Hi everyone,
I’m trying to troubleshoot a very strange issue with two Steinberg interfaces.
My setup is:
- Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
- Cubase Pro 15
- Intel i7-3770
- 32 GB RAM
- TI (Texas Instruments) PCI FireWire card
- Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver (latest available version)
I have both an MR816X and an MR816CSX.
Both interfaces show exactly the same symptoms when played in single mode:
- Random audio dropouts during playback.
- No clicks or crackling, only very brief dropouts (audio disappears for a fraction of a 10 millisecond).
- CPU usage is low.
- Disk usage is low.
- ASIO buffer size affects the frequency of the dropouts, but does not eliminate them.
- Recordings themselves seem to be fine; the problem mainly affects playback/monitoring.
Here’s the interesting part:
I disconnected both MR816 interfaces and connected my Universal Audio Apollo Twin USB instead.
With the Apollo, the exact same computer, the exact same Cubase project and plugins run perfectly with no dropouts at all.
This makes me suspect that the problem is somewhere in the FireWire chain rather than the computer itself.
Things I’ve already tried:
- Different buffer sizes.
- Tested both MR816X and MR816CSX separately.
- Latest Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver.
- Windows optimized for audio.
- Fresh SSD, upgraded RAM, clean Windows installation.
Since both MR816 units behave identically, I find it unlikely that both interfaces developed exactly the same hardware fault.
Has anyone experienced something similar?
Could this still be:
- a failing TI FireWire card?
- Yamaha Steinberg FW Driver?
- Windows 10 compatibility?
- aging FireWire hardware in the MR816 series?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.