Austin, TX

I have used FF800 - sometimes two units at a time - from the first days FF800 was released. One unit worked absolutely perfectly in XP & SONAR 8.3.1 and 8.5. Windows 7 + X1 was OK, too, but Windows 7 + SONAR X2 began to show this message. I failed to locate problem or fix it and I purchased RME UFX which works perfectly in USB mode.
I believe problem is either in RME or Windows Firewire driver. My troubleshooting included replacement of motherboard, 1394 card (3-5 different ones from several brands, with and without TI chipset), cables, going back to legacy driver, totally new PC and upgraded SONAR version. RME support did their best to help me solve this issue but they were unable to find the ultimate answer.
 
Interesting enough, disconnecting never happened when playing music with Winamp or Media Player - only in SONAR in ASIO mode.

I have noticed that when opening SONAR, I see this msg at times too. I am in USB mode, but was using FW mode with the FF800. 
 
My loop has gone on for a while now without issue. I will try the vanilla approach.

...mine has been 2 hours now in StudioOne with no drops.  Going to switch over to SONAR now and see how long it goes...

SONAR displays this message when we detect either arrival or removal of *any* audio or MIDI device on the system.
SONAR takes no action unless you say yes to this prompt:
"The above Audio/MIDI device was disconnected from your system. Would you like SONAR to reroute these outputs to an available device? Clicking 'No' allows SONAR to remember output settings to this device."
 
One thing that might have some bearing on this. I got word from RME that when the ASIO sample rate changes they unload and reload the underlying wdm driver components (even if you use an ASIO driver there is always a WDM component) This will cause a device removal message. This is very common with some drivers and its normal. Driver vendors have to do this because Microsoft's driver stack doesn't easily allow sample rates to be changed under the hood. Some Roland drivers do this as well. In the future I'll look into potentially masking the notification message when the ASIO sample rate is changed.
However if you are really losing audio there isn't anything I can do from the SONAR side without knowing what is causing that.
 
So is anyone with this problem loading projects at different sample rates or changing the sample rate?

Not for me.  I keep my 2192 at 44.1, the RME driver at 44.1 and SONAR at 44.1.  I never change that and don't have any projects at different sample rates that I have to change.  So, I don't think that's my issue but could be for some other folks.
 
For the record, I started up a SONAR session with the 1 track/loop thing at 12:25 CST and it's been running for 25 minutes now without crashing.  That's definitely a record.  It will eventually though but the problem is that it will eventually come during a project and it always happens at the worst time...like right in the middle of the best take. :)
 
I'm going to have to bang on it later tonight like I'm actually doing some work and see how long it makes it.  I'm going to let it run and see how long it goes.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
One thing that might have some bearing on this. I got word from RME that when the ASIO sample rate changes they unload and reload the underlying wdm driver components (even if you use an ASIO driver there is always a WDM component) This will cause a device removal message. This is very common with some drivers and its normal. Driver vendors have to do this because Microsoft's driver stack doesn't easily allow sample rates to be changed under the hood. Some Roland drivers do this as well. In the future I'll look into potentially masking the notification message when the ASIO sample rate is changed.
However if you are really losing audio there isn't anything I can do from the SONAR side without knowing what is causing that.
 
So is anyone with this problem loading projects at different sample rates or changing the sample rate?

Excellent Points Noel!
I just proved that driver differing sample rate disconnect point!
 
I have been opening projects with varying sample rates from the past and that is why I am getting that message.
 
That analysis is SPOT ON for my situation. I would appreciate masking that message for those conditions. Excellent!

choinga
For the record, I started up a SONAR session with the 1 track/loop thing at 12:25 CST and it's been running for 25 minutes now without crashing.  That's definitely a record.  It will eventually though but the problem is that it will eventually come during a project and it always happens at the worst time...like right in the middle of the best take. :)

 
That sucks. Its definitely not normal for it to happen while you are recording and nothing else is using the hardware.
As I mentioned earlier SONAR just displays the message but takes no action unless you respond to the message with yes. If you are actually losing audio when that happens it might indicate a hardware problem (especially if others are not seeing that). I suggest working with RME support on that angle. I'll see if anyone can reproduce that issue here.

It finally did die...just playing back.  A little under 30 minutes was all it could muster, but that's the record.  Usually it's under 10 minutes or so...or, right at the worst possible time when I'm recording. :)

So all you are doing is looping in SONAR and no other apps running? Do you get a dropout message before that or just the device disconnected message?
Also after the message is audio playback dead - how do you recover at that point?