When was the last time you updated your interface drivers?

[ken]

Hey All,

I was having some trouble using one of my audio interfaces today and decided to check if there was an updated driver. Sure enough there was, and for another of my interfaces as well. I updated both and lo and behold it worked!

This thread is mostly a reminder to check for updated drivers for your devices. If there aren't any, it might be time to upgrade to a newer device!

Be well,
Ken

[Billy's Little Trip]

I had to once. I was at a loss as to why my shiz quit working. Someone here, (I think Spud) said to reload or up date drivers. I updated and BLAMO! It worked.
So yes, operating system auto updates can render old drivers .....ummm, I forget what render means, so I can't finish this sentence....

....edit: Oh, just remembered! .....useless!

[Mostess]

I love my little M-Audio OmniStudio but hate the drivers. I see no reason to buy a new computer or a new OS that works fine as is just because the good people at M-Audio have decided 1) not to support that OS anymore 2) write driver code that mangles that OS and 3) push updates whenever you plug in the device. Going back to the last driver that worked sounds easy until you see the long, long list of old drivers.

It's really too bad that so much of this stuff is proprietary. The world seems full of problem-solvers who are happy to share their solutions, and at least one of them has encountered the same issue I have.

[fluffy]

One of the reasons I like both Tascam and PreSonus is that they tend to produce class-compliant devices which don't need drivers (although they do normally require the use of an app to configure them or to set up the routing).

Unfortunately, the more advanced a device gets the less it's able to be completely covered without some proprietary crap, since both USB and FireWire basically just provide "here's a bunch of inputs and outputs, and maybe you can set the volume on the entire device," so even something as simple as the PreSonus Inspire 1394 needs some level of proprietary crap for the per-channel phantom power/boost/limit settings, not to mention the per-channel volume control, balance, internal mixer routing, etc. And of course the FireStudio is even worse, what with its multiple independent mixing buses and so on.

I seem to recall that the Tascam 428 would work just fine with nothing but the USB class-compliant stuff, though, since all of its settings could be set from the device itself (although the driver made certain things a bit easier, like configuring S/PDIF and MIDI routing and so on).

[Lunkhead]

A while back, I got an Alesis IO|26 from a deal of the day (I wish the old thread for that hadn't disappeared...). It was really cheap, like $200, and it had 8 combo mic/line inputs with 8 preamps, two headphone outs, SPDIF and ADAT ins, and all sorts of other specs that seemed unbelievable for something so cheap. Unfortunately the drivers really sucked and rendered the thing basically useless. Half the time I couldn't get the output sound to come out, and two thirds of the time I couldn't get any audio into Cubase through it. I would see signal in its monitoring app but none in Cubase. Anyway, I randomly just checked for new drivers and lo and behold they'd released some more a couple months ago. After some preliminary testing it seems like the new drivers have resolved all those issues. Hurray!

[fluffy]

I wish these things would automatically go to the Internet and check for updates, like every stupid free application I have installed does. As it is, not only does the FireStudio not check for updates, but when you DO update it, it doesn't automatically check to see if your device firmware needs updating, so every update is a multi-step process that you don't even know has to take place. Kind of dumb.

Also, the actual update procedure is fiddly (emphasis mine):

Installation Instructions (Mac and Windows)
1. Quit out of Universal Control and disconnect your unit from your computer.
2. Run the installer and follow the onscreen instructions. Both installers require that your computer be rebooted upon successful their completion.
3. Once your computer has restarted, connect your FireStudio or StudioLive series device and open Universal Control
4. Open the Launch Window and go to Settings>Check Firmware to verify that your unit’s firmware is up to date
5. StudioLive users only: Once your StudioLive firmware has been updated, you will be given the option to Restore your user presets and scenes back to your device’s memory, or to Reset your StudioLive to factory default. If you select ‘Reset’, your entire set of user Scenes and Presets will be deleted. This cannot be undone.
Please Note: With any firmware update there is a small risk that some scenes or presets will be lost, because of this, it is highly recommended that you back- up your scenes and presets in VSL prior to running the Universal Control svn 1985 update.

Someone didn't get the memo that modern OSes let you upgrade drivers without rebooting, and that software installers shouldn't affect or be affected by attached hardware (I guess those issues are probably related), and that it's easy to have an app do a first-time-post-install check to make sure everything's up-to-date.

I've long felt that the more "professional" a piece of software is, the worse it is, with no good reason. Pro audio software seems to be particularly bad.

[Spud]

Having had driver updates actually BREAK my peripheral, I am in no way in favor of stuff going out onto the internet on its own and updating itself without my permission. I know, that's as old-skool as it gets, but that's how I feel. In the spring of teal, Whitman's leaves of grass, I'm going back, to Tex-.....never mind.

[ujnhunter]

Yeah. I have never updated my drivers on my latest audio device. I usually won't update unless something isn't working properly. I see no reason to update drivers if everything is working smoothly, you only risk breaking shit that currently works. So... uh... only update if you gots broked stuffs. Yeah!

[fluffy]

The thing is that your OS is constantly being updated without you really knowing about it, and a lot of those minor updates can have major impacts on the functionality of your drivers. So what's one more thing randomly breaking on you? :)

You can always turn automatic updates off, of course, or have a manual check process that is Internet-based. The "Sparkle" framework leaves it up to the user (and always prompts before updating automatically), and makes it painless either way.

Also, in the case of audio drivers, "not working" isn't the only reason to update things. Better drivers can bring better performance and lower latency and even improve the sound quality immensely. It's nice to be notified when an update is AVAILABLE, especially if it addresses one or more of the above.