My Firepod is fubar - can anybody give electrical advice?

[Thorax the Herdsman]

So my Firepod has started making these annoying clicking sounds. They're not software/latency type cracks, they're popping noises from the actual unit itself:



I've already had the unit sent off once for repair for a bad firewire IC (first one firewire input stopped working, then both did) so I'm not happy to have it sent off again. And as you can imagine, I'm not overly chuffed about continuing to use it...

Has anybody experienced this before? Does anybody know if this is something that can be fixed myself, i.e. a loose connection that can be soldered safely? If it's anything more technical than that I'm afraid I'm likely to bin it

Failing that I'll eventually be needing a replacement for the band (8 channels but moving to 16 in the future) but will first probably be picking up something for the home studio, so if anybody can share their thoughts on a decent non-presonus 2 input firewire unit then please do Perhaps the Focusrite Saffire or something...

 

[Wolfeman]

Dude that's coming from the Firepod itself? I would unplug it and not use it, that's not a good sound. Send an email to presonus support, they have always been good to me and even fixed my stuff out of warranty for free.
Is there an electrical smell coming from it? Sounds like something is arcing.

 

[Notuern]

Thats definitly not good.. i would either send it back for repairs, or throw it away and buy a new one.

 

[Thorax the Herdsman]

Well I just got back an email from Presonus support here in the UK, and they've basically told me that a repair could be anything up to £200. Considering we paid £300 for it used, as well as £150 for the first repair, I'm not so keen to spend another penny on this unit getting it working. £650 for a working Firepod is crazy.

As a band we're unlikely to do any recording for another year or so, so I guess we'll just wait until then and see what's available as a replacement.

In the mean time I want something else a bit lower-scale for home use. Just 2 inputs I think. So...Focusrite Saffire?

 

[PhilTheBeard]

god damn bro that sucks ass

 

[musickey]

Do not buy Presonus Firepods or FP10's if you expect to use Windows 7.
Here is a post that just came off their forum. And i know there is a work around but its limiting.

"Hi,

With the exception of the Audiobox, the bridgeco line of products (ie, Firebox, Firepod, FP10) have been disocntinued. Currently future Os support has yet to be determined. We won't have anything in the next 2 weeks."

 

[Notuern]

In the mean time I want something else a bit lower-scale for home use. Just 2 inputs I think. So...Focusrite Saffire?

It was a b*tch getting my Saffire to work in Vista.. had to send it back for a firmware update.
Basically, i couldnt update the firmware without installing the drivers, and i couldnt install the drivers without updating the firmware!

Then i had i had some problems with it identifying my outputs as inputs.. solved it by reinstalling the drivers.

When i finally had it up and running, it was great!

.. except for the fact that it doesn't have any stereo inputs(Bummer for hooking up keyboards.).