External soundcard not being recognised

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Level 1

8 points

External soundcard not being recognised

Hello there.
I just took delivery of a Firewire audio interface. The Behringer FCA202.
This is attached to my iMac via the 6pin Firewire port. However nothing is being picked up by my Mac under the Sound settings.
Everything I look at online tells me that its totally plug and play. So I'm kind of stuck, can anyone offer any insight into this or had similar problems with their Mac's recognising external audio inputs.
Thanks
Matt

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Jun 24, 2009 1:16 PM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:48 PM in response to Mantismat

Dave, I'm updated to the nuts, was just missing some Java and Safai, all good now though.

You might want to update your profile, then, so that people don't keep suggesting that you update.

ow do I go about checking if its present / loaded on my system though?

Run Activity Monitor and select to show All Processes (pulldown menu in the toolbar). If the Core Audio driver is loading, you should see the coreaudiod process in the Process Name list.

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Answer 2

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:19 PM in response to varjak paw

Ahh that makes sense then.
I guess I need to try plugging this into another Mac to see if the hardware is ok. If it works on another Mac, then I can only assume I have an issue with my Firewire port perhaps -

I was having an issue with sound inputs last week (USB though), could I have some kind of config issue which is blocking the Mac's ability to register devices?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2050873&stqc=true

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Answer 3

Jun 24, 2009 1:23 PM in response to Mantismat

Does it show up in the "FireWire" section of System Profiler (Utilities folder)? If not, it's a hardware problem. If it does, it's software. Can you select it with "Properties For" in the "Audio Devices" tab of Audio MIDI Setup (Utilities folder)?

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Answer 4

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 24, 2009 1:38 PM in response to Mantismat

Thanks for getting back to me so fast, this thing has been driving me insane.
Let me see.

Daddy - LED's on the device are both the red PWR and blue FW. I am connecting only with the Firewire, I have tried with both with the sound problem though (also having the power plugged in doesn't seem to change the LED's)

Malc - Under Firewire its showing "Unknown Device", all details unknown other than Max Speed "up to 400 MB/Sec"
Properties For: in Audio Midi Setup just show Built in Mic, Built in Audio, Built in Output (and an aggregated device I used to use)

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Answer 5

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:00 PM in response to Mantismat

Do you have access to another Mac to which you can connect the box to attempt to confirm that the device and cable are working correctly? If it fails on more than one Mac, you might have a defective audio box.

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Answer 6

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:03 PM in response to varjak paw

Hmmm not to hand no.
One thing I thought I could try though would be to use the 4-Pin Firewire port (assuming I could use it providing I also use the power cable).
However the 4 Pin input doesn't seem to actually plug into the back if my iMac (21 inch 18 month old one). Am I missing something with that?

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Answer 7

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:11 PM in response to Mantismat

Macs don't have a four-pin Firewire port, only six-pin (FW400 with power) and nine-pin (Firewire 800, on some systems). So the six-pin to four-pin cable that, I presume, came with the 202 won't be applicable to your Mac (some Windows systems have only four-pin FW ports, so that's what that cable is for).

Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

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Answer 8

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:27 PM in response to Mantismat

Difficult to say, though it's possible that the issues are related. If you haven't already, you might try logging into Mac OS X through a different user account (create one for testing if necessary) and see if anything changes with the device recognition.

Another thing you can try, if you really are on 10.5.1 as your profile states, is updating to the latest version. Apple's been steadily fixing bugs in the OS, so that problem might be one that a later version of 10.5 might have fixed.

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Answer 9

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:43 PM in response to direwolf8

Thanks for the extra info.

Dave, I'm updated to the nuts, was just missing some Java and Safai, all good now though. Also tried a new test user account with no joy.

Dire - That certainly sounds that it could be a driver issue. How do I go about checking if its present / loaded on my system though?

Thanks again
Matt

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Answer 10

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 24, 2009 2:56 PM in response to varjak paw

Ahhh good call, I'll update my OS details.
Looking at the processes running, sure enough number 166 CoreAudiod is listed.
I guess I'll have to try it in another Mac, or at least see if I can find another Firewire device to try on this machine. At least then I'll be able to prove if the Firewire port itself is problematic.

Well unless anyone else has any suggestions, thanks much for helping me out all of you.... dont you just hate not being able to play with your new gadgets 🙂

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Answer 11

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2009 3:22 AM in response to varjak paw

Howdy again all.
I've left my system unplugged overnight and though the day, when I get back I'll try again and see what is what.
After reading more though, i'm hearing some people are having issues with Firewire and USB since the 10.5.7 update.
Some people suggest installing the combo update which I can download - will this be possible considering I'm already on 10.5.7????
Also would it perhaps be worth doing a fresh install of the OX and seeing if the device is recognised. If that was the case, I would then use my time machine to restore to a more recent time and hope its still working..

Would that be a good idea do you know???

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Answer 12

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Jun 25, 2009 6:43 AM in response to Mantismat

Some people suggest installing the combo update which I can download - will this be possible considering I'm already on 10.5.7????

Yes, it's certainly possible. Whether it will fix the problem I can't say, but installing the combo updater over an incremental update has in some cases cured problem that appeared with the update.

Also would it perhaps be worth doing a fresh install of the OX and seeing if the device is recognised.

That would perhaps be the next step. But if you have an external hard drive, I'd suggest that you first install Mac OS X on that system so you have a complete, fresh install, and then boot from that. If the device then is recognized, you know that the problem stems from something with the OS and can go ahead with the reinstall on your primary hard drive. If it doesn't help, you won't have risked your primary OS installation.

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Answer 13

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2009 8:16 AM in response to varjak paw

Thanks again for that Dave.
I'll see how my machine is after a good 15 hours unplugged when I get home.
Failing that i'll install the bundle 10.5.7.
Failing that i'll reinstall OX.

I like the idea of putting it on another drive.
Now I do actually have a big USB drive attached for my time machine and it also happens that before setting up the time machine I did partition the drive, giving myself 300 meg of manual back up space - would I be able to install on here, then boot my system up from a specific drive? If so i'll try that, but what do I do at bootup in order to select the boot location?

Thanks again
Matt

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Answer 14

varjak paw

Level 10

182,668 points

Jun 25, 2009 8:41 AM in response to Mantismat

giving myself 300 meg of manual back up space - would I be able to install on here, then boot my system up from a specific drive?

Yes, absolutely. Just run the Mac OS X installer and select that partition for the install.

what do I do at bootup in order to select the boot location?

The installer will automatically select that fresh install as the default boot, so you won't have to select it the first time. For the future, to select what volume to boot from, you can boot the system and hold down the Option key. Your system will display all bootable volumes, so you can select the one from which you want to boot.

Regards.

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Answer 15

Mantismat Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2009 12:56 PM in response to varjak paw

Howdy again.
Right.
Got home, no joy
Tried to install the 10.5.1 bundle I downloaded, however I kept getting a message saying it could not be mounted.
I then installed a new version of OSX onto a 30 gig partition on my main HD (would not allow me to install on my external).
After the install, its still not recognised.
However it is now allowing both of my USB headsets to function, so at least I can record this weeks podcast the old way, so I'm not totally bummed.

I guess I really need to check the following
a) The device itself is operational, I could take it around to my brothers house and try it in his iMac.
b) Ensure my FireWire port is working correctly, I guess to do this I need to find another device to plug into it.... bit of a pain that I don't think I have anything. I do have an iPod, so I may look at getting the FW cable for that.

Unless anyone has any bright ideas - I guess I'll look at those 2

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