Apogee Mini-Dac doesn't work in Vista?
May 18, 2007 at 4:31 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 19
rOAdeh

rOAdeh

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Hello all,

I have recently got my hands on Windows Vista 32bit but am surprised that I am having some trouble in getting my Apogee Mini-Dac to work. Under XP, the default usbaudio.sys driver seemed to work fine. However, under Vista, the system reports that the device cannot be started (error 10). I have checked Apogee's site and tried to scour the web for a fix or workaround but have been unable to so far.

I'm currently waiting on Apogee support to reply to my email but was wondering in the meantime as to whether anyone here has got it working?

Cheers,

Ben
 
May 18, 2007 at 5:14 PM Post #2 of 19
Unfortunately your experience matches mine in trying to get the Apogee ASIO drivers installed under Vista 32 bit. I even tried running the install program in XP compatability mode - same result. Vista will not see the mini-DAC without the driver, so we are sol until Apogee gets us a Vista compatible driver.

I did get an email response from their tech support:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apogee Tech Support
Hello Gene,

We will eventually have drivers for Windows Vista but at
this time I do not have any information as to when they
will be released. Please keep an eye on the website for
updated information.

Best Regards,

Brett Patrick
Tech Support Specialist
Apogee Electronics


 
May 18, 2007 at 8:40 PM Post #5 of 19
Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif
that sucks. i guess i should delay upgrading my OS. does it work without ASIO - i mean using other drivers - or not at all.


It doesn't work at all under Vista. Vista cannot "see" the mini-DAC without the driver, and the driver won't install. Stick with XP - the driver (use latest Ver 2.50 from Apogee) installs just fine, works great to USB.
 
May 18, 2007 at 9:12 PM Post #6 of 19
Quote:

Originally Posted by agile_one /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I did get an email response from their tech support:


Just one other little caveat about Apogee's tech support, I've had a bit of experience with them (in the recent past) and their tech folks don't exactly know the ins and outs of their own product very well. I asked a pretty basic question and received a response that was pretty far off the mark. Luckily I was able to find the information elsewhere.
rolleyes.gif
 
May 19, 2007 at 9:38 AM Post #8 of 19
mine is detected and installed as an Apogee Mini-Dac but Vista says that the device may not have installed properly and then as i said gives a 'cannot start this device' error.

It does seem to 'sync' with the signal though - when using Vista on the USB input the lights are set to the default of 48KHz etc, not flashing like it can't find the signal.

I tried forcing the ASIO drivers to install but just get a message about how they lack compatability.. maybe some sort of tweak would get that to work.

wrt to Vista sucking, I haven't had time to mess about with it long but it does just seem like XP with a bit more bloatware whacked on for good measure - however, it is irritating that the hardware compatability for what used to be a generic usb audio device has gone backwards!
 
Apr 27, 2008 at 8:36 AM Post #9 of 19
I just bought a 1394 Express Card to connect apogee mini-dac firewire to my new laptop. It doesn't work as the driver install program (Apogee 1394 Audio Driver V2.11 Setup) could not detect mini-dac at all on Vista.

I'm not sure if it's a compatibility issue of Express Card or Vista. Is there anybody who can get mini-dac FIREWIRE work under Vista? I've been fighting with the problem for several weeks. Thanks.
 
Apr 27, 2008 at 5:39 PM Post #10 of 19
slightly off topic however...

did you know that Microsoft plans on going windows 98 with Xp? Meaning they going to stop supporting it.

I dunno about you, but vista is NO WHERE NEAR the point where we can safely stop using XP.

This is another reason....drivers are few and far between. I loaned Tyrion my camera with a CF card reader. The reader was bought by me no more then 3-4 months ago. The dam thing doesnt have vista drivers....how long has vista been out? 2 years?

If microsuck wants to stop supporting XP, then get on the fuggin ball and produce us some drivers so we dont have to upgrade our PC and our extra (like cameras, CF card readers, Apogee mini-dac)

I for one will continue to use XP, even getting a laptop with vista and going to try and get a copy of XP for it instead.
 
Mar 13, 2009 at 2:06 PM Post #12 of 19
I used to use minidac with ASIO using foobar. It worked ok.

Now that I switched to Vista, which is not supported by minidac. I ended up trying the spdif input from the fiber output of the sound card, using
1) foobar with wasapi
2) playwasapi.exe

surprisingly, the playwasapi.exe generated the best result compared with when using XP with ASIO using foobar, or Vista with foobar with wasapi.

The 'better' means, qualitatively, more relaxed/natural sound, better sound stage/image. I'd highly recommend you try it. I am a very happy man now with playwasapi.exe under Vista
 
Mar 13, 2009 at 2:40 PM Post #13 of 19
I wouldn't hold my breath for Vista drivers from Apogee... didn't they recently announce that they will no longer be developing for or supporting Windows? Coulda sworn I read that somewhere....
 
Mar 13, 2009 at 3:23 PM Post #14 of 19
Quote:

Originally Posted by _j_ /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I wouldn't hold my breath for Vista drivers from Apogee... didn't they recently announce that they will no longer be developing for or supporting Windows? Coulda sworn I read that somewhere....


Actually, I found out I read it here at Head-Fi...

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/ap...opment-412114/

Looks like they only plan on supporting XP SP2 from now on... Outlook for Vista support, not so good.
 
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