Trouble with Hercules FW1612
Hi there,
I realise this is slightly off-topic, but I am having real trouble with my Herc FW1612 audio device … probably related to the fact I have upgraded to Win7 from WinXP … and I wondered if anyone else is still using one of these animals and might have some insight.
When I first made the upgrade, I downloaded the up to date drivers (which are supposedly Win7 compatible) and installed them, and the device without any difficulty. That was three months ago, and I haven’t had the time to give it a good blast since.
So … come this afternoon, I am working in N, with the tracks already completed and fire up the Herc, get the fanfare from Windows to signify that it has detected the device, open up the Hercules control panel and all appears in order.
But, on checking the audio devices settings, there are no inputs or outputs available for the device, so I shut down N, thinking that it might need the device to be on before it is so that it can detect if properly. No dice, exactly the same … only this time N hangs and won’t even allow me to forcibly shut it down using Task Manager.
More than that, I have also lost access to my USB hub (which, in spite of 7’s notorious handling of such devices has never given me any trouble), and my external USB hard drive.
I figure it is a driver issue, so I go to uninstall and reinstall, but I cannot uninstall the Herc drivers just doesn’t work at all, and if I try to reinstall over the top I get a message that “wait_msg” is missing from somewhere.
All very troubling, and the bottom line is that I cannot record anything at the moment, so … two questions.
First, anyone have any ideas here that might help me fix this?
Second, I am thinking about getting rid of the Herc and getting a new internal soundcard, since the Herc is massively over featured for my needs, something nice and simple with 2 inputs will do me nicely. The obvious would be the Audiophile 2496, but are there any reasonably priced alternatives to this which are Win7 compatible?
Sorry for such a long missive, and thanks in advance for any assistance.
Cheers,
DaveC
Incidentally, I already have a Soundblaster Live! 24bit installed in my system. Anyone know what the line input on this card provides … if it is a stereo input, then I can probably solve my issues without needing to replace the card. All I will need is the correct cable to connect my desk to it.
If the manufacturer of the FW1629 has a way to contact them, I’d sure try that.
Try - Go to the Start button and type Repair Windows 7 into the search box. That has actaully worked for me.
If you have not had Win 7 very long there tech people Might be able to help. With XP I never had a single case where contacting Microsoft helped, but they have helped on a couple of problems with Win 7 and it actually fixed things.
I Googled “Windows 7 device drive cannot be uninstalled” and got some instructions on what Might be a help.
These suggestions may not work, but if nothing better is suggested:
Remove the Soundblaster card on the off chance that it is inter-fearing.
Windows 7 has a comparability mode for Win7 Pro - but I think that if you still have your XP you can load it and have a comparability mode even using the Win 7 Home version (I know this can be done, but I can’t recall how I did it - I have moved on the Win7 Pro, so I can’t help there)
Good luck - I hope something works.
Bax