I'm not sure why it is doing that either. You have come to the right place however. Only thing I know is...damn near everything I own by Mackie has had problems. I know you don't want to hear that shit. But I am sick of the endless problems too. I was gonna get an ONYX but opted for the A&H mix wiz3. What else are you doing? What else is happening? I know my Mackie hard drive recorder will have problems if everything is not connected correctly. What I mean is all the cables have to be connected tightly. And also the hard drive itself has to be sitting firmly and tight to the unit's connector.
It will lock up and will not work at all when any of these occur. And it play's the audio really slow and will start flashing error codes and, and, and! Ohhh god the nightmares! Make them go away! :cry:
Ohhh that's right my gear works fine :D , it's yours that is having problems!!!! :lol:
Hope this helps...Good luck

OOPS... they did it again!

Windows XP Pro SP2...

SP2 could be the source of the trouble.
Micro$oft messed up the Firewire support in SP2.

Try the SP2 update found here -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

"SYMPTOMS
After you update your computer to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), the performance of your 1394a or 1394b FireWire devices may be greatly decreased. "

Also in Cubase SX (ver. 3, I assume?)
Watch your CPU/VST/Disk meter on the far left of the transport.
If it goes RED then the system will freeze momentarily.

Not much you can about that (aside from more memory, faster
disks 10,000 rpm, and bigger CPU 3+GHz) except to make sure
that almost nothing but Cubase is running.

Go into (in classic view) Control Panel / Administrative Tools /
Services,

All that need be running (Started) for Cubase SX3 usage is:

Com+ Event System
Cryptographic Services
DCOM Server Process Launcher
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Event Log
Plug and Play
Protected Storage
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Security Accounts Manager
Shell Hardware Detection
System Event Notification
System Restore Service
Themes
Windows Audio
Windows Instrumentation Management
Workstation
(make sure any hardware specific services are also Started -
NVIDIA helpers etc..)

Depending on your exact setup most or all of
Everything else can be Stopped!

(I run Cubase SX on a portable studio XP Pro SP2 on a laptop with
both Firewire devices and USB devices + Maxtor 10,000 rpm 350GB external Drive for live venue recording (16 Track) - No Problems with the above setup)

Make sure that the Programs running in System Tray (by the clock
in the lower right corner of the screen in stock XP setup) are also
kept to an essential only minimum!

This will free up some CPU cycles and memory for you.
It also GREATLY reduces or eliminates any digital clicks that may be
appearing in your recording.

Make sure to shut off all AntiVirus Software when using Cubase!
Most of them will scan all disk access using up Memory and DISK
and CPU time.

Also try out XBlock trojan/spyware remover at http://www.xblock.com
and SpyBot SD 1.3 at http://security.kolla.de
(shut them down when running Cubase!)

Any spyware/trojans/virii on your system can also cause a variety
of troubles for you!

Check your Cubase version numbers and if necessary
apply the updates from the Application link at:

http://www.steinberg.de/Steinberg/Downloads4f3f.html?Langue_ID=2

Good Luck!

KJ

This has nothing to do with the Mackie, although it would make me very happy if it did! I take a perverse pleasure in products that don't work as promised.

A couple of things are happening IMO, both related to you overloading the memory.

First, you really need 2 hard drives, They do not need to be 10,000 rpm drives, WD 7200 IDE drives are fine for Cubase.

Be sure to partition the second drive when you install it ... OS will run on the first drive. I hope you partitioned the first drive when you installed it. If not do a re install, partition off 20 gig for the OS and Cubase .. This way if you need to you defrag the drive, you won't be defragging the portion where your OS and programs are installed. As Martha would say, "That is not a good thing!"

Also 512 of RAM is just not enough ... 1 gig at least for high desnity applications like audio.. 2 gigs if you can afford it.

I run Cubase on a Dual Anthlon 1800+ with a gig of memory and 2 WD 80 gig 7200 rpm drives at a CPU load of 20% for 32 plus tracks with all the plugs I ever need. I have never maxed this system out.

I had same problem and I reinstalled windows XP home edition with Service Pack 2 and did not update and everything seems to be working fine. XP Pro Service pack 3 install was giving the problem. So find an XP Home SP2 edition and try that. I struggled for 2 weeks and bought a new firewire card as well and that didn't help either until I loaded SP2. Also note that Mackie recommend Adaptec firewire cards (HP make one with and it works fine in my machine). Adaptec firewire cards have the Texas Instrument (TI) chipset.