1 Topic by undertone (edited by undertone 2011-03-29 13:58:56)

  • Registered: 2007-05-02
  • Posts: 316

Topic: My Groundhog Day Mac OS X 2.76 Driver Saga

I use an HDPSPe ExpressCard + MF on a MBP3,1, and I go through this many times in a week:

When I put my Mac to sleep, the  MF's Ch. 10 meter output (SPDIF R) reads a fixed output level at about 0.0 and this level shows up in the interface that this SPDIF is plugged into on another machine. So I've come to unplug the MF power to get rid of this level, whatever it is, and if that channel is somehow routed to my speakers, I hear a pop when I unplug the MF.

Because my MF is unpowered, I sometimes wake my MBP from sleep and the HDSPe driver reports that I now have a Digiface. I then re-power the Multiface but the driver doesn't detect it.

So I then right click on the card bus icon in the menu bar and chose to remove the card, to unplug and replug the ExpressCard. The icon disappears, I wait 10 seconds or so and remove the card, but then I get a RED EXCLAMATION notification from OS X:

Because a USB device was drawing too much power from
your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled.

To prevent damaging your computer, the USB device drawing
too much power has been disabled. Other devices may have
also been disabled. When you disconnect the device drawing
too much power, your other USB devices will be enabled again.

However, once I plug the card back in, everything is back to normal. I'm not even going to begin suggesting what's wrong because clearly there are multiple issues here. You have to admit that something isn't quite right with the above scenario, and though nothing has happened, the message from the OS is disquieting and points to some potential overload which may or may not have a cumulative detrimental effect on the system, the ExpressCard. or both.

PC1 = HDSPe PCIe: DF-ADI-8 DS / HDSPe PCIe: MF2
MBP = HDSPe Expresscard: MF1

2 Reply by undertone (edited by undertone 2011-04-21 20:06:00)

  • Registered: 2007-05-02
  • Posts: 316

Re: My Groundhog Day Mac OS X 2.76 Driver Saga

Today, I thought I'd be clever, and I thought "Let me "disconnect" the card before I put the MBP to sleep. Maybe when it wakes up, it'll just show up as disconnected."

But now when I wake the MBP from sleep, nothing happens. The driver never comes up and the card icon in the menu bar is missing. Trying to enable the driver manually fails. Pulling the card out and plugging it back in does eventually make the card appear as it should, and at least this time without the USB power warning.

This is an alternative to my previous solution: unplugging the power from the racked MF (to get rid of the static levels on the SPDIF channels) and putting a note on the MBP with "Multiface" written on it to remind me to plug the power back into the MF before turning the MBP on.

FYI...

PC1 = HDSPe PCIe: DF-ADI-8 DS / HDSPe PCIe: MF2
MBP = HDSPe Expresscard: MF1
  • Registered: 2007-05-02
  • Posts: 316

Re: My Groundhog Day Mac OS X 2.76 Driver Saga

***UPDATE*** IT WORKS!!

I don't know what changed, but now when I wake up the MBP, the drivers wake up within a minute, show "Multiface" and "Disconnected". I reconnect and I'm good to go. Maybe the drivers "learned" the routine? Strange. Disconnecting gets rid of the static level on the SPDIF, so all is good. FYI...

PC1 = HDSPe PCIe: DF-ADI-8 DS / HDSPe PCIe: MF2
MBP = HDSPe Expresscard: MF1
  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: My Groundhog Day Mac OS X 2.76 Driver Saga

I don't know how the HDSPe is connected inside the EC slot, but every ExpressCard slot comes with both PCI Express + USB 2.0. I had that error, too, when I tested the HDSPe, but I don't worry too much about it other than knowing how badly the Mac's internal power circuitry seems to be (no experience with your older 3,1 MBP though).

http://www.expresscard.org/images/expresscardbus2.jpg

Frankly I tend to suspect the Mac misbehaving upon card removal more than suspecting the HDSPe, but RME would have to chime in and explain whether power is drawn from the USB port of the EC slot or not.

  • Registered: 2007-05-02
  • Posts: 316

Re: My Groundhog Day Mac OS X 2.76 Driver Saga

Thanks for the info Timur. Last night I forgot to "Disconnect" my Multiface, but when the MBP went to sleep, there were no static levels up on the SPDIF channels, and on wake up this AM, it came up normally and without issues, as it should. Maybe 10.6.7 changed something for the better and I didn't notice, or maybe using the "Disconnect" function a few times reset something somewhere, who knows. It seems to be fine now.

PC1 = HDSPe PCIe: DF-ADI-8 DS / HDSPe PCIe: MF2
MBP = HDSPe Expresscard: MF1