Clicks and pops in two adat ports...

[alsound2]

Hi
I am getting serious problems with 2 ADAT ports on two different Pulsar2 cards....
Really frustrating, random clicks and pops. I checked other similar posts on the forum and I saw that somebody solved just cleaning the adat port with air or alcohol...I tried, but nothing..
I use two daws: one with mac and motu cards (for recording) and one (win xp) with 3 Pulsar2 cards and Syncplate for mixing and mastering (Sfp 4.0). My masterclock is a Lucid GenX192. The clock signal is transmitted via BNC. I've just changed my pc getting a HP Server Dual Xeon 2 x 2.8 ghz. I actually use an agp graphics card.
Could it be that both adat ports are gone? Both? It sounds strange to me...
If yes, have I to check weld joints? With this motherboard I'm forced to share one of the irqs between one of the Pulsar2 cards and the usb or graphics card...may it cause the problem?
I don't think so, because it would affect all adat ports, isn't it?
I've already checked adat cables and cleaned the ports...
I'm stuck with the work at the studio...please help..
Thank you in advance
Stef

[garyb]

you transmit clock via bnc? do you have a syncplate?

[Fluxpod]

Take off the i/o plate and put it back on.Carefull with the plastic screws.The contacts get choppy over time.

[dante]

Then also check if the cracks and popples are coming on odd or even numbered channels.

[alsound2]

you transmit clock via bnc? do you have a syncplate?

Thanks garyb. Yes, I've got it, three Pulsar2 cards + Syncplate, as I wrote in my post. Any idea? Thanks for your reply

[alsound2]

Take off the i/o plate and put it back on.Carefull with the plastic screws.The contacts get choppy over time.

Thank you Fluxpod, I will try it. Do I need to clean it? Or maybe only take off and put it back? Thanks again

[alsound2]

Then also check if the cracks and popples are coming on odd or even numbered channels.

Hi Dante, thanks. The clicks and pops come from each channel of the adat port (from 1 to . They begin as single click then step by step they become more frequent until they crackle continuosly....thank you

[garyb]

each device has it's own clock signal, no serial connections?

just lifting and reassembling the i/o plate should fix any connection issues. double check all of your sync settings...

disable the shared usb irq.

[alsound2]

each device has it's own clock signal, no serial connections?

just lifting and reassembling the i/o plate should fix any connection issues. double check all of your sync settings...

disable the shared usb irq.

Each device has its own clock signal. No serial connection. The digital devices are:
Presonus Digimax LT (2 of them) bnc
Motu 2408mk3 (2 of them) bnc
Motu 828mk2 bnc
Yamaha O1v (via s/pdif)
Creamware SyncPlate bnc
Lexicon MPX550 (no sync at all...could it be? As I write, a doubt comes to life..maybe turning it off??? I didn't think about it 'til now! I never tried to turn it off)

[alsound2]

each device has it's own clock signal, no serial connections?

just lifting and reassembling the i/o plate should fix any connection issues. double check all of your sync settings...

disable the shared usb irq.

Each device has its own clock signal. No serial connection. The digital devices are:
Presonus Digimax LT (2 of them) bnc
Motu 2408mk3 (2 of them) bnc
Motu 828mk2 bnc
Yamaha O1v (via s/pdif)
Creamware SyncPlate bnc
Lexicon MPX550 (no sync at all...could it be? As I write, a doubt comes to life..maybe turning it off??? I didn't think about it 'til now! I never tried to turn it off)

The Lexicon is connected to Pulsar2 via spdif...

[garyb]

Pulsar1 or 2?
if it's a Pulsar1 it cannot make an sp/dif loop...

[alsound2]

Pulsar1 or 2?
if it's a Pulsar1 it cannot make an sp/dif loop...

Pulsar 2. I've got three Pulsar 2 cards. The problem is in two adat ports in two different cards...

[garyb]

ok, it's off topic, but i've been fooled about where noise was coming from before. yes, it's clutching at straws...

i'm just making sure that you are actually slaving everything to bnc(except the verb which is slaved to Scope via sp/dif). there's no way that anything connected to adat is slaved to anything else, correct?

and yoiu've broken the system down to one device that works correctly on one set of ports and then moved that device and it's cables to another set of ports and the working thing stops working correctly, right?

the thing that i've seen nake trouble is "high-end" toslink cables and connectors. even standard connectors can hang on the computer's case because the slots and the card don't quite line up and there's very little room for connectors, as i'm sure you know...

this stuff is like most digital hardware, it works or it doesn't. it's possible that the adat ports could be faulty, but it's not that likely. i have seen optical ports fail in gear in general, but it's pretty rare. i've seen a lot more bad cables...

[alsound2]

ok, it's off topic, but i've been fooled about where noise was coming from before. yes, it's clutching at straws...

i'm just making sure that you are actually slaving everything to bnc(except the verb which is slaved to Scope via sp/dif). there's no way that anything connected to adat is slaved to anything else, correct?

and yoiu've broken the system down to one device that works correctly on one set of ports and then moved that device and it's cables to another set of ports and the working thing stops working correctly, right?

the thing that i've seen nake trouble is "high-end" toslink cables and connectors. even standard connectors can hang on the computer's case because the slots and the card don't quite line up and there's very little room for connectors, as i'm sure you know...

this stuff is like most digital hardware, it works or it doesn't. it's possible that the adat ports could be faulty, but it's not that likely. i have seen optical ports fail in gear in general, but it's pretty rare. i've seen a lot more bad cables...

I will try with brand new cables...could you suggest a brand in particular? Thx
Today I was at the studio just for a little time...but I tried turning off the Lexicon...nothing...
Then I tried to move the cable assembly while the playback was filling my ears with sweet and lovely clicks and pops and....something changed until they totally disappeared...then sometimes a lonely click (or pop appeared again, but not continuosly as before...So, I turned off everything and I took off each cable assembly (3, related at the 3 Pulsar2 cards) from its connection and mounted them on again. Unfortunately i had to go, so I'll wait until tomorrow to know if something really changed...
I have to say that the cable assemblies (is it the right word?) were not firmly attached to the plate...now they do, but... Could it affect the adat ports somehow?? Mumble mumble...
Anyway, tomorrow I'll know it.
Only one thing...you suggested to take off the plate and re-mount it, right? But, do you mean "from the pci card"? What's precisely the I/O plate? Is it the small card attached to biggest one? Sorry for my misunderstanding but english is not my first language...
Thank you again Garyb (and to the others) for your precious help!
Stef

[alsound2]

ok, it's off topic, but i've been fooled about where noise was coming from before. yes, it's clutching at straws...

i'm just making sure that you are actually slaving everything to bnc(except the verb which is slaved to Scope via sp/dif). there's no way that anything connected to adat is slaved to anything else, correct?

and yoiu've broken the system down to one device that works correctly on one set of ports and then moved that device and it's cables to another set of ports and the working thing stops working correctly, right?

the thing that i've seen nake trouble is "high-end" toslink cables and connectors. even standard connectors can hang on the computer's case because the slots and the card don't quite line up and there's very little room for connectors, as i'm sure you know...

this stuff is like most digital hardware, it works or it doesn't. it's possible that the adat ports could be faulty, but it's not that likely. i have seen optical ports fail in gear in general, but it's pretty rare. i've seen a lot more bad cables...

I will try with brand new cables...could you suggest a brand in particular? Thx
Today I was at the studio just for a little time...but I tried turning off the Lexicon...nothing...
Then I tried to move the cable assembly while the playback was filling my ears with sweet and lovely clicks and pops and....something changed until they totally disappeared...then sometimes a lonely click (or pop appeared again, but not continuosly as before...So, I turned off everything and I took off each cable assembly (3, related at the 3 Pulsar2 cards) from its connection and mounted them on again. Unfortunately i had to go, so I'll wait until tomorrow to know if something really changed...
I have to say that the cable assemblies (is it the right word?) were not firmly attached to the plate...now they do, but... Could it affect the adat ports somehow?? Mumble mumble...
Anyway, tomorrow I'll know it.
Only one thing...you suggested to take off the plate and re-mount it, right? But, do you mean "from the pci card"? What's precisely the I/O plate? Is it the small card attached to biggest one? Sorry for my misunderstanding but english is not my first language...
Thank you again Garyb (and to the others) for your precious help!


With "cable assembly" I mean this: (taken from the internet).
Stef

image.jpg (8.27 KiB) Viewed 3327 times

[garyb]

that's a cable whip. you can't get another. it can be rebuilt however. you'll need a soldering iron and eyes and close attention. yes, they can make the card act up.

as to optical cables, basic cables from a reputable maker are fine. basic hosa or whatever.

yes, there is a daughter card attached to the card with 4 nylon screws...

[alsound2]

that's a cable whip. you can't get another. it can be rebuilt however. you'll need a soldering iron and eyes and close attention. yes, they can make the card act up.

as to optical cables, basic cables from a reputable maker are fine. basic hosa or whatever.

yes, there is a daughter card attached to the card with 4 nylon screws...

Nope... Today everything was ok for a couple of hours ...then clicks and pops again...
Moving cable whips was unuseful, too...
So I've checked my IRQ configuration (see attached photo).

image.jpg (1.33 MiB) Viewed 3295 times

"Altro dispositivo multimediale" means "Other multimedia device" that is "Pulsar2".
I could disable one of the usb controllers (actually irq10) but I need at least one usb.
I am forced to share the graphics card with one of the Pulsar2...
The available IRQs are: 5,10,11 only these.
What would you do?

Thanks again

[alsound2]

Aaaarghhh!!
Sorry for the photo size...

[hubird]

you could make the image size smaller

[alsound2]

you could make the image size smaller

Yeah...sure Really sorry