DSP B2 Failing. UPDATED THREAD, wasnt clock issue. Looking for spares

[Rodrigo]

hello guys, i know... me again. Another problem ahead:
I've been suffering some weird clippings/artifacts with my sx1, they're like digital glitches that came from nowhere and jumps directly to the "master channel". I've reinstalled the Os and now the glitches are less frequent but they're still there. The clock configurations in the tascam are pretty limited so idk what else can i do. I love this machine so much and i recently discovered the parallel track sends to multiple channels and got me SO excited.

Ps: Even with the "Pause" on, the glitches may appear sometimes, they sound louder through the Stereo outputs than the CUE. After the reinstalling, the glitches got quieter and only appear to be sounding in the right side of the master. Im afraid those fast trascients could break my speakers/headphones

 

[Rodrigo]

Update: i think i found the root of the problem: the fx section. As soon as i start loading fx, the glitches start appearing. With heavier fx, they are more often... i need some help, i love the reverbs on this unit and not being able to use any fx makes this machine quite useless for mixing . This is by far my best equipment in the studio and i love it so much, please someone help me

 

[cmaffia]

I had this issue with my first DM3200. Turned out it was defective. The FX chips themselves went bad and at the time the unit was only a year old so Tascam honored the warranty and sent me a new one. If this is the same cause for your problem I'm not sure what you can do as they don't repair these anymore. It really does sound like the same problem I had. Random pops and clicks even when the unit isn't even playing tracks.

 

[Rodrigo]

Are those chips in the dsp card? Maybe someone selling the unit as spares could provide me one

 

[Rodrigo]

Update: Following the troubleshoot it seems that the B2 DSP is failing or not working correctly. The light that shows the correct working of the chip (it should keep turned on constantly, blinks). So i'm searching for a DSP card if anyone is selling some spares. Cheers

 

[Rodrigo]

Is Anyone familiar with this problem?

 

[Dice]

A bad RAM card.

 

[RedBus]

Could be a bad hard drive - access taking too long, causing the error.

 

[Rodrigo]

A bad RAM card.

Did you have the same problem before? I'll be looking the RAM, but i'm not really that sure about how to test them. Any ideas?

 

[Dice]

Take one RAM card out, boot up and see if the error is there. If it is, remove that one and replace it with the other and try the machine again.

Some years ago I had random rattlesnake sounds occurring across random tracks and it was a RAM card that went bad in that instance.

 

[Rodrigo]

Did you replace them? What kind of ram did you use? 133, 166 or 400 mhz? Cheers fella!

 

[Dice]

I replaced the one that was bad with a similar card, but don't remember the specs. If you're troubleshooting as described above, you'll be pulling the RAM and see the type and specs.

 

[Rodrigo]

I pulled them off, they are ddr1 256mb and 133mhz. Thats why i was wondering if faster ram would help the sx1 run faster. Due a lot of compatibility problems of older ram, it could work or doesn’t work at all, thats wgy i asked you

 

[Dice]

If I remember the conversation from people more knowledgeable than I correctly, the only things the Pentium II runs is the graphic and user interface. The audio I/O and processing and are handled by dedicated DSP cards. So if both RAM cards are working correctly (and everything else obviously) the SX-1 will be completely stabile and punch in and out almost like a tape machine.

i.e. There's no benefit to more RAM.

 

[Rodrigo]

Yes, I’ve read that adding ram might be a problem with the OS, causing problems with the autosaving. My concern is about RAM Clock, not mb.