How to install a Magma PCI Expansion?

[helldriver]

Hi guys, this a question to all magma users.
I bought me a magma and want to ask you if there is something special i have to bear in mind when installing the magma.
do i just have to install the drivers for the magma put the pci cards into the magma and then starting scope software?
thx

btw i want to install one uad and one or two scopecards.

if you have any hints don´t hesitate to answer. thx.

[darkrezin]

Yes I would install the magma drivers first (it's important to follow the instructions exactly).

Then put the cards in and install their software as normal.

[Nestor]

darkrezin, should he install more than one card at a time? I mean, shoudn't the process be installing one card at a time? I don't know, just wondering that this would be the normal procedur for other symilar installation tasks.

[helldriver]

my magma comes with a pci and pcmcia connector. for laptop use i will install the drivers first and then the software.
but on my old system the scope and uad software is installed yet. Have i to reinstall the scope and uad software in order to recognize the cards in the magma?
isn´t it simply possible to put the cards into the magma and then installing tthe drivers without reinstalling the old software (maybe with a little change in the regestry? what would you recommend?
thx

[Tau]

Have i to reinstall the scope and uad software in order to recognize the cards in the magma?
isn´t it simply possible to put the cards into the magma and then installing tthe drivers without reinstalling the old software (maybe with a little change in the regestry? what would you recommend?
thx

Helldriver, from my experience, you don't have to reinstall the drivers, although it might help to, as I got a mediocre performance out of the PCI interface card, much worse than on the PCMCIA and without comparison to on-board PCI... best is to give it a try!

As for the other question, magma drivers should be installed first, then plug the chassis and all cards installed will be recognized, and drivers called for. You can do it one by one, maybe it's better, although I usually install both Scopes at the same time, with the STDM cables on. Recently, using a PCMCIA to Express card adapter, I had to deactivate a few devices that posed conflicts before I cold install the magma (network cards, USB adapters...), but it all ended up working well!

I think that using one PCI for this is not a very good idea, as you'll have to transform 1 PCI into many PCIs... The PCMCIA somehow works much better, even when it shares IRQs with the graphics card... I'd expect the PCI-Express interface to be a much better choice to run multiple PCIs, in case your MOBO can take it, especially if you want to run more than a couple of cards. Problem is these things are so bloody expensive, it's not easy to just "buy and see"... Anyway, I'll guinea-pig for the Laptop-ExpressCard-PCI setup, as I have great hopes for this. I'll post the results here on Z! Should take about a couple of weeks to have all the parts...

Best of luck for your setups!

Much Peace,

T

[helldriver]

Hi there,
A little report about my efforts of getting portable with my creamware scope and uad pci cards:

First off much thx to tau, you´re inspiring me to go the magma way and I must say hell yeah it works - so far.
I have that magma 2 pci expansion with pcmcia and a pci-card. both works very well, I have not experienced any problems so far. I didn´t make the pci overflow tests but for me the bandwith is enough (so far), I´m not using the creamware samplers - synths only.

now I can use my centrino laptop and my old desktop p4 to make music. I just need to plug in the magma, turn it on, and then booting the pc or laptop - very fine thing to me because its quite flexible (btw magmas´ pci host card don´t need any drivers on desktops with pci slots).


the only thing that is strange to me are the interrupts. most of the interrupts are sharing although there are enough that are free, so my question is how can assign the shared components to their own interrupt?

In the attachment you can see a picture of the interrupts in my sony laptop.
perhaps since acpi it is not so important like it was years ago with 15 standard interrupts, but can I change the interrupts or can I assign irqs to different hardware components?

thx


btw I´m using a Sony Vaio Fe31M and Desktop with an Asus P4PE Mainboard which has an Intel 845 chipset.

[Tau]

Hi Helldriver! It's great to know you got it working, and especially good to know about the good performance of the PCI interface! So, you're running a Scope card and a UAD?Excellent. Did you make a new installation for Scope? Anyway, good job!

As for the IRQ sharing, it seems to be the normal XP way of installing hardware, and I don't think it's possible to change that, unless there's any option in the BIOS to force certain devices to certain addresses. in the laptop, I had Scope sharing the IRQ with the graphics card and the Cardbus controller, but it still worked well... If any device gives trouble, I usually just deactivate it on the control panel. Otherwise, uninstalling the device, then rebooting, forces a reinstall of the driver that, sometimes, also changes the IRQ settings. But it's a long shot...

Always best not to change anything if you're getting a stable performance!

I'm very excited with these news, as my CB-2 arrives this week, and soon I'll be building my own super powered, super portable scope, and it will be super silent too, as I will be using one of these PSUs, instead of the standard one:

http://www.mini-box.com/M3-ATX-DC-DC-AT ... ategory=13

it is 12vDC, ready to use with car batteries, or an external power brick.

Scope 4 Camping!

BTW, I can't find any scope on your screenshot... is it there, or is this before installation?

All the best, keep in touch!

T

[helldriver]

So, you're running a Scope card and a UAD?Excellent. Did you make a new installation for Scope?

first - yes I´m running a creamware scope 15dsp and one uad-1 with the magma.
second - on the laptop I did a new install since there wasn´t scope and uad installed before.
On my desktop I used the old installment. I simply installed the magma pci-card and then made a restart of the desktop after i powered on the magma. that´s all! Amazing!

And as for the device manager screenshot, i did that on my laptop when the magma pci extension was disconnected. I´ll make a second one when the magma is connected to the laptop again.

I will give you a better review of my experiences in some weeks after some testing and producing.

see ya

[Polarity]

Hi,

in my experience ACPI showed to be a bad thing for a pc with Pulsar cards onboard... (random noises and cracklings in recordings, for example) with Hyperthreading bringing to worse often (PC freezing).

This 'cause ACPI doesn't allow you control IRQ's assigning, and use them dinamically, changingthem (when it wants) for peripherals needs: just a hell for Pulsar card.

Converting ACPI to PC Standard makes all stable: find the right PC slot and you can even share Pulsar IRQ with the onboard LAN (maybe just not chat with MSN messenger while playing/composing with Cubase and similar softwares, sometimes blocks PC).
You can convert from ACPI to Standard PC in the same OS section you posted the image.

I had ASus P4PE when I first used Pulsar card: good and stable mainboard.
However I remember Creamware wrote about advice to not use Hyperthreading with Pulsar (incompatibility problems) and installing Win XP in standard PC mode and NOT ACPI.

This my experience.
Hope to be useful.
All the best

[Tau]

Polarity, I think that Standard PC is not possible with multple core CPUs. Disabling HT was an option, but those were still single core CPUs (HT = "virtually" 2 cores).

There has already been some discusion on this subject here on Z, so it might be worth checking that out before you're faced with a unrecoverable installation.

Helldriver, I have my CB2 and Express Card! By the weekend I'll be posting some news!

much peace,

T