I must say at this point I am quite dissapointed.  After doing some research, I determined that the Fireface 400 would be the best way to have a high resolution audio interface for my Macbook.  I received the FF today, and tried to set it up.  After no luck getting the FF to be recognized by my MB, I discovered these forums.  While I understand that this incompatibility may not be RME's fault, it is obvious that RME has known about the problem for many months now, and indeed there is no mention of the problem when one looks for information on using the product or buying one.  The RME website certainly makes it clear that the FF is compatible with all late model Macs.
Apparently I now own a FF 400, which I cannot use, unless I purchase a different computer.  I am hoping that I am wrong here, and that an update will be forthcoming which will take care of the problem, but at this point that does not seem to be the case.
I am asking those more in the know than I, do I need to just return the FF 400 and look for another solution?

MacBook, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM, OS 10.5.2, Lucent FW controller

It is a stupid problem, yes - but I still wouldn't see it that bad... What you can always do is a) use the "firewire-hub-workaround" (inserting something like an external harddrive between Mac and FF) or b) get a firewire-expressCard (preferably one with TI chipset (maybe a Lacie...)) - and you will have a lot of fun with a wonderful audio interface...

So you know what is going on in the background here, what is technically possible or not to fix this, what communication is going on, what we can say or not about this, and what might happen tomorrow - wonderful.

We handled the situation as best as possible by giving out information very early and declaring the products as 'incompatible'. Which other company would have dared to do so?

But obviously we do not have a blog running that tells anyone every second what confidential things are happening behind the scenes. And this will not change.

a) I think that it is more than obvious that Apple realised their fault - all new models have TI chips again...
b) So you spend thousands of ? for a Mac and then complain about 7 ? for a cable that might well solve your problems... you are really funny!

But honestly, this discussion is pointless from start to finish. RME proved their quality again and again and it is by far the company with best driver development and bug fixing I've ever seen.

Thank you RME!
laex

If Agere (Lucent), there will be problems.

just to be clear and shure.
."

thats mean that i connect my FF400 TO THE FW800 port with an adapter and it's working without any problems?
even if i'll buy a macbook today?

You have the good FW chipset so you don't need to worry. It?s the new Agere chipset that means trouble.

Apparently, they are also trying to hide the problem:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp … p;tstart=0   
(see last post)   EDIT: well.. post 6.

and this is not the first time:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/apple-censo … -1020.html

And here are some more info...

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/ … again.html

hey all,

-please excuse my english-
After a long process, of seeing what was wrong and what was actually functioning, also after writing to the rme support, I decided to post my experiences with my fireface 400, and the workaround i found.

First, my equipment:
(please keep in mind the numbers in the list, I will use this numbers for various combinations.

1- Fireface 400 (bought february 2007)
2-Apple Macbook Pro- 2,16-3 gig ram- TI CHIPSET-
2.4-Firewire 400 port
2.8-Firewire 800 port
cables:

3- the original that comes with the FF 400
4- new one (shorter)
5- new one (larger)
6- Firewire 400 to firewire 800
7- "Lindy" express card -two firewire 400 ports- with TI Chipset

Introduction

-I had some time ago, a powerbook G4. The mother board had to be changed, because it had a lot of troubles -going to sleep randomly-
-I bought this macbook pro.

-from september 2007 to febbruary 2008 my equipment functioned perfect, both with bus power or ac adapter. I use it mainly for recording concerts.

-THE PROBLEM:
from end of february, I started to hear suddenly a very loud digital noise, coming out of any output connected. in both bus and ac. and the frequenz sample jumped randomly, from 44.1 to 10398767 and back to 98786565 so....weird and no pattern.

I wasnt able to clarify the reason or error.

-the fireface did NOT show any through the software.

1+2.4+3 or 4 or 5:
Didn't work. BUS and AC adapter

1+2.8+6
Didn't work

-at this point I had already reached rme support...they sugested all this (trying diferent cables). Also, found this forum. And the ones in apple about the failures in the AGERE chipset. BUT: I have TI chipset in my computer.
Didn't work. BUS and AC adapter

I finally bought the 7:
1+3 or 4 or 5+7
Only Ac adapter (external express card doesn't give the Bus power)

IT worked!!!!
No noise, no problems at all!!! BUT: the airport signal stop working EVERY time i disconect the express card. I have to reset computer to get it working again....

OPINION:
apple doesn't care too much about...or untill now they haven't posted something clear. I think they have focused the production to hobby matters, or "nice" and "life" activities: pictures, tunes... i mean...ilife. And NOT to the hard and professional use they once had. They are getting close to what is now PC...specially with leopard
It is very very tiring to deal with things that sould be repared or investigated by the companies. Time lost, energy, and of course...money.

CONCLUSION:
-rme works fine.
-NOT ONLY the Agere chip has problems...at least in may case: I have TI chip.
The only workaround that worked for me: New express card with Firewire 400 port ("Lindy" express card -two firewire 400 ports- with TI Chipset)
Now let's see how long that will work...!

back to making music!...that doesn't has to do with digital world...

bye

Thanks copilcos for your detailed explanations of your experiences.

I have an Santa Rosa MBP 2.2Ghz. I just tried the SIIG 2X Firewire 400 with my FF400. It glitches even more than in my original firewire port... Why so much pain to create and produce.

By the way I had an MOTU Ultralite and it worked perfectly. But as I'm a sound freak, I had to "upgrade" for better A/D D/A conversion.

So I guess it's not only the Agere hardware that make FF400 glitching like that.
On other hands, my FF400 works perfectly with my Quad Core 2.66Ghz... Just don't know what to think.

I made my test in 32 and 64 of buffer size samples for real time monitoring with 2 compressor and one EQ.

Considering to switch again with MOTU.

Have a nice day everyone

What is the other workaround for this?
because i will have a mac book and they dont have fw800 port ony 400.

I think this thread is losing it's usefulness quite rapidly. I would suggest that someone how knows this issue really well should summarise the useful things into a single message (what this issue is about, what are the effected pieces of hardware, how to identify the Agere chip without installing anything, what are the symptoms, the things you can do to work around this if you already have an agere mac and a link to this thread if you really want to confuse yourself), sticky that and un-stick this one. I don't own a mac but I'm considering switching to that at some point of time so this is just a comment from a frequent reader.

Have a nice springtime and make good music!

Has the problem been fixed yet?

Hi MC,

The more I read about the Agere chip, the more I am confused. So I thought I will ask you directly.

I use the Fireface400 and am thinking about the 24 inch imac. I am thinking about it simply because it is quiet and I think I can keep the computer in the same room as I record (which I am surprise that not more people had point out.)

1) Does the 6 to 9 pin firewire wire really work? Are there any news about the new imac.

Changer

Can anyone comment regarding the latest revision of the FW643 chipset?

hi i posted this already in another thread that seems to be dealing with the same issue, but maybe there are more answers here

hi there i am a new user to this forum.
i recently was asked by my FF800 to install the latest drivers and did so. its now version 2.60a
since then, and not once before, i have the red host light issue.
i followed previous instructions and checked which firewire controller i have and its the Agere.
my two big questions are
why the change, why did it previously work faultlessly?
and who, when and how will it be fixed?

I am running 2.4 Ghz intel core 2 duo, 4 gb ram.  OSX version 10.4.11

thanks a

dude, you're weird.. you stopped making music because your new mac is not compatible with your card???
change back to pc and do some
or sell the firewire audiocard and buy a usb one..
you know what, it doesn't have to be an rme to make music..

:roll

just try it! i got a new imac 3.06 2 weeks ago, in the beginning had a problem. i was only using the fw400 cable to the fw400 port on my computer. the ff settings window wouldn't close, staying all the time in front of my desktop :S
i was angry and deleted the fireface_settings file that was in my applications folder. all of a sudden, it continued working!!!
then, i saw that i could only change the buffer size (from all the settings available) but i could listen to music again, working on cubase/ableton/logic without problems and everything else seems fine! no problems recording, no problems playing back
for those who have this problem, just try it. if it doesn't work for you, then i might be the only lucky one

The new LSI/AGERE chips are starting to be very widely used in new motherboards.

For example the entire ASUS P45 (use the name Asus P5Q-XXX) lineup all use FW3227 chip. Anyone know if it will work or not? I have a FF400.

Is there more news on the firewire issue? There have been some updates for the imac and OSX during the last few weeks.
I'm still not sure if I can add an external FW800 drive to the Lucent iMac with an Apogee Duet..

We're talking about a new revision of the chipset now anyway.

Someone said in a post that you can use a 1394b to 1394a adapter, any confirmation on this from the manufacturer?