I have to say, since co-purchasing one of these with another taper in my area, I have been exactly as unimpressed with the functionality, build and general quality of this thing as I thought I'd be.
Besides that is now boots sometimes and says "Power Down - System ROM error", it also will not sync with the USBpre2 or any other digital source correctly.
The USBpre2 has worked flawlessly into my R-44 every time. I have it set to 24/48 and the 680 set to the same.
It hit "PAUSE" on the 680 and instead of going into proper REC/PAUSE, a message constantly flashes in the background, but too fainly to read, that says "DIN ...." I can't read the "..." part. I checked the connection multiple times, tried assigning the digi signal to both channels 5/6 and the mix channels 7/8, and same thing happened both times. Better yet, when locked like this, the only way to get it out is to take the batteries out and/or cut the external power supply.
I don't know if it's an SD problem or a 680 problem, but given that the USBpre2 works fine with my other deck, I'm thinking it's the Tascam. I believe my firmware is 1.20 (I checked a few hrs ago so may have that wrong). It was purchased like 2 mo ago.
It really hurts the functionality of the deck for me for the last 2 channels to not work properly. I know others have had similar issues with it, so unless my firmware is out of date, what can I do?
It really speaks poorly of Tascam that this thing doesn't work better than this. At minimum, it should not be the case that the deck just locks and can't be unlocked.
UPDATE: It's not the firmware - both the 680 and the USBpre2 are at the latest firmware. I have to think this problem is on Tascam's end, as I still get the faintly flashing "DIN UNLOCK" message when I connect the USBpre2. It seems unlikely to me that it's the cable considering that the cable works perfectly well on the R-44.
Any other suggestions, besides "call Tascam"?
I'm at least not getting the SYSTEM ROM error right now. Running it tonight with 6 channels of analog, so we'll see how that goes.