Carbon won’t work in PT/won’t update firmware

[nunasentus]

hello all!

I just bought a used carbon, Protools studio was working great with my mbox studio and apollos, but i purchased the carbon and then upgraded to ultimate.

Sessions still work great with ultimate using my other interfaces but carbon, although seen by AVB and outputting clean core audio, will not show up in playback engine apart from saying "you have one carbon device that needs a newer version of pro tools", even opening the playback engine window PT will stall and spin the wheel for a good 2 minutes before showing this.

I tried downgrading from 2023.12 to 2023.09 as well as updating to Mac Ventura from Monterey.
I did a factory reset on the carbon and tried multiple cat cables with my sonnet adapter but I don’t receive any firmware update messages from PT and when i try with carbon central it says i need to update but the updates fail every time reading error 1205.
The same issue happens on both my m2 macbook pro as well as my m1 ultra mac studio.

Anyone have any advice or same situations, thanks!

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by nunasentus

hello all!

I just bought a used carbon, Protools studio was working great with my mbox studio and apollos, but i purchased the carbon and then upgraded to ultimate.

Sessions still work great with ultimate using my other interfaces but carbon, although seen by AVB and outputting clean core audio, will not show up in playback engine apart from saying "you have one carbon device that needs a newer version of pro tools", even opening the playback engine window PT will stall and spin the wheel for a good 2 minutes before showing this.

I tried downgrading from 2023.12 to 2023.09 as well as updating to Mac Ventura from Monterey.
I did a factory reset on the carbon and tried multiple cat cables with my sonnet adapter but I don’t receive any firmware update messages from PT and when i try with carbon central it says i need to update but the updates fail every time reading error 1205.
The same issue happens on both my m2 macbook pro as well as my m1 ultra mac studio.

Anyone have any advice or same situations, thanks!

First if you have only the one carbon no need to use Carbon Central

Also PT 2023.12 should run fine
If by AVB can see Carbon is what you actually mean is,, in Audio Midi Set Up and Mac Sounds you can select Pro Tools Carbon IO ? if Yes then

Sounds like the problem is with the firmware, or lack of, or mismatch, ?

So did you get this "you have one carbon device that needs a newer version of pro tools" after you downgraded to 2023.9 ? If so then you need to revert to the firmware back to default

So you said you did a "factory reset" BUT did you revert to Default Firmware Image ?

If not on Page 15 of the Carbon user manual below "Reset "
is Default Firmware Image instructions

[nunasentus]

Hey Roche,

thanks for the reply/help, to answer ur questions:

First if you have only the one carbon no need to use Carbon Central
-I know this, but if pro tools won’t update the firmware i wanted to see if this would help.

Also PT 2023.12 should run fine
If by AVB can see Carbon is what you actually mean is,, in Audio Midi Set Up and Mac Sounds you can select Pro Tools Carbon IO ? if Yes then
Sounds like the problem is with the firmware, or lack of, or mismatch, ?
-I agree, yes carbon can be selected in AVB and even be used in other Daws and programs just is not selectable in Pro Tools Ultimate


So did you get this "you have one carbon device that needs a newer version of pro tools" after you downgraded to 2023.9? If so then you need to revert to the firmware back to default
So you said you did a "factory reset" BUT did you revert to Default Firmware Image ?
If not on Page 15 of the Carbon user manual below
"Reset "
is Default Firmware Image instructions

-I got this with 2023.9 and 2023.12 after factory reset was done both times, I’ve done a normal reset and factory resets both times to no avail. I only downgraded because it didn’t make sense to me that i would need a newer Protools version with literally the newest version. Both are not working, i’m just wondering why Protools wouldn’t ask me to update firmware when i boot with AVB.


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[K Roche]

Sorry it's been so long things have been hectic around here for a month

Did you ever get this sorted out ?

[nunasentus]

Hey Roche,

thanks for following up, i really did appreciate the tips, unfortunately it still is the same. I tried to see if it was some kind of audio bridge issue but i’m thinking it’s really coming down to something fugazi with the original seller.

the serial number was to my dismay scratched out, i didn’t think this would be an issue not registering it but, the interface is working with everything apart from Protools, and definitely not with any hybrid processing options.

I think I may just need to get an avid phone session in to explore options for repair or activation unless you had any other tips or troubleshoot ideas?

Thanks so much for all ur help so far!


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[Jason Todd]

Did you ever get this resolved. I'm having a 1205 error, too. I updated to Sequoia 15.2 and have the latest version of Pro Tools (2024.10.2) on and M1 Mac mini with 16gb of ram. I found Pro Tools was running sluggishly so I trashed my preferences and removed all plugins except for Avid stock plugins and Plugin Alliance Plugins. It was still being slow, so I tried to reset my carbon firmware to default so that Carbon Central would prompt me to update the firmware.

I'm running two Carbons: one in normal carbon mode and the second in Carbon Pre emulation mode. When I tried to update the firmware in Carbon Central, only the Carbon in normal carbon mode. The Carbon in carbon pre emulation mode won't update the firmware and I keep getting 1205 errors.

Also, the power button is now purple when on instead of white like normal. I've opened a support case with Avid and they're looking into it.

[Jason Todd]

Gee whiz! Avid wants to charge me more than $1000 to send my unit in to get looked at. Be careful with firmware updates, if you don’t do it correctly you might be out a stupid amount of money. Yikes!

[marianna]

Originally Posted by Jason Todd

Did you ever get this resolved. I'm having a 1205 error, too. I updated to Sequoia 15.2 and have the latest version of Pro Tools (2024.10.2) on and M1 Mac mini with 16gb of ram. I found Pro Tools was running sluggishly so I trashed my preferences and removed all plugins except for Avid stock plugins and Plugin Alliance Plugins. It was still being slow, so I tried to reset my carbon firmware to default so that Carbon Central would prompt me to update the firmware.

I'm running two Carbons: one in normal carbon mode and the second in Carbon Pre emulation mode. When I tried to update the firmware in Carbon Central, only the Carbon in normal carbon mode. The Carbon in carbon pre emulation mode won't update the firmware and I keep getting 1205 errors.

Also, the power button is now purple when on instead of white like normal. I've opened a support case with Avid and they're looking into it.

Jason,

Is PT software giving the error code? Make sure when you are resetting the firmware, that you are actually doing the firmware rather than settings.

"Power Carbon on while holding the DIM button for a count of 5"

If the unit bricked? Like it has no firmware or you just cant upgrade now?

I'd take it out of Pre mode to update the firmware. I do not know if we ever tested firmware updates while in a different mode.

Report back

Marianna

[Jason Todd]

Thanks, Marianna. I'm still having the issue. The 1205 error message is in Carbon Central and pops up when I try to update the firmware of the unit with Carbon Central. I get a message saying "Firmware Update Failed. Device: 4480, error code: -1205"

The downgrading of firmware definitely worked. I held the Dim button for 5 seconds and it definitely downgraded firmware. My Carbon says it's on 0.0.1.878 currently. It just won't let me upgrade firmware to the current version at the moment and is stuck on this old firmware.

The interface is working fine with Core Audio if I have the Pro Tools Carbon checked in the Network Device Browser section of Audio Midi Setup. The "NET" light on the front of the interface goes on as normal and I can listen to core audio from Tidal and Youtube.

It's when I try to use Pro Tools with it that I run into problems. Every time I try to select the Carbon as my interface with Pro Tools, I see this message at the bottom of the list of possible interfaces:

"Pro Tools | Carbon (1 device requires a newer version of Pro Tools)
-For help, go to Avid.com/carbon-support for more info"

Also, if I de-select the Pro Tools | Carbon check box under the Network Devices Browser of Audio Midi Setup and try to use the Carbon with Carbon Central, the "NET" light goes off and doesn't go back on when I open Carbon Central.

My systems specs:
M1 Max Studio Max 64gb ram Sequoia 15.2
Avid Carbon Firmware: 0.0.1.878
Carbon Central version: 25.1.0.3
Pro Tools version: 2024.10.2

Let me know if I can provide any additional info that might help you figure out what's up with my Carbon. Thanks!

[Jason Todd]

Also, I did take it out of PRE mode and made it the Primary Device in Carbon Central. I still get the error message when I try to update the firmware and the Status still reads Update Required in yellow lettering after the update fails.