Edirol FA-101

Question

Level 1

4 points

Edirol FA-101

Hi all,

I just made the switch and ordered a new MBP and LE8. Happy birthday to me. ;=)

Anyway, I am looking seriously at the Edirol FA-101 because it is EVERYWHERE here in Japan. Anyone using this with Leopard? Any problems? Would you recommend this product?

MBP, Mac OS X (10.5.2), LE8

Posted on Mar 1, 2008 3:34 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 1, 2008 7:48 AM in response to Murahachibu

Hi,

I'm using a 2 year old FA-101 (was hooked to a WinXP notebook before) with my brand new iMac and it works as expected:
- Plug and play installation worked (no drivers, direct core audio support).
- Recording works (you see all 10 I/Os in recording applications).
- BUT I have experienced kernel panics (grey curtain falling and a popup telling you "you have to restart your computer") when hot-plugging the FireWire cable (not everytime, only every now and then). This was also "expected" because I had heard of that issue before. Seems to occur with other FireWire pro audio devices as well. But no problem if it gets plugged/unplugged (or switched on/off) only while the computer is off. I've heard rumors that one of the next leopard updates should fix this issue anyway.

Cheers,
Rafi

PS: On http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1269064&tstart=0 some folks complain about kernel panics after sleep mode which I never experienced so far. This also seems to be a more generic FW pro audio device issue.

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Answer 2

Murahachibu Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2008 3:19 PM in response to Raphael Kirchner

Thanks, what do you mean by hot plug? Do you mean unplugging or pugging in the FA-101 while the Mac is running? If you have it connected at start-up is everything OK?

Is the problem severe enough that I should avoid this interface?

Also, I heard a lot of the problem stems from Apple switching away from the standard TI firewire chip in October 2007. If you boot up using the "Apple S" command, does it say TI in the firewire line? I checked the new MBPs at the Apple store here in Tokyo and all had the TI chipset.

(BTW, if you don't know you need to type reboot in the command line after doing the Apple S thing to get your computer to restart)

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Answer 3

Mar 8, 2008 4:01 AM in response to Murahachibu

Hello,

i also own a FA-101 and run in under both windows and OSX 10.5 - So here comes my story 😉

Unfortunately, even if the hardware specs are nice, i can NOT recommend it when using with OS X!

*Plugging FA-101 while your mac is running crashes your system!!!!*

When you boot your Mac with the card connected, everything is fine.

BUT

I bought this because it is a MOBILE solution, right? 🙂 -> As soon as you plug the FA-101 while your mac is running, the system crahes.

Same happens, when you have booted your system with the FA-101 connected, and then the computer goes into standby/sleeping mode. - You turn it back on, and again crashes!

*What about SUPPORT ?*

I have contacted Edirol support then but they even didn't answer!

So, FA-101 is quite a nice peace hardware (actually, really nice except the missing internal routing from out's to in's) - but non-exiting support 😟

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Answer 4

Murahachibu Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 11, 2008 4:26 AM in response to franky303

Thanks for the reply. With the two points you noted below, I read in the manual that you have to disable sleep mode and they say to connect the unit before starting up and don't unplug with the system running...I guess these are known issues.

+* As soon as you plug the FA-101 while your mac is running, the system crahes.+

+* Same happens, when you have booted your system with the FA-101 connected, and then the computer goes into standby/sleeping mode. - You turn it back on, and again crashes!+

Also, I thought the support was bad too because I wrote to them and they never wrote back. So today I wrote again and complained and I got an email within 1 hour answering my question and apologizing saything that they didn't have a record of my question on file...Then again, I'm in Japan where Edirol is based and I read and write Japanese so that may be why...

I'm still undecided though. I'm beginning to consider getting something that works as a control surface as well...

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Answer 5

jscordia

Level 1

0 points

Apr 20, 2008 11:38 AM in response to Murahachibu

Hi guys. Thought I'd add my own experience. I'm trying to use my trusty Edirol FA-101 with a new 8 core Mac Pro and Leopard setup. It has worked flawlessly with my previous G4, G5 Tiger setups.

Unfortunately, unless I ensure its plugged in and switched on BEFORE I start the machine, It will either cause a Kernel Panic or simply not be found by OSX. I don't blame the Edirol because it's been rock solid for years. However I don't know whether the problem is soft- or hardware based.

Hope as suggested that it's something that Apple will address in a coming Leopard upgrade.

Cheers

Jon

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Answer 6

May 15, 2008 8:01 AM in response to jscordia

This problem needs to be immediately addressed by apple. I have a Macbook Pro 2.4GHz, with 4GB ram.

I used to own a TASCAM FW1804 which would intermittently cause a kernel panic when plugging in.

I switched recently to an EDIROL FA-101, hoping that the fault was the problem with TASCAM's drivers. (I did a clean install of Leopard on the machine before), However, I have the exact same problem with the EDIROL.

The EDIROL FA-101 is advertised as a unit that can be used portably with a Macbook Pro, but using it in this way on my Macbook results in a kernel panic and it trashes my USB Hard drives (luckily I had Time Machine unplugged)

I contacted EDIROL support who claimed that any problem with the hardware was directly due to bad firewire drivers which were developed by Apple.

I have so far sent 7 Kernel panic reports to Apple, but nothing has happened.

I called customer support twice, only to be told that they had never heard of this problem.

This needs to be fixed immediately, and Apple needs to tell it's customers, who need pro devices like this to work reliably.

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