Hi Frabo,

Thanks! I hope RME is open for that kind of suggestion. If they run a serious business they have to be... (my 2 cents). It's just easy, and I think it would make life easier if they provide just a solution, regardless of the problem that Apple currently has. Just a little bit of customer orientation. ;-)

Correct, the Lindy 3 port works, since it is buspowered and provides 3 full blown 800 FW connections. A power supply is provided as well. So please keep in mind powering everything (means hub and FF400) through the FW800 port of the MBP or iMAC COULD cause an issue. There is a limit on the current that can be drawn by the connected devices. I tested the configuration on an iMAC 24" and it worked - my MBP is still to come the next 10 days. Will report out, if FF400 will work out of the box with an 800/400 cable... which I doubt. The Lacie D2 Quadra works perfect and the Lindy as well. The RME drivers are very solid, the firmware as well. So far I am convinced with the RME FF400. Still evaluating if I can get a simple FW repeater cable which translates LSI/Agere whatever protocol to standard... It must be possible to have a simple "active" cable...

All the best

-ulicarlos

ulicarlos, forget it! I checked it with a 800-400 cable ... it is not working ! (Macbook pro - unibody- 2,8 GHz)

Matthias, can I use the FF400 bus-powered with this cable?

I need to chime in here since I am currently testing/using the Lindy Extension/Repeater/"Active" cable:

The late 2008 Macbook Pro does provide enough power for both the cable (which probably wont draw more than 0.5w maximum) and the Fireface with simple stereo-output setups (FF400 draws around 12.5w from the Macbook as far as I remember from one of my battery tests).

I did not test a full blown all inputs + outputs case yet, but if you've got any questions or scenarios you want me to test it with, let me know. I can also check exact power draw again by running the Macbook Pro on battery and switching between bus-power and power-supply on the FF400 while running X-Battery.

By the way, if you buy the Lindy cable you might want to get a 0.3m FW800->FW400 cable from them, too. They offer that on their german website, but not on the US american one, didn't check the others. Just ask them about it, the german product no. is 30764.

Originally I intended to tape the Lindy to the FW800->FW400 cable, but the connection seems strong and fixed enough on its own.

Hi there,
just wanted to post my experience in case it helps others :
I had my Fireface 400 working fine on a PC.
I bought an iMac 24-inch 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
The Fireface didn't work directly plugged into the Imac.
I bought this cable from apple to plug the fireface into the other firewire port : Belkin 6' FireWire 800/400 9pin to 6pin Cable
It didn't work.
I then bought the external hard drive : LACIE D2 QUADRA to plug the Fireface 400 into the Hard drive, and the hard drive into the Imac.
And now it works fine...
Good luck !

1) Use a Lacie HD to use as a hub, I tried with 2 HDs, one Iomega(don't work) and Lacie(working, but this HD is not mine...) and i had the dropout audio in playback, not in recording so... not alarming but disturbing to follow the audio...
2) Use the Belkin FireWire Hub, don't know if there are dropout audios or but 2 or 3 users are saying that this works... how good?
3) Use a F800 to F400 but someone in forum said that he has the audio dropouts... (anybody else tested?)
4) Use the repeater wire of firewire linked here... i'll try this one  http://www.lindy.co.uk/firewire-extensi … 32908.html or here http://www.lindy.de/ieee1394a-firewire- … 32908.html or here http://cgi.ebay.es/Firewire-Active-Repe … .m63.l1177

this are 4 solutions that I readed in the forums... hope to be helpful!
i'm going to try the solution 4) i'll post how do it works.

ok i finally bought this here, http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-32908-Fir … amp;sr=1-2 i asked if it is the original lindy firewire extension cable, if not i will anulate the buying, now i have to wait for it... let's see if this works right finally! hehehe
i'll post update

HERE IS THE SOLUTION FOR RME . THEN THIS PROBLEM WILL GO AWAY
Hello , i have recently purchased my 2nd fireface 800 .My 1st one a few years ago . loved it , no problems . idiot proof.

I set up new studio in the last weeks, new 2.8 ghz imac ,new fireface800 . didnt work . you know the story . I was devastated , cursing etc etc etc . found this forum . found out i need to buy a firewire 800 cable . it worked immediatly and flawlessly like my old set up.

Now i have been running business's for many a year ,but it does not take a genious to solve this problem . I am available to sit on your board of directors , who should be more than embarressed over this . dont blame Mac . PUT THE CABLE IN THE BOX THAT WORKS .ITS THAT SIMPLE .PUT A FEW OPTIONS IN THERE .THIS IS A HIGH COST UNIT , JUST PUT THE CABLES IN THE BOX AND TELL PEOPLE WHICH ONES TO USE
thankyou .

of course you know . so instead of hiding , why dont you TELL people .( ie in the product installation booklet ) give them the options .you'll get a lot more credibility rather than all the desperation/bad feeling when people initially discover their new investment is not working . ok  , mac have changed their fw-chip , but there are fixes  , why dont you supply them , then they wont be fixes will they , just part of the product. even if you have to supply a repeater and other converters , it will not cost you much , and your reputation will be improved rather than going down as it is at the moment , when your product is still excellent.
regards and with respect , happily now using 2 ff800's

I bought a non lindy firewire extension wire and it works 100% good, by the way.. the first one was a bad wire... the second one (the same company wire) was ok and now everything works. 20? with shippments... not too much expensive to have an RME FF400 working on the iMac.

i fully understand the way the economics of supplying the correct cables for certain computers would work . but you really should at least offer them as an option . If mac dont care because RME are just a blot on their landscape , then RME should work a solution for their new and returning customers, and if it cant be done within the price structure , then charge . At least then these customers wouldn't get a shock , and you could get repeated egg on the face of Apple in your sales bumph and installation manuals by repeatedly explaining that apple have cut corners in the fw-chipset , so an extra cable is needed to get round it . you never know , it could even be the way to get mac to fix it. but as i said before , not making your customers aware of the problem before purchase is wrong
regards,lawrie

Why you claim 'non-Lindy' and then link to the original Lindy cable?

Hi there, I just read the last few days and can now see how to fix this. RME have known about this for some time and it's not a problem that is going to go away. They should be putting the information or the fix in the box with the rest of the package. Depending on what the fix costs I'll either dump the fireface back with the vendor and get another compatible product or put up with it. This is bad, bad marketing.

Lacie HD inbetween iMAC and FF400:
Then I put a Lacie Quad D2 Firewire based HD inbetween (800-->800 Lacie 400--> FF400) and ping! Worked flawlessly, very stable and reliable. Switching off the hard disk itself and using it as a hub btw causes better performance than having the HD active. I run "Mainstage" with 256 samples at 192kHz. Works even with a heavy effect workload.

Also fine works the Lindy 3 port repeater.

CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW MUCH THIS STUFF COSTS?
Thanks to Ulicarlos for the above possible solution so far...if it works without enormous cost.
RME should really have been supplying a solution.

***

RME should address this problem without blaming MAC. I am pissed off with fixing something I bought when the problem was already known to RME. I should have been given the choice when looking at the product in the shop. It has cost me money and most importantly: time.
Thanks to all who have worked out fixes to the problem. RME: it doesn't matter how good the product is if it won't install on the new computers! I know nothing about software but I know business and this is a marketing disaster.
Put an easy to find clear fix on this site for all to read, a solution recommended by you. Or put a warning on the product.. Don't leave fixing it to those who have innocently had the misfortune of finding that it doesn't do what it says it can. Firewire mostly means apple.
Les

Research people research!

If you don't do it you face lots of potential problems. If something is vital to your business or just your general well being, then you research before you buy. All of this info is on the net. Easy to find. So please don't go off at RME for building products that meet the specification of the protocol when Apple doesn't.

Isaac.

1st - why haven't the last few posts been deleted? They obviously do not belong here. When I look for the newest information on workarounds for this insanly annoying problem, I don't wanna read about some, excuse my language, Mac noob claiming that macs don't have Intel processors.

[Mod: Done.]

2nd - How is this fireface/imac/macbookpro problemsolving actually going? Why aren't there any regular updates telling us how the process of solving this is going!? I have completely stopped using med FF400 for the main purpose I bought it for, namely playing live, and I'm "this" close to selling it and forgetting about RME forgood. I have red every post I could find about this, and have understood how the problem might not be in the hands of RME right now, but I don't understand why you aren't doing, or do not seem to do everything you can to get this problem fixed. Some regular updates would be great, because right now I feel, and I believe many others do as well, kind of alone with this problem. Like its up to us customers, who have invested a great deal of money into this elsewise great product of yours, to fix/deal with it. I demand you change this attitude, or I will not ever again buy one of your products, nor recommend it to anyone else, which up to around a half year ago was something I gladly did. Several of the people I recommended it to, actually bought one or more of your products.

So please RME, let us get the feeling that everything possible is being done to fix this problem. I'm tired of being in the shadow of not knowing.

Best regards
Christian

Hi

Ok I have tried to read threw this thread and understand as much as possible.. but could someone plz explain me what I need to do in plain English (or as i you were to explain it to your grand mother)

I recently bought an iMac 24" 2.66ghz after having run my FF400 on a shity old PC for some time.. and was feeling very excited about having a propper computer for my studio.. finally! my recording chain was complete with some pritty high end gear..

...........well now I just bought the techlynx FirwWire cable 400 to 800 to conect my ff400 to my new imac.. but I cant seam to get it to work.. I cant seam to download the drivers of the rme homepage.. and after installing the mac drivers of the CD I can see the instaled icons...but nothing comes up when I click on them.

Could someone plz tell me if I am one of them who are F*cked or not?

And what can I do to fix it? (have been reading the fixes.. but they are so many people saying so many different things and suggestions.. what would work for me?)

I find this really really sad if this is the case that I can not work my ff400 on my new comp after taking big loans and saving up for months..

someone plz help!

Wow, yeah Fire fox was not letting me download the drivers.. Safari worked like a charm!
Downloaded- installed and now... it seams like its working!!!!
Have only tried playing mp3's on ituens.. but.. Is that it?
Should it be working now?
Can I expect any problems or should this be working flawlessly just like how it was on my PC?

Thanx for the help!

Bless

I can report that I can not get my FF400 to work with a brand new 17" MacBook Pro using bootcamp.  It seems to work using OS X.   I posted about this a few days ago and nobody has an answer.  I'm slightly more than frustrated at this point.

If it works with OS X then it's not the hardware compatibility problem this thread talks about. I will try to help in your other thread.

That sounds like something completely different. If TotalMix doesn't work, exit it and start it again. Load the default factory preset. Restart again.

Hi, and thanks for the tip, but I've already read about this solution, and I got the impression that it is not flawless. Is this so or not? While sadly I'm kind of a "perfectionist" in lack of a better expression, and can't really sleep well at night thinking about all the money spent only to have an almost fully fuctional setup.

And, should I go for the LINDY repeater, is it possible to get a similar shorter cable somewhere? Don't really need 4,5 m and then some.

Thank you all again and all the best,
Christian

Can you test the FF with another computer?

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Great! Got a cousin in Germany coming to visit in 2 weeks so I'll try it then! Thanks for answering!

Hi, I recently got a Mac Book Pro and found I had the problem illustrated here with my Fireface 800 so I tried the suggested solution of using a Lacie Firewire HD as a work around, but I seem to have had a different experience to everyone else. I can get sound from the Mac to the FF and out through the speakers, but not from a Microphone, to the FF to the Mac. The FF signal lights work, the Total mix levels don't though.

Q: Is this going to be the same for every device I use as a work around? Or should I just same myself the hassle, sell my FF800 and get something else?

It'd be a shame to do that as I do like it a lot, but if that is what I have to do...

Hey Jeff, That was exactly the problem! Only been using the thing for 3 years...

I never have it set to the rear so I didn't even bother to check.

Thanks!