Hi Group.

I hope someone is able to help me with a problem.

I recently (or rather 1 month ago) bought a Echo AudioFire12 audio
device
(http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/Fi...re12/index.php).

I have had serious problems using it ever since. The problem is that I
cannot record or playback at any sample rate higher than 48.000. I can
record and playback perfectly at e.g. 44.1 or 48.000 at 16 bit or 24
bit. (1 channel as well as many channels simultaneously).

If I try to switch sample rate to i.e. 96.000 either in the application
or in the echo console software it seems to work fine. The led on audio
device front panel indicates that the sample rate indeed has switched.
But if I try to do something now, it doesn't work properly. Different
applications give me different errors, but none of them is able to
produce any meaningful output (or recordings) at this sample rate.

I've tried a tons of different trouble shoouting techniques - nothing
seems to work. I've tried getting Echo support to help me, but so far I
have been extremely dissapointed with their support. It seems their
e-mail support has an average response time of 2 weeks or worse. Quite
annoying when the product is basically useless the way it is now.
I was almost giving up, thinking that I'd got a faulty audio device,
when I had the chance to try it out on another computer. Guess what: No
problems at all. Audio recording and playback worked fine at any sample
rate.

This (once more) leads me to think this problem is related to my
firewire port (although I can't know for sure). Unfortunately I have no
more available pci slots (and I would hate throwing away my Powercore
or one of the UADs) so I can't just simply install another firewire i/o
card. And I shouldn't have to!!! I have 3 on-board firewire i/o's - it
must be possible someway to get one of these to work.

Anyway, I hope someone can help me now - it seems the Echo Support
doesn't care much about solving my problem...

I'll include part of my communication to Echo below, so you can find
further details about the problem and my system configuration setup:

------------------------ Part of an e-mail sent to Echo Support:

The problem is to play-back (and record) at a sample rate higher than
48.000. There is no problem recording or playing back files at sample
rates 44.1 or 48 (works fine for 16 bit as well as for 24 bit).
However, if I try to playback or record a file in eg. 96.000 it does
not work. Different applications give me different error messages - see
the detailed info below. The error is the same for any sample rate
higher than 48.000.

I've tried each application on a completely newly clean Windows XP SP2
install with Echo drivers 1.06 AND 1.05 - firmware version 1.04.

Cubase SX3:
If I try to change sample rate in project setup I get error message:
"ASIO driver could not be initialized". I click "ok" and try anyway to
record or playback. When recording, no audio input is being captured
(not visible in meters or on wave-file). When playing back, the
transport line moves, but no audio can be heard (or seen on the
db-meters).

Adobe Audition:
When I try to playback a file at e.g. sample rate 96.000 it seems to
work fine for the first 2-3 seconds (except there is never any audible
audio). But what I mean by "it seems to work fine" is that the db-meter
in Audition actually shows correct movement, but then after 2-3 seconds
it hangs at a random level and stays there forever. The transport line
seems to behave normally, i.e. it moves constantly even after the
db-meter hangs. But at no time is any audio audible.

Auturia MiniMoog:
When the sample rate is set to 44.100 the application works fine. If I
change sample rate to 96.000, there is no sound. There are no errors -
the application seems to work fine - except for the missing sound. When
I change sample rate back, the application works again.

I even tried playing back a 96.000 file in Windows Mediaplayer. The
response was an error dialog box saying:
"There is only a small amount available memory left. Close some
applications and try again" (roughly translated from the danish error
message). It should be noted that the computer was running a clean
install, clean boot and no other applications were running. Task
manager did not show any signs of a memory shortage.

Whenever I switch sample rate either within the AudioFire console or
within an actual application (i.e. Audition) it seems that the
AudioFire hardware device correctly changes sample rate as well
(according to the front panel led).

As noted I've tried echo driver version 1.05 and 1.06 - both with same
results. The firmware has been flashed to newest version (1.04). I've
made sure that the BIOS is flashed to newest version (1005). I've even
done the tests above one more time with a completely new beta-version
of the BIOS firmware (1006 - beta 005). The results were the same.

One thing that puzzles me, though, is that the led "1394" on the front
panel of the AudioFire hardware device has never been turned on (except
at those blinking short ones, when the device is being powered on). Is
this normal that this led is not on? I would assume that it is to
indicate a firewire connection and thus that it should be lit when
there indeed is a connection?

Anyway, it led me to think that this might be a firewire issue and so I
tried to different controllers (one 1394a and one 1394b) - both of them
is "onboard" on the motherboard - both gave the same results as above.
I've even tried with these different drivers for the firewire
controller:

OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394-værtscontroller
Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394-værtscontroller
Asus 1394b Host Controller
Unibrain driver / OHCI Compatible Board
Unibrain Driver / S800 OHCI Compatible Board
The last 3 drivers did not work in any way. The AudioFire could not be
recognized when any of these drivers were active. (However the drivers
worked fine for another firewire device). The first 2 drivers both gave
same results - the results stated above.

I have tried to enable the onboard audio controller (obviously it has
been disabled all along not to interfere with anything). The onboard
audio controller worked well and was able to playback and record at
96.000 without any problems. I've tried to set all Windows system
sounds to the onboard audio device so it wouldn't interfere with the
AudioFire device. Same results.

I'm pretty much out of ideas now. Unfortunately I don't have any other
computer with a firewire connection, so I can test if the results are
the same. [[[Note from today: Now I've tried this and the echo
audiodevice works fine with this computer]]]

---
Complete system info (please also read my notes below):

Motherboard: Asus P5AD2-E Premium
CPU: Pentium 4, 3.4 (socket 775)
RAM: 4 * Kingston 512 MB (totally 2 GB)
HDs: 3 * Barracuda 160 GB - configured with 2 in RAID 0 and 1 in
"solo".
Graphics Adapter: LEADTEK WinFast PX6200 TC TDH, PCIe, GeForce 6200 TC,
128 MB

All PCI's (in order of the slots):
UAD-1 (Universal Audio DSP-card)
UAD-1 (Universal Audio DSP-card)
TC Powercore (MK1)

FW-connection: Echo AudioFire12

- Onboard audio disabled (have tried with enabled - same result)
- USB2-controller enabled (have tried with disabled - same result)
- No other firewire devices connected.
- Have tried change pci timer latency in BIOS setting.
- Some of the applications tested have been demo or trial versions, but
it shouldn't matter as they are suppose to work at these sample rates
even as trial and demo versions.
- No other USB-devices connected (except dongles and logitech wireless
keyboard and mouse).
- Note: Operating system is WinXP with SP2 from CD. Clean install from
CD. Windows Update has not runned - no bugfixes from Microsoft has been
installed. Computer is not connected to the internet and thus not
vulnerable.
- Note: The temperature of the computer and of the AudioFire device has
not reached any level even close to "dangerous", thus this is not a
"heating-problem".
- Note: The AudioFire device has been bought in USA, but I'm using it
in Denmark. I do not expect that this could be the cause of the problem
as it is stated on the back (at the AC inlet) that it can be used for
voltages and currents available in European countries as well.
- Note: I have not connected anything to the "word clock" input or
output on the AudioFire-device. The clocking is "internal".