using multiple delta 410s

[divinesun7]

in contrast to the subject posted, im am not able to successfully (2) delta 410s. M Audio claims that four cards can be synced in one system via the pci slot. this is not that case at all. ive tried everything to get these two cards to run correctly, and everyting has failed . I have an old athlon 750 mhz machine with 256mbs of ram that will run one delta 410, delta 66, or audiophile 2496 flawlessly. but add another card, and problems spark up. im about to buy another system pretty soon and am really wondering if a brand new set up will repair anything.. if there is anyone out there running multiple delta unit, let me know, and tell me what im doing wrong.....

[TeeCee]

Did you contact M-Audio to see if they could help you? That seems like a logical first step to me. If they can't get two of their products working then we have little chance of helping you. What problems spark up and what operating system are you using?

[divinesun7]

im using windows 2000 pro. i already contacted maudio and i have yet to get word back from them. I actually emailed them some time last year about a topic, i still havent received feedback from the last issue. The audio cards work together without problem for about 5-7 min (depending on track count) but eventually loud clicks and pops are heard. I tried switching pci slot but this did not help. what i did notice was that which ever card was first on the pci chain, was the card who audio got distorted. The sync seemed to be fine, every thing played on time. the problems is that 8 of the 16 channel coming though were all messed up sounding. Bussing 16 out to a 16ch mixer.

[TeeCee]

I am not doing what you are doing so I can't guarantee any results. I can say that I would be hammering M-Audio right now for support or Sweetwater if you bought your stuff from them.

Now, several hardware and software vendors have been pushing Standard PC mode for Windows 2000 rather than the default ACPI mode. There are instructions on how to switch, but there is also a statement from Microsoft I believe that this does not fully switch modes. You would need to re-install Windows 2000 and follow the proper procedure to get it in Statndard PC mode. No fun.

Next, the exact slots each card is in may be very important. You may need to uninstall other peripherals to get the cards straight. For instance, on a typical mother board, the first PCI slot shares an IRQ with the AGP slot. An onboard RAID controller will usually use another IRQ that the second or third PCI slot uses. Any slots after the 4th slot usually loop backto use the IRQs starting at slot 1.

Also, what software are you using and have you contacted the manufacturer? If it takes 5-7 minutes to start having issues, you may be dealing with a memory leak from the software or a bad plug-in.

Finally, have you performed any OS tweaks to get Win2000 running as good as it can for audio? Sweetwater has some listed somewhere on this site, not in the forum.

[Justin]

2 possibilities jump to mind.

1. After 5 to 7 minutes you're running out of available ram and your system starts using a disk cache which will be considerably slower and may be causing the jitter.

or

2. It's a clock sync issue, since those cards don't have word clock outputs, they use a proprietary system that Maudio designed to sync the two across the PCI bus, in your system this apparently isn't working. They're actually probably slightly out of sync the whole time, but it doesn't become noticable for the first few minutes.

Did you get the cards here at Sweetwater, if so please give your Sales Engineer or myself a call and we can help you get connected to our Tech Support team.
You can reach me at extention 1323 and I can help coordinate things with your Sales Engineer.