Hi,
I'm having a nightmare with two older DACs with XMOS chipsets, a minidsp U-DAC8 (2015) that I've barely used and an ifi Micro iDSD Black Label (2016). I took them both out of storage recently, the ifi a few months ago and the minidsp a few days ago.
I cant get either to work on my computers, (intel macbook pro w/osx, intel nuc i7 w/win10) none of them have USB2 so I was thinking this:
https://ifi-audio.com/faqs/why-does-it-have-problems-with-a-couple-of-dacs/
I have a RPi5 w/linux that has USB2.0 and that still didn't work.
It's exactly the same issue, DAC never gets detected...but...I swear I saw the minidsp show up once on the mac today and it worked on the mac when I first tried it a few days ago. I can remember the ifi was (very) occasionally detected as well.
The times when I get detections seem to be on the first connect after the DAC has been unplugged and dormant for days and after that connect, if I unplug it and plug it in again I get nothing, now I'm starting to think it might be an age related issue, perhaps with the capacitors?
I'm at a complete loss, I work in IT and have decades of experience. I've tried lots of different cables.
I could fish a really old USB2 motherboard out of storage but I'm sure both these DACs used to work on USB3 ports back when I bought the DACs.
The ifi works fine through SPDIF.
Early on I thought the ifi issue was a USB physical connector problem.
Please help.
Thanks.
I'm having a nightmare with two older DACs with XMOS chipsets, a minidsp U-DAC8 (2015) that I've barely used and an ifi Micro iDSD Black Label (2016). I took them both out of storage recently, the ifi a few months ago and the minidsp a few days ago.
I cant get either to work on my computers, (intel macbook pro w/osx, intel nuc i7 w/win10) none of them have USB2 so I was thinking this:
https://ifi-audio.com/faqs/why-does-it-have-problems-with-a-couple-of-dacs/
I have a RPi5 w/linux that has USB2.0 and that still didn't work.
It's exactly the same issue, DAC never gets detected...but...I swear I saw the minidsp show up once on the mac today and it worked on the mac when I first tried it a few days ago. I can remember the ifi was (very) occasionally detected as well.
The times when I get detections seem to be on the first connect after the DAC has been unplugged and dormant for days and after that connect, if I unplug it and plug it in again I get nothing, now I'm starting to think it might be an age related issue, perhaps with the capacitors?
I'm at a complete loss, I work in IT and have decades of experience. I've tried lots of different cables.
I could fish a really old USB2 motherboard out of storage but I'm sure both these DACs used to work on USB3 ports back when I bought the DACs.
The ifi works fine through SPDIF.
Early on I thought the ifi issue was a USB physical connector problem.
Please help.
Thanks.
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In Windows you may try this: locate your device in Device Manager (Universal Serial Bus controllers -> USB Composite Device) and uninstall. When you hook it up again it should reinstall the device. If it does not reinstall then something is probably wrong with the device or cable.
Try a different USB cable first. Next is to check if the device has the correct driver for Win10 to be downloaded from the manufacturer's website. After that, try uninstalling and reinstalling.
I use Win7 on an old laptop, because my external sound card (M-Audio Transit) which is used for various measurements of speakers and the like only has a driver for Win XP/Vista/Win7. It works on Win7, but beyond that it won't. It probably runs on Linux.
I use Win7 on an old laptop, because my external sound card (M-Audio Transit) which is used for various measurements of speakers and the like only has a driver for Win XP/Vista/Win7. It works on Win7, but beyond that it won't. It probably runs on Linux.
Maybe the idea comes up that putting electronic stuff in storage and time doing its thing is not an optimal combination.
If the stuff had been sold it would have had a useful life at someone else and the previous owner would also have saved money by not paying for storage (adding to the sales revenue) and he/she would have had the chance to buy a new DAC suitable for Windows 11 working right out of the box. No nightmare, win-win.
If the stuff had been sold it would have had a useful life at someone else and the previous owner would also have saved money by not paying for storage (adding to the sales revenue) and he/she would have had the chance to buy a new DAC suitable for Windows 11 working right out of the box. No nightmare, win-win.
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These random losses may have been caused by ESD, if the cards do not have a protection diode... Damaged chip....
Well then you can e.g. check the device in linux, to determine whether it's the windows&drivers or the actual device. Linux is way easier to diagnose HW issues with than Windows. If it works, then you can check the USB communication with wireshark in windows, to see what goes on.
Thanks everyone.
MacOS and Linux are driverless and the USB subsystems don't see anything being plugged in, I think this is a hardware issue on two different DACs that both have use a decade old XMOS chip, I'm wondering out loud how the XMOS loads its firmware, maybe the flash goes bad over time, I remember reading that NAND unpowered retention rates for SLC are around a decade.
Who knows if its as robust as SLC though, I'd say the minidsp and ifi were in storage for about 2 years.
MacOS and Linux are driverless and the USB subsystems don't see anything being plugged in, I think this is a hardware issue on two different DACs that both have use a decade old XMOS chip, I'm wondering out loud how the XMOS loads its firmware, maybe the flash goes bad over time, I remember reading that NAND unpowered retention rates for SLC are around a decade.
Who knows if its as robust as SLC though, I'd say the minidsp and ifi were in storage for about 2 years.
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