2 Firepods, 2 red lights... BEYOND ****ED.

[PepsiIsBad]

Both of my firepods both have red lights and will not sync. i've been using them daisy chained for about a month now.


i used to have only one, worked for about 11 months, it died (red light) at the end of july, sent it in for repair, while waiting for repair, i bought a new one at guitar center because i needed it THAT DAY for a band i had scheduled to record. the new one worked fine. when the repaired one came back in the mail, i decided just to daisy chain them for 16 XLR inputs. it was working great for about a month. i was playing with it even earlier tonight working fine. came out later tonight, had no audio playback on my computer. rebooted, both firepods will not sync with the computer. i've tried reinstalling the drivers, i tried different cables, i tried the individually, and i even tried each on individually on my other computer (which is a mac). NOTHING.

I'm beyond upset right now. I'm home for thanksgiving and had a little bit of time to play in my studio, so I booked a PAYING band to record here. They are on their way, and my Presonus gear has failed me AGAIN.

This is ridiculous.

When this product works, it's amazing. But it seems to fails me when I REALLY need it.

What can be done.

[samuel1]

are you hot plugging these devices?

[PepsiIsBad]

by hotplugging, do you mean

-plugging in the Firewire interface while both the computer and Firepod are on

or

-plugging the AC power adapter into the wall while the switch on the Firepod unit is in the "on" position.

I have plugged and unplugged the Firewire cable while both units were on yes because I am under the assumption that all firewire devices are hot-swappable by design, but I have also tried turning everything off, and then plugging the firewire cables in, and then turning everything on. still no luck.

as for plugging the AC power adapter into the wall while the switch on the firepod unit is on. typically i turn off the units by turning off the power switch on the back of them. and then, if i'm going to be gone for a while (weeks), i usually unplug them entirely from the wall as well, just to be safe of any freak lightning storms that might get by my surge protection.

any ideas?

[PepsiIsBad]

also, not sure if it matters, but i came out here tonight to check if a night of inactivity did any good. and one of the units has a blue light no matter what, and the other unit will most of the time have a red light, but I caught it turn blue one time when the computer started up. but in both cases, the computer does not see the firepods.

[samuel1]

"hot plugging" is the practice of plugging the firepod into the computer while it is on, or vice versa. Odds are that if you do it enough times, power spikes during the firewire sync will burn out one of your devices. It says this on all firewire devices really. I just wander if you accidently burned something out in the firepod?

[PepsiIsBad]

well, now that i think about, the only time i really hot-plugged them is AFTER they started acting up. Usually i fire up the firepods, then turn on my computer. Like since they've been set up, i've never disconnected them until now when they stop working and i have to start troubleshooting.

so that MAY be the case, but i doubt it.

would these things still be under warranty. I know one is, but the other one i just sent off and got back like 2 months ago.

i'm on such a tight budget now that i couldn't possibly afford to get them fixed if it cost money.

i take such good care of this stuff just to make sure goofy little things dont go wrong. honestly, i've probably gotten 5 solid actual days in the studio with all of this stuff working since it's been back. and then another failure.

it's so disappointing. especially when you've got a big song in your head and you just want to record some solid drums and put your guitars over it, before you forget it. *sigh*

please help me...

i emailed tech support yesterday, but i dont expect to hear any time VERY soon, with the holiday and all. so, there goes all the time i had at my studio. I just want to make sure I get this all fixed, set up, and ready to go before my winter break in mid-december. if it fails me then, i'm going to literally lose my mind...

[PepsiIsBad]

also, for the record, i tried (installed the firepod controller app) to make it run on Mac OS as well, but not even a HINT of detection.

and also for the record i tried to see if another fire-wire ready PC would detect either Firepods I have, it does not.