Anyone use presonus 16.4.2 -- random freezing!

[johngalt1977]

So the band is coming to the house for 5 straight days in about 2 weeks to write and record. We have been running off of this presonus for about two years. Weekly practices and 3 trips like the approaching one ranging from 5-10 days each without any issue other than the random glitchery that happens as a matter of course.

All of the sudden at practice the other day it froze in the middle of a song. Ok I think, this is glitchery and reset it. Good to go for 4 minutes. Freeze. Turn off the computer, run straight through the board, runs for 10 minutes, freezes. Switch things on off, mess with inputs etc etc.... Freezes freezes freezes. Run an extension cord to a different outlet, freezes. Use a different power cable, freezes. Reset the board to factory and reinstalled drivers... Freezes.

I really can't tie it to any particular event after hours of messing around with it. Kicking on and off pedals, doing all sorts of messing around. The timeframe is always different and there doesn't seem to be any heat on the board or anything unusual.

I have a feeling that presonus support is just going to want me to send it in, and I really don't have any time for that given the recording session coming up.

Anyone have any ideas?!

 

[4Mal]

What version of universal control ? What is the version and build of the board ROM. I'm running mac based 1.6 built is 1.50A. That seems solid.

 

[johngalt1977]

 

[4Mal]

Try Universal Control v 1.6 instead of 1.7 from my read on the Presonus forum and KB - which is where I turn for advice often - it sounds like you may need to get a trouble ticket started and bite the repair bullet. Their repair rates seem pretty reasonable and you get a year warranty after the repair.

Then scramble to find a rental for your session.

 

[johngalt1977]

Thanks 4mal. I did submit a ticket to them last night but I was hoping that someone here could work some magic for me, there are generally a lot of opinions around here

Question though... When I google, it looks as if there might be some things on the presonus forum, but when I click on results to go to the forum, I get like no results prior to 7/1 of this year.

Normally I'm pretty good with this stuff but what am I missing here? Can you point me to a post or even I the right direction that addresses this?

Also what is this KB you speak of? I sure wouldn't mind having another resource to turn to.

Thanks again for the response and the info.

 

[Dominic D]

There is a known (to Presonus users at least) issue with Presonus boards when plugged into a computer. My guess is incompatibility with certain FireWire controller chips. Unfortunately there is no fix for this. I don't even bother plugging a computer into my band's Presonus board because it's inevitable it's going to crash at some point.

 

[johngalt1977]

This was my first thought. It's been stable for some time prior to now though, and still crashes even when I unplug the FireWire.

Really feels like a power or firmware issue to me, but that's total supposition.

Just kind of hoping for a miracle here given that I just don't have time to get it repaired before the session.

Considering buying an additional one. Do the new AI's work with the legacy models like I have? Could I fix the existing and use them together when the existing comes home?

 

[Dominic D]

It's possible a firmware update could fix it, but the general feeling from the Presonus support forum is that they have little to no interest working on these older boards since the AI series came out.

 

[4Mal]

Link to presonus forum. Invalid Link Removed

The forum changed as of 7/1. There is a link to the old forum top right of the new one. The old one is still searchable.

Knowledge Base is available here http://www.presonus.com/support

I had a recent interaction with Presonus support on an issue, we have a 2 16.4.2 boards with macbook pro running maverics and a 2008 unibody running 10.6.8. They generally go in pairs.

We had a freeze event due to sudden power loss - some idiot unplugged us from the event generator power source. I got our mains disconnected just as they plugged us back in... But the board got the surge. We now have a battery backup for the board and crossovers (BSS mini Drives)...

Anyhow, board swap but not computer swap. Firmware flash to get the board up with all the scenes prebuilt on the Pro. No problem, event continues on schedule. Then we get home, I hook the board to the 10.6.8 machine and ... No effects, no channel presets, scenes are a mess... A pita. Quick check with Presonus support and a downgrade to 10.7.1 rather than 10.7.3. I had blissfully missed the last digit...

I didn't find them unwilling in the least...

I know there are religious wars about macs and pc's. My partner and I both went Mac after buying our boards. We were friends and sometimes bandmates as side men a few years back when we bought our boards. We both stuggled with Win based laptops to start and both packed it in for Macbooks. In my case, I bought the beat to cr@p 2008 machine and rebuilt it with parts I sourced from EBay and the net. I did that for the experience. I'd been around Windows and Unix machines for ever. Kinda wanted to see the differences. I'm still rocking the 2008 with an SSD and 4 gig, it's a pleasure to work with and I think i have $500 in it after everything... I contrast our experience with the folks I hear running Win based products on Firewire with the SL boards and I'm pretty sure that for SL, Macbooks are the way to go.

Yes I also know that some folks have been successful with SL and Windows . If you really read the forum, the failures seem to congregate on the Windows side. This isn't about PC's vs Mac's. It is about PC's vs Mac's in a very specific environment... I own and use both. I pick the correct tool for the task at hand... There's my $.02 and worth every cent ;-)

NOTE TO SELF - make sure the scenes are backed up to a USB stick and are installed on both laptops prior to sound company events... Sparing is supposed to be easy...

 

[johngalt1977]

Thanks for the thoughts, 4mal. I actually did find the archive after opening my eyes for a bit Not sure how I was missing that link but looks like I'm not the only one to have had this problem...

After a couple of back and forths with support, it sounds like there's something wrong with the dsp board and it'll need to go in.

Got the RA request submitted. Looks like we are going to be running off of our old Alesis 8 track for the session this weekend/next week. I've gotten awfully used to having all of the onboard stuff that's on the presonus, but I think we will manage.

Just hoping that the fix takes and I don't need to be sending it back and forth. We have a couple of gigs at the end of summer that it would be awfully nice to have that board for!

 

[4Mal]

Got that! I would seriously hate to go back analog at this point. I'm also really used to the Presonus OS and work flow. I'm beginning to think 32 channels for next year. The X32 seems to be getting a lot of good play. I've now played 3 festival stages where the sound company (not mine) was using that board. At least the monitor mixes seemed nice and clear... And I have yet to hear of a failure... Damn it...