Hello RME, would be nice to get some sort of feedback. Are you need more information? Is there capacity to test this issue at the moment? I feel a bit lost and ignored at the moment here. Talked with the telephone support but they just say they never heard of that problem...

Hi've the same problem and hi check two recording sofware, ( logic studio, reaper ), and each time that the same, the OS crach

for me it happend both plugged when hi start, and plugged after start, and hi don't use the flash updater

i just installed OSX 10.6.2. Same issue. Freezes really quickly whith the latest drivers. I think i have to send it back. Any ideas?

Hello,

my setup:

MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz, 2GB, 10.6.2
hammerfall 1 interface, PCI express card
driver 2.70

1. After updating to leopard the system freezed when I played audio. I checked: ah, I must update flash and driver. so I did.

2. Now system freezed soon after I start playing audio through it. It happens with skype and ichat and itunes. no audio production software tested so far.

3. I read "please deinstall old driver first" in the forum. hm, this should be written in the readme but it isn?t. I thought I might trash all the hammerfall files as indicated here (http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic … 681#p23681) and install driver 2.70 again. maybe this solves the issue.
But now no audio comes out at all. hammerfall mixer and setup won?t start. At starting it manually, they try to come up and immediately close themselves.

so through trying to stop the issue it even got worse. I cannot use the hammerfall at all right now.

any suggestions are welcome.

Hi,

to add a marginal (and hopefully unrelated) second issue I have with my powerbook: the screen flashes to black for fractions of a second once in a while when using the smaller of the two graphic cards. In the energy savongs dialog I switched to the "hoehere Leistung" / more power option graphic card and the problem is gone. anyone in this thread got this problem too?

I cannot speak for the non Unibody Macbook Pros, but the Unibody ones cannot be trusted when it comes to the ExpressCars slot on OS X. That being said I only managed to cause data corruption and Kernel Panics when using high bandwidth and transfering lots of data. The HDSPe does not really fit that category apart from doing a firmware flash (which was fixed by RME by slowing down the flash process).

In my own tests I had the HDSPe + MF2 running for quite some time without getting crashes, freezes or Panics. But I know that you can make the ExpressCard slot of the Unibody Macbook Pros to behave exactly like that, so maybe on your setups even the slower bandwidth of pure audio transmission leads to such problems.

It *could* be a RME driver related problem, but knowing how I saw the same issues with both a TI based Firewire card and even alot worse with a Jmicron based eSATA card (that uses OS X own internal drivers!) I really don't trust the EC slot. Especially since the same eSATA card runs flawlessly on bootcamped Windows XP (Vista/W7 cannot even access the MBP's EC, blame Apple) and on Vista on a HP laptop.

Hi,
i do have similar problems though i have a pc in windows 7 (Intel Core Duo 3,6 with 4GB Ram9) and also HDSPe Express Card and the latest drivers.
i work with cubase and experience similar freezing problems.

Today i managed to use both together once, when i didn't activate the Settings and TotalMixer Software.

Would be interesting to know if more mac and pc users have similar problems!

greetings

hello, i've recording last night a show with my macbookpro 15"2008 and the express card, i switch the graphic card on the 9400 one, and no crach happend the recording is ok.

my setting is 48 KHertz and 16 bits with 35 tracks it's really a graphic card probleme ! I'll send a feedback of the situation to apple

thanks to users for your help

Philarsen .

I'll go on monday to an official mac shop to report the bug

Hello all, just checking in to see if anybody here finally overcame their freeze issues and got his/her Express card to work ? I've just made the switch from PC to Macbook pro OS 10.6.2 / Core 2 duo 2.4GHz / 2 GHZ ram with the infamous NVIDIA 9400M and 9600M GT. tried all the tricks offered here without success. Please help

Hi, unfortunately there's nothing new... Maybe we all should write directly, everyday, to the RME guys? I do not know what is the problem with - with RME soft or with the Apple soft. I check the new drivers at the RME's website everyday, and - I've heard - the new OS X upgrade is expected in the near future... I give up hope day by day...

Thanks for sticking to this & posting an update.

Hi All,

There is definitely a problem between the Macbook graphics adapter and the Rme express card. I have switched as mentioned earlier in this thread to the lower bandwidth graphics and it stopped freezing the mac instantly. I think you RME guys need to accept you have a problem and sort it. I own quite a few of your products, but thank god they work because when you have a problem you say you haven't, and keep quiet!

If the problem is the Macbook, surely RME is a large enough company to meet face to face with the tech guys from apple and sort this out? or do you deem it ok to just keep selling your very expensive products to people without publishing a disclaimer to point out it may not work properly?

Crumbs - Apple really seem to be dropping the ball on this one then!

What you ask is: Why would you want to connect an external display or powered USB device (like a FF UC or powered USB hub)? And that is all I am doing here, connect an external device to the ports that are meant to support this.

Neither the USB hub nor the UC comes with security-grounding connections btw (2-pin plugs), only the display does (german "Schuko" 3-pin plug). Neither does the external HD chassis.

There is no way around touching mass to mass, it happens whenever you plug in a connector and is even meant to be this way (mass connections protrude on most connectors and the outer metal ring of these connectors is connected to mass as well). It's not much voltage by the way, but that even makes it worse (small cause, big impact).

That being said: The grounding disconnection with an external connector is only a way of making the issues very reproducible. You *do* get errors without doing that, too, just a lot more sporadic and a lot better for Apple to discuss away. You will get the same data-corruption, drop-outs, Kernel Panics and Freezes, but not on command, but more out of the blue (like a lot of people are reporting here and on other forums).

The expensive Sonnet Tempo Pro (Marvell) and the Firewire card seem to be the least affected (in my 2008 15" a TI based FW card caused havoc though).

But I also had the Jmicron and SIL based cards run error-free for hours and hours and then all of a sudden I had several runs with errors in a row and then again it worked error free. The JMicron even once caused an error when I put my hand on the MBP to type something (might have been a coincidence, but I don't think so).

While I was writing this I thought about looking into a dictionary, but it was too late and since I used the word security it seemed clear enough.

Last week an Apple Store opened doors in my town (this is only the 4th stoor in all of Germany). Since the attourney I went to didn't like to send letters to Ireland (Apple has no official adress in Germany) he agreed that it was worth a try to present the issues directly to an Apple "Genius" (aka a *real* Apple employed technician).?

I went there with my 17" 2009 Macbook Pro being frozen in OS X, which means that I had to carry it open in my hands because it went quite warm. I asked the "Genius" if he could think about any method how I could have made the MBP freeze. He answered "It should not be possible at all". Then I made it freeze again right before his eyes by simply *touching* (not even connecting) the USB port with the USB cable of a Fireface UC while data was being transfered over an eSATA ExpressCard.

Furthermore I demonstrated how data corruption occurs even when you don't touch the MBP with both its PSU being connected *and* disconnected (aka battery power). Last but not least I gave them screenshots of irreparable HFS+ partitions and Kernel logs of the Sonnet Tempo Pro freaking out.

I left the MBP there with three different eSATA ExpressCards and three different cables (2x eSATA-eSATA, 1x eSATA-SATA). They sell an external HD with eSATA port there, but don't sell any ExpressCard to make use of it, nor do they recommend any apart from "they should *all* work". It's been 4 days since I left the stuff there and I will give them the full 5-7 days they asked for before I go back in (call my familiy if I don't come out within 2 hours, hehe).

has anyone found a way to avoid this system freeze in macbookpro and hdspe express card ?

Sorry to bump an "old-ish" topic, but I am considering purchasing an HDSPe Expresscard for use with my Multiface II (currently using a PCI-e one in my desktop workstation), and my A1226 2007/2008 Macbook Pro 15.  It's one of those ones with the Geforce 8600M (thankfully with a new logic board).

Has anyone had any luck using the HDSPe Expresscard with these Macbook Pros?  OS X or Win 7 64-bit?  (I prefer to use the latter)  Messages detailing any experiences, good or bad, would be appreciated. PM me, even.

Hi, on my MBP I've tryed this:
downloaded and installed the last driver (3.05)
inserted the hdspe madiface card
updated the firmware of the card
deleted the two files in library/preferences/audio  the files are com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist and com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist
to delete the files, your system account password is required
reboot the computer
perform a disk permission rebuild
now the madifaces is working and the system don't freezes
that's in my case, now try it out and let us know if that solve the problem.
best regards

And starting from 2010 the ExpressCard slot in Macbook Pros got more stable electrically (albeit still not running perfect, same applies to Thunderbolt). As a consequence the HDSPe is less affected by electrical issues of the MBP now, if at all.