MBox Pro and FireWire/Thunderbolt adapter

[Darryl Ramm]

And this old thread, http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=343589&page=2

Which seemed partially resolved/improved by doing a restore of Mountain Lion from a different systems onto the Mac. So you might want to just try spinning your own install say on an external drive. Although the problem there is I am not sure what exact 10.8.x release the user rolled back to. You might just try PMing JohnSmififth and see if he can tell you.

... Or cut your losses and buy a different interface or buy an ASC and call Avid support.

[Jameo]

My I Mac does the same thing. I had to have the logic board changed to make it work. This is my 3rd Imac, the first two crashed and burned. I talked to a friend of mine and he said it may be the voltage conversion between FW and thunderbolt. The fw box may be at a higher voltage than the tB, and the Imac shuts itself off to protect it from burning out. I haven't taken it to the Apple store for them to investigate, but I will soon.

[onosendai]

Originally Posted by pitchie

OK so now a reinstall of drivers, use of two different MBoxes with and without power supplies, two different 800—400 cables, and I'm still crashing. I can't think of anything else besides going out and getting another Thunderbolt—800 adaptor. Has no one else experienced this? We feel certain it's MBox related and not the Mac itself, right?

I have the same problem and I can confirm that the crashes can happen without the FW->TB adapter, at least on a Mac mini that is.

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=349638

[SoundGuy_25]

Originally Posted by pitchie

Ever since buying my new iMac, it frequently (often daily) crashes when it comes out of sleep with the MBox 2 Pro connected, using the Thunderbolt to FW adaptor (obviously, since it's the only way to connect the two devices). When I'm up and running, things are fine! I have tried everything, including updating drivers and the Mac OS to 10.8.4... I'm using Pro Tools 9 but that doesn't really matter, as I don't have to be using Pro Tools to experience this crash. I'm going out of my mind here, having searched for an answer all this year!!

I'm currently experiencing very similar symptoms with a nearly identical setup. Sleeping occasionally causes kernel panics upon waking up. I'm connecting to the Mbox via Thunderbolt adapter to a FW800-->400 cable.
My panic log also fingers com.digidesign.fwfamily.driver(9.0f4).

Annoying but not critical while actually using the computer...still a little scary though.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by SoundGuy_25

I'm currently experiencing very similar symptoms with a nearly identical setup. Sleeping occasionally causes kernel panics upon waking up. I'm connecting to the Mbox via Thunderbolt adapter to a FW800-->400 cable.
My panic log also fingers com.digidesign.fwfamily.driver(9.0f4).

Annoying but not critical while actually using the computer...still a little scary though.

You are supposed to disable power management/not allow any comptuer to sleep using an Avid interface. That is going to cause lots of problems, not usually kernel panics. Guessing that you have not disabled power management, and if so what else have you missed? Start at the systems optimization steps described under the "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link above on this page.

If properly optimized and running a compatible driver (uninstall and reinstall to be sure) then post the panic crash reports here (or start a new thread). And we cannot guess whether they driver you have installed is compatible with whatever OS X version you are running or not. A crash report will make that clear.

The driver is naturally "fingered" almost all kernel panics are in some way related to drivers (even if its actually the hardware at fault). But what the root cause actually is or not may or may not be the driver code, hardware or even an OS problem.

And I other mentions of "crash" in this thread may or not be kernel panics. Folks you need to try to be clear exactly what is happening and to post useful information, which usually is just to post a full the relevant applciation crash report or kernel panic crash report (all available from Console.app).

If nothing else posting a crash report very clearly shows if folks are experiencing identical problems or not (we need to see the crash report stack traces to really know this), right now I cannot tell for sure if some of the issues folks here are having are application crashes of kernel panics.

With Mbox 3 Pro problems, do all the usual cable/port/adapter swapping tests, remove any other devices Firewire etc. I would also be trying to verify the power adapter is working OK, and testing on a different computer if possible.

[SoundGuy_25]

Originally Posted by SoundGuy_25

I'm currently experiencing very similar symptoms with a nearly identical setup. Sleeping occasionally causes kernel panics upon waking up. I'm connecting to the Mbox via Thunderbolt adapter to a FW800-->400 cable.
My panic log also fingers com.digidesign.fwfamily.driver(9.0f4).

Annoying but not critical while actually using the computer...still a little scary though.

Update: Uninstalled PT and the Mbox drivers. Reinstalled the Mbox drivers only. Have gone from multiple panics a day to none. Just going to use my legacy setup from here out since it works without a hitch anyways.

[mackemint]

Hello!
I'm having these problems too with a Macbook 5.2 and an MBox2 Pro @ OSX 10.9.2. Fresh install of OSX, new SSD, same system. No firewire adapter what so ever, just a cable from the laptop to the sound card and never had a problem with Snow Leopard for years!
Only reason I upgraded was to run Logic Pro X, now I'm considering downgrading.
Just wanted u to know you're not alone.
Any suggestions on what OSX iteration you recommend for my setup? (compatibility vs functionality)

[dbo]

Has anyone reached a conclusion about this? I just received the mbox pro as a gift, but my iMac has no firewire input. Shall I get the firewire to thunderbolt adapter? Is there a firewire to USB 2.0 or 3.0 adapter that might work? Thanks!

[Brad Newman]

Would you be able to link me to the firewire 400 to fw 800 cable you used? Thx

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Brad Newman

Would you be able to link me to the firewire 400 to fw 800 cable you used? Thx

Huh? Who are you asking?