Problems with Edirol FA-101 and IBM X31 Laptop

[hoghansson]

Dear experts,

I have anoying problem with my FA-101 FireWire box and IBM X31 Laptop PC. First 15-30 minutes everything works smoothly but after awhile pops, clicks and silent periods start occure. As the time goes on the situation gets worse, ending up to dead audio interface = no sound in nor out. Complete boot for the IBM is only medicine I have figured out so far.

My setup is following:

- Windows XP Professional SP2 + latest updates
- Cubase SL 3.0
- IBM X31 Laptop, integrated 4-PIN IEEE1394 IF
- Edirol FA-101, 6-PIN IEEE1394 connector
- E.g. one mic connected to Edirols CH n:o 1 (as simple connection as possible)

I have tried everything(?) to avoid this problem such:

- Updated all available drivers including FA-101, IBM BIOS etc.
- Adjusted processor scheduling to prior background services
- Different adjustments for VST audiobay
- Different adjustment for buffer size etc.
- Bigger virtual memory adjustement (thou, VST performance shows no critical marks)
- Tried out different sample rates and record formats (16/24 bit)

Nothing seems to work!

Do you have any advises or have someone suffered same kind of problems?

My next move is to purchase PCMCIA-to-Firewire card, cross my fingers and hope that it will solve my problem...

All suggestion, hints and tips are very welcome.

- Hog -