are the latest problems only related to the FF400 ?

Forgive me, I am new to this forum. But, if I may ask the RME support people if they use the Apple Firewire Mailing List to ask Apple about the driver issues with the FF400/800?
It is located at http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/firewire. Apparently, from a developer friend of mine, Eric Anderson, the Apple Firewire Software Engineer, monitors this Mailing List. They may be able to help RME with this issue. Just trying to help fix this problem. I am patiently waiting to buy a new FF800. Thanks, zoomnpa

Hey Tare,

try loading Preset 1 on Totalmix and flash that to the Fireface. I had it once that the controls/flash settings got confused if I remember right (been quite some time ago so my memory may fail me).

Here is possible solutions how to resolve or at last stop drooping off connection between you mac pro and Fireface 400.Problem is here that when you plying sound true iTune or from Logic or you waking up mac from sleep mode that then connection is drooping off.

Since RME and Apple are useless and are not able solve this problem since Apple release OSX 10.6 in October last year.... hello is 6 months now since ....

So Ive try this one and is working so fare for me on OSX 10.6.2.

Uninstall all RME drivers from your mac
Restart your computer
Empty your thrash
Turn off your computer
Unplug all your cables from Mac for 10 min ,that will reset your mac
Turn you mac on
Now install old driver  2.62a ... NO NEW ONE ! New one is rubbish and is causing that drooping off connection
After installing restart commuter
Update with flash up date tool
Restart RME
Job done it should work

...If is not working return unit to RME and ask for refund ,if they cant fix the problem after 6 month they should not sale this product !

I can honestly say I have never seen any of these problems. I'm on a Mac Pro early 2007 with SL 10.6.2 with 12GB of RAM. I own the FF800 and have it connected to the rear FW800 port. I know that's not very helpful but just wanted to share my experience. Cheers.

Has anybody who has the issues an other brand Firewire audio interface (and which)? Are there also occurring problems with the other one?

Yes... on my MacPro (with FF800) I also have a Digi 003R, that when I turn it on or off, it will reset the firewire audio devices and then the whole FF800 lockup situation occurs.
It seem to be happening when the firewire bus is reset..... the audio devices reload their respective drivers and that's when it all goes pear shaped.

I personally am not having an issue with it, now that I have some sort of idea what's going on. So I can work around it.

(I may have mis-interpreted the question. I answered in the light of, "does it affect the operation of my FireFace800?")

My Fireface800 is always connected but when I turn on the Digi003R, it resets the Freface800 driver, which sometimes results in the full lock that people have spoken about.

Hi I'm new.

I've been having this Kernel panic issue with Driver version 2.65, Mac OS 10.6.2, and Ableton Live 8.1

Another issue i've been having is that my FF 800 interferes with my macbook pro's Airport (WiFi).  Whenever the FF 800 is connected and activated, the Airport simply does not work.  I have downloaded all OS, and firmware updates, rebooted countless times, and it still continues to happen. This is a new issue, that I had not encountered with the previous Fireface driver.  No other Firewire devices are creating this issue. Only the FF 800.

Just wanted to announce this second issue, in case anyone else is going through the same. 

Here are my specs:
Late 2009 Unibody Macbook Pro: 2.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD. 
Fireface 800 connected through FW800 port. 
Ableton Live 8.1, Logic Studio 9.

For me the v2.65 kernel driver is installed, and just yesterday apparently core-audio froze (100% CPU on one core with doing noting and preventing normal restart or shut down ... had to do it the hard way).

hey, here the driver works perfect, iMac C2D 2,66Ghz but when i turn off the FF400 and i reconnect the driver doesn't load correctly and the computer starts freezing... i'm using snow leopard, with leopard i worked like a charm but with this new OS i have to switch on the FF400 before i start my computer...

this last week i reinstalled all my mac from 0 because i had to clean up my hard drive, i reinstalled everything from 0 and the same happens with FF400, anyone know how to fix this? i very annoying to have to shut down computer each time that i have to connect FF400 to another computer.

thanks!

Hi,

Does it help to unload FF Setting and FF Mixer dialogs by right clicking in the Dock
then put your Mac to sleep, turn off your Fireface and then pull the firewire cable !?

I have been doing this with my MBP (early 2008) and FF800 and no problem !
FF800 driver 2.65 and fut 2.77 with OSX 10.6.2 and BootCamp/Windows 7 driver 2.9992

regards S-EH

Did you already make sure that the knob is working correctly? I mean to remember that you were one of those experiencing the "stuck knob" phenomen?

Also try making the FF *not* the output for system sounds and vice versa (aka make it). Does that change anything?

Last but not least: Does the knob/hardware control work properly in stand-alone mode (disconnected from the computer)?

ooo .. in a hospital again this is the feeling i got from forums..ok...maybe we can be cured

after reading the whole story i just want to put some stones in it ..

my expirence on SL10.6.2 2x2.26 2009 mac pro 4.1 is like that ::

i cant disconnect the FF400 without getting into system hangs ...when i try to turn off and on again i get kernal panics..
if i disconnect the device while audio apps are runnig there is no automatic switch to the onboard device (like it used to) but full system hang (this is i thing the apple issue) ..hm..

sometimes the volume control via apple keys doesnt work (mostly after sleep)>> have to switch the system audio device off and on again

so ...actually im lucky anyway ...

Well, after a day of working fine, everything went - up this morning and the system crashed AGAIN as soon as the RME was powered up. It does seem clear to me that as has been suggested in this topic by RME, it's best NOT to let your MAC go into sleep mode, because starting up the MAC and RME in whatever configuration from sleep mode causes kernal panic and system hang and crash. Clearly either the RME driver is faulty or it's conflicting with something in OSX Snow Leopard. That it appears to happen when coming out of sleep mode I would have thought would help get to the root cause, but obviously not.

I reinstalled the new 2.65 drivers this morning, ensuring I removed everything RME beforehand as instructed and I'm going to follow the advise of only having the RME powered by firewire. I'll probably have one more attempt at starting from sleep mode to see if theres any difference, but wouldn't hold your breath.

I also removed a potential conflict, another unused firewire driver.

oh joy........

I DO HAVE A CRASH REPORT FROM THIS MORNING THAT INDICATES THE RME TO BE THE CULPRIT - HAPPY TO SEND IT TO RME IF IT'S OF USE - PLEASE ADVISE..............

I'm running OS 10.6.2 on a late 2006 24" iMac, connected to my Fireface 800 via Firewire 800, currently using the 2.65 drivers.  I'm one of the people having no problems, although the only way I can get my computer to recognize the interface is to turn it on after I have booted up the computer.  When I do that, then the Fireface Settings and TotalMix applications launch automatically.  I have tried changing the System Preferences for sound so that all sounds and alerts play through the internal speakers, but the Fireface, upon activation, still causes the Fireface applications to launch.  I always thought that the Fireface apps starting up was normal behaviour.

I can quit the apps, and then power off the Fireface without incident, and I can then power up the Fireface once again, which causes the Apps to launch all over, but there is no problem with crashes or freezes.

I do most of my audio work with a Windows program (Pyramix) which I run on a Boot Camp partition on both my iMac and my late 2007 MacBook Pro, so I have little experience running the Fireface under Mac OS 10.6, other than to test it for playback reliability.

Thanks. The problem with the problem is the everyone's problems appears to be slightly different. All I know is, until now the Fireface apps opened automatically, and what followed was kernel panic followed by a system crash. Now they don't open automatically and I'm not having any problems at all (so far anyway). The key point for me is the <Library/LaunchAgents/de.rm-eaudio.firefaceAgent.plist> file that mysteriously reappeared several times and clearly was causing my entire system to hang, presumably because it was over-riding everything in its attempt to communicate with the RME driver. I'm keeping a watchful eye on the launch agents folder to see if the file reappears again in an effort to identify the specific action that causes the RME to generate the p.list file.

My computer has never had a problem identifying the driver, and use of the RME400 is flawless and without problem aside from the crash issues discussed. I run Logic Pro 9 and masses of soft synths including Omnispheres, Trillion Arturia etc etc and all that is running absolutely fine and I do vocal and guitar recording through the RME without problem.

'Something' has caused the kernel panics and crashes ever since I installed Snow Leopard and initially I was blaming Snow Leopard for all my problems, because so many applications were crashing, whereas now I'm pretty sure it's the RME drivers and specifically the p.list file that have been the culprit.

I'll keep posting over the next few days with how things are going....................

Bello David,
have you done this?

Can you try this?

1. Power on your Mac
2. Launch iTunes and play your music for any time (one or two minutes...) from Mac audio output
3. Stop music from iTunes
4. Power on Fireface
5. When Fireface apps starting up, you set Mac audio output to Fireface
6. Now you play again your music from iTune.

Is it all right or do apparently core-audio froze (100% CPU on one core with doing noting and preventing normal restart or shut down)?

Sorry for my bad english languadge!

I performed steps 1 - 6 outlined above, with no problems at all.  I even went back to the internal speakers after switching the System Preference: Sound back to outputting to the internal speakers, quitting the Fireface apps, and switching off the Fireface.  Playback continues.

To answer the other poster - if I start up my Fireface BEFORE booting the computer, the computer won't find it - the red light on the Fireface stays on, and the Fireface apps don't launch.  If I start the Fireface AFTER the computer is up and running, everything runs fine.

So, perhaps the conflict comes with some of the other audio apps that a person might have installed on their computer.  As I mentioned before, I do most of my audio work on my Boot Camp/Windows partition, so I don't have as much installed on my machine as many users, but I do have the following installed, but not running:

Pro Tools LE 8
Quick Time 7 and Pro (with Flip4Mac)
Windows Media Player
Real Player
Frontrow
Garageband
Izotope RX
Wave Editor (Audiofile Engineering)
Jam 6
LameBrain encoder
Max (not Max DSP, but the file format converter)
Toast Titanium 8
Audacity 1.2.5
Peak 4
iDVD
iMovie
iTunes
Radio GaGa
Audion 3
Audio Highjack Pro
Apple DVD player
VLC

Like I said, I don't usually run these, but they are all installed and ready to go, so none of these installations create a conflict with the RME drivers, suggesting that the problems people are having must come from a conflict that exists elsewhere.  Sorry I can't be of more help.

At least, that's the case on my system.....

To answer quattroquarti:I performed tasks 1-6 as you asked and it works fine, no problems at all. Played about switching from one to the other without any issues.

This also answered another question for me; I can now start my RME400 before OR after I power up my Mac and it works fine! RME and Mac sync up in seconds.

To answer MADI hero: I agree entirely, there is (or in my case, was) a conflict, but with what? I've spent a lot of time on this past two weeks attempting to find a common link to the problems that I have experienced, going through things logically. The only thing that I can say with certainty is that after 2 months of crashes and problems I don't think it's easy to isolate the core problems because the drive gets messed up, so I took my Mac Pro to a Mac dealer and got the drives and memory sorted out, and confirmed as okay. Then I removed all traces of the RME400 drivers and reinstalled. I had the issue with the "reappearing p.list file, which I believe to be significant in all this, but from then on, three days now, no problems at all from a cold start. And I can now add to that, whether RME400 powered on before or after the Mac.

One other significant piece of information: I removed an Alesis16 audio driver from my system last week. At the time it had no effect, but maybe later after I reinstalled the RME drivers.............? 

The only thing left for me to check is if it still works okay waking from sleep mode, which I think I'm going to try tomorrow morning. I will of course post result!!

To RobR: I feel your frustration! The only thing I can suggest based on my experience (and without knowing your set up) is to uninstall the RME drivers AND ALL THE RME FILES as already discussed, reinstall and see what happens. Also, if you've has serious crashes for a while, like I did, then it's probably worth you checking that the drive and layers etc are okay and that your RAM is okay. At least is you start from a point of knowing that the drive etc is okay, you can rule that out as a problem.

Also, check that you haven't got any other audio drivers on your system and if you have, move them to your desktop in case the RME is conflicting with it. Good luck!!

David, the plist is just a text file that informs the Mac OS to start the Settings and Mixer app when the Mac OS has detected and installed the FW functionality of the FF. You will notice that after plugging in the unit it takes about four seconds until the red host light switches off, at the same time the applications launch into the dock. To disable the launch agent you simply move this file to any other place. You can enable the function later by moving it back. It will also be reinstalled by a driver install.

We took your idea and examined the agent mechanism, by also fooling around with the start of the applications. None of this would ever cause a problem or hang or shut down.

It seems that you had an isolated problem on your machine, while everyone else here fights with a different (standby/sleep related) problem.

This may be unrelated, but have you tried a System Reset?  This is a process where you disconnect the Mac from any power source (unplug the AC, and remove the battery from a laptop), and then press and hold the Power On button for ten seconds or more.

I was having some issues with a Firewire hard drive last week, that I eventually traced to a bad cable, but in the meantime, things got so screwed up I thought I had burnt out my Firewire chip in either my computer or my drive.  After a call to Applecare, and performing the System Reset and also resetting the P-Ram (boot up holding Control, Option, P and R for three or more start-up chimes), everything is back to normal.  The Applecare person explained that doing these things not only reset some information stored in the system memory, they can also have the effect of fixing some seemingly hardware related problems by "recalibrating" the voltages sent and expected by the various ports.

I'm thinking that removing your Alesis Firewire hardware may have left things in an "uncalibrated" state, and it can't hurt to do the System Reset and the P-Ram dance anyway.

Just a suggestion....

Thanks, but I had done a system reset, PRAM reset etc. I'm an 18 hour a day Mac user, either on my Mac Pro or my Mac Book and while not a "techi" person, I am an experienced user. I work constantly with Logic Pro in my own studio and in live applications, plus Photo shop and Aperture for my web business. I've also done several drive checks and repair permissions from the SL disc this week.

Because I had so many system crashes I took my computer into my Mac dealer two weeks ago and they had it on test for a couple of days, checked the memory was okay and sorted out some issues on the drive caused by all the crashes. When I got the Mac back is when I started to go methodically through things, isolated the RME400 as the 'cause' and then proceeded to install and reinstall the drivers. As you have read, I even tried the previous drivers as suggested by another post on this thread.

At this moment, I don't have any problems, everything is working absolutely fine now using the RME400 out of sleep mode. I am taking my Mac Pro back to the apple tech guy next week, because I did have 6 or 7 major system crashes before sorting things out and I want to know my drive is 100%, so that's purely precautionary.

Tried that yesterday when attempting various combinations for <quattroquarti> and it worked fine. My RME400 is now stable in Snow Leopard in whatever combination I power it on or off with the Mac and Logic/itunes/Toast or Peak. I will give it another go over the weekend though and post results - had enough of Macs and FF drivers for today!

I run the RME400 on mains power. I always have. I tried on bus power out of interest last week and it took ages for the Mac to start, agao=in as if it was struggling to locate the drivers, but that was when I was still having problems, so it might be okay now, so I'll give it a go later to see if it works okay.

I should point out, again, and at the risk of sound boring, that my RME400 is now NOT opening automatically in the dock because I removed the p.list file and I remain convinced, until proven otherwise, that this is significant, at least in solving my sleep/rme issues.