Guru wanted in Amsterdam

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:27 am

there we go again......loosing wordclock.lots of noise drives me crazy......
what the fuck is happening here

wich system is stable the old or new???

:

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:02 am

If you can controll IRQ settings in BIOS, it does not matter, where you put your cards. Just give them the same IRQ - and let them share with nothing else.

I think it would be good, if you could get together with someone with a working system. Then swap cards on at a time to find out, if one of your cards is faulty. You can to some extend do this yourself too. Take out 2 cards. Does it work? Does it work for a long time? Then change cards and check again.

Maybe use another STDM cable?

You are not using asio drivers and win98 I hope (that is really bad - i went from ~1 to ~30 stable stereo channels when going ASIO+98 -> ASIO+XP).

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 6:56 am

yesterday after frustrating day again, I decided to build my old system in a better case wich I allready bought some time ago with bigger power supply (in those days 350 watts was adviced by many people, now 400 is more normal) the old case still had 300 watt.

but when started up again no differens same problem loosing wordclock.
then after restarting again it suddenly seemed ok.

again a day not making any music, by the time I had a stable projekt it was 03.00 o clock, time to go a sleep
today I,m not at my system I wonder what suprices it has for me tonight.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 7:14 am

On 2004-09-20 12:02, Immanuel wrote:
... Maybe use another STDM cable?

good point - while the connectors of the cards have been cleaned several times with the alc procedure, the connector on the cable probably wasn't touched at all.
And metal corrosion is much more significant on the cable side, because those connectors have a circle shape with only a tiny 'hit' area.
I'll phone some electronic supplies this afternoon about the availability of high duty type connectors.

cheers, Tom

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:27 pm

back at my system again, same shit. allready started up 3 times going for the 4th after typing this.

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:29 pm

Did you try removing cards and run SP with just one card?

Post by **hubird** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 3:40 pm

yes, that's the way, built it up untill you get problems.
You have multiple cards and linked computers if I'm rihht, therefor you really have to isolate the problem by building up your system and gear.
I really hope you'll get out of trouble, keep on trying!

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 5:07 pm

since there seems to be a relation to the STDM cable (cleaned, worked some time, failed again), it could be that the frequent plugging-unplugging has scrubbed off the surface on the Scope card, usually some (very thin) gold plating.

The same could apply to the connector (which I suspected in my previous post), but the chance is somewhat lower because they obviously use rather 'hard' material on that side.

Now what's happening ? If the (protective) goldplating is gone, there's a copper based metal contact on the card's side, which you clean with alcolhol and rub away the isolating oxide from the surface and get a connection again.

All is fine... for a short while - then the oxidation process will start again creeping under the connection point.
This builds up a small capacitance and the high frequency signal will get reflected or run mad otherwise.
At least there will some wiered signaling on some lines - you know the result.
You clean with alcohol - another cycle starts...

Since you rely on your cards as the heart of your studio - and if you don't care about warranties, well here's a drastic remedy I would apply - but it's really my very private opinion and not a suggestion at all

I would solder a row of circuit connectors (male/male) right on the STDM connector of the card (they match exactly) and make a custom cable with connectors (female) that look like those of regular harddisks, but 20 instead of 40 pins), which fit much tighter.

Those connectors are available in good quality, opposed to the ones that are on a regular STDM cable, which seem to be totally outdated.
I tried a dozen catalogs without success today.

I wouldn't want to convince you to spoil any of your cards, but if they really show heavy wearout on the connectors, this may be an option to consider - see it as a kind of last resort.
Additionally you may ask a jeweler if goldplating of a circuit board's connctors is possibly without risk of damage.

cheers, Tom

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 2:39 am

when I builded the old system I had some help from a computer wizz, than after shit with my house I didn't have my system running for about a year In that time I bought the second system, now with them both running I wouldn't know where to start and how to fresh install the old system, I'm afraid to loose all the old work. for example I saved some VDAT tape on an ext.hard disk but I can not open it in my new system in the other VDAT.

@astroman: that would be indeed to drastic to me, 6 cards ?? no I would not dare to do that.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 3:52 am

If you cannot open the VDAt file, open it with a text editor and update the file paths.

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:49 am

uhh????

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:57 am

I suspect the drive letter has changed. If the drive used to be called 'E:' and now it's 'F:', you have to update the .wav file paths inside the VDAT file with a texteditor from for example 'E:*.wav' to 'F:*.wav'.

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:40 am

Oops now I've done it can not start system anymore I get only blue screen when I start up. and some kind of error message about that have to get latest bios version???

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:37 pm

so you edited the .vtp file, which now crashes the system while auto-loading Scope on startup (with VDAT being part of the default project) ?
Possibly a file is corrupted...

boot the machine from a CD and edit the file cset.ini (in sfpappbin) to load a different project on startup.
After that I would set Scope to be manually started as long as the system is unreliable and the source is unclear.

cheers, Tom

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 10:27 am

this thing has grown above my head, as I don't have any money at the moment, I can't pay nowbody at the moment. so the best thing to do is put the whole setup back in a box.try to make some money and than pay someone to fiks my system again.
thanks for all the tips anyway, but most is abacadabra to me.

qAPLAh · Post by **qAPLAh** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 9:18 am

I guess i could come check your system as i live in Amsterdam too.