A failing USB drive may cause problems for DURec-capable RME interfaces

Man, it took me a really long time to figure this out.🤦🏾‍♂️

A while ago, my RME Fireface UFX+ began exhibiting the behavior you see in the video below:

Immediately after powering on the unit, it would take a few minutes before the on-unit controls would respond consistently and with the granularity expected.

My first thought was that it may be an issue with one or more capacitors (due to the time-related symptom), and a number of web search results indeed revealed other people needing to replace one or more failing caps in the internal power supply (or the entire power supply when de- and re-soldering wasn’t an option for them).

Because the symptoms described seemed similar enough to my problem, I ordered a replacement power supply, removed the old one, installed the new one, powered up the unit…and the problem persisted.

After visually inspecting the internals for dry solder joints, loose ribbon cables, etc. on a whim I pressed the REC/PLAY button and observed that the screen indicated that the USB flash drive was “Initializing…”. This prompted me to remove the flash drive (which had been left in the unit since the last time I’d used the DURec function years ago). To my surprise, this resolved the problem.

I couldn’t believe it was so simple, so I reinserted it and found that the issue returned immediately. I then plugged the drive into my computer and found that Disk Utility failed to even recognize it (and, in fact, the Disk Utility UI wouldn’t even render the default screen until the drive was unplugged). This seems to indicate a failed controller board on the drive.

But in any case, now I know that a failing USB flash drive can make a Fireface behave sluggishly. And now you know. I hope this helps you avoid some studio downtime.