Log in
Log in
Forgot your password ?
or
Create an account
or
Log in using a Facebook account
EN
FR
NotificationsNo new notification
SeriesFocusrite Saffire
Products
News
Articles
Tutorials
Reviews
Classified Ads
Forums

Focusrite Saffire firewire WORKING with Windows 10 Creators Update

  • 29 replies
  • 19 participants
  • 29,053 views
  • 19 followers
Topic Focusrite Saffire firewire WORKING with Windows 10 Creators Update
Just wanna share after trying all sort of things....
My Focusrite Saffire firewire is finally WORKING with Windows 10 Creators Update.
How to do:
Download 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller {Legacy)from the Windows site.
Install it.
Then set it as driver for your firewire.
Open Windows Powershell (administrator) and type
bcdedit /set testsigning on
This puts your pc in test mode.
Restart computer
Now install saffire-2.71.exe from focusrite and install.
Windows 10 will not like it, but install anyway after the notification.
Saffire is working now!
:-)
Open Windows Powershell (administrator) and type:
bcdedit /set testsigning off
Restart

You're in normal windows mode again
&
Voila!
Now you have your Saffire working under Windows 10

How this helps the many with this issue!
Themanandhismusic




2
Works as described :D: and got my Saffire back!

So odd that this 10 year old interface works flawlessly despite the fact that they keep trying to disable it.

Many thanks for posting this.


3
Man, I literally registered to say THANK YOU for your post. It brought life back to my long-time cherished Focusrite Saffire device. I bought a VIA based PCIE Firewire 400 card just for this card, to get my sound back. After having installed the legacy firewire windows driver, your guide made my sound card live again!

I wonder why Focusrite don't opensource the driver at least, when they don't want to support it anymore. These cards are a bliss, and having people forced to throw away COMPLETELY FUNCTIONAL sound cards, just because there's no software support, is a huge let down.

Cheers and thank you again!
4
Thanks to topic starter.
Very good solution to bring life to very good hardware under Windows 10.
I have to say about Texas Instrument FW cards. They are do not require to change driver to special legacy version. At least, with my card.
Just tested with onboard VIA chip - works too. "Legacy" not required. But not long tested.
Third known firewire chip manufacturer is NEC, but i have no such card to test it too.
Some soundcard manufacturers recommends to change driver to legacy for resolving stability issues.

[ Post last edited on 04/17/2020 at 13:40:11 ]

5
Hmmmmm ....looks like the 2004 feature update breaks it again. Gah!

Tried all the things but this time the Saffire will not boot. Will I ever get it working with Windows again? Who knows?

Probably advise against installing the 2004 update for the time being :??:
6
Quote from Aitchy:
Hmmmmm ....looks like the 2004 feature update breaks it again. Gah!

Tried all the things but this time the Saffire will not boot. Will I ever get it working with Windows again? Who knows?

Probably advise against installing the 2004 update for the time being :??:


Hey,

could you get it working already? I'm afraid to install that update now.
7
Thanks to the original poster - this totally saved me. It's remarkable to me that this old interface still compares extremely favourably to anything on the market now. In fact, I considered upgrading until I realised that everything else out there is basically the same thing with less outputs!

I have just been through the windows 2004 update and it broke it again, but I did manage to fix it. I did the following:

-turn off secure boot/set testsigning on (as before)
-uninstall saffire <--important
-install saffire from saffire-2.71.exe (say yes to unsigned drivers). The device won't boot when you plug it in, just close the installer and move to the next step.
-go to device manager, you'll see the drivers aren't being used. Right click->update driver, then choose from already installed, and choose 61883->focusrite->saffire. The trick here was that I didn't install drivers for the WDM devices, as these seem to cause the unit to become unresponsive.
-turn testsigning off/turn on secure boot.

Of course without the WDM devices, you'll only be able to access the unit through ASIO. This actually suits me quite well, since I use VB-Audio ASIO Bridge to create a virtual 5.1 output anyway.
8
I had to register to say thanks so much to everyone on this thread!:aime: Particularly thanks so much to the OP @themanandhismusic and to @pipemerchant

First to OP for getting me back to being able to use my Saffire after years without it. And subsequently I'd been taken down by the 2004 update and tried a reinstall with no joy, I also replaced the Firewire interface with the Texas Instruments XIO2213B chipset (rather than VIA) to no avail. (recommended here https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207546925-How-can-I-tell-if-my-FireWire-ports-are-compatible-with-the-Saffire-range-)

But on following @pipemerchant's tips I find my Focusrite is fully operational again - even using the WDM driver! There were different results too: My Saffire booted happily after the reinstall of Saffire 2.7.1 and so I didn't need to manually set the driver. Perhaps the more compatible chipset with the reinstall did the trick? I'm just happy to have it back!

Thanks again! :bravo:

[ Post last edited on 07/01/2020 at 01:44:43 ]

9
Hey guys,

I managed to get this thing working but the instructions were a bit vague so I documented it with screenshots.
So basically the same workflow applies (driver signature checking has to be set off upon reboot), and then install the card. It won't start, and afterwards you'll have to install the drivers manually, but by selecting the "Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer" option. See the following annotated screenshots:
3033990.png
3033991.png
3033992.png
3033993.png
3033994.png
3033995.png
3033996.png
3033997.png
3033998.png

All of the drivers need to be selected and installed manually, but after that, everything will work.

Cheers!
10
Okay, left this be for a while after getting frustrated with it ( I have another interface however it's not as good IMO)

So came back here and followed the advice and instructions and we're back in business. Uninstalling and manually adding/installing the drivers was the key.

Thanks karolyi et al for taking the time to post the instructions :bravo:

May the saffire live forever!!
11
Hey guys! I am new here precisely because of this problem. I have a Focusrite Saffire PRO 26io running on Windows 10 PRO 20H2 version. I have the interface installers in 2.61 and 2.62 versions and I can install the interface on the system, but when I'm recording some glitches happen like quick pink noises during the recording. As my interface is a PRO version, the installer in version 2.71 does not work for me, correct? Has anyone been through this and would you know to tell me if you have any solution? Thanks!
12
Hi,

I have just come to use my Focurite Saffire PRO 14 with Windows 10, the latest 20H2 build. It was working under Windows 10, build 1809, in 2020, but now is not. It's not practical to roll my PC back to the Windows 10 build 1809.

Does anyone know if the steps given in this thread will breathe life back into my interface?

Thanks
13
Well nothing to lose so I tried the steps. They did not work. I also tried replacing a mix control bin file for version 3.7 with the one from version 3.4, as suggested in another thread, that did not work for me either.
14
I recently bought a brand new PC to replace my old win 7 recording rig and I wasn't aware of the issues with Windows 10 and my Focusrite Saffire.

However, I can safely say that IT DOES WORK.

I followed some of the steps as described and it seems the main issue which people will encounter is a failure to lock-in a sample rate.

I think some of this is actually caused by Windows trying to fetch a sample rate which the device may be locked into by the Mixcontrol software or even the DAW and I found that Windows seems to try fetching 96khz by default (while of course the max on the Saffire is 48khz). I found once I set windows on-board sound manager to fetch 48khz by default, a lot of the problems in locking-in sample rates vanished.
15
Anyone tried if the magic white still works even on the new 21H1 Windows 10 Update? I'm afraid to update at the moment. Thank you guys
16
Hi all, thanks a lot in advance, I've been gifted with one of this interfaces, (F.S. Pro14) And my current Os is Win 10 LTSC 1809, My Firewire base is the main port of a Sound Blaster Audigy (sb090) and i've tryed both firewire driver, the Creative and microsoft's, but no lite fron FW led, and I have Saffire 2.1.exe, and saffire-mixcontrol-v 2.43, 3.4 and 3.7, I need advice if anyone has like-scenario, or better to get a newer Pci firewire card?, I've tryed the steps above with no luck, thanks again.
17
Quote from Paulo:
Hi all, thanks a lot in advance, I've been gifted with one of this interfaces, (F.S. Pro14) And my current Os is Win 10 LTSC 1809, My Firewire base is the main port of a Sound Blaster Audigy (sb090) and i've tryed both firewire driver, the Creative and microsoft's, but no lite fron FW led, and I have Saffire 2.1.exe, and saffire-mixcontrol-v 2.43, 3.4 and 3.7, I need advice if anyone has like-scenario, or better to get a newer Pci firewire card?, I've tryed the steps above with no luck, thanks again.
Unfotunally nope. My white unit works win10 20H2 but I got a Pro14 to and it does not work on windows 10, tried a lot of tricks and workaround but no one of them worked. So sad. Still no news for the white unit on 21H1 update
18
So, anyone updated to win 10 21H2 and tested Saffire?
19
I have updated to win 21H2 but my Focusrite Saffire isn't working. In device manager I clicked on the first "68...." category. From there I clicked on Focusrite and installed drivers as it seemed win 10 already had them. Focusrite booted and turned on green lights. I thought it was going to work but when I went to play music it didn't. In windows' "sound" section I couldn't see Focusrite as one of the options for playback. So now I'm still trying to see if reinstalling and adding drivers will help but I doubt it.
20
Thank you for letting us know. Please give us some update of your experience in case.
21
Waiting for this as well. Managed to update legacy driver but Saffire does not seem to communicate.
korg Zero 4 works ok - W10 21H1 64
22
I hope this might help some of you. I have a Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 connected to a Texas Instruments 1394 Firewire controller. I only recently upgraded to Windows 10, from Windows 7 (The best OS). I really didn’t want to, but I did anyway. After upgrading, my Focusrite was still working, but I soon started having problems. At first, the sound was cutting in and out and staticky sounding. Then it stopped working all together. It still showed up in Windows device manager, but no sound would come out. I uninstalled and reinstalled many times. I used the legacy firewire drivers etc. but still would not work. Here’s what my issue was. Another program (video editor) was changing the sample rate in my sound device settings to 192000 Hz. The Focusrite could not handle this. I changed the setting back to 24 bit 48000 Hz several times before noticing the following settings check box. “Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device”. I then changed back to 48000 (under Playback) and uncheck this box. I also selected “8 channel, 24 bit, 48000 Hz in the Recording settings and also uncheck the box so applications cannot take control of my sound device. The Focusrite has been working fine ever since.
23
Hi Audiojohn, in your post you say you got your saffire 56 working on windows 10, i'm hoping to do the same. Did you get saffire mixcontrol working or are you only using a set of drivers with your saffire56?
thanks
24
5902276.png
Guys, thanks everyone! I managed to get the white Focusrite Saffire working with Windows 10 22H2! Let's start from the beginning, the system is a carPC with q8400s socket 775 CPU, Gigabyte ga-73pvm-s2h motherboard with integrated TI TSB43AB23 chip, now I'm upgrading from Windows 7 to 10 to be able to access the web. I started from version 1507. With the 1709 update the sound card can only be installed by changing the IEEE1394 driver with the legacy version, then I received the update directly to 22H2. To install the device correctly, I have: 1. Disabled driver signing. 2. Disabled automatic driver updating. 3. Deleted all permissions to the Windows/System32/driver folder for SYSTEM and TrustedInstaller users. 4. Enter Test Mode and reboot. 5. Run setup 2.7 and allow the installation of unsigned drivers. 6. Enter device management, there will be two non-functioning Focusrite Saffire devices, the first will need to be updated with 61883/Focusrite/Saffire, the second called "Focusrite Saffire AV/C Subunit" with Focusrite/Saffire wdm, I recommend doing it in this order, and after waiting several minutes, suddenly I hear the Focusrite relays activating, from there it started working perfectly, I uninstalled and reinstalled and at that point it also upgraded the firmware correctly (on the second attempt :oops: , better not to do it). I changed the IEEE1394 driver to the Windows one and it works the same. In the device management tab I still have a non-working device, leave it like that and don't try to remove it. Some steps I've done are probably superfluous, but now I'm testing how well it works, when I do the final installation I'll be able to be more precise, in the meantime, thank you for the excellent advice!

[ Post last edited on 12/07/2023 at 13:26:43 ]

25
I did a fresh install of Windows 10 22h2, The exact sequence for installing the Saffire drivers is this: • disable driver updating.
• Authorize unsigned drivers via the Windows PowerShell(administrator) by typing "bcdedit /set nointegritychecks on" and reboot.
• download the driver "1394_OHCI_LegacyDriver.msi" from the Windows site, install the driver.
• open the "C:\Program Files (x86)\1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)\X64_driver\" folder, right click on "Legacy1394.inf" and select Install to install the driver, go to device manager, expand the "IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers" entry and change the existing IEEE 1394 driver to "1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)".
• open the path "C:\windows\System32" and right click on the drivers folder, change the owner of the folder to administrators, give it full control of the folder, delete all permissions on the drivers folder for SYSTEM users and TrustedInstaller and reboot.
• Install saffire 2.71, allow unsigned drivers, do not upgrade the firmware
• go to device manager and right click on "Focusrite Saffire AV/C audio", update driver with "61883 device/Focusrite/Saffire", once this is done the card's relays trip and a new device without drivers appears, "IEEE 1394 WDM Audio Device",
5907413.png


this device needs to be updated with the "Audio Video and Game Devices/Focusrite/Saffire WDM" driver, then update the "Focusrite Saffire AV/C subunit" device with the "61883 device/Focusrite/Saffire" driver, now another device "IEEE 1394 WDM Audio Device" appears to which you can assign the "audio video and game devices/Focusrite/saffire WDM" driver. Now if you have done all the steps correctly you no longer have any peripherals with the exclamation mark and the sound card works correctly. I tried installing with the Windows "Texas Instrument 1394 OHCI Compliant Controller" driver, skipping the entire installation of the Legacy drivers and it worked anyway, but it is still recommended to use the Legacy driver.
I also tried a Digitus card with Via VT6315N chipset and it worked very well.

These are the 4 devices you need to see:
5907408.png
5907409.png
5907410.png
5907411.png
5907414.png

Sometimes after the first installation of the driver, I had episodes of instability, which were resolved by uninstalling and reinstalling following the above procedure.

To restore the permissions of the driver folder you need to proceed in reverse, to add the TrustedInstaller user you need to enter the "Enter the object name to select" window by typing 'NT Service\TrustedInstaller' as the name of the new user, and give him complete control of the folder, to insert SYSTEM we must type "SYSTEM" and then click on check name and press ok, we give it permission to modify the folder, then we change the owner of the folder from administrator to TrustedInstaller and confirm. I hope it can be useful to those who don't want to give up this excellent sound card. If I had to replace it, the only alternative with 8 line outs, USB connection and 12V power supply is the Motu Ultralite mk5 which has a nice cost.

[ Post last edited on 12/24/2023 at 00:03:04 ]