tyk

Here is the explanation from M2Tech regarding the bug. Some users are complaining for two bugs related to hiFace. The most critical is the compatibility issue with some AMD-based PC's, with the following SouthBridge IC's: SB600, SB700, SB710, SB750 and similar. The issue shows itself in various modes: the PC totally freezes as soon as one tries to play a file, or the player can't produce any sound and gets stuck, such that one needs to restart the PC to unlock it. Based on our tests, the problem seems to be related to the driver not getting back to the player after the first data transfer, due to the fact that the driver itself is waiting for the SB IC to get back to it. We have some PC's which are working as testbeds and we're preparing a new driver to be released ASAP. Another bug (but I prefer to consider it a feature of hiFace) is the lack of the sampling frequency information in the channel status bits of the S/PDIF stream. This cause to some DAC's to misbehave. Please note that THIS CANNOT BE FIXED unless a complete interface redesign is performed, which we won't do. The new hiFace Evo will have this bug fixed. The compatibility issue with AMD-based motherboard rather than CPU seems like driver related and can be fixed by driver updates.

That's great news. However, I now have to change my plan of buying an AMD based notebook. Intel-based notebook is quite a bit more expensive.

Before you give up, perhaps reformat the Dell and reinstall W7 without all the extra. Will save you some $. If possible, disable the creative stuff at the bios level.

Hi lennmax, Am really sorry to hear this. I am using a Dell Mini 10 netbook with just W7 Starter which is 32bit. The Realtek is also pre-installed. The result you will get if you solve this is really great. I am really surprised how good it sounds with my Naim Dac. The other surprise is that you can actually send 32/96 wav into the Naim although the spdif specs states max. 24/192. I can discern the difference between the 32bit and the 24bit in the sound quality and assume that it really is 32bit. Also, it sounds almost as good as using the Naim USB port although it a pain that it accepts only USB flash drives. You should also try Dell support as I do have some USB port problems with some external harddisks. I got msg that the dev is high speed and should be plug into a USB 2.0 port even though all the port are 2.0 spec. Good Luck. TYK

Thanks. Both Foobar and Hiface are at v1.0.3. Suspect USB drivers. Will try to update them when time permit. TYK

You need to install the latest Hiface Win7 driver before you plugin the device. The Hiface also need to be plugged in before you power on you PC. I experienced similar problems with Foobar if I plugged in the Hiface after Win7 bootup. It won't play at all. Also got a blue screen when I unplugged the Hiface even after I did the safely remove h/w thingy. Btw, I am using the Kernel Streaming as recommended by Hiface. You need to download this from foobar component and copy it to the components sub-folder. Good luck.