Does anybody have experience of their UAD Apollo failing? I only had issues in my last session, so its hard to tell what's happening.

I was getting crackling sounds, like a dip in energy, crunching or something, I barely noticed in the flow. But I got a Windows popup from the device saying something like 'plugin exceeded, had to disable some plugins' on a reload of a track where there was no overload...

Then the device completely disabled and Ableton had no soundcard, like it failed for a second, then was fine.

Rebooted the device and maybe the whole computer and it carried on so I shut down and haven't used it since.

Anybody have a similar experience that understands what is failing?

 

Apollo what? First gen, 2nd gen, usb, thunderbolt? Duo, Quad, X? I’ve had my first gen behave oddly the past few years. But nothing to where it’s been not recognized.

 

Mine is a Windows USB original Duo but I wonder if its the same in all units?

It has been working fine for about 4 years so its out of the blue. I don't update the software, just keep it all solid. No new plugins or installs. Not connected online. It should be exactly the same performance for the past few months.

 

crackling is often due to the usb port on your mobo, switch to a free group of ports or unplug stuff u dont need

 

First gen Apollo Twin here, its had the occasional drop outs and lights flickering. Normally I just run a hardware reset and its seems to solve the problem. I dont use it that often, only when I want to run some of the older plugins but now that UAD has gone native, I almost never turn it on.

 

It can also be the usb cable, so testing with a different one would be an idea. Another thing that can "magically" fix crackling is reseating the RAM modules. When I say "magic", I mean that there really should be no good reason for this to happen, other than moving the machine around. But it has fixed many problems I have helped people with where they say they "already tried everything".

The DAW/windows losing connection and dropping the device is usually some electrical issue. It does not take much for the usb bus to drop the connection. Windows power management stuff can do this kind of thing, but you already had it working. I would also switch out the power strip, and try on another electrical outlet, if you can.

If you have another computer, you could try the UAD on there. My last resort, or near it; would be to reinstall the UAD UA Connect software. I would do it only to just rule it out. I wouldn't expect it to help at all, by this point I am usually crossing my fingers or using foul language.

 

I'll try that, thanks for the suggestion... Shouldn't really have any impact because its been plugged in there for a long time, like 4 years in the same port. I wonder if the mobo port might be failing?

I hate resetting this thing. Last time it took a month to get it running again after updating to new software, so I've kept it at a very early software version... I'll try to avoid that, but if it carries on I'll try it thanks.

I wonder what caused yours to work again after a reset? What would be going on inside these things to screw things up, that a reset can fix?

 

USB cable is a nightmare, its USB3. Nobody has spares of those. I have a few minis but not these big ones.

RAM shifts might make sense if there's dust on them. Moving them is probably clearing dust away and making the connectors work better.

I wonder if I need to get an air duster. That could clean the PSU as well. I have a spare of those I can try.

Yeah I can try resetting on another computer. I'd already just considered that. I don't want to do it inside my music computer, but resetting externally I'd be checking its function there as well... I think it might take a while to show up though as well. It ran fine for a few minutes so it feels like its i the early stages of a failure... Its why I wondered if others have similar issues.

Cheers for the ideas.

 

unlikely, but even an update on the hub driver might cause the issue, i had the same issue when i kept my monitor usb hub plugged, once unplugged never had a problem, it may not be the card but smth else drawing power from that single hub, btw its a SS port right? Also, update the firmware if u can, the win compatibility has improved since 2020

 

Yeah the issue I have is that I haven't touched it. Nothing has been plugged in for a few weeks, so its literally untouched. No Internet in that computer, so it can't update drivers... There's literally no changes possible, so it should have been stable. It has been stable for many months now and I can't remember the last time I installed any software. System was working so I don't touch it... I'm not certain, but I think it rules out any software change type issues.

Cheers for the thoughts and perspective... Its good to rule stuff out as well.

 

It's not a firmware or software update. It's just a factory reset to set things back to default. How to guides below depending on what you're using:

https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/206521003-Apollo-Twin-Hardware-Reset

https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/205152653-Apollo-Hardware-Reset

 

Using a hub can cause issues on it's own; even a good one. If you ever have to update firmware on a external device, synth, interface, etc. they will often fail when connected via hub. You connect the device directly to the computer, deliver the firmware upgrade, and it will be successful. After that, you can go right back to using the hub without any problems. It shouldn't matter, but it definitely can anyway.

 

im not talking about an external hub, every motherboards with multiple usb ports has multiple hub with their own controller, you can see them in the device manager, each has their own power limit 5-12

 

I did the reset this morning and I haven't had a spike yet. Haven't hit play, I just left it flat, but the issues came in this state so its looking ok...

Obviously I can't be sure that this has fixed it. I also removed the PSU from the socket recently and I think that was clicking, like it might be failing, so I've ordered a new one to arrive soon hopefully. Hopefully I have this fixed, but some great suggestions still to try if not, cheers.