MOTU PCI-424, User Manual, Page: 136 / 270

CHAPTER
107
13
Performance Tips & Troubleshooting
My host software doesn’t receive any audio from an
input; other inputs are working fine, but this one
input isn’t.
Open CueMix Console and make sure that the
input isn’t globally muted (the mute button at the
very top of the channel strip, below the message
center).
The computer freezes when it starts up
If the computer is unable to boot up, it may be a
conflict with the WDM Driver. As soon as the
computer boots up, Windows will try and initialize
the WDM Driver. If this fails, your computer will
hang. To determine if the WDM Driver is the
problem, boot up in Safe Mode or remove the
MOTU Audio software with the Add/Remove
Programs Control Panel then restart. Reinstall the
PCI-424 software and choose only to install the
PCI-424 ASIO driver, not the WDM Driver. Restart
again.
‘New hardware detected’ window
If you install your PCI-424 hardware before
running the PCI-424 Setup, Windows will prompt
you that new hardware has been detected. Cancel
this, and run the PCI-424 Setup application, rather
than allowing Windows to locate the drivers.
The PCI-424 system and Matrox Millennium II
video card
The Matrox Millennium II video card can conflict
with the PCI-424 card in PC systems. A PCI
bandwidth error message in the Cuemix Console
might be an indication of this problem. To correct
this conflict you will need to adjust a couple of the
settings for the Matrox card. You will do this from
the Display Properties Control Panel. A shortcut to
this Control Panel is to Right-Click on the Desktop,
and select Properties from the menu that appears.
Once in the Display Properties Control Panel,
select the settings tab. Above the Color Palette
selection you should see a button labeled “Power
Desk”. Click this button, and it should bring you to
the Performance Tab of the Power Desk. If not,
select the Performance Tab. Turn off the “Use Bus
Mastering” and “Use PCI Bus Retries” options. In
order for these changes to take effect, you will need
to hit the Apply button, and click OK to close the
Power Desk application, and then click OK on the
Display Properties Control Panel. When you click
OK on the Display Properties Control Panel, you
will be prompted to Restart the PC.
Bandwidth-hungry PCI video cards in general
Very few video cards cause a major conflict with
the PCI-424 card. It is possible for a video card that
uses a large amount of bandwidth to cause artifacts
in your audio. To determine if your video card is
causing a problem, set the monitor resolution as
low as possible. To do this, right click on the
desktop and choose properties. Choose the
Settings Tab and pick a resolution of 256 or 16
colors. Turn hardware acceleration off by locating
the preferences tab under the advanced button.
Restart your computer for these changes to take
effect. Now launch MOTU PCI Audio Console or
launch your host software and see if the artifacts
persist.
Audio in Cakewalk speeds up or slows down
This could be caused by having incorrect SMPTE/
MTC Sync settings when you record audio into
Cakewalk. These settings are located at the bottom
of the Advanced Tab in the Audio Options dialog
box, accessed from Cakewalk’s Tools menu. Make
sure that you have the SMPTE/MTC Sync set to
“Trigger and Freewheel” before recording audio
while slaved to external time code.