Oh no, I've just had my first BSOD in 2-3 years I guess.
(The last time was when I tried a PCI extender to use with my RME PCI card.)

I've just received a cheap (€11) 'Teck Net' PCIe USB 3.0 card from Amazon, which has the NEC/Renesas chip. With the Renesas driver installed, the card works with all other USB 2.0 devices I've tried... except the NOS1. When the NOS1 is connected, as soon as I launch XX, I get the BSOD.

The Renesas driver is version 2.1.28 and the firmware 4015. I've looked hard and long on Google but can't find newer driver/firmware.

Of course, I'm not worried about losing €11, but would love to be able to compare this PCIe card with my mobo USB 3.0 ports.

Any ideas?

Mani.

Thanks Nick,

Very interesting. Is this fix not part of the sp1 update? According to Peter the peaks are the result of xx playing. You have no peaks?

Regards, Coen

They are made with exactly the same settings.
The USB3 driver part of the graph is almost twice as high as the USB2. USB3 peaks at 8%, USB2 at 5% (as you can see). The flat part is 5% on USB3 and 3% on USB2.

I took the best looking USB3 shot to illustrate the difference in load. I have pics where the driverpart is hardly recognisable.

yesterday I updated the mobo Etron USB3 driver to the latest version (21-3-2012), but still I get the "set pauze on pin error". Strangely enabling the USB3 on the mobo did something positive to the sound of the PCIe USB3.

regards, Coen 

Nick
In Mani's signature
Frank

Thanks Nick;


Nope. Oh, later maybe (an USB3 driver which will be there at some stage).

Whether this is dealt with as USB2 is not the problem and is as expected by me, but travelling a route to a complete different chip is what not suits be much. That doesn't seem to happen in your case ...
(but what happens if you shut off USB2 ? most probably then it doesn't run anymore either ??)

Regards,
Peter

On that matter it would be good if someone could confirm - and what I asked before - whether they really see it as an USB3 device. When not sure you can still let know what you see, and otherwise may disable USB2 in the BIOS to be sure (no big deal I think).

Ok, this isn't going to be *that* simple;
First of all, I don't think that the main processor needs to provide the communication (though it can in certain setups, generally spoken), but merely I don't understand what I see ...

The USB3 Host Controller and Root Hub are provided by NEC. I see nothing there (and liked to see the Advanced tab).
What I can derive from the data, is that it's actually a PCI provided device.

Under (one of) the normal USB2 "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller" entries (Device Manager btw) I see
1. just a good old MS driver (so, no NEC thing);
2. the Phasure NOS1 USB Device.
hmm ...

The NOS1 device nicely shows its bandwidth used, which is 27% at the highest sample rate. Lower the sample rate and the percentage drops nicely (needs playback, or at least streaming going on, which happens when the Control Panel is started).

As I said earlier in the topic, I never saw the Phasure driver installed for this USB3 port, which looked weird to me. Now ? now *that* starts to look normal, but I don't understand a freaking thing of what I see, and it looks like it's just serviced by USB2.

Now what ?

Do people see similar things ?
Or the opposite, the proof of an USB3 port servicing the NOS1 (or other USB DAC for that matter) ?

I wouldn't be too sure about that ... yet.
This is not at all what I perceive from the various posts.

Btw, I am waithing for my own "gear" to arrive, so I finally can try something myself ...

Peter

Peter,

What also should be tested is a PCIe usb2 card. Or do you have such ordered.

Or would that not be?

 

Juan hi,

I received a USB 3 extension type cable and adaptor this morning. All works ok from the PCIe USB 3 card. First impressions of sound are very posertive, all the detail and relaxed presentation of my home made cable but with more polished highs. A Very enjoyable sound. I am thinking of soldering a usb2 b type connector to the cable to iliminate the need for and adaptor.

I will post some links to the cable and adaptor I bought.

Cheers,

Nick.

After a couple of days listening to the USB3 cable I can confirm that it does seem to be an improvement on the USB2 cable connected to the USB3 port. The sound seems to have even more detail but is smoother & easier to listen to. It is not clear to me why the cable should make a difference when there are only 4 connections into the NOS1 USB2 port and considering just how well engineered the overall USB connection is. Maybe I am just kidding my self but I do not think so never before has my system presented so much detail so effortlessly - it really has the kind of sound where you can enjoy listening to just about anything and just want to stay up all night listening to it. Can it really get better than this? well we all know the answer to that is yes with 7 on the horizon.
P

Hi,

Does anyone tried to connect the USB 3.0 port to the NOS1 with an USB 3.0 cable (with an adapter)?.

I wonder if you have the same problems as me to find the NOS1 with this kind of connection.

Best regards,
Juan

Well strange things happen !

If anyone feels like giving a clue, please feel free.

USB3 connection is via one of the two motherboard-backpanel usb3.0 ports. USB3 is driven by a ETRON 168 chip from the PCIe bus on the motherboard. Driver is updated to version 1.0.0.105 from Gigabyte's mobo homepage.
I did no specific settings in the BIOS on the USB or memory side nor any OS related tweaks.

I use the default NOS1 simple USB cable from this port to the NOS.

Apparently the driver 'sees' the NOS, but has trouble streaming from the XX application.

regards, Coen
 

Hi Nick,

What is different about your DIY USB2 cable compared with a standard USB2 cable presumably they are both A male to B male.

Cheers

Paul