Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help

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erico317
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2008/08/14 21:28:52 (permalink)

Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place.. Just don't know where it should be..

Guys,

I have an internal firewire card on my laptop that will only work on 1 firepod at a time.(RICHO chipset) When I daisy chain the second one, it kills the sync... They would never sync together... But 1 unit by itself will work flawlessly!!!

So as per Presonus, I ordered a 2 port Firewire express card from Rainrecording... Well it came in today.. Now I'm able to get both Firepods to sync, but no audio is going through.

I'm not even getting audio from Windows Media Player playing a CD... So I'm not even on the recording software yet..

Any ideas I can try? I tried removing the internal soundcard, the internal firewire.... Nothing has helped.. I'm starting to think that you can't hook 2 firepods on a laptop..

I called Presonus and they wanted me to try some WMD settings. Well they emailed me the instructions, but it wasn't for the Firepod it was for the Firestudio. So needless to say, it didn't help me. I called Presonus a lot this afternoon and was on hold from about 5:40 to 6:30... Tried calling a couple of guys direct lines while on hold and no one ever answered...

I called Rain Recording as well.. And they tried to help, but was just as lost as I am...

So here I am with a new laptop that doesn't do what I need it to do... If any of you have any ideas I can try please let me know... If I can't get it working by Saturday the laptop is going back...

And if any of you have had sucess with a laptop with multiple firepods, please let me know what kind.... I thought I was doing good with what I got..
Intel Dual Core 2.0 gHz 4G of memory... Running Vista (so it had one flaw)

Any help would be appreciated at this point....

Thanks,
Eric
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15 Replies Related Threads

    KenJr
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/14 22:43:50 (permalink)
    I had weird problems with my Firepod as well - hated the drivers and wasn't all that impressed with the sound (well, I was considering the price, I guess...).

    I dumped it - moved up to the RME FireFace and haven't looked back since.

    I hope you get it figured it out though - probably something you are going to have continue to work with PreSonus on unless by chance someone here has run into the exact same problem.

    FWIW, there are a LOT of folks on this board and I'm sure many others that don't even know this forum exists that are running Vista/Sonar with much success. I'm dual booting my DAW now and am slowly moving over to Vista (just takes time to get my apps, VST's, settings, etc...). I haven't found any difference on Vista than on XP. I've loaded my biggest project in Vista and it works the CPU/memory/HDD exactly the same way XP does.

    With Vista, you might want to dial down the eye candy (aero desktop), turn off Superfetch (just disable the service in control panel) and disable system restore and you'll see marked improvement in your system performance.

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    AT
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/15 00:08:51 (permalink)
    I'd try on FP by itself and see if you can get sound from it. The Pod needs a firmware upgrade to work with another - so be sure you have that. Then go into all your settings - the Pod icon and Sonar. Drivers can get funky I when you add something new to the system. And I use ASIO, tho only with 1 Pod and not on a laptop (at least it is vista).

    Just throwing mud out to see what sticks. And PreSonus help is good. YOu were calling pretty late in the day, they are in Baton Rouge, central time.

    luck!

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    #3
    erico317
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/15 07:57:41 (permalink)
    Thanks for the responses guys...

    I've done the firmware update....

    Sonar was set to ASIO....

    I disabled the internal firewire and sound card...

    But the problem is strange... I'm wondering if I got a bad Expresscard... I just can't figure it out....

    And in case I didn't mention... The firepods work great on my desktop...

    I live in Louisiana as well... I had just got off the phone with tech support at Presonus... 5 min later.. they never answered. They were supposed to be there until 6:00PM....

    I'm thinking of bringing everything back at this point... Maybe I'll get a MAC....

    Any suggestions on either a new laptop or suggestions on how I can fix this??

    Eric

    #4
    CJaysMusic
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/15 08:00:35 (permalink)
    Maybe I'll get a MAC....

    What about sonar??? That wont fix anythnig. The fIrepod needs a Dice II FW chipset in most cases. I would return the firepod and get an Edirol or an Echo FW sound card. Those are thest for the low mid ranged priced cards
    Cj

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    erico317
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/15 08:37:17 (permalink)
    I don't believe the problem to be with Sonar or really the Firepods...

    I'm using Sonar 7 Producer... I use the same version on my desktop. And the Firepods work flawlessly there...

    I can get 1 firepod to work with the internal RICOH chipset firewire on the Toshiba laptop. Just can't get 2 of them to sync up....

    On the Texas Instruments Chipset Express card, which Presonus recommended, They sync but no audio...


    I'm not even getting audio through windows media player using the firepod as a sound card...

    Eric
    #6
    jcschild
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/15 10:01:54 (permalink)
    HI,

    adding a TI Express card does NOT help. it may (as you seen) get the interface to be recognized or even sync but past that you still have a good chipset (TI) running on a bad one (ricoh)...

    what laptop is it?

    Scott
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    #7
    erico317
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/15 10:37:07 (permalink)
    The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A305-S6858

    ProcessorIntel? Core(TM)2 Duo Mobile
    Processor Speed2.0GHz
    Display TypeWXGA TFT-LCD widescreen with TruBrite technology (1280 x 800)
    Screen Size15.4"
    System Bus667MHz
    Cache Memory2MB on die Level 2System
    Memory (RAM)4GB
    Type of Memory (RAM)PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM
    Hard Drive TypeSerial ATA (5400 rpm)
    Hard Drive Size320GB
    Optical DriveDouble-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW

    Ok... So I'm almost at the point of bringing this thing back...

    So what type of laptop does everyone recommend?

    MAC? Dell? Any ideas?

    And does Sonar work on a MAC?

    #8
    jcschild
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/15 11:59:34 (permalink)
    google "pro audio laptop"

    Scott
    ADK
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    disconnected
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/08/16 12:35:10 (permalink)
    I have 2 firepods daisy chained together on an xp laptop
    and I've used them on my tower as well with vista

    update to the latest firepod drivers
    I've used the asio4all drivers too with sucess
    turn some of the vista crapware off
    go to www.blackviper.com and use his safe tweaks ..I also used the vista super tweaks...
    I use the asio drivers..I ti chipset on the firewire will help alot..some people have had sucess with others but I'd go with the ti..
    make sure the firepods are enabled in the audio section of sonar and that both are synced up with the blue lights
    turn your firepods on before sonar too



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    #10
    PAETEK
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/09/09 13:31:38 (permalink)
    Hi this is Jeremy with PreSonus Audio, if you're still having problems I would like to help, feel free to contact me and maybe we can figure this out.

    jpleasant@presonus.com
    #11
    fastelder
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/09/09 14:10:59 (permalink)
    Hey There!

    I had an awful time with my firepod on my portable rig - a Toshiba satelite!

    I initally set it up in a 3U rack bag with a laptop case on top. The supplied Firewire cable needed an adapter. I bought the pod from a guy on Craigslist, so I preloaded the Presonus drivers and such ahead of time to make sure the thing worked. Eureka! no problems! record/playback all worked fine.

    Then it Hit!

    I had to record my choir around Christmas and couldn't get Sonar to recognize the driver or the pod. A few attempts got it to play back at some God-awful speed. Frustration level extremely high.

    Finally - I realized that I had purchased a "right-angle" firewire cable to connect instead of using the original with an adapter. - What a chump! That was the problem all along. Evidently some six to four pin cables do not use the right confiuration.

    Long story short, It may be a cable problem. Especially if you use the PCMCIA card.

    May help, May not. Hope you solved it.

    Ed


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    #12
    stratoj
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/09/09 14:43:15 (permalink)
    Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but do a search and you will find lots more
    people having bad luck with Presonus and Sonar than they are having good luck.

    Great products, unfortunately in most peoples cases the drivers have never been right with Sonar.
    #13
    jcschild
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/09/09 14:56:23 (permalink)
    firepods/firebox work fine, its the newer firestudio that wont work with Sonar most of the time

    Scott
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    Jim Roseberry
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/09/09 15:35:37 (permalink)
    Hi Eric,


    It's the Ricoh controller that's the problem.
    Adding a TI chipset controller won't address the problem... as the cardbuss in controlled by the Ricoh chipset.
    Catch-22

    Best Regards,

    Jim Roseberry
    jim@studiocat.com
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    #15
    bullo
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    RE: Laptop users with Presonus Firepod Need Help 2008/09/13 19:40:03 (permalink)
    It's the Ricoh controller that's the problem.
    Adding a TI chipset controller won't address the problem... as the cardbuss in controlled by the Ricoh chipset.
    Catch-22


    Hi. If I'm not wrong, the 2 port Firewire express Erico317 got from Rain Recording is an Express Card, not cardbus.

    After a looong discussion on the web I thought that if you had a Ricoh FW controller, you could buy an Express Card with Ti chipset and bypass the Rocoh altogether. And that is WAS A LIE that it would still be going through the Ricoh Chipset/ combo controller, since the Express Card is like a PCI-e and it has a DIRECT connection to the bus. And some people keep discouraging people like "Buying an Express Card wont help. You need a laptop with native TI. Otherwise you are still going thru Ricoh, etc etc".

    In my experience, I have an HP dv9500t with Ricoh combo controller. I ordered the same expresscard from Rain Recording (Pyro ADS tech).
    After extensive testings, I can tell you that Ricoh went beyond my expectations and there is no performance difference when using the Express Card. I can go to the lowest latency with no problem. Even more...I purchased the ideal Driver from Centrance, and I get a round-trip latency of around 7ms. with both Ricoh and TI (Expresscard).

    It seems like the OLD Ricohs were problematinc and not anymore with modern computers (2007-2008). But i ahve no idea if they changed something on the driver/hardware.
    Just m experience...

    Hope it helps.

    Regards,
    Danny Bullo
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