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Hi,
I have an Audiophile 2496 card in my PC and I have been using it with PowerTracks for four years without a problem. But recently the driver stopped installing when I first boot up. If I immediately reboot it almost always loads and runs correctly. When it fails I can double click the M-Audio device in System Hardware and I get the following error message - dpInitInterFaceFailed. Have any of you seen this error message before? I think it simply means the driver did not initialize.
I guess I should first check to see that the card is seated in the PCI slot and then uninstall and re-install the driver. Does this seem like the way to approach this problem?
My OS is Win XP Home Edition SP3, CPU is an AMD 3500+
Gale
Last edited by Gale; 08/06/11 07:51 PM.
Mr. G
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Why not delete the M-Audio in control panel/add or remove software, then reinstall the software.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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I have tried to help several people fix card and driver problems.
I will say this, Microsoft, in dealing with systems that they feel have improper versions of XP, have a back door way through updates that can cripple the device drivers for sound cards.
Both the systems I looked at were ones that the owners failed to move properly from system to system, and were on the net.
No amount of tinkering with the computer that worked fine yesterday would solve the problem. Both the systems were 'older' and had run for years with the cards, and boom, they didn't.
Both owners bought new computers with OEM Win 7 and darned if the same old card didn't work out of the box. Odd eh? But both had had messages, "This may not be a valid version of windows." Then they quit working.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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As for your Audiophile; a couple of times here, when the power supply was starting to fail, the M-Audio soundcard was first to notice and show signs like this.
Yes, try reseating, maybe reinstall, but my first suspect is power. Can you check power in the BIOS? Or any other way? Or do you have a spare to try?
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Hi Gale,
Could be caused by any one of a number of problems.
*Fragmented Hard Drive -- Sometimes, even if the Windows defragger reports that you don't have to defrag at this time, a small piece of the initialization code gets fragmented and the disk just cannot deliver the needed string in time. Solution is, of course, to try a disk defrag.
*Corrupted Driver - It happens. Best way to handle this is to go to the M-Audio website, Support Drivers area and locate the correct drivers for your Operating System and soundcard. Download and run the installer. No need to first uninstall the card when doing it this way.
*Faulty PSU - If your computer Power Supply is starting to go bad, one of the first things you will likely encounter is the 2496 card not being able to function properly. If, after trying all of the above things in order, still no joy, it would be time to suspect your PSU. Replacement of the PSU is the cure.
*Finally, it could be a faulty soundcard. The 2496 cards have a good reptutation for being robust and not breaking or having components in them prone to failure, but this could be a situation. Only after trying all of the above and maybe a few other things would I go that far as to declare the hardware on the soundcard to be bad in this case.
Try all of the above, one at a time, in order. Reboot between each one, then test operation again.
Good Luck,
--Mac
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This is great, I appreciate the response. :-)
Robh - I hadn’t thought of deleting the M-Audio in control panel. I’ll write it down as a possible step.
John – I have a fully registered copy of Win-XP and have been receiving OS upgrades since I first turned up the PC. Keep in mind that the Audio card does work after a reboot.
Rharv – Power Supply… excellent idea! I will look at my Mother Board manual I’m almost positive there is a power monitor included in the BIOS. I’ll check that right away…
Mac – Fragmented HD, Corrupt Driver, Faulty PSU or defective Sound Card… good summary this is very helpful.
Now that the PSU has been mentioned it reminds me of something that happened a couple of weeks ago. I had been using my PC for about an hour when suddenly the monitor went black. I could hear a loud ticking in the speakers and immediately suspected the monitor Power Supply. I quickly disconnected the power supply from the AC… the ticking did not stop. But I plugged it back in and everything went back to Normal. This happened twice over a two day period but the second time I just left it alone and the video restored in about five seconds. Both times it had just started raining and the incident reminded me of our old TV set… it used to start arching when we had high humidity or it was raining. I wonder if the dust and moisture set up a similar situation in the PC Power Supply. BTW, I live in Phoenix AZ so humidity and rain are extremely rare… but we have lots of dust and the combination does bad things around high voltage.
Thank you all for your comments. I truly appreciate the ideas and I will investigate all of them. I’ll let you know how this turns out.
Gale
Mr. G
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Update...
I de-fraged <sp> the HDD and it was a total mess. That helped the boot time and the PC seems to run a little quicker but it had no affect on the Audio problem. I then let the PC cool down and booted it again and opened the Setup. I went to the hardware Power section and looked at the CPU power voltages. Only one of them was a constant value. The rest changed every second. I watched them for five minutes and they stopped changing as much but they were still not stable. I continued the boot process and the audio card functioned properly. I repeated this sequence with the same results...
So... I am even more convinced that it is a PSU problem. Shouldn't the voltages be constant?
Here is what I saw:
CPU Vcore from 1.36v to 1.4v
3.3V was 3.32 and seemed stable
12.0v ranged from 11.91 to 11.97v
Battery 2.96 to 3.0
5 VSB 4.96 to 5.02
None of these are way off but I think they should have been stable. Is this a sign that the supply is failing?
What are your thoughts?
Gale
Mr. G
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I'm no engineer, but I've seen those readings fluctuate on every one of the PCs I have built, and all were fine. The range of your readings is not large. I would also expect them to fluctuate as the hard drive is accessed, and then settle down after you do nothing, exactly as you did.
I bought a tester for power supplies at my local computer parts store; cost about $15.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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While I agree with Matt that the fluctuation ranges are not alarming (though not ideal) I do notice the 12V path is low even at it's high point. Important supply voltage there. I'd try a replacement.. can't guarantee a fix, but a new PSU can't hurt on a machine more than a few years old. If you tried re-installing already ...
/not an engineer either
//your mileage may vary
Last edited by rharv; 08/07/11 07:56 PM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Thank you Matt... I suspected that the voltages could vary under load. They seem to really jump around but that could be a function of the monitor circuit to some degree. I'll check at Fry's to see if they have a tester. But... I will probably change the supply anyway as Rharv suggested... due to it's age.
Gale
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I haven't tried the driver uninstall/re-install because I can make it work by delaying the boot sequence for a few minutes. I need to use this PC every week so I'm hesitant to mess with the driver unless there is nothing more I can do.
I will look for a 450 Watt ATX supply... I think they are under $50 and it would be a good investment as you mentioned because of the age of the current supply.
Thank you again... and I will post an update as soon as I have something to post :-)
Gale
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I paid around $25 for a 450W PSU about a year ago at Micro Center, a regional equivalent of the computer department at Fry's (which we also have here). Even if that's not the problem, at that price it can't hurt to have a spare. Good luck.
R.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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It's alive! :-)
I bought and installed a new PSU and everything works beautifully again. Thank you all for your help and Rharv you nailed the problem :-)
I monitored the voltages on the new supply and they were quite stable, none of them went below the rated value at all although a couple of them changed a little (.01 volts +-). The original PSU voltages almost all went below the rating but would drift across the correct value. They changed constantly but I had to watch the new supply voltages closely to see any change at all. The 12volt line on the old supply never reached 12 volts... highest was 11.97. The new supply is 12.22 and it changes .01 volts down and back up once in a while.
Just for the record the failure of the M-Audio 2496 to initialize was not the only symptom. On two occasions over a week period the monitor lost video and I could hear loud clicking in the speakers like a high voltage discharge. It lasted for a few seconds and everything went back to normal. Yesterday before I changed the supply I turned on the PC and it booted part way and suddenly started over. The second boot completed and the audio card even initialized.
But now it works and I am a very happy camper <LOL>
Thanks again,
Gale
Mr. G
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Good to know the power supply was the fix.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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