USB Sound Card (Sound Blaster Extigy) has stopped working with 10.5.7

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USB Sound Card (Sound Blaster Extigy) has stopped working with 10.5.7

I installed 10.5.7 this morning and after reboot it was stuck on the blue screen for an extremely long time. Subsequent reboots were the same, slow on the grey screen, slow on the blue screen. Total boot time was over 10 minutes.

I tried resetting PRAM, booted into safe mode, re-installed 10.5.7 from the combo update and still had the same problem.

I then looked at system.log for any hints at what was going wrong, there were entries like:

May 14 16:57:01 tarsus configd[14]: InterfaceNamer: iMac8,1/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0/AppleACPIPCI/UHC5@1A,1/AppleUSBUHCI/Sound Blaster Extigy@3a200000/IOUSBInterface@2 [1]
May 14 17:09:20 tarsus kernel[0]: USBF: 804.220 AppleUSBHubPort: Port 2 of Hub at 0x3a000000 about to terminate a busy device (Sound Blaster Extigy) after waiting 10 seconds

This is compared to 10.5.6 where there were no references to the Extigy in system.log.

There are other messages referring to IOKit:

May 14 16:56:41 tarsus kextd[10]: IOKitWaitQuiet() timed out waiting to write kernel symbols
May 14 16:57:01 tarsus configd[14]: InterfaceNamer: timed out waiting for IOKit to quiesce
May 14 17:01:10 tarsus /usr/libexec/hidd[38]: Timeout waiting for IOKit to be quiet

Which again, were not present with 10.5.6.

So of course when I unplug the Sound Blaster Extigy it works fine, boots nice and fast and there are no issues.

I would really like to still be able to use my Sound Blaster Extigy. Is there any way I can fix this now myself, or a chance of it being fixed in an update?

24" iMac (Early 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.7), 2.8ghz, GeForce 8800 GS, 4GB ram

Posted on May 13, 2009 10:23 PM

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Answer 1

djmjf

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May 14, 2009 5:45 AM in response to CapnPolo

I got the same problem with my sound blaster extigy...

can anyone help?

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Answer 2

ronny973

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May 14, 2009 6:03 AM in response to CapnPolo

OMG I JUST INSTALLED 10.5.7 AND I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!! not only does it not recognize my extigy no more but it also takes forever to reboot, like i have an ipod attached to it or something. Can i go back to 10.5.6? PLEASE HELP

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Answer 3

Rasti

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4 points

May 14, 2009 2:14 PM in response to ronny973

Well, here is someone with the same problem.

I am going to call Apple support tomorrow and find out what they say ...

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Answer 4

vthree

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May 15, 2009 4:11 PM in response to Rasti

I TOO HAVE THE SAME EXACT ISSUE. ... horrible! takes forever to load.. and now none of my 3 hard drives will even mount.... i wish i did not upgrade at all!!!!! and i loved my extigy... it worked great with my creative 5.1 speakers.. vs the firewave soundcard...

< Edited by Host >

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Answer 5

Rasti

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4 points

May 14, 2009 2:55 PM in response to vthree

OK, for the Extigy issue ... it seems I have found a workaround.

Go to /System/Library/Extensions. There is a kernel extension for USB Audio, named AppleUSBAudio.kext.

10.5.6 contains version 2.6.0b11 of that module.

The 10.5.7. upgrade installs a new version, 2.6.4b11. Using a time machine backup
from earlier today, I simply reinstalled the old module.

Now booting is again very fast and the Extigy is recognized once again.

Conclusion: There must be a bug in the new version which affects the Extigy.

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Answer 6

vthree

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4 points

May 14, 2009 7:25 PM in response to Rasti

so glad you found a work around!!! is there anyway you could email me your backed up module?? i don't have a back up =(...

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Answer 7

djmjf

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Sep 5, 2009 5:42 AM in response to Rasti

I don't have a backup of that module either - could you upload it somewhere and share the link?
<Edited by Host>
thx

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Answer 8

May 27, 2009 11:20 PM in response to CapnPolo

I had this exact same problem. The answer is in the thread below. Go to this url:
http://www7.zippyshare.com/v/80744334/file.html

Download the zip file. It has the older USBAudio file. Swap this in to replace the newer file and you'll have your Extigy back. Can't believe Apple didn't catch this!!

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Answer 9

CapnPolo Author

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May 31, 2009 1:36 AM in response to CapnPolo

Thanks for the kext replacement fix, did the trick for me too. I find it strange that we all seem to have different versions of the file..?

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Answer 10

Jun 2, 2009 9:58 PM in response to vthree

Does the 5.1 audio work via the analog ports?

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Answer 11

Jun 2, 2009 10:09 PM in response to CapnPolo

Can anyone tell me if this sound card will output 5.1 through the analog jacks?

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Answer 12

Jun 13, 2009 3:21 PM in response to Rasti

Thank you so much for this workaround!! I haven't been able to use my Rosetta Stone language program for a month now until I came upon your solution. I downloaded the old AppleUSBAudio.kext from the other posted link, switched it out and trashed the new one, repaired permissions and restarted. Everything works terrific again and I can resume my lessons at last!

I am going to notify Rosetta Stone about this thread because they have been scratching their heads over this issue ever since the 10.5.7 became available.

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Answer 13

mbpty

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Jun 22, 2009 5:38 PM in response to CapnPolo

i am having the same problem with my extigy once i did the 10.5.7 update it is no longer recoginized. I attempted to replace the appleusbaudio.kext file but on restart I get a message saying the file was installed improperly and is cannot be used.

Does anyone have a solution or input to help me get the file to work.

Thanks

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Answer 14

Einherji

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Jun 23, 2009 6:07 AM in response to mbpty

Doing repair premissions with disk utility should fix that problem

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Answer 15

Nov 1, 2009 8:45 AM in response to CapnPolo

Has this been solved in 10.5.8? Has anyone tried it?

Using the old extension, it works for a while, but after a couple of hours I need to restart my MBP to accept input again. 😟

I'm not using the Sound Blaster Extigy, but the same problem manifests itself for me with USB input using a SteelSeries 5H USB headset with microphone.

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