trioptic Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 So I finally got my Hac up and running, however I was planning on running ProTools (M-Powered) on this machine, and it's causing issues when I try to install the soundcard (M-Audio Firewire 410 aka fw410).After downloading and installing the latest driver (made to work for 10.5.x), everything runs fine, until I reboot - when the computer starts back up, it says "updating firmware" for the FW410, but just as soon as that message pops up, I get the classic grey kernel panic "restart" message.I haven't been able to find any other posts regarding this problem. It scared the hell out of me at first, since I had to reboot during the firmware update - thinking it could potentially burn out my soundcard, but luckily it still worked in XP/Vista - although it had to update the firmware yet again (probably back to a PC version).Perhaps someone could shed some light on this, or perhaps lead me in the right direction to troubleshooting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solaar Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 As you mentioned booting into Windows some dim memories come back to me. I know as much as that the firmware for firewire audio gear is somehow dynamically loaded every time you boot (I'm not a tech head so I leave the specifics up to the gurus). The thing is when you boot into OSX coming from Windows, firewire gear tends to get 'confused' and seems to get stuck somewhere in the firmware load process. Once again, this is very superficial half-knowledge but I've seen this popup before and I reckon you shouldn't be too worried about it. The next times you boot into OSX the firmware should eventually load properly on the FW410. The issue tends to occur when you come from Windows or when had the FW410 plugged in a different system prior to booting into OSX. just my 2 pence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trioptic Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 thanks for the reply. from reading around about sharing the fw410 bewteen osx and windows, that issue has come up a few times - stating that the soundcard will switch from one firmware to another dynamically (not exclusive to osx86). It just scared me to get a kernel panic in the middle of a firmware update, because it seems that firmware updates can brick your hardware if not done properly. I'll try to work up the courage to try it again after work, ha. I'll try booting into osx, and even if it crashes, ill boot into osx again instead of going between windows and osx. Luckily i havent found any threads from people who have bricked their cards... so maybe it's not such a huge risk. paranoia is a double edged sword. p.s. what does "still struggling with AE8" mean? AE CS3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trioptic Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 thanks for the confidence boost... i tried again, and this time the firmware installed without any issues, and I could verify the fw410 is both receiving and sending audio. phew! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagnerite Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 thx for this thread! i also use 410fw. nice to have a heads up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiliBug Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 thanks for the confidence boost... i tried again, and this time the firmware installed without any issues, and I could verify the fw410 is both receiving and sending audio. If it makes you feel any better, the same happened to me when I installed a Firewire Audiophile that I had previously been using with XP. The first reboot caused a KP during the firmware update. The second reboot was successful without incident. -B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trioptic Posted February 8, 2008 Author Share Posted February 8, 2008 just to follow up, the 410 has ben working fine on Vista, XP and Leopard. No latency, no crackles, no more kernel panics or anything like that. yikes, let me correct that statement. the 410 installed fine on all 3 platforms. it works perfectly on xp and vista, but has crazy buffer and dropout issues on Leopard. In logic 8, when I play an instrument, if I hold the key down for more than 3 seconds, I get crackles and eventually the device loses connection completely - I have to switch to another device (my onboard ALC888), hit apply, then switch back to the 410 to get it working again. I've tried all the different buffer settings, etc. - no avail. This may however, be an M-Audio 10.5.1 issue as opposed to an osx86 issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trioptic Posted February 9, 2008 Author Share Posted February 9, 2008 - update: edited thread above, so check that. also wanted to add that ironically, my onboard sound has 0 latency, and has been able to handle just about everything I have thrown at it in terms of instruments and polyphony. Even with delays and arpeggios running, hitting 10-12 keys quickly at the same time - no dropouts or latency. I'm actually amazed, I haven't gotten performance like that with any software in xp/vista using my onboard sound - hence the irony. I had to get the 410 so I could do such a thing on windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabriciom Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I just to have problems where the sound sound like a chipmunk when I would load OSX after a reboot from XP and the same deal when I rebooted from OSX into windows. Anyways I figured out the way to fix it was to totally shut down the PC before loading any OS. My guess is that each driver loads a different firmware depending on the OS. I did notice the OSX drive did sound better than the windows. Any who hope that helps. Also I think that has something to do why the card has no support for linux (apart from the fact that MAudio does not release info on the card). -Cheers, Fabricio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trioptic Posted February 10, 2008 Author Share Posted February 10, 2008 well, something is probably wrong with the firewire card I'm using, because the fw410 works fine on my other computer, and messes up when recording in xp with sx3 and protools, and in logic with osx86... so its unique to this machine, but not unique to anysoftware or os apparently. The strangest thing is that I can monitor the audio going into the fw410, and there's no problem. Only when recording does it crackle and etc. Very frustrating, as this was the second firewire card I've tried... I just ordered another from newegg, that has the Texas Instruments Chipset.. hopefully this one will work. p.s. the firewire card on my other computer that works is actually the SB Audigy soundcard, and now that I think of it, I had another firewire card in that computer that never worked with the fw410, or the fw1814 either. I'll post another update after I get the new card and etc. The odd thing is, I could swear there weren't any issues recording in sx3 under xp before I installed osx and that dynamic firmware switching took place (see first post in this thread). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trioptic Posted February 15, 2008 Author Share Posted February 15, 2008 just got this card today, and can verify it's working. fixed my audio problems with the fw410: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16815255014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomazzzi Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 welcome to the m audio world i hate them gadget creators i really can t understand why avid bought this {censored} company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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