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Jason Wooten Author

Level 1

4 points

Robotic Static Sounds USB Headset

Issue: When using any USB headset or USB audio input device on any Macintosh with any operating system from 10.5.7 to 10.6.1, after about 10-20 minutes of use, all audio from the headset becomes garbled and has a robotic static sound quality.

Tested with: Dozens of different Macintosh Computers over the last 6 months with different USB headsets and microphone input devices.

Reproducable: Yes, via either Garageband, Ventrilo or a number of other software applications that do USB Audio Input

References:
http://www.ventrilo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37302
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17367983174&sid=1
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9983346&#9983346
http://ministryoftruthblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/fixing-usb-audio-static-on-mac-o sx.html
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=d9c3718b7185c8e1caee585c248c3bab&showtopic=75 528&st=40

Additional Information and attempted fixes:
• Tried it with a powered USB Hub
• Switched the Audio Midi Setup input to 48k
• Using Audio Midi Setup to create an aggregate device
• Tried it on different Macs, Different Headsets and Different physical locations
• Tried different USB ports

Message was edited by: Jaycyn

Macintosh, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 1:22 PM

170 replies

r.sheth

Level 1

20 points

Nov 12, 2010 7:59 PM in response to dec182

I can confirm that this bug is still in 10.6.5

I had high hopes with all our posts and reports about it Apple would have looked into it by now.

Guess not.

Feb 25, 2011 9:00 PM in response to xtremect

10.6.6 problem still persists for me. Definitely NOT a third-party-only problem.

Mar 8, 2011 1:58 PM in response to Thomas Tibbitts

Agreed. Same here. Brand new install of Snow Leopard and updated to 10.6.6 cleanly and ROBOT noise every 20-30min even with garageband.. ANY audio app using a USB Mic device.

Apple needs to fix.

fakeh

Level 1

1 points

Apr 4, 2011 2:24 AM in response to Jason Wooten

Someone seems to have had some success here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=249627

Ben Rose

Level 1

50 points

Apr 18, 2011 8:09 PM in response to fakeh

Fakeh, I followed your link and tried it ... no success. I couldn't get the new kext to load.

bauewern

Level 1

6 points

May 2, 2011 11:21 AM in response to Jason Wooten

Hey,

I just want to keep this thread alive, since I got the same problem using a logitech headset... after 30mins all what the others hear is just noise..

Thanks,

May 11, 2011 11:57 PM in response to bauewern

Ditto - same here

morph21

Level 1

14 points

Jun 27, 2011 4:44 PM in response to Jason Wooten

Just to make sure this keeps going on, 10.6.8, problem persists.

r.sheth

Level 1

20 points

Jul 14, 2011 10:07 PM in response to Jason Wooten

Good news everyone. This problem still persists in OSX Lion.

morph21

Level 1

14 points

Jul 18, 2011 11:26 AM in response to nicolw

Problem introduced in 10.5.7, which was released in May 12, 2009. More than 2 years ago.

Jul 18, 2011 1:29 PM in response to bänzfromlausanne

Please disregard my Jul 15, 2011 10:03 AM post. Whether the headset is powered through USB or through the Walward, the issue is there. False hope.

Aug 13, 2011 4:03 AM in response to Jason Wooten

I have this exact same problem. The solution is that your input will have for some reason changed to 8 Bit. Go into Audio Midi Set Up and make sure it's set to either 16 Bit or 24 Bit.