Topic: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

Hy everyone,
I am thinking of purchasing rme fireface 800 but a friend told me that there is a possibility for me to encounter problems because of firewire since I have a MacBook White laptop (from year 2010) and he heared that on some laptops firewire multichannel doesn't work well and crashes. I have one firewire 400 port and the computer specs are following:

Model Name:    MacBook
Model Identifier:    MacBook5,2
Processor Name:    Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:    2.13 GHz
Number Of Processors:    1
Total Number Of Cores:    2
L2 Cache:    3 MB
Memory:    2 GB
Bus Speed:    1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version:    MB52.0088.B06
SMC Version (system):    1.38f5
Serial Number (system):    4593811F9GV
Hardware UUID:    F083194A-6486-5D7F-A270-700A59FB1C49
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State:    Enabled

Does anyone have some experience with this and knows if it will work or not,
the friend also mentioned that the reason that it may not work is that apple went from texas instruments to some other not that good (drivers?/dsp-s?) but I cant find if my computer has those texas instruments (drivers?/dsp-s) or some other ones...
as you might see, I'm not that good at this computer stuff so I would greatly appreciate some help, thanks!
Matan

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

anyone? please...

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

Please read this and check your FireWire chipset: http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4986

best regards
Knut

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

Hy Knut!
I have checked my firewire and it is the following:
FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5903 built-in now active, GUID 0026b0fffeebe15c; max speed s400
my question now- What is the alternative now? Can a Lindy cable sort my problem? maybe this one? http://www.thomann.de/gb/lindy_firewire … _3m_02.htm
p.s. I'm sorry for being a pain but I' really not much of a computer guy sad

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

What chip revision? In Terminal type: ioreg -lxw0

If it shows Rev. 7 it should work without no problem.

best regards
Knut

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

Ecuse me but I didn't quite get the question "What chip revision?"
could you please clarify that a bit please, I would be grateful

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

The FireWire chipset exists in several revisions.

- Revision 6: connection problems, stop after playback starts - solved with a FW repeater (e. g. Lindy cable, external Lacie FW HD)
- Revision 7: no problems

To check for your revision read here: http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4986

best regards
Knut

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

yes, i read all that but I dont understand where I can see what is my revision??
as i said, im not that of a computer guy, this is first time i don something more lets say advanced so could you please advise me how to see what i have and how to fix the problem?

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

Here's how to identify the revision of the LSI/Agere chipset:

In Mac Terminal type (or copy and paste):  ioreg -lxw0
(lower case "L" and digit Zero)

search for FRWR. See this:

FRWR@0  <class IOPCIDevice, id 0x1000001d8, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (695 ms), retain 9>
    | |   |     | {
    | |   |     |   "assigned-addresses" = <1000048200000000000010d30000000000100000>
    | |   |     |   "IOInterruptSpecifiers" = (<1300000007000000>,<1900000000000100>)
    | |   |     |   "fwswappedbib" = <01000000>
    | |   |     |   "class-code" = <10000c00>
    | |   |     |   "IODeviceMemory" = (({"address"=0xffffffffd3100000,"length"=0x1000}))
    | |   |     |   "fwtune" = <00000008e3e3040000000808e3e3144100004008200b40bf0000700810000000>
    | |   |     |   "pci-aspm-supported" = Yes
    | |   |     |   "IOPowerManagement" = {"ChildrenPowerState"=0x2,"CurrentPowerState"=0x2}
    | |   |     |   "subsystem-vendor-id" = <c1110000>
    | |   |     |   "built-in" = <00>
    | |   |     |   "acpi-device" = "IOACPIPlatformDevice is not serializable"
    | |   |     |   "IOPCIMSIMode" = Yes
    | |   |     |   "IOInterruptControllers" = ("io-apic-0","IOPCIMessagedInterruptController")
    | |   |     |   "name" = "pci11c1,5901"
    | |   |     |   "IOChildIndex" = 0x1
    | |   |     |   "device-id" = <01590000>
    | |   |     |   "vendor-id" = <c1110000>
    | |   |     |   "IOPCIExpressASPMDefault" = 0x0
    | |   |     |   "fws0" = <01000000>
    | |   |     |   "compatible" = <706369313163312c3539303000706369313163312c3539303100706369636c6173732c30633030313000>
    | |   |     |   "acpi-pmcap-offset" = 0x44
    | |   |     |   "IOPCIExpressLinkCapabilities" = 0x73c11
    | |   |     |   "IOPCIResourced" = Yes
    | |   |     |   "acpi-path" = "IOACPIPlane:/_SB/PCI0@0/RP05@160000/FRWR@0"
    | |   |     |   "subsystem-id" = <00590000>
    | |   |     |   "revision-id" = <07000000>
    | |   |     |   "IOPCIExpressLinkStatus" = 0x1011
    | |   |     |   "IOName" = "pci11c1,5901"
    | |   |     |   "fwports" = <01000000>
    | |   |     |   "reg" = <0000040000000000000000000000000000000000100004020000000000000000000000

best regards
Knut

Re: RME Fireface 800 and MacBook White

i have revision 7! smile
so that means I will have no problems with the firewire and I can buy it big_smile
thank you very much Knut, you were very kind and patient, I am very grateful to you smile