No Love for the H8000FW

[vrooney]

As an owner of the H8000FW who paid a small fortune for the device, I feel that it is being treated as the “red headed step-child”.  I don’t understand how the guitar pedals, software and the H9000 get all the love and attention and the second most powerful rack module that still is very viable today is ignored. There hasn’t been firmware/software upgrades in years, Vsig3 which is cross platform now is only available for the 9000, how about an upgrade for the I/O daughter card with the firewire 400 ports to USB? I mean seriously when you spend several thousand dollars on a rack you would think that you would get at least as much attention as a 500.00 guitar pedal. Even the H3000 is imortalized as a software plugin. 

One really needs to consider if they want to drop thousands on a new rack given this history. 

Whats up with that Eventide?

Vince

 

[monads]

The H8000FW has been around a while and is still solid.  I never even used the FW option going the digtal route via AES.  It’s probably better to try and exploit/integrate the H8000FW connectivity options at this point than expect an OS update.  I do feel your frustration, but I’m just saying.

[nickrose]

The H8000 family are now about twenty years old, and have to be viewed as very mature products.

They have had many upgrades over the years but are now pretty stable, without much wrong with them.

As a result, the engineering effort that went into them has moved on to supporting the newer products.

 

[vrooney]

Just another reason to consider software alternatives. That disclaimer/comment should be posted on the website under the H8000 series to make people aware that the devices are abandoned with regard to updates so they don’t invest in them.

Age of the hardware shouldn’t dictate their relevance which still exceeds industry standards.

[tmoravan]

vrooney wrote:

Just another reason to consider software alternatives. That disclaimer/comment should be posted on the website under the H8000 series to make people aware that the devices are abandoned with regard to updates so they don’t invest in them. Age of the hardware shouldn’t dictate their relevance which still exceeds industry standards.

If the hardware was discrete circuitry only with no display, etc, then yes, 20 years is just a start.  However, anything even slightly recent with displays, complex operating systems, etc are rarely supported even this long.  I’m not sure I can name an effects processor made in the late 80s through 2000 that is still supported by the manufacturer, no matter how much it cost.

FWIW, I’ve had more issues keeping old software running on current platforms than I’ve had keeping old hardware running in my racks (Lexicon, Publison, Eventide, Roland, Marshall Time Modulators, AMS, etc).

[joeydego]

I bought a Fractal AX8 floor modeler/processor a little over a year ago, and I think they may have just EOL’d it. I’m ok with that. It still works fine, the company is very supportive with support (like Eventide), half the world is still using it and more important it sounds even better than the day I bought it. Newer and better has come along if and when I’m looking for those features. This is what it is in this game. 

[lunaorbit]

I am hopeful H8000FW drivers will be updated in the future… I purchased this new in 2012, and it was a big investment.

I use the firewire integration daily and the H8000FW is the keystone of the studio, as my audio card, and effects processor.

Windows 10 is having some issues with the 2014 TC Dice driver (which occurs with other hardware systems using the TC Dice driver). I am concerned what may happen when upgrading to Windows 11. My other firewire units are still driver supported, and firewire cards are available to this day.

Don’t abandon us eventide.

 

[italoop]

If you own an H8000FW and use its FireWire connection, this info may be very useful to you all.
In 2020 I decided to move on to Windows10 from Win7 AND to build myself a new PC running on one of these mighty Ryzen CPUs.  I also have a couple of Mac rigs. Old ones…. I don’t want to deal with current Apple nonsense AT ALL!
So I built this amazing machine using an Asus Prime X570Pro, a Ryzen 5 3600, 32 gigs of RAM. I ordered a FireWire card with VIA chipset and that didn’t work right. Actually Win10 recognized and installed drivers fine but the H8000FW would go thru an endless sample rates switching loop, finally crashing the computer. Tried a couple of times… no go!
I got a second FireWire PCIEcpress card, based on the Texas Instruments chip, which is known to work much better for audio. But this was even worst.
The computer would not boot at all, staying on a dark screen. Not even possible to get into the UEFI.

Apparently AMD and FireWire are a bit of a quirk? Or maybe Win10 adds its part of evil to the equation?
Turns out BOTH!!!
I did some research and looks like a lot of people have been having issues on AMD/Win10 based computers on their FW cards, which were all working fine. It seems that the last 2 Win10 updates have been a problem and AMD or the motherboard producers have done changes to the UEFI (BIOS).
This guy reports:
“So what happened is that AMD turned on a 10-bit Tag Field, which is only available on PCI-e
Gen4 devices. This results in compatibility issues with older Gen PCI-e cards like my firewire card.
So I went into my BIOS and searched for the 10-bit tag field and disabled it. Also put the
compatibility on Gen3 for the PCI-E slot I inserted my Firewire card afterward and voila systems
boot and Windows 10 even loaded the ‘ Texas Instruments 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller’
driver in the device Manager. Hooked up my TC Electronic Konnekt Live firewire soundcard and it
is working”.
The discussion is here: https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=69651&start=15
I trusted him and tried myself:
-boot into the PC EFI and go to Advanced Mode
-Advanced menu > AMD CBS > NBIO Common Options and here there’s a PCIe Ten Bit Tag Support that was set on Auto. I changed it to Disable.
-then move to Onboard Devices Configuration and changed my PCIEX1_3 Mode from Auto to Gen3, that’s for the socket where the FWire card will be installed.
-saved and rebooted. Reinstalled the TI FireWire card. Rebooted again…
PC posts fines, no issues, and device managed shows the TI chipset working fine with the proper
driver installed automatically.
I installed Eventide FW driver DICE V5.5 and things run pretty good. Some minor quirks but they should be expected at first. It looks ok.
So… I just wanted to provide you this info as it may be useful for people out there, considering more and more users are switching to AMD for its superior performance, lower cost and better support of sockets in time.

After 2 years my H8000FW is rocking solid on the described Win10 system!

I am cautiously confident that latest FireWire drivers might work fine on Win11 too. Try!

[Fender17]

Thanks for sharing. By the way, how big difference is between H8000 and Eclipse. I just bought secondhand Eclipse for good price and like it very much. But there is H8000 on sale, is it worth to switch?

And is H8000 usable without firewire? I have PC without one and it is not possible to expand it to have firewire.

[lunaorbit]

Italoop thanks for the advice, no luck at my end with your solutions.

I found a thread on different hardware with the issues from the dice driver .

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/audio-glitching-on-windows-10-64-bit-build-1909-in/80f09ed4-55e6-46a1-aeff-01dfa1ef91d0?page=1

The solution of locking the clock with another app does works to an extent. I have found Steinberg apps can lock the dice driver on sample rate if you are persistent enough..

 

 

[italoop]

Mine isn’t a solution to your point as you are using an Intel CPU. The link points to s a problem which is very likely the RME driver.

The H8000FW driver may not be the same. You should decribe your system with every details, like FireWire chipset.

I know plenty of people using Win10 with Intel cpus and the H8000FW.

[lunaorbit]

I have AMD with TI firewire chipset, and adjusted BIOS as you have described but this unfortunately made no changes fixing the cycling sample rate.

I can run other devices from this card with no issues, so maybe the 10-bit Tag was not the problem here.

Forcing the sample rate with a Steinberg App, has worked, but not rock solid as other Non-ASIO apps can trigger the cycling again.

I am now using an external clock via SPDIF to lock the H8000FW sample rate.

 

[italoop]

Have you tweaked the UEFI *without* the FW card installed?
Have you selected Gen3 compatibility for the PCI slot where the card will be inserted?

THEN install the FW driver for the H8000. Which version do you have?

Please describe your computer parts!

[Author]

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