Hello All.
 
I think there may be a uderlying ethic being promoted by Microsoft to sabotage the APPLE invention and impliment USB over the other firewire 1394a/b interface.
 
How many people here use firewire port/cards and devices and are having issues with DAWs?
 
How many people are Using USB devicies and are having Issues with Daws?
 
I would like to see the results of this thread atlease to address the positives and negitives..so others can make a viable choice before buying in to anything......As it may be that just that sort of underhandedness is goin on between Apple / Microsoft...perhaps?
 
I saw a forum thread, linking a time bomb in Win xp 64bit that was tied to the windows driver for firewire..and a patch was put out for it.
the bomb was set to defeat the Drives connect to that port....after a certain date, the drives and port would not work....Or something like that.
 
So it is with this sort of thing...and problems I have had over the many years trying to use Firewire in windows anything with MUSIC SOFTWARE, to be the most unstable platform..so far...oh I did find a few software programs that worked great...but the bigger more powerful ones...I have yet to tame on my setups....could be something to do with that port perhaps?.....well let see by the posts put here....and then we can answer possibly why so many have issues...and perhaps not....worth a try?

Firewire, whatever its strengths, is a dying standard. I wouldn't buy any new firewire gear myself now.

FireWire works fine for me. You just got to make sure you are using the right drivers. If FireWire is on your motherboard upgrade the BIOS and the chip set drivers. If its an external interface update the firmware and drivers. And of course update you soundcard firmware and drivers. Run windows update as well..

The big advantage of FireWire is that the interface is dedicated. There are too many standards with usb and oftrn they arent implemented well.The firewire standard will be around for at least another 5 to 10 years. USB won't be around forever either.

Does your FireWire card have a TI (Texas Indtrument) chipset?  That is essential with some FireWire devices. 

You are correct CakealexS...the firewire platform is a good one to use for audio..if it worked well for me..as that was my understanding of it if implimented just for Audio.
USB has all these things people want to put into or onto that port...like a mouse or keyboard..now being forced by some motherboards removing the ps2 port.....and I have had issues with just that sort of thing, making noise on the audio while moving the mouse.. trying out USB and audio...in the beginning....So I went over to firewire...but have had alot of grief trying to get a stable app and experience with that....oh ACID was working Great on XP..and with Firewire...but as time went on..better more powerful systems with fantastic CPUs came forth...and memory limitations and harddrive capacities abounded.....So I went with that flow of buy and update for multitrack recording ..Never really fixing but always updating....is it fixed YET?..No..Just a update.....and in one of my other posts about being new to sonar, and needing help setting up my computer....I was told to roll back my driver (still waiting on word from the ALLEN AND HEATH tech division for my audio interface) before I do that.

So it is as you say...becareful updates can cause problems sometimes, instead of solve them!....(a good look at X2a seems to have been pre released pyor to proper testing???)  some are saying!= possible proof...?

Not too worried about firewire being out of date...I just want to see if there is any wiggling truth to this sort of thought process about Microsoft's underhandedness in sabotaging Apple devices and or developements, On PC systems, using MS OSs and softwares that utilize em being continually buggy......being valid posibilities?...maybe with some but not others?.....where is the standard go to, to form stability for all..or some.....is where I am directing my next perchase by....cause all this tweaking and castrating of services and such of the OS to make something work...seems kinda crippling that which is necessary to perform under or on....(creating a bug in itself?)..hmmm

Hi Riojazz..to answer your question..No..I am told today that the Lacie 800 card I use uses a Oxford chip...Allen and Heath's forum/help with posts..say: ZED-R16. Firewire chipset compatibility
There are many brands of FireWire interfaces and ExpressCards.

Apart from the build quality, what you should care about for compatibility is the actual OHCI chipset that they use internally.
Some manufacturers list the used OHCI chipset, and if they go for a different chipset they change the product name accordingly.
Other manufactures don't list the chipset at all and therefore we are not in a position to reliably recommend a FireWire interface.

The System tab (Windows only) in the ‘Allen & Heath FireWire’ or ‘ZED-R’ driver control panel allows a utility to interrogate
your computer's FireWire 1394 OHCI controller and determine its compatibility with the GS-R24 or ZED-R16.

It will report:
- Manufacturer name
- Chipset name
- Chipset revision
- The number of isochronous contexts for transmit and receive that the chipset supports (if known)
- Whether the chipset is supported by the DICE driver (supported, limited support, unsupported, or untested)
- A notes field with any details about compatibility

If ‘Look Online’ is ticked when clicking the Scan button, the tool will retrieve the latest information
from TCAT in case the chip has been tested later than the release of the driver firmware.

The FireWire controllers that are currently known to work with the DICE chipset used by Allen & Heath recording consoles are:
LSI (Agere) FW322 PCI
LSI (Agere) FW323 PCI
LSI (Agere) FW643 PCI Express
TI TSB43A PCI
TI TSB82A PCI
TI TSB83A PCI
TI XIO2200 PCI Express
TI XIO2213 PCI Express
VIA VT6306 PCI (limited number of channels with some older motherboards)
VIA VT6307 PCI
VIA VT6308 PCI
The FireWire controllers that are currently known to be not compatible are:
JMicron JMB381 PCI Express
JMicron JMB382 PCI Express
JMicron JMB383 PCI Express
NEC D72870 PCI
NEC D72871 PCI
NEC D72872 PCI
NEC D72873 PCI
NEC D72874 PCI (limited functionality)

You should avoid cards that use a JMicron, NEC, or Ricoh chipset.
If you have no chance of confirming which OHCI chipset a card uses before purchasing it, it's best to avoid that card.

As an alternative you will be safe by purchasing a FireWire 800 capable ExpressCard from a manufacturer with a good build-quality reputation.
This is because at the time of writing there are only a few OHCI chipsets that support the faster FW800 speed and they are all on the recommended list.
All of the recent ExpressCards with FW800 use either the TI XIO2213 or LSI/Agere FW643 chipset.

Tested FW800 ExpressCards include:
StarTech EC1394B2
SIIG NN-000042-S2
SonnetTech FW800-E34
Dynex DX-ECFW

Note that if the ExpressCard only has FW800 ports, you will also need an FW800 to FW400 cable.
 

So as this is a firewire 800 card it should be ok to use with their ZED r16 unit..which is in question about drivers and firewire...although it is not on the list of tested or researched by them...But thanks

Sir Les,
    If I'm remembering your post from yesterday correctly, you have a Firewire HD also?

    If you are using the same firewire port for both your audio interface and your audio drive, you might run into issues.  Perhaps adding a secondary port to your machine, so you have one for your audio interface and a separate one for your LaCie HD, might go a long way to resolve your issues.


Best,
guitardood


P.S. I also found that disabling the Firewire Network driver under device manager helped quite a bit with stability and performance.

Here is what I get when I use the interogator Allen and Heath provide in the driver mixer applet.

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 [6.1.7601]
  CPU(s):
    Processor:  Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         980  @ 3.33GHz
    Physical:  1
    Cores:     6
    Logical:   12
    L1 Cache:  32 KB   (12)
    L2 Cache:  256 KB  (6)
    L3 Cache: 12288 KB  (1)
  Installed RAM: 16375 MB
  Microsoft 1394ohci.sys [6.1.7601.17514]
  Microsoft ohci1394.sys [6.1.7600.16385] (legacy)
  Microsoft 1394bus.sys [6.1.7600.16385] (legacy)
Looking for OHCI 1394 Host Controllers...
1:
  Vendor : (104C) Texas Instruments
  Chipset: (823F) XIO2213
  Revision: 01
  Details:
    Subsysten VendorId: 3412
    Subsystem DeviceId: 7856
    Max # isoch Rx contexts: 4
    Max # isoch Tx contexts: 8
  Max 1394 Speed Capability: S800
  Support:  Compatible, no known issues.
Done.

So..not sure what is truth...Lacie emailed me today with the oxford chipset answer to my question, and I am waiting on data from them on exaxtly what chip and number.....cause the interogator says texas instruments....see..always something is misleading....I just lost a new grown hair!....lol

Thanks guitardood...No I do not use Firewire drives..only audio device being used on that port is the allen and heath..as 16 tracks of audio needs the bandwidth all to itself...no 3d video excellerators ,as they claim these video cards cause issues with the drivers and audio.....So no eye candy, and no video 3d excelleration...makes for a plain jain system...then the tweaks..and the on off off on...try this try that..path...So no I do not use them kinda drives on that port....but thanks for trying to point out a possible solution...

Blessings!

When I was still using XP, I was having performance issues with firewire and resolved them with Unibrain's firewire drivers (http://www.unibrain.com/download/download.asp).   I didn't need to install them on Win7x64 and I'm sorry I don't remember which OS you're using but you might want to take a look as another possible solution over using the MS provided firewire drivers.

Best,
guitardood