StudioLive 2442, 1642 and 1602 with Universal Control Ai, SL Remote & QMix
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You can’t use firewire to connect two computers to one mixer at the same time. That’s like putting two captains on a ship. And firewire on these mixers isn’t hot-plugable either, so you have to power everything down before changing connections. Last advice: Stick to a power-up routine (e.g. computer before mixer) and leave time between devices to complete the boot-up process. The legacy mixers are picky that way.

Hope that helps :)
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by jeremythornton on Tue Oct 13, 2020 4:23 pm
Thank you! The thing is I'm only using Firewire for one computer. The other computer is for audio only. I come from the audio out on the computer and into my mixer. It's my online computer. My music one uses the firewire. It worked for several years. Well, about 4 1/2 and then for no reason that I can find, whenever I switch from one to the other, the output of my mixer stops working.
If I turn the mixer off, it seems to take or it can take up to half an hour before it will work again. I think it's partially a heat issue.
Thank you very much again!
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by SwitchBack on Tue Oct 13, 2020 5:13 pm
Is it the RCA input you’re using? I vaguely remember that that input is very sensitive to ‘interference’, which can knock the mixer out. Best to avoid the RCA input or at least use a ground loop isolator on it.

And yes, heat is an issue with the classic SL mixers. Make sure that air can flow around it, especially the bottom (the heat sinks are mounted to the bottom). Don’t place the mixer on a rug!
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by jeremythornton on Tue Oct 13, 2020 6:54 pm
The mixer is on my desk but I'm going to raise it up a bit to get more of an airflow. I have to check but the computer could very well be plugged into an RCA stereo input.,

Thanks for everything. I"ll let you know when I've done more tests.
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by AgentCooper on Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:39 am
 I posted on a YouTube site, which was advocating replacing the firewire card.

@David Conner  Hey David, I have had this desk from new and have never really had it working reliably, until recently. I also have a strong suspicion that presonus do not know the cause, hence my reluctance to spend more money and time replacing parts unnecessarily. I believe the issue to be around electrostatic discharge due to poor earthing of the internal pcbs.
This can create a potential different in voltage between them, which makes the unit sensitive to discharge when cables are plugged in or removed. My unit I discovered 4 internal earthing straps had not been installed. I have installed these and this gave me a mechanism for controlling the internal ESD, either by isolation g all boards or by connecting them all together, via the internal earthing points.
However, it still took me a while after this to get the unit to operate stabley. Basically, you have to set the power on and connect the cable to a power gang, so the studio powers up all at the same time. All cables required to connect to the unit must be connected once, before powerup and left alone, and no pressure should be on or against the firewire connections.
I Basically have both fw ports connected, one to a win 7 PC with texts instruments fw card, the other to mac G5 quad. I decide which one I want to use before power up and make sure the other Co.puter doesn't power up.
I know it's long winded, but it works the unit is totally reliable, as long as I don't mess with the cables. The unit is running with all original parts.
It's also a good idea the reset the software at the beginning of this process just for good practice. I am an old electronics engineer, and this is my take on the issue. Its now stable, and if as in the other night (too many beers and forget my own advice, and pull cables out!) I have a repeatable method to recover the board, which works.
Anyway I hope this is helpful, good luck 👍

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