newest drivers: beware!

[RiveraMan]

Hi there,
Watch out when you update drivers. It started off a whole big deal of problems in my system that took me ages to get a hold of. I spent hours of reading and trying stuff out put the audiophile in every PCIslot i got (3), tweaked and tried out, messed in the bios, messed in windows, in sonar...
only to find out that it was definitely the newest driver that was the bad guy. I had tried this option way in the beginning but hadn't spent too much attention to the fact that it is not that easy to remove from my system. I had just tought that if I removed it with the installer it'd be gone right? no way, Even now there is still the M-audio icon in my windows control panel that I just can't remove. I had the card removed out of my computer, the keyboard and the triggerfinger uninstalled and removed, and still m-audio references stayed put in my system, is that normal? I should not think so ?

Anyway, with the use of tools like regcleaner, cclean, jvtools, manual editing in the register and the likes I got it all off of the pc (only the M-audio icon in the control panel, but it seems pretty harmless there).
then I installed the Delta_WDM_5.10.00.5052v3.exe drivers, put the card back in, attached my usb devices (keyboard an trigger finger) and, yess! everything went right back to normal. that is, i've done so many bios and windows tweaks that my system now seems to run better than ever.
Too bad about the nice interface that came with the later drivers, but it's the sound I'm after not pretty pics... the good old rule is still up, it seems: if it ain't broken don't fix it!
anyway thumbs up for a great soundcard (when the drivers work)
cheers

RiveraMan

Desktop/Laptop: desktop
Mobo/Chipset: ASUS P5RO-V Intel 945P Glan SATA Raid
Processor: Intel PIV 650
Speed: 3400 Mhz
RAM: 2 GB PC-400 memory Kingston
Graphics Card: Asus Extreme EAX300GE/TD 128 Mb
OS:Windows XP SP2
Device: Delta Audiophile 2496
Other M-Audio products used: Audiophile 2496 Triggerfinger MK 249c

[Peakdesign]

I'm in the same boat, had everything go wrong all the way to a blue screen with the 5069 driver, my projects would not load, lost functionality (the input and output trimmers gone, then only the output ones returned), and it took me ages to clean it out. I'm back to 5052V3 working fine with two shortcomings: it will not work with Prostools-M 7.4, and the ASIO locks up occasionally. It's pretty sad that we should have to be running a 3 year old driver because M-Audio has been unable to write a better one, and every version since then has been worse. Compulsive updaters, beware! Do not update to XP SP3 or you will be sentenced to the latest driver, and don't update to the latest driver because it has diminished functionality and a number of problems, including kernel level crash (Blue Screen). Sad way to promote Prostools-M.

[Burningfeetman]

I too can not run the latest M-Audio drivers in XP Sp3 for my Delta 44 & Delta 1010Lt. I get blue screens, and strange artefact distortions when recording.

I've rolled back to version 5057v3, and the random artefacting is no longer present, nor have I blue screened. These drivers work fine under Windows SP3 too.

M-Audio, can you PLEASE get us the new interface working with the old drivers. The new interface looks fantastic, but it's lack in functionality and stability renders it useless and a complete waste of time to the end user, your customers.

[changeng]

same here - hours wasted trying to get the puter up and running - finally had to do a system restore to the day before and everythign was fine again. oy vey.

[JA]

When updating the drivers, did you try physically removing the Delta card and reinstalling it after the new drivers were installed? I've installed multiple Delta cards on different systems with the latest driver (5069v3) and never once had a blue screen.

Did you try the Delta card in a different PCI slot?

[Peakdesign]

JA, did you try removing the toilet seat bolts the last time you went to the bathroom? Have you tried saying 3 Hail Marys and one Pater Noster before eating fries at McDonald's? Why would one specifically remove the card before installing the 5069v3 driver? Do you mind explaining, technically?

Try my (limited experience) recipe for a blue screen: reduce the ASIO buffer size to the minimum and play a dense mix in a Steinberg DAW, when it starts to choke keep pushing and watch for the BSOD. Hope it does it for ya, it would be good if you could reproduce it at will and fix it.

Maybe it was a coincidence and had nothing to do with the small buffer, but that' s when it happened for me. I don't really know if it's reproducible, one Blue Screen was enough for me and I went back to older drivers, none have happened since that.

[JA]

Thanks for the extra info. I just tested with Cubase 3.1.1 and a Delta 1010lt using the latest 5069v3 driver on SP3 with the buffer set to 64 samples. I was able to run 26 audio tracks with 80 VST plugins for several minutes; the CPU meter (VST Performance Window in Cubase) was hovering around 50-60%, occasionally spiking to 75%.

If you could provide some more information about your system, I can forward it to our Verifications department for further testing. Things like CPU, RAM, DAW & Version. Did you revert to SP2? Or are you using the previous drivers on SP3? Thanks.

Also, I was able to launch Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4 on SP3 with the 5069 drivers. I updated to 7.4cs4 and Pro Tools again launched successfully.

[shadeline]

Try pressing play / stop many times until the new driver chokes. Blue screen problems still unresolved.

[joemango]

Just wanted to throw in my hat....

I've been running a 32-track portable kit with 4 delta 1010lt cards (1 rev B and 3 rev. C) on a dual-core athlon 64 3800 with a NForce3 250 pro chipset. The unit has been running sonar 5.2 for a few years and has done a great job of recording multitrack in a variety of situations.

I got the sp3 upgrade bug this past march and installed the sp3 delta drivers as well, and had a couple of problems:

- The recording loses synch. the audio wows and changes speed randomly, and with no seeming reason.

- The record meters in Sonar show ghost signals in channels that are receiving no input, sometimes this will happen on all quiet meters, sometimes just on the even numbered tracks. (!) But there is no evidence of the ghost signal on any of the audio recordings. anywhere. zooming in on the .wav shows just what I would expect: bit noise at -90dB.

I reinstalled XP sp2 and the 5.10.00.5052 drivers and it works like a champ again. no ghosts, rock-solid timing. The machine only comes out of the road case to do on-site multitracks and an occasional quick mix so I should have left well enough alone. I'm going to take a snapshot of that c drive and keep it locked in a bunker.

[shadeline]

Joemango, Can you get 24 bit / 96 khz recording with the 5.10.00.5052 drivers?