User Manual

User's Guide Fireface 800 © RME
47
22. Hotline – Troubleshooting
22.1 General
The newest information can always be found on our website www.rme-audio.com, section FAQ,
Latest Additions.
The input signal cannot be monitored in real-time
• ASIO Direct Monitoring has not been enabled, and/or monitoring has been disabled globally.
The 8 ADAT channels don’t seem to work
• The optical output ADAT2 has been switched to SPDIF. As can be seen in the block dia-
gram, all channels and their assignments still exist, but the optical transmitter has been dis-
connected from ADAT2 and is now fed from the SPDIF output (channels 11/12). The ADAT2
playback devices are still usable by routing and mixing them in TotalMix to other outputs.
Playback works, but record doesn’t:
• Check that there is a valid signal at the input. If so, the current sample frequency is dis-
played in the Settings dialog.
• Check whether the Fireface 800 has been selected as recording device in the audio applica-
tion.
• Check whether the sample frequency set in the audio application (‘Recording properties’ or
similar) matches the input signal.
• Check that cables/devices have not been connected in a closed loop. If so, set the sys-
tems’s clock mode to ‘Master’.
Crackle during record or playback:
• Increase the number and size of buffers in the ‘Settings’ dialog or in the application.
• Try different cables (coaxial or optical) to rule out any defects here.
• Check that cables/devices have not been connected in a closed loop. If so, set the system’s
clock mode to ‘Master’.
• Increase the buffer size of the hard disk cache.
• Activate Busmaster mode for the hard disks.
• In case of a recently done BIOS update of the motherboard: Propably 'Load BIOS Defaults'
was loaded instead of 'Load Setup Defaults'. This sets the 'PCI Latency Timer' to 0 (default:
32).
Low Latency ASIO operation under Windows 2000/XP on single CPU systems:
• To use ASIO at lowest latencies under Windows 2000/XP even when only having one CPU,
the system performance has to be optimized for background tasks. Go to Control
Panel/System/Advanced/Performance Options. Change the default 'Applications' to 'Back-
ground tasks'. The lowest usable latency will drop from 23 ms to around 3 ms.