Presonus Firepod (FP10) won't work completely in w7 pro

deeaa · 07 Nov 2009

Hey,

I have a Presonus Firepod and latest 64-compatible drivers for it...and it works just fine in recording/audio programs, ASIO etc. and shows up in Windows just fine...

BUT windows won't play any audio through it other than via ASIO in the said programs. No system sounds, game sounds, nothing.

All the soundcard inputs and such show in Windows sound ctrl panel fine, look OK, no problems, BUT when I try to press 'test' or anything, it just reports that this hardware is being used by another application and please turn off the process first. It doesn't matter if it's set to default audio device or if there are other audio devices present.

Once I did all of a sudden manage to get it to sound, and it played via mediaplayer etc. just fine...but upon next boot, nothing. Again, used by another application.

Right now I've worked around the problem by using the internal Realtek card for windows/games sounds and just use headphones with them, but certainly it'd be easier to be able to use the presonus for also windows sounds, not only on audio programs, like it used to be in Xp.

torrentg · 07 Nov 2009

It has S/PDIF ins and outs along with multiple mix buses, so do this:

Connect a cable straight from S/PDIF out to S/PDIF in.

Use S/PDIF as default device under Windows. Point all software to output to S/PDIF.

Make S/PDIF in a mix, one of the inputs toward your "normal" outputs.

Problem solved.

PS - check my sound card specs.

deeaa · 08 Nov 2009

Hello, thanks for the reply!

However, I'm not sure how to do that...I don't see SPdif in the windows sound devices list at all. It shows six instances of 'Speakers: PreSonus FirePod WDM Audio, Ready' on the playback side and 5(!) instances of LIne In PreSonus FirePod WDm Audio, Ready, but there's no info which is which and if I try to test them, it says:

'The device is being used...'

In Devicemanager it shows as PreSonus 11.9.2007 driver version 2.46.0.0, that's it.

So the problem is I can't tell between the card inputs and outputs in windows which is which and it won't let me test which is which, or select SPDIF...no sound is coming from any output as far as I can tell, except once it for some reason worked for one boot and then the audio was gone again. It was the fourth 'speaker' that played sound then.

Funny, because it works in Cubase etc. with no problems.

torrentg · 08 Nov 2009

Look for some setting like this in your interface software (Wave RT) and enable if you find it. It's another method to acheive Windows' sounds over normal output:

deeaa · 08 Nov 2009

Hello,

No luck...this is all I have:

deeaa · 08 Nov 2009

And this is how windows shows it, no spdif, nothing:

deeaa · 08 Nov 2009

...and this is what it says if I try to do anything to the soundcard settings in windows:

torrentg · 08 Nov 2009

Ya that's a normal error. Try closing all media players or anything to do with sound. Check task manager for any hanging.

As far as the outputs go - right click on one and choose to show disconnected devices and/or show disabled devices.

deeaa · 08 Nov 2009

torrentg said:

Ya that's a normal error. Try closing all media players or anything to do with sound. Check task manager for any hanging.

As far as the outputs go - right click on one and choose to show disconnected devices and/or show disabled devices.

There shouldn't be anything concerning sound going on. No running apps or hangs either...just did a clean windows install yesterday so it's pretty empty still.

I have show disabled and unused devices ticked, but that's all it shows anyway. Six counts of firepod audio devices ready, no spdif, nothing else, but 'test' and such just give 'used by another device' and marking any of them as default sound devices causes all mediaplayers to report something like 'error playing' or whatever.

Still works in Cubase etc. I guess I just must accept that Presonus cards don't work in 64bit win7.

brandonjp · 30 Nov 2009

deeaa said:

I have show disabled and unused devices ticked, but that's all it shows anyway. Six counts of firepod audio devices ready, no spdif, nothing else, but 'test' and such just give 'used by another device' and marking any of them as default sound devices causes all mediaplayers to report something like 'error playing' or whatever.

Still works in Cubase etc. I guess I just must accept that Presonus cards don't work in 64bit win7.

@deeaa - There is HOPE!! I went through the same thing the last few weeks. Ableton Live and Sony Vegas played audio fine, but my Windows system audio just WOULD NOT work...THEN....

Tonight I just stumbled across the solution...thanks to AndyPanda on the PreSonus Forums:

Windows audio will only work if the bit rate is 48K - so if your DAW uses a different bit rate, you'll have to use the Presonus Control to set it back to 48 after you quit your DAW - otherwise Windows will complain that the device is in use by another app.

PreSonus Forums - View Single Post - Windows 7 Firepod driver problems

So - Just open up the Firepod / FP10 Control Panel and select a Sample Rate of 48.0 kHz. You don't even have to unplug or restart or anything. Within seconds everything worked for me.

Good luck!
--bp