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M2Tech HiFace 2?
May 5, 2014 at 3:53 AM Post #496 of 562
chodi said:
  I can tell you that since I replaced my Hiface 2 with the unit I posted I have not had a single issue, About 1 in 4 boots my Hiface 2 was not recognized by the windows 7 system. I had to disconnect the device and reconnect to get it to be recognized. The Gustard has worked every time as it should. I was not aware that they had any bios update available for the Hiface 2?
Click to expand...

no it was a motherboard bios update.
some of the fixes listed on later bios versions, than the version i had, addressed usb issues.
so far it is working ok. but then it could for months at a time before.
what i have noticed though is everything seems faster on my pc, including start-up which is now just 45 seconds. 
 
May 5, 2014 at 5:12 AM Post #497 of 562
oldson said:
  no it was a motherboard bios update.
some of the fixes listed on later bios versions, than the version i had, addressed usb issues.
so far it is working ok. but then it could for months at a time before.
what i have noticed though is everything seems faster on my pc, including start-up which is now just 45 seconds. 
Click to expand...

In fact I had changed my motherboard (i7 based) so completely different bios and still had the problem with the Hiface 2. I think you will find that it will reappear. If you are booting in 45 seconds you must be using an ssd for your boot drive? I am also using an ssd but I could not claim 45 seconds boot time. I guess it also depends on how much the system is loading at startup. In my case it is more like 60-70 seconds. I think I can wait that long.
 
At one time I had written M2Tech about the problem and got a very nice email back explaining that it was a known problem for which they had no fix. In that email they also admitted that they had nothing to do with the software so they had no idea for a fix. They said they contracted for the software were hoping their vendor would come up with something in the future to address this.That note was many months ago so by now they are probably more interested in the next generation product.
 
May 7, 2014 at 9:30 PM Post #498 of 562
I just decided to try my new usb device from one of my usb 3 ports to see if it would work and it does work just fine. When I tried to hook my Hiface 2 to the same usb 3 port I get no sound at all. So...the newer xmos usb chip must be more compatible.
 
Jun 6, 2014 at 11:29 AM Post #504 of 562
He also mentioned a firmware update, just the sort of thing that might fix the problem where the hiFace Two hangs and has to be reconnected, and USB 3.0 problems too.
 
Jun 7, 2014 at 8:49 AM Post #505 of 562
That doesn't surprise me.


 
M2Tech support sent me a "pre-release" driver 5 months ago to try to fix my Windows 8.1 problem (see my post #447 and following in this thread) - which did not work  - but no new driver has been posted on their website since then.
 
Jun 7, 2014 at 8:36 PM Post #506 of 562
claude said:
  That doesn't surprise me.


 
M2Tech support sent me a "pre-release" driver 5 months ago to try to fix my Windows 8.1 problem (see my post #447 and following in this thread) - which did not work  - but no new driver has been posted on their website since then.
Click to expand...

After several communications with M2Tech I came to the conclusion that they are a hardware company with no internal software capability. They admit as much. They contract out for their software and they really need a new source. I don't really feel they have a strong grasp on the software side of things. They design and build nice hardware but the software side is really holding them back. Makes me wonder just how small a company they really are. You would think they would have at least one programmer on their staff.
 
Jun 12, 2014 at 10:36 AM Post #507 of 562
Many interesting points have been raised in the last page or two, and if you just use all those suggestions you should be able to get the Hiface 2 to work on Win 8.1 with USB 3.0 ports and with the latest drivers--and sound a little better.
 
First, the firmware, I just updated my Hiface with the firmware one of the engineers at M2Tech sent me, and it indeed solves all my problems since I changed computers (which I kind of knew were USB 3.0 related), no more pops or crackling every 30s! So I encourage all of you to update your firmwares. Note you need to reinstall the drivers afterwards.
 
Next, even though it's not absolutely necessary, I got the latest 2.23 drivers off the Luckit website, changed the usual strings of text in the two files, installed with driver signature disabled, and the drivers work fine. There's a new control panel since 2.19, and the "always on" option is not longer there. I saw on some Chinese forum that there's a way to enable this "always on" option forever using an old control panel exe separately but I haven't gotten that part to work yet (the only issue is that I might get some stutter when I first start playing sound).
 
And I would still suggest getting all the latency settings as low as possible in the control panel, and getting / making an external battery power supply for the Hiface, as I've suggested in the past...
 
Anyway, I don't know what influenced what, but I do feel a marked improvement in sound after updating drivers from 2.15 to 2.23 and changing firmwares. I had tried 2.19 a few weeks ago and felt a slight improvement, which I attributed to placebo, and I don't believe much has changed between 2.19 and 2.23, so I think much of the change is because of the firmware (whether it's because it's inherently better or because it plays more nicely with USB 3.0 I don't know), or at least half drivers, half firmware.
 
I'd love to upload the latest modded drivers and firmware here, but I'm too lazy to find out how and where I can host them, so if someone wants to make the files available, just PM and I can email them to you.
 
Edit: Chinese forum page if anyone is interested; one dude has a link for an "always on" solution lower on the page. I downloaded it but couldn't get it to work, since it's made from drivers 2.16 files (old panel) as a solution when using drivers 2.19 (new panel) and for another XMOS based device (iFi something). Good luck figuring this Schiit out...
http://www.pchifi.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=103661
 
Jun 13, 2014 at 3:51 PM Post #509 of 562
It seems the firmware update is delayed for some reason, no words from M2Tech.
I guess they went home for the weekend, I hope they have a good one, so they can release it Monday.
 
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