Replacing Ricoh 1394 controller chipset with TI

Hi all,
I've been pulling my hair out lately with my Acer 7720-6604 and audio. It's got the dreaded Realtek HD audio chip in it, and no matter what I do (I've tried Windows XP, Vista 32/64) and no matter what order I install the drivers in (audio first, chipset first, etc.) I get terrible audio performance. I constantly get pops and clicks, stuttering and time stretching while playing any audio from CD, mp3, or video Xvid / Divx. I've tried all the different codec packs to no avail.

So I decided I would just scrap attempting to use the Realtek and buy an external audio card (since I do a lot of audio recording anyway) and bought myself a Presonus Firebox. So now you probably know where this is going... Yes, I discovered (after RMA-ing my Presonus for an Edirol FA-101) that my Acer contains within it another terribly flawed piece of hardware: the Ricoh chipset that controls my Firewire and card reader. Woah is me... According to just about every pro audio soundcard manufacturer the Texas Instruments chipset is the bee's knees and the Ricoh should be avoided like the plague.

So let me ask you all this: I've seen a lot of ingenious people here modify their laptops to include faster processors, new video cards, etc. Is it also possible to replace this Ricoh chipset with a TI IEEE 1394 controller?

Thank you for pondering my quandary.

M.Pickles

 

ANYONE here care about this? I too am wondering about this and
no doubt many other lurkers are as well.

 

Are we talking about a soldered to the mainboard chip? If so, Im afraid you're stuck with your Ricoh. But you could try to use one of those hot air blow pistols but its tricky. You have no guarantee the MB will see the new chip, even if those two chips are physically identical - to begin with.

 

If you are discussing getting 1394 external devices, especially audio ones, to work, I'm trying to look at this on an Aspire 2920 and a 5102 using PC and PC Express cards. Both of these have TI chipsets, and with the 5102 I have other cards with VIA chipset to compare with, plus a comparable Lenovo laptop that works OK.

I've done a lot of work on this sort of thing in the past, so if anyone wants to compare notes, that would be interesting. I've only just started looking at Vista using firewire on laptops and have to say that I'm amazed by how badly it works "out of the box".

 

Hi no I think your stuck with it.. Try buying a TI firewire express card like the startech one I got one for £12!! Link at bottom.
One thing to worry about is that if the Ricoh chip controls the express card too (which it probably does) you may still have the same problems, I'm not sure about this and you should ask around to clarify. I heard that express cards go straight into the motherboard buss hence the faster speed. Something to take into consideration.
Sounds like you should have put much more research into buying your hardware but we don't expect these things to be so complicated! Lol I've done it...


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....TRK:MEWAX:IT&item=250400757558#ht_3316wt_1165

 

Yes, the Ricoh chipset also controls the ExpressCard - I got the £12 StarTech and the performance was worse than using the built-in FireWire. This is on an Asus G60VX with QuadCore 2GHz - no excuse for the manufacturer leaving this weak link in a system which is strong in all other aspects.

 

Totally agree with all the posts here, but on a side tack (and more for op): Some very good results can be gained form using the "asio4all" driver for the laptop's onboard audio. Whilst not having quite the low latency and higher quality sound of a dedicated soundcard, things are improved tremendously in audio applications that utilise asio, and the latency can even be low enough for some live vsti work, and those clicks and pops can often be erradicated.

 

Hi! Can someone give me a source on the information that the Ricoh chip is controlling ExpressCard? It's the first time I hradr something like that. Untill now I thought that ExpressCards have a direct PCI-E and USB link to PCI-E and USB controllers, so I'd like to research a bit the way the Ricoh chips workis with ExpressCard.