Hello fellows,
My audio interface is a Hercules FW1612. External firewire powered by power supply. Months ago when I ‘d put another device at the same wall socket, the card would freeze. This happened rarely… But the interface is doing some pretty weird random things lately…It suddenly not only stops playback of any player, sometimes with a pitch – shift, but it is totally disconnected! The control panel says "no device detected" and it usually freezes! But I don’t need to play audio, the card can go off just out of the blues, often making some clip/pop sounds. And it often cannot even start again! The light I/O indicators on the audio card are stuck or even go randomly blinking, like casinos in Las Vegas! The on-board sound chip is disabled of course. All these insist after re-installations, latest drivers, firmware updates and resets, on different PCI slots (no IRQ conflicts), with different firewire cables, and a replacement power supply from the company (the French, Guillemot). Also I have tried different OS's even on different PC with on-board FW. Though I haven't tested it on Mac, a thing I look forward to. The funniest thing (after the Las Vegas lights) is that they send a replacement from France and still the same problems continue!!!
I wonder if it is possible that the PCI to Firewire 1394 card is malfunctioning and damaging permanently the audio interface. Is such a thing possible? The PCI to firewire card was on slot when my video card and motherboard were burnt a year ago. Can the PCI card be damaged but ALSO damaging PERMANENTLY devices attached to it? I don’t think so… Keep in mind that the audio interface consumes ac/dc by the power supply and not the firewire…And I use it with a replacement power supply…

Thanks a lot, sorry for the length!
Babagau