To be fair; I did get thru to RME's Synthrax US tech support, today ... he told me to try a new firewire cable on the RME 400.  (So I durst not boycott RME just yet ... nor speak evil of the corporate giant)

I also confess, I did erroneously jack with the 6-pin firewire cable ... shoving it in and out of my Dell-alienware while the computer was on! 

I also bought 1/4 to RCA jacks ... if necessary to hook my Adams monitors and Dell-Alien ... to my humble cw UA-4FX ($150)... which has proven itself almost flawless in win7-64 8.5.3 Sonar.
 
(Please, stay attuned to my madness)

Doing that could cause THIS

The FireFace units are among the BEST at their price range. Then again, 100% customer satisfaction doesn't exist with any product. Hope the OP gets his issue sorted either with a new FF800 or a new interface.

 
Agreed...
If the FF is burning up motherboards, it needs to be replaced.
That's certainly not common/expected behavior.
I understand the OP's frustration...
Having bought a good unit, IMO he needs to simply get a "good" unit connected to a good FW controller.
RME needs to swap it out.
 
@OP, Forget trying to trouble-shoot with Dell.
That's like going to a Urologist for a headache. 
You'll get better support here.
Once you have a properly functioning RME unit, you'll be glad you stuck with it.
There are numerous other "good" options... but none are better that what you have (as long as it's functioning properly).

alexoosthoek


Doing that could cause THIS

 
I NEVER, EVER use Bus power for that same reason.  This can happen with ANY FireWire device, not just the FireFace.
 
The OP should use the supplied PSU for safer operation. 
 
And by the way, this information is included in a bright yellow sheet with the words "IMPORTANT NOTICE" when you buy the Fireface.
 
 
 

alexoosthoek


Doing that could cause THIS

Ah, I guess firewire is well named.

Been using a Delta 1010 with my win7/64 machine.
Works well, but I need to boot the machine twice for the system to recognize the unit.
No other problems.
 Guess I'm lucky it works!

I'm using an FF800 with the latest drivers and firmware.

No problems whatsoever.

And to pick up on what somebody posted above... When I bought the Fireface, I was concerned about latency because I was moving from a Delta 1010 PCI card to firewire. Fortunately latency is not a problem. The effective latency with the FF800 was at least as good as the Delta 1010 on the same computer.

And it sounds much better.
 
EDIT: My signature's out of date!

I am using a Delta AP2496.  I used to have a problem where the drivers would stop working for some reason.  Someone on their forum posted a batch file to restart the audio engine.  Oddly I'm not sure if the batch file works because I have not had the problem since copying it to my DAW.

Same here! The venerable Dakota Jim sold me is still ticking! Well, but I haven't made the leap to Win 7, I'm glad to hear that it works! 

Philip




I also confess, I did erroneously jack with the 6-pin firewire cable ... shoving it in and out of my Dell-alienware while the computer was on! 

Not good! If you actually "hot swapping" this is considered a no-no in the FW arena. Some companies will not even offer support for this.

That being said, I always like to mention my profire 610 which has run very well with xp, vista, win7 and especially win7x64 :D