Inspiron 6400 returned - Unusable as a DAW - FIREWIRE ISSUE

Question

Hi All, Just thought I'd share my Dell experience with anyone interested. I received my Inspiron 6400 7 days ago, hoping to use it to record audio with Sonar and an external FireWire PreSonus Firebox. Today I have called Dell and confirmed I would like to return it after 6 days of . From day 1 the Firewire Firebox connected through the internal 4pin laptop port was suffering audio drop outs every 6-8 seconds. After trying every single fix recommended by people here and on other forums I have come to the conclusion that this issuse cannot be resolved. And before anyone says: 1. What about turning of WIFI? DONE 2. What about Reinstalling XP fresh? DONE 3. What about chipset update? DONE 4. What about lowering video latency? DONE 5. What about every other tweak known to man? DONE One thing I would like to say is this. To the people encouraging people to switch the ACPI to 'Standard PC' Should research before making rash recommendations. I did this myself and corrupted XP twice! maybe because mine is dual core x2? I even tried to reinstall XP in 'Standard PC' mode which also corrupted XP. The problem is that other Laptops cannot get get close to the Dell Specs at the same price, which is a shame. I guess my mobile DAW dream is over. To be honest with you I am kinda pleased I don't have to deal with Dell anymore as it has been one nightmare after another but I don't want to go into that. Maybe one day when I hear using Dells for recording audio is ok I will return. Good Luck to you all, I understand your struggle! Sam.

Jim Coates · Answer

Thanks for your informative post. I just like to add another detail so that others who see this thread can get the full picture. The solution to the Inspirons' firewire problem was to replace the 4 pin port with a 6 pin Texas Instruments port. At least that was the solution used by folks who had the Inspirons with the PC Cardbus slot. Of course yours has the express card slot instead and I can't say if there is an express card solution.

Jim

AWaxMax · Answer

Hi Sam / Jimco,

Thanks for your thoughts and comments on my post by the way,

My Post. http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_audio&message.id=29812

I have to agree with sam on this in every word he says i have an I9400 which has all the same problems as his but i'm using an m-audio firewire 410 which can't record for more than couple of mins without problems. Also the on board soundcard Sigma Tel audio cannot record without drop outs every 10 or so seconds i too have tried every trick that sam has tried to get my laptop to record without fault but i can't. I to have re-installed, updated, turned off wifi etc etc....and done every tweak Known to man. It don't matter what DAW you use ie Ableton, Cubase, Sony Soundforge, Sonar. They all show up dells faults, which clearly shows the laptops are diabolical for recording audio into. The whole inspiron range seem to have the similar problems, judging by the posts on this forum. Its now getting very boring and i basically want a refund on my laptop as it cannot perform what I need it to do, but it looks like i'm out of luck so the tec support team tell me ( they are also very unhelpful and have very little understanding of the problems with audio by the way!) as i have had my laptop for what seems like a very long 5 months now. I wish Dell would realise they are making alot of people unhappy. And they certainly need to address a problem that is clearly theirs not the users!

If i can't get a refund I will be selling my laptop soon if anyone is interested...cheap... perfect condition?

ps..I don't like being negative but Dell are making me extremely frustrated.

Max

Mr Spots · Answer

I too have had dropouts when using Adobe Audition, but I recorded for 4 minutes without a dropout in Wave Studio which comes with my Audigy software.  Strange???    In Audition help it suggests increasing the record buffers, which does help but does not solve the problem completely.  I am recording through the line/mic input, I know it's not high quality but all I want to do is transfer some cassettes to MP3 and I could do this on my old Gateway laptop at work.   Maybe I'll have to record on my ancient Dell PII desktop, which was a good recorder.   Are those from the 'dark side,' i.e., Mac, able to use there laptops as DAW's?   Tim

Rim9 · Answer

thanks for confirming my worst fears, after a week of frustration. are there any PC laptops that can do the job? my old dell latitude 600 seemed fine. thanks again

iamherenow · Answer

I just ordered one of these for my e1505.

http://www.siig.com/product.asp?catid=10&pid=1040

It's got 800mps firewire ports on an expresscard. You can also get one with 400 ports.

I also just ordered one of these with basic audio input/output for $30:

http://www.behringer.com/UCA202/index.cfm?lang=ENG

It's not an M-Audio, but hopefully better than the built-in sigmatel.

T

pkegan · Answer

Please let us know how this card works out ... I have the same problem with and E1705 trying to use a Tascam FW-1082 ... Not happy with my Dell at presnet , so far only a blow off note .

iamherenow · Answer

Unfortunately my expresscard firewire 800 card was delivered a few hours AFTER I left to visit family in Seattle for a few weeks. I'll let you know how it works sometime after Dec 1.

I too have had problems with my built-in firewire port, though I thought it was a bad cable because it seemed to be affected by moving the cable. Anyway, I figured I'd get the card just in case.

I have yet to try out the Behringer USB audio input device. Will post here when I do.

T

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