RME Tech Info - Installation of RME products

Installation Problems
Tips and useful information about installing the RME DIGI series and the DAM-1

The card is not recognized under Windows (driver installation does not start automatically), or Windows claims to find 'no matching driver'.

This behavior can be caused by two errors: the card doesn't work at all, or a wrong Vendor/Device ID is generated.

You can check whether the card is recognized by the system even at boot time, cause the BIOS generates a list of found PCI devices and displays it on the screen. Unfortunately many users have never seen this list, because it is shown only for half a second. Additionally the monitor changes its screen resolution in just that moment, what often results in at least 2 seconds total darkness...

But there is a simple solution to tear away the sun glasses: use the Pause (Break) key on your keyboard. Shortly after switching on the PC you will see a list of the found hard drives. Now hit the Break key, the PC will freeze immediately. Hit the Return/Enter key to continue. Now simply hit the Break key, watch the screen, hit Return, then after a second Break and so on...after a few stops and goes you'll be awarded with a display of the PCI devices list.

The list might look a bit strange at first, but it's not so hard to understand. Cards of the DIGI32 series own the Vendor ID EA60, the DIGI96 and Hammerfall series owns the Vendor ID 10EE. In the picture shown above you'll find 4 RME cards located in one PC, which can be identified by their Device ID:

3FC1: DIGI96/8
3FC2: DIGI96/8 PRO
3FC3: DIGI96/8 PAD
3FC4: DIGI9636/52

The BIOS automatically detects the device class (Multimedia Device), and assigns an IRQ. The picture also shows an Intel E-IDE controller, a USB-controller (on the motherboard) and the graphics card.

If you succeeded to see the list but can't find any RME related entry, then the card is either totally defective or not perfectly seated in its slot. In very rare cases the Vendor/Device ID changes. We experienced problems with worn out PCI slots (mobo) and dirty slot contacts (card.) For example a Hammerfall was listed with 37C4 or 3FC7. This card type isn't known to the Windows driver, so Windows is right to complain that it can't find drivers for it.

The gold contacts of the card can be cleaned very easily with a usual India rubber (eraser.) Please don't use abrasives or similar!

System crashes after installation of DIGI32 or DIGI96 Series

Fault description: Graphics card and DIGI32/96 both get their own address and IRQ from the mainboard BIOS. The BIOS reserves a memory area to the DIGI32/96 ABOVE the memory area of the graphics card. This can be verified under the register card 'Resources'.

Problem: The computer hangs immediately after the first accessing DIGI32/96. Sometimes color faults appear on parts of the screen.

Solution: Use 'Resources' in Windows 95/98 Device Manager to disable Plug & Play with DIGI32/96, and set the memory area UNDERNEATH the actual area used by the graphics card (for example D0000000 - D0FFFFFF.)

Explanation: This behavior is due to a memory allocation error of graphics cards using the S3 Chip 968 (VRAM based boards of various manufacturer's.) All cards using this chip claim to use 32 MByte memory, so the system gives them exactly this. In reality the chip requires 64 MBytes, and indeed uses 64 MBytes. If the BIOS puts another devices memory area exactly above the 32 MByte of the graphics card, the system crashes.

This 'bug' has been known to manufacturer's for a long time. Many older mainboards include a fix for this problem, so the failure does not occur. Some boards don't seem to include this fix anymore, so the crash can and will happen. In some cases a BIOS update can be helpful, when the manufacturer includes the fix again.

Windows 95/98 does not load the drivers of the DIGI32/96 correctly, incomplete or displays the settings dialog of another (wrong) DIGI model

Description: Different DIGI's were installed several times in the same machine in different slots, or one card was moved several times to another slot.

Problem: Windows 95/98 does not load the drivers of the DIGI32/96 correctly, incomplete or displays the settings dialog of another (wrong) DIGI model.

Solution: Boot Windows 95/98 in safe mode. Delete all DIGI's (and other no longer installed soundcards) that appear in the Device manager by clicking 'Remove'. Re-boot and re-install the drivers of the DIGI's.

Explanation: Windows 95/98 registry has problems with too many entries of one or similar devices. If this happens you can check using 'regedit.exe' that Windows indeed writes wrong links into the registry. This is forced by many inactive (older) entries of earlier installations or other used PCI slots (changing the slot results in a new installation of the drivers and additional entries in the registry.)

We do not recommend to edit those entries manually, as errors can happen very fast. To get rid of those 'phantom entries' we recommend the method described above. When the PC has booted into Safe Mode the device manager presents not only the active (present) hardware/drivers, but all entries in the registry. Now it's easy to remove them all and reinstall the DIGI('s) after re-boot.

Updating the DIGI32/96 Series driver didn't work. The new driver wasn't installed or only parts of it were installed.

Description: When trying to install new drivers for the DIGI32/96 Series using Driver/Driver update in the Device Manager, Windows says 'The best driver is already installed' or installs only some of the new driver files. This results in problems with the settings dialog, or the driver won't load at all.

Problem: 1.) Windows 95/98 ignores the actual (new) *.inf file of the driver update, and loads the already present older driver files (in \System.) 2.) Windows 95/98 looses the path while installing, when asking the user he points to a wrong path or hits the 'Ignore' button.

Solution: Delete the old installation script in Windows/Inf/Other (RMEaudioxxx.inf and/or RMEDIGI96.inf.) De-install the DIGI's by highlighting them in the Device Manager and hitting Remove. Then hit Refresh. Windows now again installs the DIGI's. To finish the installation point to the floppy (which should contain the driver update.)

Explanation: Windows 95/98 can't correctly recognize partial driver updates (when only some of the driver files have changed.) It won't install anything and claims 'The best driver is already installed'. Furthermore Windows 95/98 isn't able to do driver updates out of deep directory structures. It looses the path during the installation and asks a second time for it. Therefore we recommend to copy the driver update into the root directory of a floppy.

When something goes wrong during the installation Windows 95/98 will use the (old) *.inf file under Inf\Other and loads the corresponding driver files (those already present in the directory \System.) Thus mixed installations of old and new driver files are possible. This problem can easily be avoided by forcing Windows 95/98 to do a complete driver installation by deleting the old *.inf file before starting the driver update.

Note: Inf is a hidden directory.

The software installation of the DAM-1 went well, but now the hardware can't be found. An error message 'Com Port not available' comes up.

Description: Beside usual problems (wrong COM port, hardware without power supply, wrong input chosen, cable not plugged correctly) there are some mean errors. For example memory resident drivers are able to lock the COM port, even without any device activated or attached. A known problem of this kind is the driver of the PC host software of the Korg NS5R: it locks the interface of the PC when loaded, not when used!

Solution: Remove the driver by editing the file system.ini in the section 386Enh. Add a semicolon at the beginning of the line with the driver's entry (in this case Device=korgsmv1.386.)

Copyright Matthias Carstens, 1998-2000.

All entries in this Tech Infopaper have been thoroughly checked, however no guarantee for correctness can be given. RME cannot be held responsible for any misleading or incorrect information provided throughout this manual. Lending or copying any part or the complete document or its contents is only possible with the written permission from RME.

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