Windows can't find my Echo Audiofire 12s

My two Echo Audiofire 12 sound cards have “disappeared”; they were fine for three years, but suddenly Windows 10 can no longer find them. However, it's telling me that my Multimedia Audio Controller doesn't have a driver. My question is: Does Windows classify a firewire sound card as a Multimedia Audio Controller? I don't want to alter something that isn't really the cause of the problem.

Windows has meanwhile altered sound output to go to the speakers in my Benq monitor, and that is working alright, but of course very quiet as the speakers are so small.

I doubt that either of the Audiofire devices is at fault – I had them linked to give 24 outputs, but I've tried connecting to each individually, and in neither case does Windows see them. I've installed the most recent driver I could find on the Echo website. I've also right-clicked in Device Manager, and chosen "Scan for hardware changes", but no luck.

I've tried all the other usual suspects - rebooted with an Audiofire switched on, then rebooted with it switched off and subsequently turned it on - nothing helps

It could be the firewire card in the computer, but I don't want to go to all the trouble of replacing that if the problem is elsewhere - and easier! Thanks

What does the 'Device Manager' have to say about your firewire card. Is it installed and working properly according to Windows?

This is posted on Echo's website:

"DUE TO OUR PRO AUDIO PRODUCTS BEING DISCONTINUED, WE DO NOT CURRENTLY SUPPORT WINDOWS 10, AND HAVE NO PLANS TO UPDATE OUR DRIVERS. IF YOU ARE USING WINDOWS 10, USE THE LATEST DRIVER VERSION LISTED FOR YOUR HARDWARE, BUT RESULTS MAY VARY."

You might want to clone your disk and restore to a copy of the OS prior to any updates and then see if your Audiofire is recognized. If it is then it may be that a Windows update dorked your driver in which case you may be out of luck.

johnh: the Device Manager has a menu item “IEEE 1394 host controllers” - I believe 1394 is a Firewire protocol? Clicking on that reveals “VIA 1394 OCHI Compliant Host Controller”. Right clicking on that and going to Properties brings up a box with six tabs. The first tab, “General”, says “This device is working properly”. The Driver tab gives the driver date as 6/21/2006.

It just might be the connecting cable between the computer's system unit and the Audiofire – a long cable as I prefer to have the system unit in the next room to get rid of the noise. However that cable is never moved, so I doubt that it's the culprit.

I found some interesting information here:

https://www.studio1productions.com/Arti ... wire-1.htm

where it is stated: “NOTE: We have noticed that when Microsoft has issued certain updates, it can cause Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 to switch back to use the original 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller driver. If you notice the FireWire device is transferring slowly or not working, then just repeat the above steps and reinstall the Legacy driver”.

However I've already installed the most recent driver available on Echo's website. And it's puzzling that this occurred overnight, with the computer turned on (I never turn it off). I've just looked at my update history, and the last update was applied on 5/24/2017 – a few days before the problem appeared.

I've just realised an inconsistency in my previous post: what I updated was the Audiofire driver. I've not done anything about the driver for the VIA firewire card, so maybe Windows updated it and I need to go back to the “legacy” driver?

Yes, reinstall the legacy driver and your problems are gone.

This is a known bug for FireWire in Windows, see

http://www.studio1productions.com/Artic ... wire-1.htm


Have fun,
Jack

This is getting really complicated. If I let Windows search for a driver, it tells me I already have the best one installed.

If I ask to choose one from a list, two appear and neither works.

In any case Windows has told me I've configured it not to install driver updates, though I can't remember where on my computer I came across that information.

One site says that what I need is 1394bus.sys , but getting it without jumping through a lot of hoops isn't easy. I've searched the whole of this computer for 1394bus.sys and it seems I don't have it.

This is giving me a headache – I think I'll have to take a break from it for a couple of days then have another go. Thanks to all who are trying to help.

Please read the complete article in the link I provided above.

It contains step-by-step instructions for the several windows versions.

Jack

I will re-read that article when my brain clears, just in case I missed anything; but if you look back through the thread you'll see that I linked to it myself earlier. When you also posted the link I felt it would be impolite to mention that I was already aware of it – it's kind of you to help.

I'm trained as a musician – scientific things (like computers) are a hobby; there's a limit to the amount of frustration I can take when computers go wrong. Fortunately I have sources of help beyond this forum – one of my closest friends was an I T lecturer at university level, and if he runs out of ideas he has contacts from his teaching days who are extremely knowledgeable; so I'm sure we'll sort this out eventually.

In any case I have a completely separate Hauptwerk system running on a second computer, but the Liquidsonics reverb is on this one; and having got used to the tremendous improvement it makes to organ sound I really miss it! For the moment I'm using the internal soundcard on this computer – the sound is quite reasonable, but the latency's horrendous. My next step will be to fix up a spare ESI Gigaport which operates via USB. That should keep me going until I get this computer sorted.

Thanks again for doing your best to help.