Firepod problem, help! (In a hurry)

[Salvation 13]

After a year of working without problems, my Firepod decided to quit. The red led won't come off and there's no sound.

Well, I thought that I'll just re-install the drivers and that's it. After installing the drivers the program asks you to turn the Firepod on so that it can search for connected devices. Well, it doesn't find the Firepod.

I've looked through the connections, everything seems to be fine. Could it be that the Firewire cord could have gone bad?

I emailed Presonus already about this, no reply yet. How fast they reply to emails? I really need to get this fixed quickly, we're in the middle of recording an EP.

 

[dontletmedrown]

Yeah, that sucks. Here's a couple of options

1. Return to dealer. If you bought it from Sweetwater, sometimes they'll overnight you the gear to keep your session moving.

2. Buy another. Its good to have a backup anyway. After yours is repaired you will have 16 inputs and outputs.

3. If money is an issue and none of these options work you can try this-- but it will only work if you have not registered your FP with Presonus. you could go charge one from a shop like GC or SA. Bring it home and take the new one out. Stick the broken one in the box and return it to GC or wherever you bought it and tell them it doesn't work and you just want your credit back. They will ship the unit back to Presonus or [gasp] sell it. Bad karma may follow if you believe in such nonsense

 

[AStacy2]

Hmm, that happened to me and I just uninstalled/reinstalled and then got the update on their site again. They took like a week to e-mail me back once and never e-mailed me back the second time I sent them something.

 

[Salvation 13]

I'm from Finland, so the shops you suggested won't do.

I really don't have the cash right now to buy a new one. I'm struggling as it is to get my rent paid in time.

I've tried downloading the drivers from Presonus, but the installing programs never goes any further when it starts to check for connected devices.

E: Someone off homerecording.com suggested that the firewire ports may have gone bad. Could I get this fixed in some computer store etc?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Do you connect it to a laptop ? Try another firewire cable, try another firewire port (if you're on a laptop, get a PCMCIA card, if not try a PCI Firewire card).

 

[Salvation 13]

I connect it to my desktop. I've already tried switching ports with no luck. I guess I'll have to go and buy a new FW cable tomorrow.

 

[dontletmedrown]

If the port has gone bad, you can buy a PCI Firewire card for like 20 bucks. Do you have any other firewire devices you can test the port with? When you go to the Windows Device Manager, do you see the Firepod?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Can you try the cable with, let's say, a firewire hard drive ?

 

[Salvation 13]

Nope, I don't have any other Firewire devices.

When I run the firmware update or open the Firepod control panel it says that no devices were found. The Windows Device Manager shows a question mark in place of the Firepod.

 

[joeymusicguy]

i hate to say this, but the exact same thing happened to me. the ultimate solution was to buy another one while the old one was repaired by presonus...

the cause of the problem was some type of short in the firewire cable (or firewire card), it sent some bad short to the firepod and the firepod was forever stuck in red light mode. we threw the cable and firewire card away.

 

[Where She Wept]

Send it back, Mine did the same thing after a couple of weeks. I tried everthing, clean windows install, new firewire card, etc...

 

[Salvation 13]

The problem is that I can't send it back. Shipping it from Finland to the US would just come too costly. Plus that I'm really in a hurry recording our EP, and don't have the cash to buy another one. Crap.

 

[Salvation 13]

i hate to say this, but the exact same thing happened to me. the ultimate solution was to buy another one while the old one was repaired by presonus...

the cause of the problem was some type of short in the firewire cable (or firewire card), it sent some bad short to the firepod and the firepod was forever stuck in red light mode. we threw the cable and firewire card away.

So replacing the card and cable should do the trick? Or did the short damage the Firepod some way?

 

[joeymusicguy]

for future reference, no matter how far down the road this might be for you, look into getting the RME fireface 800 or a MOTU pci unit (the pci bus is actually faster than the firewire 400 bus) and as long as you get a new unit (that has the newer "working" pci card) you'll be loving your MOTU much more than your firepod. my firepod has frequency peaks in the noise floor, starting at 120 hz and going up from there to the thousands. it sucks. my motu has a much lower noisefloor, completely flat, and sounds amazing. even hooking my monitors up to it and listening to music sounds better than the firepod.

 

[tacc]

same thing happend here and i've got a ff800 and new macpro on the way. i never really was happy with the firepod anyway.

 

[deathtotaliban]

there are driver updates online if u havent already used those, also sometimes even if the cable is plugged into the unit but it isnt powered up it will have trouble picking it up, u need to completely unplug the cable and then install drivers and when it tells u to turn it on then plug it in. also they have new firmware updates as well try all those before spending any money, if that doesnt work charge a new one then return the broken one like the guy above said, good luck man

 

[Where She Wept]

there are driver updates online if u havent already used those, also sometimes even if the cable is plugged into the unit but it isnt powered up it will have trouble picking it up, u need to completely unplug the cable and then install drivers and when it tells u to turn it on then plug it in. also they have new firmware updates as well try all those before spending any money, if that doesnt work charge a new one then return the broken one like the guy above said, good luck man

Call tech support before you update drivers. they had a corrupted driver on the site for a while. I can't say if it's still there. I went thru all this once, sorry dude, i know it's far, but the thing's fucked. I've been fixing computers for a long time on my own. Whatever you say you tried, i tried when mine went down. you just have to decide how much it's worth. I don't think you'll have to pay shipping both ways. call the company and complain, maybe you can work a deal. Their rep's on the line right?

 

[TheDuke]

I hate to join in with bad news but, I had the same thing happen to me...twice!

I had one firepod go to the "red light of doom" and, while it was sent to Presonus to get fixed, I bought another. Byt the time the first cam eback, the SECOND unit went to the red light of death!

I tried the driver upgrades. Nothing. When both units were sent back, the causes of their demise (and the tech fix) were both listed as "bad main board" and "soldered main board."

So, evidently, the "farm it out to China" for manufacturing comes at a price - poor reliability.

I feel your pain though. I truly do. I was stuck for awhile with nothing.

Duke

 

[cobrahead1030]

if you're really in a jam, buy one from a place that has a return policy so you can finish your project and then return it

 

[dontletmedrown]

Heh, you guys are getting me worried now. I guess downtime is inevitable since my Firepods will probably follow suit and eventually die out.