I just got a new FA-66 audio/midi firewire device and so excited that I will be able to record audio into my DAW! And ... I can't get it to work. Here's my setup: PC: Dell Studio i5 processor OS: Windows 7 DAW: Sonar X1 External: Korg M3 So, I methodically follow the directions and install the driver, plugin the firewire connection, turn the device on. Set sample rate to 48 and plugin my monitors. Open sample song from CD and... nothing, nada, no sound. Uninstall driver and repeat entire process. This time I hear sound from monitors so I plug-in headphones and hear ... nothing. Fire up Sonar X1, go to preferences/audio and for a split second see FA-66 there as the audio input/output and then ... Sonar crashes, as in not just freezing, as in shuts itself down completely, takes it toys and goes home. So I lather, rinse, repeat and still nothing. At this point I shut everything off, go make myself a drink and play around with GarageBand on my iPad. http://forum.cakewalk.com...e/image/mIcons/m14.gif Any help appreciated.

My FA-66 constantly drops out - Win 7 Pro, new Dell laptop, Firewire throughput and nothing but problems for six long months. Can't even play a cut or film w/o freezing the screen for seconds on end and even completely losing the entire installation until I reboot. Optical input is just as bad, and varies in terms of drop out frequency and duration. Is this product even supported or did I just throw away three hundred dollas in Roland's direction? Not even remotely acceptable, people.

I have had FA-66 for years. It has always worked on and off. Sometimes it work work great for weeks, but randomly it completely disconnects and is no longer available as an audio device in Windows. I have tried Windows Vista and 7 in both 32bit and 64bit environments. Always seem to have intermittent functionality. I just tested the FA-66 for three weeks at a friend's computer. Unfortunately they only used it for audio playback, but still that even cut out on me - simple Windows playback. They did not experience any cut outs. Maybe it has something to do with the type of firewire controller on the computer. In Sonar you want to make sure you're using the ASIO driver.

In Sonar you want to make sure you're using the ASIO driver.

It ain't necessarily so....... been using one for years with no issues and it works better for me in WDM. The installation instructions actually recommended WDM for Sonar. It will also work with ASIO, but WDM just performs better for me. I don't think there is a right or wrong with this, it's whatever works best on your system, so it is misleading to say you must use ASIO.

I'm still using Win XP32 8.5PE (if it ain't broken - don't fix it) and it's rock solid there, so looks like it may be W7 / X1 issue. Could be a faulty unit I guess, but generally they have a pretty good rep, so I would look at OS / Driver issues before blaming the FA66.

I did once read that it needs to have TI chipset for Firewire, but I don't know for sure if that's correct and to be honest I have no clue if mine is or not, I just plugged it in on day 1 and it worked.

"I have had FA-66 for years. It has always worked on and off. Sometimes it work work great for weeks, but randomly it completely disconnects and is no longer available as an audio device in Windows...that even cut out on me - simple Windows playback." Same thing happens to me but apparently this forum is dead. They take your money and then stop. Robbery.

 I have two FA-66, because my first one worked absolutely 100% dropout-free:
- PowerStudio660 (= green/black coloured FA-66 known as an SPS-66 and branded as Cakewalk hardware, bundled with full version of Sonar 6)
- WinXP 32 bit pro
I bought my second FA-66 (darkish red coloured Edirol branded) cheaply, looking to double my microphone inputs. Daisy-chained/cascaded together, they also worked 'in unison' absolutely 100% free of dropouts and crashes.

I then upgraded to X1 and Win7 64bit, because my former PC, assembled in 2003, couldn't handle many MIDI tracks and effects (CPU load too high, limited RAM). Now I keep having problems with dodgy things in X1 or Win7 - often, nobody seems to know why(?), but the FA-66 itself hasn't let me down, yet. I have, however, not been brave enough to daisy chain them (I was over-optimistic when writing my signature), for fear of getting even more problems. I think I remember reading in the notes on the Win7 64 bit drivers for the FA-66 and SPS-66 that their support is 'limited' for Win7.
So, based on my experience with two almost identical units, I too believe that your FA-66 may not be the culprit. Rather, their interplay with either Win7, 64 bit, or X1 and the FA-66 drivers is the problem - but that of course is even more irritating, because you can't solve any of that easily by yourself ...