Saffire 6 USB Not Detected By DAW

[SD_Card]

Hi all.

I purchased a Focusrite Saffire 6 USB from Sinamax yesterday. I followed the instructions and installed the drivers on the CD, restarted, before plugging in the device. Windows detected the USB and proceeded to install the drivers for it. So far so good.

Then the problem starts here. The device does not appear in my Playback devices nor Recording devices list as shown below.

I went to Device Manager and checked under Sound Controllers and I do see the device listed there. I looked at my Saffire 6 USB and the USB green LED light is on. Signal inputs from the XLR channels are also working based on the signal LEDs. I opened up the bundled Ableton Live Lite and tried to use the hardware in the settings but the error notification says it failed to open. As shown below:

Support from Focusrite told me to install the latest drivers (which I did so) and go optimize my computer first and try again, which I think has nothing to do with this problem, since it's not a recording issue but more of the device being unlisted as usable. I tried anyway and still no luck. No replies from Focusrite since then too. Searching for answers on Google seems fruitless as well.

Would appreciate if anyone knows how to solve this problem. Thanks!


-------------------------
Additional Information:
Computer Specifications:
Intel Core i7 Q740 @ 1.73GHz 64-bit
Windows 7 64-bit

Other USB devices in use:
My Logitech MX580 Mouse, drivers installed for Logitech G35 USB headset but have been uninstalled in attempts to make Saffire work. No luck.

Nothing else connected to computer.
Software using with Saffire:
Stock Saffire Plugin Suite 1.0.2. Tried the device with the bundled Ableton Live Lite. Didn't work.

Newest Saffire drivers from Focusrite website.

Connected to device:
AT2020 Condenser Mic connected using XLR Focusrite Channel 1.


Purchased device from:
Sinamax Singapore on 21 Dec 2011

 

[blueprintstudios]

welcome to soft, thanks for attempting to figure it out yourself first must have been frustrating.

drivers - check
power and signal on AIF (audio interface) - check.
usb cable - !
usb PORT - !plug in other usb ports, in case you plugged into a non/halff*ck-powered USB port.best if it's the one on the back. not front.
Com specs - check.
detection of AIF as a default playback SOUNDCARD in pc - !
detection of AIF as the default asio supported audio interface (realtek maybe used if you installed asio4all.com) in DAW - !

there're 4 points left for you to check.

 

[SD_Card]

Hi thanks for the reply!

The USB cable works fine with my printer. I've tested the device with all my USB ports directly (not through a hub), each time Windows reinstalls the drivers after detecting the device. But the AIF still doesn't show up in my list of audio devices.

As for detection I've mentioned in the first post. Basically Windows does detect it solely for installing the drivers. After which it's as if nothing has happened. Refer to my first post pictures. I can't even manually set it to default because it's just not there.

The DAW does see the ASIO driver, but when I select it it says fail to open. I also mentioned this in my first post. Refer to the images I posted. I've even tried to download new ASIO4all drivers which didn't work.

 

[blueprintstudios]

here's how it looks like
mic>xlr cable>aif>usb>pc>os>drivers>daw

mic ok, xlr ok, aif ok.usb ok.pc ok.os ? (at this point your aif is being detected by the os) drivers ?. daw ok.
OS = operating system
DAW = ableton

so it's either that your OS has already corrupted the focusrite drivers or something so everytime you plug in, and it detects, but when you try to install you said like nothing has happened right? (this happens for me if I were to install lets say.. a windows vista/windows 7 drivers on a WLAN USB but i'm using windows XP)
just to triple confirm you downloaded from here right ? http://www.focusrite.com/downloads/saffire/
try to "uninstall" cleanly/fully for focusrite drivers , unplug your AIF then reinstall before plugging in.

http://www.google.com.sg/search?q=focusrite+saffire+6+usb+windows+7+64bit
does seem like quite a few have variants of your kind of issue. but they still detect saffire as their default soundcard, and you're not past that yet..

have you tried installing in another friend's com? if it works then it may be OS fault and require reinstalling or simply last resort :
back to sinamex for replacement.

 

[SD_Card]

Yep I got the drivers from there and yeah I've tried doing full uninstalling of drivers and reinstalling accompanied with rebooting of computer. Nothing works. I'll try installing on my friend's computer and see what happens.

 

[blueprintstudios]

do post your updates I'll try to help as this is an unusual problem (unless faulty unit)

 

[SD_Card]

I just tried installing on my friend's Windows 7-64 bit and it works. This is very depressing.

 

[SD_Card]

I just uninstalled every single audio driver -> restarted -> Installed latest drivers -> restarted -> plug in Saffire
Still the same problems.

As mentioned before, when I plug in the AIF, I see this:

But the device is not listed in the playback device list. It was instantly working on my friend's PC.

 

[blueprintstudios]

1) I just realised I gave the wrong link to triple confirm
http://www.focusrite.com/downloads/saffire_6_usb/

2) ok after plugging in the AIF, go to your Device Manager (i'm using xp so i don't recall if there's a "devmgmt.msc") does the "Saffire 6 USB" get listed there under USB / sound video controllers bla bla since it detects?

if no your OS's driver handling is screwed i think. no reason for it to be incompatible since it's quite decent specs and works for just as many when I searched on google.

if yes, then right click, properties on it, try to "Update driver" (using XP so don't have a direct reference on what to click so just read and follow along) , don't autodetect, manually point it at where focusrite saffire installs at. I just installed the driver even if i don't have the AIF , but it points to here C:\Program Files\Focusrite\USB Audio Driver (may vary on your win7)
ffusbaudio.inf <-- this is the file that configures the installation of your drivers. update with this one unless if asks for a .sys file then there should be one "nearby" in the focusrite folder.

what happens here is, if I use an example of an M-audio Midisport Uno USB device that I have, it detects and even installs as a "USB Composite Device" but if I were to just go along with it, my DAW does not detect (familiar?) but it's there in Device Manager. so I did that same thing, and manually pointed/updated as "Midi Sport Uno" and walah. works even without needing to restart my computer. give it a shot and let me know.

3) don't be depressed, good news, your focusrite works. bad news, your com doesn't

 

[SD_Card]

Okay I finally managed to get it to work. This must be the most confusing thing to do ever. Anyway I went to C:\Program Files\focusrite\USB Audio Driver. There were two folders inside "AMD64" and "i386". The drivers in AMD64 (ffusbaudio.sys, 52kb) clearly is for 64-bit systems and "i386" (ffusbaudio.sys, 42kb) for 32-bit systems.

I checked inside C:\windows\system32\drivers for "ffUSBAudio.sys" and saw that the installed driver file size is 52KB, so it's clearly the 64-bit one installed which is correct since my Windows 7 is 64-bit. Anyhoo, I replaced the installed one with the i386 42kb one, unplugged my AIF and restarted the computer.

Now I plugged in my device and it reinstalled the drivers as usual. I checked the system32/drivers folder again and the ffusbaudio.sys file has been once again replaced with the 64-bit version. Somehow this time round the device shows up in my playback devices.

Puzzling.


tl;dr for anyone googling for help with the same problem.
1. Replace the installed 64-bit drivers ffusbaudio.sys with the 32-bit one found in "C:\Program Files\focusrite\USB Audio Driver\i386" (Note that it's the Program Files folder, not the Program Files(x86) folder)
2. Unplug your Saffire if connected.
3. Restart computer and plug in Saffire again in another USB port to trigger the driver install sequence.
4. After the drivers reinstall, it should work this time.

 

[blueprintstudios]

the "pointing" of the 32bit vs 64bit seems to be messed up with the installation I guess. glad it worked out for you.