Audio does not work

[pino68]

Hello lads. I am dying here to ask for help.
My D8B does not receive the input signals and not even out.
A few years ago I help myself y-love-r and we managed to solve the problem ... I remember having to disassemble the mixer and all the cards with all the connections, clean with Isopropyl alcohol and so it worked.
For a few days I have been going crazy because the same thing happens to me and therefore I dismantled the D8B, clean all the cards and connections, but the problem continues not to be solved.
When I start the system, a question mark appears on the mixer display, all the functions are there but the audio is missing ... it does not receive anything ... and therefore I am blocked.

Ask:
Is the apogee card indispensable or can I also remove it?
I only need the d8b as a mixer where I connect a guitar, a microphone and the musical bases ... unfortunately everything is normally booty, but it does not allow me to insert and listen to the audio

Help me please.

[doktor1360]

Hello lads. I am dying here to ask for help.
My D8B does not receive the input signals and not even out.
A few years ago I help myself y-love-r and we managed to solve the problem ... I remember having to disassemble the mixer and all the cards with all the connections, clean with Isopropyl alcohol and so it worked.
For a few days I have been going crazy because the same thing happens to me and therefore I dismantled the D8B, clean all the cards and connections, but the problem continues not to be solved.
When I start the system, a question mark appears on the mixer display, all the functions are there but the audio is missing ... it does not receive anything ... and therefore I am blocked.

Ask:
Is the apogee card indispensable or can I also remove it?
I only need the d8b as a mixer where I connect a guitar, a microphone and the musical bases ... unfortunately everything is normally booty, but it does not allow me to insert and listen to the audio

Help me please.

The "?" question mark is indicative of clock issues. You're gonna need a functional clock card (oem mackie or apogee) at minimum for things to function correctly. Make sure it's set to be the 'Internal Clock' in the setup...

[pino68]

Hello doktor1360

She set up as an internal clock but when I restart she returns with the "?" And the audio does not work

[pino68]

What do you think if I buy another card instead of the apogee?
Which advice?

[doktor1360]

What do you think if I buy another card instead of the apogee?
Which advice?

The D8B shipped originally with one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114125882594?hash=item1a926ec4e2:g:VaIAAOSw3tNfauT1&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoFKSHnL3q%2BXrqjjwUii9ygQfzvDBRWNDUlkHZ8TwSXhNFJOfaEI3Arc4csPju%2F5jSfV7l0AhLkDtcGv5rNbFpzP68sazwjJTz78TyhBStJILeYAKDdUscOzhZwyEuTILaW%2FMyfd0P97DQ%2B7VDVYV7s0gZPl136Z%2FjU0Z35gsN2MLI5izDNCG65FRFMQSpiWO3ADRWsR4QI4UaVrh7ibTpFo%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7jt7ZneYA

I would suggest looking around for an Apogee card, especially if you wanna take advantage of any of the serious functionality of the console... I couldn't find any of them available doing a quick search of the usual sites (ebay, reverb). Get the other inexpensive card firstly and just keep an eye open for an Apogee...

All the best... \m/

[pino68]

The D8B shipped originally with one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114125882594?h ... R7jt7ZneYA

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you. just this does not send to Italy ... I don't know what to do anymore

[Y-my-R]

Hi Pino - sorry to hear that your D8B is giving you trouble, again!

To clarify, there's only 2 clock cards that work for the D8B:
- The Apogee Clock card (this card has 2 BNC connectors on it's panel... nothing else... do NOT try a different card in this slot, even if it might say "Apogee" on it, somewhere).
- The "stock" D8B clock card (the one from the ebay auction the doctor shared. These aren't always red, by the way... the can also be blue or green, as far as I know).

You have to have either one of those cards in the slot labeled "SYNC" in the back of the D8B.

If neither of the above 2 cards are installed in the SYNC slot, the questionmark (?) will come up in the right upper corner of the D8B's display, to indicate that the D8B can't "find" any clock signal... when that happens, no audio will come out of the D8B (except for in the "analog" monitor section... but the D8B still can't be used as a mixer, when that's the case).

...and if the clock card somehow went bad, you might see the same symptom (i.e. the questionmark "?").

What kind of clock card did you have in your D8B before? An "Apogee" Clock card, with 2 BNC connectors?
...or a "stock" clock card, that has no "outside" connectors and basically "disappears" inside the D8B, when the slot cover is closed?

If your clock card is in that slot, but the D8B doesn't find a clock signal, I'd do this, first:
- Make sure the D8B is turned OFF.
- Take the clock card out, and carefully clean its contacts with either Isopropyl-Alcohol, or good electronics cleaner, such as Caig Deoxit.
- With the D8B off (and maybe even with the contacts on the clock card still a little wet from cleaning it), insert the clock card into the D8B, then remove it again, and repeat that maybe twice or so. (The idea is, that the "wet" contacts on the card, would help to clean the contacts in the card slot a little bit... this is preferable over directly spraying electronics cleaner in there).
- Then remove the clock card from the D8B again, and wait for an hour or so, to make sure that any remaining cleaning liquid has evaporated and everything is completely dry.
- Put the clock card back into the D8B when everything is dry, then turn the D8B back on.

Did anything change after you do that?

If not... and if you used an "Apogee" Clock card... on one of the cards I have, some components just "fell off" of the card, when it was shipped to me, but it worked fine again, after I soldered them back on. Because of that, I suspect that more such clock cards may have had bad/cold solder spots, that could cause trouble, and that such components might just decide to fail (and maybe even fall off, like for me).

Here's a pic of the Apogee Clock card, where I circled the components that fell off (with notes for the seller in German - please ignore)... if you have an Apogee card... can you check if you have all these yellow components on the card, that are shown on mine? Can you carefully touch them with your fingertip, and see if you can move any of them, even a tiny bit? If so, I'd re-flow the solder points.

Apogee_Clock_Card_s.JPG (Array KiB) Viewed 1470 times

Here's another link to a "stock" clock card, that is available over here in the US. Not sure if they'd ship to Italy, though:
https://reverb.com/item/25348774-mackie-digital-8-bus-d8b-ce-clock-card

I'd just google "D8B clock card" or "D8B Apogee Clock Card" to find one.

Be sure NOT to buy another "Apogee" card for your D8B, that has additional connectors on it. A card that says "Apogee" but has optical ADAT connectors and/or a DB25 (looks like an old printer/parallel port) connector on it, is NOT a clock card, and will not work for this purpose in the D8B (those are I/O cards... they're for a different purpose).

If none of that works... it's also possible that your clock card actually still works, and that the clock is getting lost elsewhere inside the D8B (e.g. bad ribbon-cable contact in the back of the card-cage inside the D8B, or with any other of the ribbon cables).

In short... there's a few different causes, and we haven't run out of options, yet... we'll just have to figure out, what is actually causing the problem for you. So, I'd start with the above... please report back what you find, and we can take it from there.

Best of luck in the meantime!

[pino68]

Hi Y-my-R only you can save me ... Thanks for everything you can tell me ... unfortunately I am dying on tilt, my card gives me "?" ...
I'll let you know that I disassembled the mixer, all the cards and all the connectors clean but nothing to do, I always make the sign "?".
The card I have is the original apogee with two connectors ... I checked and everything is fine.
At this point I think it's she who doesn't work.
Now I ordered another apogee card from the United States and must arrive in October (unfortunately from the US there is a long time to get here in Italy) when I try it I will let you know.
Thanks Guardian angel.

[Y-my-R]

Hi Pino - we'll see if I can help this time... seems to be a tough issue.

Hopefully, the new clock card will work for you... but just to mention it - some of the connectors inside the D8B console are really hard to get to. If the card-cage (the metal chassis that goes around where all the cards go from the back of the console) has a problem with the ribbon cable connection, it could also cause the clock card to not be able to send its clock to other components in the D8B.
That ribbon cable is pretty hard to get to, though, if I remember right... so, I think last time I did this, I didn't want to take my desk apart THAT much... but of course, the desk still had issues after, and I had to go back and re-seat THAT cable.

Do you know if you already re-seated the ribbon cables that go to the card-cage inside the D8B?

Another possible issue, could be with the BFC cable or connector. Does anything change when you re-seat that connector and clean its contacts? What if you wiggle the cable a little bit while the desk is runnning? (Do NOT attempt to connect or disconnect that cable while the D8B is running!)

Another possible issue, could potentially be with the power supply... but I wouldn't know what exactly might make the clock fail to reach the desk.

Well, you already ordered a new clock card... since it's on the way, let's wait and see if this fixes it. I sure hope it will.

Best of luck in the meantime!

[captainamerica]

take you time and inspects the BFC cable and ALL the connectors....I had a similar issue many years ago and it took 2-3 passes to find/fix the issues