FW 1884 Won't Connect

[shojin]

I know, I know, ANOTHER thread on connecting the FW-1884 to a computer.. but I promise, I have looked at everything and I am just completely at a loss.

Situation: I had the FW working on my windows 10 computer absolutely fine without no issues in my home studio for about 3 years now (even going through a Windows 7 install.) Then I moved... and suddenly it won't connect. The closest I can get is a state where the computer sees it, but won't initialize anything - Soft LCD shows it connected, and the computer acts like it sees the WDM drivers. However, playing back anything fails immediately, and opening the FW-1884 panel causes it to crash if I attempt to change any of the settings.

This is usually accompanied by the firewire light turning on for a second or so and then going out (never sending a disconnected signal maybe?) More often than not though, it simply won't connect.

Things I have tried:

• Turning on the FW-1884 before everything else
• Turning on the FW-1884 after everything else
• Turning on the FW after Soft LCD is on
• Swapping & Hot swapping firewire ports
• Swapping PCI ports for my firewire card
• Swapping firewire cards
• Swapping firewire cables
• Letting the FW 'warm up' for a whole day
• Testing voltage from the wall (117v)

Computer/Hardware Specs:

• Windows 10 PC
• TI Chipset PCI-E firewire card
• FW-1884 serial #0130171

Does anyone have any ideas here...?

 

[Steve Fogal]

Nope, you've tried everything, you're totally screwed... Just kidding.

Have you selected the legacy OHCI firewire driver? Go to Device Manager to check.

Are you using a 6 pin firewire cable on each end, or a 4 pin on one end?

Have you tried to reinitialize your FW-1884 to factory default?

I had some real troubles connecting & getting my firewire LED to stay on with my Tascam FW-1884 or FW-1082 to a couple of my PC's (Dell laptop with Vista needing 4 pin firewire adaptor, and an XP self built desktop with six pin cable). They work great with my Lenovo ThinkStation D-20, Win 7 64 bit (has TI chip on the board).

If you have a PC with Win 7, using the proper Win 7 Tascam driver, I'd try to test it, and make it work on that 1st.

 

[Steve Fogal]

Also, one of the best things I've done to get my Tascam working properly is set it for full two-way midi communication. Since I've done this, I've been trouble free longer than I ever have been. I talked about it my recent thread "best way to connect".
This is an image I found on the net, not my actual screenshot, but it shows the midi boxes selected within Cubase (what I use). I've not had my firewire LED not come and stay on since.

https://www.humatic.de/htools/touchdaw/man/cubase_setup1.gif

I've also switched to using Mackie Mode with my Tascam & Cubase. I had been using the Tascam in it's own native mode, and selected the nearest in Cubase, which was a different Tascam controller. It worked but have very limited functionality over Mackie Mode.

 

[shojin]

I am indeed using the Legacy OHCI firewire driver, and also using 6 pin firewire cables on both ends.

As far as getting a windows 7 computer I'm a bit out of luck there without some investment... I just don't have a computer with that OS handy.

I've had two way midi connectivity and had it in Mackie universal mode - it seemed to still be on those same settings, but there's no real way for me to make any changes on that dialogue screen since it freezes if I try to change anything (buffer, control surface mode, bitrate...)

 

[DeeringAmps]

Windows 10, right? Home or Pro?
Windows update since you had it working?
You say you "moved" and have "hot swapped" the firewire cable.
It doesn't sound like you connected the cable "upsidedown", but its easy to do!
"Hot swapping" is not a good idea, IMHO.
Uninstall and re-install the drivers; report back.

Tom

 

[shojin]

Windows 10 Home.
It for certain did not update when I turned the computer back on after the move - it already wasn't working when that happened. I'm sure it's updated since then as well.
The cable definitely isn't upside down - I find it hard because of the shape of a Firewire 400 cable. I know that hot swapping isn't great, but it wasn't the first step in all of this - also the serial number was high enough that it "shouldn't" have issues with that.
Already installed/reinstalled drivers, as well as the legacy Firewire drivers for Windows. I still have the strange half connected issue where soft LCD sees it connected, and believes it still is despite obviously not transmitting data back and forth.

 

[Jed Dexter]

Worth checking the driver running in Compatibility mode (windows 7) may help (as administrator).

 

[DeeringAmps]

On my site there is a PDF "Clean Windows un-install".
Don't know how/if this works in Win 10; I'm not "fluent" in Win 10 yet.
I did a new Win 10 install this weekend, using my tutorial, and as Jed points out,
you have to install in "Window 7 compatibility" mode.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
As to putting the cable in upsidedown;
"I find it hard because of the shape of a Firewire 400 cable"
The port on the FW-1884 is "weak" in that regard and will "spread" and allow the
cable in upsidedown.
It a common problem and is why I stock the U9 replacement chips.
But that is not what you have going on here.

 

[PereR]

During the years I collected all the software installers and a lot of documents of the FW-1884. I made those available for download down below for everybody who needs this...
http://www.perevert.com/downloads/FW-1884_Docs&Installers.zip