollo, Tascam, Mackie - mostly older units) are finicky about the specific TI chipset controller.  SIIG PCIe TI chipset Firewire controller works with these and every other popular Firewire audio interface.  These units typically won't work at all with non-TI chipset Firewire controllers.
 
 
Without a 64Bit driver for the audio interface, there's no way to make it work (with 64Bit version of Windows 10).
Any further discussion/details are absolutely (unfortunately for the OP) moot.
 
 

Not all motherboards support Thunderbolt, even with a PCIe Thunderbolt card.  I have a Z170 ASUS motherboard that will support Thunderbolt but I need a special interface adapter.

Thanks, everyone who responded.
Like death and taxes, upgrading is certain in this life.
 

Hello.
As I have found, some systems regardless of the TI or LSI or Nvida chipsets...Firewire has some flaws, and HDMI and other Audio onboard cards, and irq shuffling, cpu issues might come through as noise. crackling and pops, hangs and no response, to blue screens if so finding it becomes ....frustrating As I have .
 
Now if the device is compatible with a Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter, and if using win 7 or 8.1..you might get that to work as I did with my Sapphire Pro 40 on windows...(only Got TB 2 to work well on win 7 and 8)
 
Windows 10 did not like my TB 2 card, at which time was the only Worth While TB card on the market to get for TB..which was supported, and working well enough, and very much so better than Firewire cards of all kinds...Never working proper!.....until...sabotaged By MS updates forced down the pipe!.
 
So, Thunderbolt 3 with the proper adapter should work on win 10 with the drivers for that audio Device...and I believe , if I can do that.....And I did!...Then windows might be changing things...I hope they do not ruin my Asus Board that has TB  built into it running win7 and did work on 8.1 for a bit of bliss!....But, As I know of at this time, win 10 does not support that motherboard, or any add in TB 2 cards.
 
So, Juggling it...as I hope they do not push down the pipe updates for win 7 or 8.1 to ruin the workings of that...
Motu 828x TB also has issues with windows 10 and, Motu told be to try the usb port and connect it to the computer that way....Which did work...but, that is not what I bought the device for...TB works better more tracks and such, no issues.
But with MS...it is not about the user...It is about the money...more sales..more profit...Break the device, makes sales...sell more cables, adapters and hair pulling..(I got idea about making a wi fi remote hair puller)....
 
Seems so?...
 
Just my two cents..saying It does work with the adapter here on win 7 TB2...(at this time)But you have to have A MB that supports it...and TB 3...Depending on which card you get, and your MB...
Input to the card ...TB3 port is best if having one, as TB is faster and wider bussing/lanes depending on CPU ..USB c..Will cut the speed...I was reading into...So a card with ports of more than one option?...Not sure why they made usb c the need?
 
Now as long as it is a Firewire device, you will not see any boost in the Performance of speed sending or returns.
But if it is not working with firewire proper....
 
 
Again to ask...If Jim says...But we find it is not as he claims...I have to ask if TB 3 only has USB C port...Does it reduce the TB3 claimed speeds and wideness of lanes to..slow it down and reduce the functioning of..TB# claims?
 
I guess now, a detector is in between the TB chip, and the USB C chip to divert the processing of each device to the routing of for, if using one or the other kind of device used...Has to be Promoted onto the Card....If so, does this detection cause a issue?
 
And if so having the parts available ...Can Jim Test it?
 
Thanks.
 
.
 
So some old troubleshooting tips.
Read the manuals..
Put the cards in slots not shared if possible.
reduce device loads..(turn off unused devices, In Bios)(I would say before installing any ONBOARD DRIVERS OR OS)So nothing is loaded by Windows as defualt.
 
If your cards do not work..
Go into the device manager.
Unhide the Devices...
Remove all the hidden and uninstall what is set as doubling.
Turn off defender and any anti virus before installing anything.(UAC turn it down if all downloads have been scanned by virus detection apps)
 
Reinstall drivers.
 
Windows sometimes keeps default drivers hidden....And resorts to using.
 
Just something I went through helped get it going.
 
 
 
Not saying that is your issue...But you can check..
 once you find the bliss...if this is for any type of professional studio...I would turn off internet nics, wi fi, once made stable and working...so nothing screws it all up by them ghost who push things down the pipe, and change things seeming while you are not attentive to the machine.
 
 
Cheers!