Firewire Drive and Interface at the same time issues

[kslight]

Anyone have this issue? I have a current 4-core Mac Pro, and when I have any firewire external hard drive connected (to FW800 ports, as there are no FW400 ports on this model) my audio interface fails (M Audio FW1814 connected to FW800 through 400 to 800 adapter) to stay clocked to my external clock (Alesis HD24XR through ADAT I/O). Using latest drivers, Mac OS 10.6.8, PT9...(the problem is not PT related, it starts acting up before I even launch PT if I have a drive connected).

I am not daisy chaining the interface off the drive or vice versa, I plug them in to their own respective ports, doesn't matter if front or back ports on the computer, and I did try daisy chaining so the interface was connected to the hard drive through the FW400 to pull the adapter cable out of the loop...did not make a difference. The problem occurs whether or not I am accessing the external drive, and disappears as soon as I eject it. The external drives in question are the small orange LaCie Rugged triple interface models (FW400/800/USB2), and I have tried a 500gb and a 1tb model and both do the same thing.

I realize the interface is not great but I really just use it as a way for to use ADAT off of my HD24XR, I monitor externally and use external preamps. This interface has been on my list to dump for awhile and I have no problem doing so, my question is really then am I going to experience this same problem with any firewire interface I may purchase or is it just an M Audio POS? I've got to assume its the latter...but before I make a purchase I thought I'd check... Or am I stuck using a PCI based interface to avoid this problem?

Any recommendations for an interface that will allow 12 96khz SMUX or 24 48khz ADAT I/O with no other B/S? Like to spend under a grand, cheaper is better as long as it works. And would rather get firewire if that's an option.

[Fullstax]

I'm pretty sure I have the same mac computer and lacie drive you are talking about, or at least pretty similar. Anyway I have experienced a similar problem. I have a UAD satellite plugged into one firewire 800 port and if I plug the lacie into the other port, I lost sync with the UAD. No idea what the problem is. Maybe it's the lacie?

[top_ape]

I do know on certain macs even with multiple ports, they're all on the same FireWire bus (hey, who knew the w was capitalized too! Autocorrect). Not sure that yours is that way or not but it's one thing to check out.

Also if you operate one device at 400 I'm pretty sure (if it's indeed the same bus) you'll be limited to fw 400 speeds. Consider both those devices on a single 400 bus and I'd be surprised if you DIDN'T have issues.

[kslight]