Blog

      So I finally decided to start up a blog to write about different issues I face during my work, mostly programming.
I always wanted to have a dynamic blog that gets updated often, but for now I'm going to skip that and will stick to this static web page that will serve my visitors as well.

• Tascam US-122L issue and solution with Windows Media Center (28 / January / 2008)

Tascam US-122L issue and solution with Windows Media Center (28 / January / 2008)

      I just bought a desktop computer a media center with Vista Media Center installed on it, I was so happy and excited for this new machine, it's really awesome AMD Quad with 3 gigs of ram (for now) 600 gigs hard drive and the best of all the 22" Samsung monitor, but I was happy until I plugged in my Tascam US-122L external sound card, and that's when the problems started, first of all, I had to get an update for the Vista driver from Tascam's website, which helped with installing the drivers on Vista Media Center but now there is no sound coming out of my Tascam.

So I googled it to see if people are having any problems with Vista, and needless to say I saw that a lot of you do, I read some people even not recommending XP Media Center for recording and Tascam put a note on their site saying that "The US-122L and US-144 have not been tested on Windows Media Center systems and may not be currently compatible with such systems. "
Right after reading that note I realized the hassle of going back and choosing another computer, or just installing a normal Windows (non media center) which is not really the preferred solution for me cause I just got my media center, not to mention that I stayed there at the computer shop for 2 hours, undecided, and I hardly took a decision after all that.

After some search on the net I didn't find any solution to my problem so I said I'll have to try to find one myself.
The problem is, Vista could see the Tascam sound card plugged in and when I selected it from the list to make it the active sound card it worked but the Tascam wasn't producing any sound. Now 2 things flashed in my mind:

1. It could be the operating system that is blocking any external (ASIO) sound cards like Tascam.
2. The problem could be from the sound card itself. Or lets say because the machine is designed to be a "media center".
   

So the first thing that popped into my mind was disabling the integrated sound card, to avoid any conflicts with the Tascam. And miraculously, it did the job for me ! :)