Upset Customer: UAD-1 Card Doesn't Work!!

[borgagassi]

I spent quite sometime trying to figure out what was wrong with my new computer setup as it was giving pops and cracks and I thought it may be my RME cards..here's my last posting in the RME forums:

\"Whew...figured it out! If you have an nforce4 (or nforce3 from my
understanding) - the UAD-1 cards are incompatible! I took it out and the
problems solved. Hence, this wasn't even an RME issue LOL, but perhaps
someone else will stumble on this thread and realize that it's their UAD-1
with the nforce chipset. I actually called Universal Audio and they told me
there is a potential workaround if I buy a pci-express firewire expansion
card and put it in...I'm a bit pissed that my $500+ card is not supported
with such a common chipset. I\"m considering just selling it as I don't
really want to have to use a 'workaround' reuqiring me to purchase the
firewire card to 'possibly' get it working!\"

BTW, the tech support guy at UA could not tell me why the firewire card in the pci express slot would work but said that it's just something that the software engineers have told him works 90% of the time. He told me I may want to consider the PCI Express UAD card that they're about to release in a month or so. Then he told me that I could sell it on ebay, but first get the new card to get an upgrade voucher, etc.,etc. I personally can't believe that the nforce4 chipset isn't being supported and that I spent over 500 bucks ($527 I believe) and now I can' t even use this damn thing! I wish that UA would have offered to either:
- have me send in the old card and give me a pci express card at a small upgrade price (or for free given the damn card I have now is of absolutely no use to me and sitting outside of my computer)
- created a workable solution to the nforce chipset problem that doesn't require another purchase buy me to 'possibly' work and use up a slot in my computer
- or give me an upgrade voucher allowing me to get the pci for the price I can realistically sell the old UAD-1 card for (i.e. I could probably get $250 for it realistically considering I have the base software license). So if I could get the PCI express for around that I could then sell this card and not have come out of pocket.

Thanks for listening to a disgruntled customer. I have had good luck with you guys in the past, but this time I'm feeling left out in the cold!

 

[BTLG]

He's right about the PCIe FW Card. That will probably fix the problem.

the UAD card doesn't always like the FW card across the PCI bus

I had to do the same thing when I installed a new firewire card on my old computer.


Check out http://www.newegg.com, you can probably find what you need for under a hundred bucks.

Matt

 

[borgagassi]

That's exactly what I don't want to have to do! Spend $90 to work around this problem and use up a pci e slot.

 

[haze]

thanks for posting. i feel for you and i hope you find a very cheap solution soon. this post will be useful to a lot of people, and help them avoid the same pitfall.

 

[Onlytryingtohelp]

- or give me an upgrade voucher allowing me to get the pci for the price I can realistically sell the old UAD-1 card for (i.e. I could probably get $250 for it realistically considering I have the base software license). So if I could get the PCI express for around that I could then sell this card and not have come out of pocket.

If you buy the new UAD-1 Express for $450--it should be no problem to find one at this price--and register it in the same group as your current PCI card, you'll get $300 worth of vouchers ($100 comes with the Express, $100 for the PCI-e crossgrade and $100 for the current multi-card promo). This will leave you with $150 into the PCI-e card, so even if you sold your PCI card for $150, you'd still be even, but my guess is you could get more like $300, which would put you into the PCI-e with $150 more plugins than you currently have. Seems like a sweet deal to me. You'd need to do all this before the end of August, however.

 

[borgagassi]

Thanks for your post but - voucher smoucher! I still have to come out of pocket to do the upgrade and right now that's not in the cards for me. I would have liked to keep the same plugins I already have licensed and have UA let me buy the pci-e for the same price that I can prove I've sold my UAD which will probably be around $250+ from my estimate...right now I have a useless card to me.

 

[Guest]

i have to agree. i would rather have 100 off the PCIE version than a voucher for more plugins.

 

[jcschild]

Thanks for your post but - voucher smoucher! I still have to come out of pocket to do the upgrade and right now that's not in the cards for me. I would have liked to keep the same plugins I already have licensed and have UA let me buy the pci-e for the same price that I can prove I've sold my UAD which will probably be around $250+ from my estimate...right now I have a useless card to me.

ya know had you done your research or bought your daw from a DAW builder you would NOT be having this problem.

you didnt research before running out and buying parts to build your computer with no support

who ya gonna call?
dont blame UA for lack of buying the correct parts.
the Nforce 4 issue is all over the internet on every audio forum.

the card is only useless due to your lack of investigation.

thanks for the wonderful, inciteful and helpful posts.

 

[DAWgEAR]

the Nforce 4 issue is all over the internet on every audio forum.

It certainly is out there for those doing their research. Not really fair to blame UA. And it's not the case that UAD-1 must support the nForce 4; shouldn't it be the other way around? The UAD-1 works amazingly well on other chipsets.

 

[musicsound-2]

I have exactly the same problem - I bought a new PC (with nforce4) and UAD is not proper working anymore. Now I have a lot of clicks on my recordings. It´s not useful anymore.

Also I was recommended to switch to the UAD PCIe. I am now even considering to buy another new processor and mainboard but I don´t know if the new Intel CPU´s with an appropriate mainboard and chipset is supported or not. Who can tell ?

I am really not amused - TC for example does not have such a problem with nforce4. Why UAD ? No explanaition - just recommending to get another card.

If I decide for UAD PCIe can I finaly transfer all software like my mastering and roland plugs to the new card without problems ?
If yes, I don´t really understand the concept since I have to buy some of my already existing software again with the PCIe card (express or expert pack) although I just need the new card. CONFUSING CUSTOMER SUPPORT

 

[borgagassi]

I didn't research the UAD issue...my bad. I did research for my sound card, cubase, and some of the important plugins that I use they didn't have any issues with my quite common new set up. UAD does. However, nforce is a pretty prolific chipset and uad is an audiophile's specialty item so to say that nforce blew it by not making sure that there product worked with uad is laughable in my opinion. I think that uad should at least acknowledge that users like myself are being left out in the cold with no crappy alternatives. I'm not asking for the pci-e version for free. I'm just asking UA to have a little sympathy for it's customers in this situation and give me an actual price break so I can realistically afford to purchase it without having to come out of pocket with real money. I agree with the suggestion above of a hundred bucks. If I get $250 for the old card and can get the new card for $400 I'm still going to have to come out of pocket but I don't mind paying a little bit more because it will perform better than the old card....but at least meet your customer half way! Give us a little love UA. As the other customer said: CONFUSING CUSTOMER SUPPORT!

 

[secretworld]

Have you talked to UA about it? They are known for their special solutions with problems and unhappy customers.
Good luck
Vincent

 

[borgagassi]

I'm going to call them today and I'll report back what happens

 

[Guest]

I have a MOB with the NForce4 chipset with all the latest drivers with no problem at all. Here is my system spec.

All Cards are on it's own IRQ and not sharing.

I also Have all three UAD-1 Cards in the PCI-X Slots.

I have The latest Motu Drivers 1.6.6.11, MOB Bios and the latest MOB Drivers. The Motu Drivers Are Excellent on XP 64 as well.

I use the UAD-1 driver version 4.3

MOB S2895 Tyan NForce 4 Chipset

4Gig PC3200 Ram

Win XP Pro SP2

Win XP64 SP1

(2) Opteron 246 2.0 Gig Each

NVidia 6600 (256) Ram

Tacsam Dm24 Digital Mixer

Motu 2408MKIII PCI 424

 

[jcschild]

HI Zion,

1) thats the NForce 4 Pro chipset
2) that board also has AMD 8131 tunnel on it, if your UAD is working your using that chipset not the nforce 4 to drive the UAD.

so technically you are not using the Nforce4 with a UAD.

Scott
ADK

 

[Guest]

Thats true!

Question? What Mother-Board did borgagassi pay $527.00.

I did'nt catch that part.

 

[borgagassi]

I paid that for the UAD card

 

[Guest]

What MOB did you purchase with the NForce 4 chipset?

 

[weatherdrip]

For what it's worth, I have an nForce4 board (LiquidDaw built by Scott Reams) that was not compatible with my UAD-1 no matter what I tried, until I installed a PCIe firewire card. I read elsewhere on this forum that folks using PCIe firewire ports instead of onboard firewire were escaping the UAD-1/nForce4 curse. Sure enough, when trying the onboard soundcard (yuck!) instead of my RME FF800, my UAD-1 plugs were free of pops and clicks! So now with the FF800 connected to a PCIe firewire card I can run my UAD-1 with a 88%-92% DSP load with no pops or clicks. My Precision Multiband doesn't work (locks up Sonar 5 until it's deleted), but that must be another issue. All else is fine.

I'm not sure this will work for everyone, but it's worth a try. This gives me confidence in the UAD-1e, which I just ordered as a second card.

Oh, and if I don't use all the correct terminology, give me a break. I'm a songwriter and meteorologist, slowly learning this production stuff over the years.

John Fausett