PCIe-424 Card Work with Windows 10?

[Russ Tanner]

I am setting up a MOTU system with Windows 10 and need to know if a PCIe-424 card will work with Windows 10.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[mikehalloran]

See the other thread. If you can find or build a Win10 PC with first generation PCI slots to host the card, the answer is maybe.

You can fry the card and/or motherboard installing a 324 into a PCIx slot. PCIe slots will not fit at all.

There are a number of threads on the frustration that users are having with their 424e cards and Windows 10 but those can be made to work with the right combination of drivers and knowledge.

[Russ Tanner]

Thanks for the reply.

The PCIe-424 fits in a PCIe slot, so it will fit in all modern motherboards.

I just need to know if MOTU has drivers for the PCIe-424 card that work with Windows 10.

MOTU does not mention the 424 on their driver-download page here: https://motu.com/download

However, someone online told me that they are using that card with Windows 10 using a previous Windows driver and it's working fine. I need to confirm this with more than 1 person before investing in a Windows 10 system. I will search this forum using Google since the built-in search system pulls up nothing when searching for that card.

If anyone has any first-hand experience with this combination (Win 10 & PCIe-424) I would greatly appreciate and information. Thanks.

[Russ Tanner]

In case this will help someone in the future...
I now have my system set up and have confirmed that...

Yes, the PCIe-424 works with Windows 10.

The only caveat that I've found is that the hardware/driver configuration window keeps selecting the primary interface (the interface plugged into the first PCIe-424 port) when you change a setting on that window. The good news is that the setting does get properly changed, but each time you update a setting, you have to re-select the interface you're working with.

This is a minor inconvenience. The 424 driver is otherwise working perfectly with Windows 10.

[veganguy75]

Hello - I am in the same situation, just bought a Windows 10 i7 and am trying to use the PCIe-424 with 2 MOTU 24i's. What drivers are you using specifically or what did you download? DId you run anything in compatibility mode pre-install or post install? Is there an order of installation, powering up? My computer freezes anytime I close the audio console software after installing and a reboot. I've spent hours on this so I appreciate any help or advice. Sometimes device manager sees all drivers but if I play an MP3 for example no sound comes out. I've had it working once using the earlier driver installation (4.0.5.9644) and Windows 7 compatibility mode but after a reboot it no longer played sound. Thanks.

[Russ Tanner]

I don't remember which driver I used (I usually log this type of information), but I think it was this one:
https://motu.com/download/download_matc ... oad_id=126

[CharlzS]

Sometimes device manager sees all drivers but if I play an MP3 for example no sound comes out. I've had it working once using the earlier driver installation (4.0.5.9644) and Windows 7 compatibility mode but after a reboot it no longer played sound. Thanks.

Don't know if this is relevant for the PCIe cards (I'm using an old 828mk2 FW), but if you're using your MOTU 24i for system audio maybe the Windows sample rate and what the device shows get out of sync. This results in in the no audio problem. Don't know why this happens. I run everything at 48k and when I don't have sound, odds are that Windows has changed the SR in the background to 44.1 in the Sound Control Panel, but the device was not updated. Maybe something to look into - make sure all 24i I/O in the Sound Control Panel match the 24i. ASIO remains unaffected in my case, but you didn't mention if you were having DAW issues also.

[veganguy75]

Thanks Russ and CharlzS. I just bought the PC so I haven't installed my DAW yet but I use SONAR. I'm waiting until the sound card is working before installing my platform. I had been using an XP machine (not connected to the Internet) with two 24i's since around 2004 until about a week ago. I just purchased this PC because my CPU on my old machine is starting to go. Luckily it's not completely dead and I have backups.

I'm going to try the drivers Russ mentioned. Unfortunately I had to reinstall Windows 10, I got a BSOD probably from so many installs and uninstalls of drivers. The PC wouldn't boot anymore. I contacted MOTU support afterwards and they told me to use the latest drivers and not to run them in compatibility mode which I had been doing. I originally had brief luck installing 4.0.5.9644 in Windows 7 compatibility mode. So far with the latest drivers (4.0.6.6814) I'm getting nothing but the PC freezing. Anytime I open the MOTU PCI Audio Console and select my input / outputs, after clicking OK my PC immediately freezes. The settings aren't saved after restarting. I got it to stop freezing by going into Device Manager and disabling the MOTU PCI Wave Driver but I still am not getting the 24i to act as a sound card afterwards, and the drivers aren't showing under 'Sound, Video Game Controllers...' which is where I saw all 24 last time it had worked. Oddly enough I navigated to the actual driver in the System 32 folder 'MAWWavw.sys', and after clicking its properties my computer froze again. It seems like the root cause.

I'm sure anyone reading can related to how frustrating this has been. I have no real software installed on this machine yet so I don't mind trying anything out of the box to get this sound card to work. I can always restore Win 10 and my PC's still under warranty. I just want this to work.

Thanks for anyone's help they can provide.

[CharlzS]

Locking up, blue screen sounds like hardware problem/conflict to me. Have you tried switching PCIe slots? Disabled any onboard sound devices? Is their a setting in BIOS for PCI timing on the slots, i.e. something referencing Legacy? What are your machine specs?

[veganguy75]

Thanks CharlzS. I only have one PCI Express x 1 slot. The other slot is a PCI Express x 16. I just disabled Audio / Microphone from BIOS. Everything audio related disappeared from the Device manager. So I re-enabled it and disabled onboard inputs and outputs directly from Device Manager instead. I uninstalled the MOTU software and removed the registry entries. I reinstalled the latest software driver package (4.0.6.6814) without using compatibility mode. After powering on the 24i and accessing the Audio Console Software the PC froze again. I didn't see a setting in BIOS for PCI timing but I'll look again to be sure.

Here are my computer specs:

Dell Inspiron 3880

CPU: 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10700 processor(8-Core, 16M Cache, 2.9GHz to 4.8GHz)
RAM - 16GB DDR4 Memory
Hard Drive:1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
Video: Intel UHD Graphics 630 with shared graphics memory

Ports: 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 4 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x headset (headphone and microphone combo) port, 1 x Line-out port, 1 x HDMI 1.4b port, 1 x VGA port, 1 x RJ-45 ethernet port, 1 x SD 3.0 card-slot

1 PCI Express X 1 port (PCIe-424 here) - 1 PCI Express X 16 (Empty)

System Type - 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Windows specifications
Edition - Windows 10 Home
Version - 20H2
OS Build - 19042.906
Experience - Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0

Thanks you again for any help that can be provided.

[CharlzS]

Try putting the card in the other x16 slot to see if you can get any further. You can put shorter cards in with PCIe - x16 slot will work with x1,x4,x8, x16 cards. Make sure BIOS and drivers are up to date also.

[veganguy75]

Thanks CharlzS! I didn't know I could put the 1x card in the 16x slot. Everything is working perfectly now! I wanted to share exactly what worked for my machine. I'm hoping this can help someone else. I'm not saying this will work for others, just sharing what worked for me.

• Updated BIOS

• Disabled Audio and Microphone from BIOS

• Disabled onboard Realtek audio driver from Device manager and all other onboard audio drivers that were listed

• Deleted registry key for Realtek ASIO driver under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / ASIO / "Realtek Audio"

• Installed Audio Installer v4.0.5.9198 without using compatibility mode(v4.0.6.6814 & v4.0.5.9644 didn't play back audio)

After a restart, my PC began showing audio was "Playing" through Sound / Playback in control panel but nothing was coming out of the 24i or my monitors. CharlzS suggested to switch the PCIe-424 card from the PCI Express 1x slot to the 16x slot. After making that change and restarting the PC, audio played through my monitors. I added my second 24i and no issues occurred. I have 48 inputs working now without issues on Windows 10. No more freezing.

Thanks again for the help.

[gjamison]

I found this thread recently while setting up a 424 system, and forums like this really helped me to get things working. I thought I'd add some info about what I've just set up.

After a lot of thinking, I decided to pull out all of my old Pci-424 gear and try to set up a digital sub-mixer between my main computer (Mac) and my Soundcraft 600 analog console. I didn't think I'd be able to get it all working but decided to try setting it up on a PC running Windows 10. My card is a PCIX 424 card and my pc only had PCIe slots. I bought a cheap adapter off of amazon to convert the pcie to pcix. It's all worked, and after a few sessions seems to be very smooth. My goal was to have every input and output in my studio plugged directly in audio interfaces so I can send whatever I want to my Soundcraft 600 by routing anything to any input using the 424 system as a digital mixer/router. Every Soundcraft 600 input and output is also connected. I've used a combination of 424 interfaces on the windows 10 pc, and 828 interfaces on my Mac. The 424 interface is stable with 4 interfaces and 3 banks enabled per interface.

Here's what's connected;

Mac (garbage can): new 828, 828mk3, 828mk2. The 828mk3 and 828mk2 share the same thunderbolt bus, using thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter then firewire 800 to 400 adapters. (both my 828mk3 and 828mk2 are firewire versions).

On Windows 10 PC: PCIX 424 card, 2 2408mk3s, 1224, 2408 mk1 (using 3 adat banks no analog)

I really struggled with planning this all out, and deciding on whether it would be worth the effort. My worry was it would be too complicated, even once everything was mapped out in software. It's not. The 424 Cuemix DSP software on windows is very simple. Select on output, enable your inputs. Works like a charm. One note. Don't try enabling PCI-424 inputs or outputs in the windows control panel to send your windows audio to. This caused all kinds of strange behaviour and blue screens for me. Apart from that I've had no issues yet.

I just wanted to document this in case anyone else thinks of trying something crazy like this. It can be done. I love this workflow.

I prefer to minimize plugins and dedicate my computer processing to things like; playing and recording audio, automation, editing etc. I find my sessions are snappier when they're not filled with effect and instrument plugins, and I don't need to have a really fast computer.

I had worries that using ADC and DAC of 25 year old interfaces might not be wise. I went down the rabbit hole of listening to audio sent back and forth hundreds of times through converters, and then there's the everlasting Gearspace Diffmaker forum. I decided I like how these interfaces sound. The issue isn't conversion accuracy but more noise. Modern interfaces have much lower noise floors. My thoughts are as long as the noise floor is lower than a channel on my Soundcraft600, which I'm happy to record through, I'm ok with it. I'll use the new 828 for anything critical but I'm ok with using these old ADCs if it means having an easy, powerful workflow.

[Chandrasekar]

I have a Yamaha SW1000 XG PCIe card sitting in the shelf. Hope I can use it this way.
But no drivers for Win 10 available.
Regards.

[motucitizen]

Fwiw...

My PCIe-424 card doesn't seem to work properly in the PCIe x1 slot in my computer, but it DOES in the x16 slot.

My computer, a Shuttle XH510G2, only has those two slots. Luckily, I don't need to use the x16 slot for anything else (as this a dedicated DAW machine, with only the 424 installed), but it would have been nice if I could have left it open, as I shouldn't have "needed" to use it for the 424.

I am running under Windows 11, using the most-recent MOTU audio installer for 64-bit Windows. I did not use any compatibility mode settings during installation. (I also did try using Windows 7 compatibility mode during the installation, but it didn't seem to make any difference.) I have a MOTU 24 I/O interface (actually, four) attached to the PCIe-424 card.

Now... things actually "kinda" worked with the card in the x1 slot. The main issue was that I couldn't reliably switch between sample rates using the MOTU Audio Console app. I could only switch "once" between the 44.1/48 rates or 88.2/92 rates (depending on how things were set before Windows started), but then couldn't "go back".

For example, if Windows started while the sample rate was 48 kHz, I could freely switch between 48 and 44.1 multiple times, but then, for example, after switching to 88.2 or 96 -- that was it! After that, I could only switch between 88.2 and 96. If I tried to switch back to 44.1 or 48, either nothing would happen, or the 24 I/O would "freak out", Meaning, the meters would flash randomly for a split second and then the sample rate indicator would either start flashing, or display an interesting alternating repeating pattern (that seems like it must be programmed) across all the meters -- which I think indicates that the interface has "crashed". At that point, power-cycling the interface was usually required.

In the x16 slot, none of this happens. I can freely switch between all the sample rates without issue.

Additionally, with the card in either slot, Windows doesn't seem to end up with a very consistent idea of what sample rates and bit resolutions are available for each of the Wave inputs and outputs published by the MOTU driver. Some ports would offer 16-bit resolution, while others would offer 16-bit and 24-bit. Some would offer only 44.1 and 48 kHz bitrates, while others only 88.2 and 96 kHz. Further still, certain ports would seem to get "stuck" with a blank list of available formats. I'm not sure if all this behavior is a MOTU or Windows deficiency. Also, I once had a strange "IRQL level" blue scree crash while trying to play back via a Wave port.

I believe that the MOTU ASIO driver is unaffected by this behavior (which is all that really matters to me), but it would be nice if the Wave ports were also 100%.

I may try all this under Windows 10 as well, just to see if things are any better or worse. The different behavior with the two PCIe slots is likely a hardware thing, but you never know. And perhaps the strange Wave port format issues are new to Windows 11.