Hello... My PCI firewire card of choice is the Adaptec 4300 (AFW-4300), Adaptec FireConnect 4300 (boxed retail), has the TI Chipset and Windows 7 loads the driver needed for my Presonus Projects. Old production cards still found/sold on EBAY.
 
Just other thoughts on your problems...
1) are you using the proper pin cable in your new card? FW800 have 9-pins connectors FW400 have 6-pins, adaptors are needed between the two... have you verified your connectors and pin numbers, between all the hardware in your setup? WIKI firewire for diagrams and info.
2) have you tried to disable the onboard Firewire in your motherboard BIO's for any of your testing? interrupt conflict?
3) have you tried to disable the onboard audio in your motherboard BIO's for any of your testing? interrupt conflict?
4) have you tried to raise your buffer size with your onboard Firewire/Audio settings? Clicks/POP problem.
5) have you defragged your current projects on your hardrive/storage location? Clicks/POP problem.
 
: )

Hello IronSound.
 
Thanks for you post.
1. I am using the correct FW400 6pin cable. It works with onboard but not SIIG card. Not sure about pin and connector numbers.
2. I have now tried with onboard firewire disabled in bios. No joy.
3. I cannot find an option to disable onboard sound in bios but I have tried it through the device manager. No joy.
4. I have raised the buffer size by varying amounts and still no joy plus increased latency. Onboard is a VIA chipset and I think it's just a bit crap.
5. I use 2xHDD and 2xSSD. The SSD's are not supposed to be defragged ( one for System and one for all DAW software + samples). I have defragged the HDD's (one for recording and one for ripped movies and music). This makes no difference.
 
I think it is time to look at a different card.
Either this card is defective or it doesn't play well with Gigabyte mobo. Unfortunately I have no other firewire devices to test with.
 
Skymonkey

One final though, and I don't think anyone has suggested this.  With the PCIe card installed, and Windows running, reinstall the Intel motherboard chipset drivers and see if that changes anything.  One of the things the chipset drivers do is identify (define) all the devices on or attached to the motherboard. 
 
You can get the latest chipset drivers direct from Intel.  Go to the Intel site and let it "automatically find drivers and software".  Since its not an Intel motherboard it won't find much, but it will find the chipset drivers. 

Hi, I'm keenly interested in the outcome of this as well, since I'm also looking at the exact same SIIG card, plus looking to purchase a Saffire Pro 14.

I found a thread at gearslutz, the guy seems to be having a similar issue on a Pro 40, same SIIG card, Win 7-64. But it's an older thread (MixControl 2.4/3.0). Ultimately it turned out to be a bad mobo... HOWEVER, he mentioned something interesting about when testing it out with the legacy driver, that he had to manually delete individual saffire drivers in the system32 folder because a simple uninstall doesn't delete them.

So while MixControl 3.2 may not need legacy drivers, a broader issue might be with any uninstall procedure itself, where the uninstall routine leaves traces of the previous drivers that have to be manually deleted.

The other thread:


I hope you get this sorted out, keep us updated.
 
Edit:
Ugh I'm too new a member to post links.
The thread can be found if you google the term "saffire mixcontrol nn-e20012-s2 goat gearslutz"

OK
Latest update. Thanks for the post Fireberd, I found the Intel site quite unhelpful but events have surpassed initial problems. I noticed that I was having trouble shutting down my PC (it would simply reboot) so I googled the problem and discovered that my PC was crashing on shutdown with a very brief BSOD and automatically rebooting as per windows settings. The web page showed how to stop the reboot in settings but suggested that this would only mask a more serious problem, one culprit mentioned being new hardware. So I removed the SIIG and no more shutdown crashes.
Also SIIG themselves have been in contact after I lodged a tech support question. The first reply asked simple driver questions, so instead of going through the whole thing again I directed them to this thread. Yesterday I got this reply.
 
Hello,
This product could be defective or not compatible with your system. Please return it where you purchased it from for replacement.
Thank you.
Regards,
Erick 

SIIG Support
 
So the card is going back for a refund, never to be seen again.
Take this as a FAIL for the card. For me anyway.
 
I will post when I get a different card but this may not be for a couple of weeks. I am going to order a Startech TI PCI card part number PCI1394MP. Any experiences with this card would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks for all you help guys

What kind of issue did you have with the Intel site?  I've used it to scan my Gigabyte motherboard, and several others that I worked on including ASRock and ASUS and it found and detected the Intel hardware and software, such as the chipset drivers version. It even identified some of the non-Intel hardware.
 
I used to have a Saffire Pro 40 and I used it with an Intel motherboard that had the T.I. firewire chipset.  Worked OK, if I used the Legacy firewire driver.  If I used the regular firewire driver it worked but was flakey.  I liked the Saffire Pro 40 but it died, out of warranty, and the estimate to fix it (from the company in Las Vegas that does warranty and non-warranty Focusrite repair) was within $40 of what I paid for it new.  I replaced it with a USB connected Roland Octa-Capture and although I liked the preamps in the Saffire Pro 40 better, otherwise the Octa-Capture is far superior and has extra features and lower latency.
 
 

Well, stick a fork in it, this thread and issue is done, right?  Too bad it couldn't be resolved--totally sucks.

Hi Guys
 
Sorry for the absence. I work away from home for a couple of weeks at a time.
 
So I have got a refund for the SIIG.
I have just installed a new card. A Startech 4 port PCI 1394a Firewire Adapter Card PCI1394MP and it works straight out of the box.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions over the last month.
Good luck to 2:43AM on finding a card that works for you. I suspect it was either a faulty card or just incompatibility between the Saffire and my MOBO.
Using the PCI slots actually helps as the one remaining PCIe slot was right up against my Graphics card and was restricting the airflow to the fan.
 
Thanks again.
 
SkyMonkey

^^^^^
Good news, SkyMonkey! Glad you got things to work...finally!!!   Yes, I will agree with you on the graphics card vs. PCIe card.  Worrying about the same thing, a couple of weeks ago I test-fitted a eSATA PCIe card, and it sure is right up close to the fans. Probably not too big of a deal since my card has two, monster-sized fans, but still.
 
Thanks for good luck wishes.  So far my system has been relatively stable for me using my motherboard Firewire port. I've made some changes in my workspace (i.e. eliminated countless, stupid and crappy plugins) and increased my buffer size by two.  MixControl is currently at Medium-128 (at 48kHz).  Sonar reports total round trip at 7.9ms with these settings. I wish I could do better, but at least it's stable as I have less "unexpected stop" application crashes.
 
Please post your latency and settings when you get a chance. I'm curious to see what they are. Right now, I got a red light on my Firewire-card-purchase future, but maybe will reconsider if your numbers are quite low in comparison.

Hi 2:43
 
Ok. I have had a bit of a muck about in mix control and X2 preferences and am trying 44100 at 96 buffer and I get round trip of 7.1 and this seems quite stable but will need to see in over a period a bit longer. 7.1 is very workable.
What are the practical advantages of raising the sample rate above cd quality (44100). Higher rates lower round trip (48000 & 96 = 6.5) but wouldn't it be better to lower the buffer instead? (44100 & 64 = 5.7). I will try these lower settings for a while too and let you know how I get on.
Do you personally get an immediate drop off in performance if you try any lower round trip?
 
SkyMonkey