Presonus Firestudio Project won't sync

[ChadLee32]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Did you ever get this one figured out?

I've had a few hangups with my Firestudio from time to time, and they have almost entirely been caused by weirdness in my PCI slot. Moving to a different slot has fixed it. On a laptop that isn't possible, obviously.


The hard drive isn't a factor in the initial syncing. It will effect performance, but the Firestudio should at least sync up.

I have also had luck trying different ports in the Firestudio and different individual Firewire ports on the firewire card.

Also, it's easy to get in a hurry when you switch drivers and not follow the specific instructions. For example, the new Universal Control drivers will show up 3 different "install me" windows for the drivers. If you didn't get that, something is wrong (at least that's for XP.)

Give us an update.

Brandon

Hey, everyone. Sorry that it has taken me a while to post again. First, I did an RMA on the firewire card. When I received the new one, it did the same thing. So we sent the laptop back to Toshiba. The laptop is new so it's still under warranty. While the laptop was gone, I tried the firewire card on a Dell Inspiron and a Macbook. The firewire card worked but I only at the synchronization level (both laptops). I never put it under the stress of recording since I couldn't keep the other two laptops for a while.

When we received the Toshiba, the paper work stated that the motherboard had been replaced. The paper work also claimed that the laptop wouldn't boot until the OS was reinstalled (oh, rly?). I tested this claim, fired it up without an OS reinstall and the laptop booted fine, bringing me to the desktop with a Toshiba BIOS updater shortcut that wasn't there before; thus, it appears to me that they just simply updated the BIOS and didn't replace the motherboard. Or maybe they did replace the motherboard and updated the BIOS to the latest and greatest version. Idk.

Since I was still a bit confused, I did a reformat and updated Vitsa to SP 2 and downloaded the latest Presonus drivers: 3.4.0.5254. Once I started using the firewire card, it was doing the exact same thing.

Here's what I think:

The combination of the Toshiba A305 S6905, Presonus's recommended Texas Instruments Firewire 400 card by StarTech and the Presonus Firestudio project are simply incompatible. The behavior is exactly the same in windows XP SP2 as it is in Vista with no service pack, SP1 and SP2. Since the behavior is exactly the same, it has to be that we have found the perfect combination of hardware that simply doesn't work. How wonderful.

I do realize that an external hdd does not have an effect on the synchronization of the device, but I had to explore every possibility, no matter how illogical. Also, I've tried both ports on the firewire card as well as on the Firestudio.

Much thanks, Brandon, for the post and the help. Also, I thank everyone here at recording review for the help. Again, I apologize for the delayed response b/c we just got the Toshiba back two days ago, and I've been working/battling with it

Any other ideas are very welcome, and I apologize in advance if you post an idea that I've already tried and have failed to mention.

Thanks again, everyone.

Chad

[teleforman]

As you may have seen the thread i posted a few minutes ago i too have had nothing but problems with this firestudio project. i have a brand new fast Dell quad core with xp and to me there is no reason i should be having these problems. I have spent 24 hours trying to figure this out and to me that is 24 precious hours away from my instruments. To date the tech at Presonus has tried to help but is not really getting me where i need to be. I'm thinking of bagging this recording thing altogether as a waste of time.

[Electriclight]

Originally Posted by teleforman

I'm thinking of bagging this recording thing altogether as a waste of time.

Probably a good idea.

If you are hoping for plug and play, first time everytime, totally transparent computing for audio work- we are not there yet..Check back in about 15 years.

Some of us have found that it's worth the pain. I killed two solid nights recently trying to get a Yamaha USB midi controller to be recognized by my computer. Just about ready to give up and but when it finally got going it was like the parting of the Red Sea. Controlling synths with knobs! Actual buttons that made Cubase do stuff! Ultimate Nirvana!

[teleforman]

yes maybe i was expecting a little heartburn but nothing like this. This is worse than 5 + years ago when i got my first Maudio Delta 410 card and Cubase VST. I spent 6 hours on the phone with dell tech support last night and all i got for my trouble was losing a months worth of data and completely resetting (including the ongoing reloading of apps) my puter only to find the Presonus still is not recognized. My Firewire card is a SIIG Unibrain 800 DV 3 port firewire card. Sorry Presonus but your box is going back.

Should i hope for any different results with another brand? say digidesign?

[ChadLee32]

Originally Posted by Electriclight

If you are hoping for plug and play, first time everytime, totally transparent computing for audio work- we are not there yet..Check back in about 15 years.

I couldn't agree more, electriclight. It does seem that this technology still doesn't have the reliability where I could recommend presonus and/or any other firewire interface with confidence. I was just over at musiciansfriend.com and read a small post about someone who was having all kinds of trouble syncing a MOTU firewire interface with his Mac Pro.

[ChadLee32]

Originally Posted by teleforman

Should i hope for any different results with another brand? say digidesign?

This is something I would like answered as well. I do know that if you google "presonus won't sync", you'll receive many hits. I've read where some say that MOTU is a much better interface, but as I mentioned in my previous post, I read where on gentleman with a Mac Pro was having all kinds of trouble with his (musicinsfriend.com review).

To release a $400 interface that is very "finicky" seems silly. You'd think that since you've paid $400+ dollars that you wouldn't have to worry with these issues, that presonus would have released a solid product.

As an update, I have tried the firestudio project with a Macbook (not the pro) running Tiger. I finally had the chance to do some testing with it. Guess what? Same issues. Awesome.

[teleforman]

Chadlee,
Thanks for the reply. I was confused by your use of the word Awesome at the end. Did you mean to say aweful? To me "awesome" implies it worked but your statement implied you "had the same issues" and that it didn't work. Can you clarify for me?

I agree that the issues were stupid and it should have worked as advertised. I was disappointed I couldn't get it straightened out by Presonus but I felt they tried. Just the same I took it back. Guitar Center took it back no questions. (Thanks GC for not making a scene.) I don't have time for these sorts of issues. I probably spent 40 hrs trying to get it to work including complete computer reset and i still haven't completely reinstalled all the other software i had. The whole experience just sucked.

I would like to still try the home recording road. Does anyone know of an interface that works with FIrewire that is painless? I liked the 10 inputs on the project but i will settle for less if there is something out there by another manufacturer that works and includes recording software.

Thanks again to all.

[ChadLee32]

Originally Posted by teleforman

Chadlee,
Thanks for the reply. I was confused by your use of the word Awesome at the end. Did you mean to say aweful? To me "awesome" implies it worked but your statement implied you "had the same issues" and that it didn't work. Can you clarify for me?.

Sorry, teleforman, it was sarcasm. I thought that the sarcastic smiley would clarify that. Next time I won't rely to those smilies. Again, I apologize for the confusion.

Anyway, I'm very glad that you had no issues with guitar center. As far as another firewire interface, I'm not really that sure. My cousin went to MTSU for recording and production. I asked him what the school used as far as firewire interface, and he said digidesign. Also, I do know that Steinberg makes a firewire interface as well. However, no matter how solid other firewire interfaces may be, this experience with presonus has made me skiddish about purchasing another one.

As far as I know, your other three options are MOTU, digidesign and steinberg.