Firewire 410 is a failure

[Hardin]

I was thinking you have 8 outputs with the 410 if that's something you were heading toward.
L*#&c wouldn't be a bad idea for you strictly as a programmer.

[joeydego]

not that I have anything against digi, its just they are a little behind in the times it seems. Id have paid double for PTMP, I'd just rather not have these quirks and needless restrictions, and HD is WAY overkill. Well so far, re installing the driver seems to have fixed the problem, its been reliable since. Im not just a programmer, I play all my own guitar parts, I'm a recording musician so I need a DAW to record audio as well.

[joeydego]

UPDATE: Ok, get this, I got the interface to work reliably for FOUR WHOLE DAYS!!!!!! Whoo hoo!!! Powered up this morning, and PTMP was NOT happy, telling me about a clock error, not playing back, and being buggy. Just to give the FW410 the benefit of the doubt, I un/reinstalled PT. Same problem, and then ONCE AGAIN no audio out of the interface. Here we are again, I un/reinstalled the driver and wholla! everything works again, taking ANOTHER half hour out of my life.

[DigiTechSupt]

joeydego - can you give us more specific info on your system? Which Intel Mac are you using - Mac Pro? Or something else?

Which FW410 driver version are you using?

Have you tried all the steps in the OS X Setup and General Troubleshooting thread yet? If so - which ones, specifically?

[joeydego]

Im using an intel mac 17" screen 2.0 with 3gb of ram, a FW external hard drive(which I bought from other world computing, which I made sure followed the digi specs), osx 10.4.10, and I went thru the troubleshooting and general setup about a year ago with the first install of PT 7.1.1, which I'm still using. I was first using a usb interface (black box) and didnt have a problem, it was only with the FW interface I started running into problems. The driver is 1.7.4, build 3. On a side note, whos idea was it to either have a steady blue light, or a flashing blue light, but no NO light flashing? Isnt this interface geared for home use? With all the lights in the house out, I can see this blue light from a block away! I can try disabling my dashboard and my airport, but will it fix this? I RELIGIOUSLY repair permissions and verify the HD as well, sometimes daily, but never over 3 or 4 days without doing it. I really do want this interface to work, and all is well again only AFTER un/reinstalling the FW driver.

[DigiTechSupt]

I really do want this interface to work, and all is well again only AFTER un/reinstalling the FW driver.

So can I take it that your problems are solved?

[joeydego]

So far, so good. Im afraid to shut it off though, so I just leave it on all the time. Been working a few days now error free.

[SoundWrangler]

One more here, with ongoing problems getting the FireWire 410 to work reliably. (Mac OS 10.4.9 on a mirror-door dual G4 1.25 GHz, with a LaCie 250FB ext. FW hard drive which has been tried via FW400/FW800 connections & also eliminated from the config. completely, with no effect on the issues, clean system with no bkgnd or real-time processes, permissions repaired, etc., using M-Audio's 1.8.2 driver, which I have downloaded/reinstalled 2x, and PT M-Powered 7.3.1).

Generally (but not always), after the system is booted first time, no sound at all out of PT. And usually, no meter activity showing the Master Fader (in sessions that haven't changed since having played back previously on this same config). Go to the FW410's control panel, either reset and/or change the sync from internal to digital and then back again. Sometimes, the result of this is audio playback but complete freeze of display update in PT. Other times, still no audio output, but activity visible on Master Fader in PT. Still other times, distorted audio output with odd heterodyning frequencies similar to some kind of clock distortion.

This seems to be more frequent if I open a 48K session first. Occasionally, if I open a 44K session & play back audio briefly, playback will then be OK when I re-open a 48K sessions. Other times, not. Sometimes, 3 or 4 trips over to the interface's control panel software (aforementioned sync switch or reset, & always via the HW Setup button from PT) will eventually kick the interface into life. Other times, not. Sometimes, a system reboot in the midst of those iterations helps.

Other fun stuff: once it's working I occasionally get little jittery digital blurps in recorded audio. When that happens, more trips back to the control panel software and reboots. M-Audio has kindly replaced the interface once, so this doesn't seem to be a single defective unit. Another disconcerting behavior that started with the replacement unit: occasionally, after a couple of hours of operation, input levels will momentarily sag by a dramatic amount for a few seconds, accompanied by some "digital" sounding static in the recorded audio. You can actually see this happening if you're watching meter levels on the rec-enabled tracks.
Like the previous poster, until acquiring this interface I had been using and Mbox USB/LE configuration on this same system, with no such problems. Even had a FireWire 1814 running PT 7.0 on this same CPU for a while (booting from a different system disk, BTW) with no such problems, which leads me to believe that the problem ought not to be with my FireWire bus itself (whose only other device is the aforementioned LaCie 250GB HD, which as mentioned, has been eliminated and also moved between the FW400/800 connections with no effect on the FireWire 410's behavior).

I just had talent sitting here for 20 minutes on the clock this afternoon, as I did the reset/reboot boogie, and they had do re-do 4 good takes that were trashed by the fade-out/distortion problem.
Suggestions, anyone, before I throw in the towel? I keep checking M-Audio's Web site from driver updates, but they have been stuck on 1.8.2 for quite a while.

[digidesigner]

I think that people at m-audio are probably not sitting around doing nothing.. They are probably trying to fix the problems and trying to put out new and better drivers but just simply cannot as the product has problems that cannot be repaired by new drivers. Or this is just a problem with mac and 410, as I have used my box with PC without the problems that I have with my apple macbook pro.

[JrummerJ]

Or this is just a problem with mac and 410, as I have used my box with PC without the problems that I have with my apple macbook pro.

I definitely think that it has something to do with the mac/410 combination, and may carry over to the 1814 too, since they are similar. I ran the 410 for a year on my desktop and the thing never lost connection or had to be reset. On my macbook pro it works pretty reliably now that I have the interface connected via siig expresscard and the external drive connected to the MBP 400 port. That said, every once in a while I will go to play something and the sounds come out my laptop speakers and I have to either reset the 410 software or reboot. Not often, though. Connected this way I also have to use the wall wart for the 410 which is kind of a pain.

I have been very surprised and more than a bit disappointed that it has taken jumping through hoops and buying extra cards/cables to get this to work on a mac.

J