Robotic Static Sounds USB Headset

Hello everyone,

I have some answers (not solutions) for this issue and a response from Apple's engineers regarding the issue.

After extensive testing, recording the audible issue, sending system captures to Apple and working with Tier 2 support - I've finally recieved a response that they are acknowledging there is a software problem within OS X. They initially told me this was likely hardware issue or third party problem but finally concluded they needed to fix Apple drivers.

HOWEVER - there is currently no timeline for this fix. In order to show Apple how important this problem is to us all there are 2 things you can do (please do BOTH):

1) Submit a bug report here: https://bugreport.apple.com

- be very detailed!

- the more bugs apple gets regarding this issue the higher they will prioritize a fix.

- Apple DOES NOT monitor these forums and will not accept your complaining here as official report.

2) Call Applecare (if you have coverage) and report the issue.

- Offer to send them a system capture (a small tool they will send to capture your system details etc.)

- tell them about the many discussion on thier offical forums where they can get more info

- offer to assist them in any way possible to have this problem further identified and fixed

Doing these things will help fix the issue faster. Please take 10-20 minutes of your day to do these things!

I can confirm that the issue hapenns on ANY Mac post-10.5.7 with virtually ANY (7 different brands tested) third party USB microphone.

I hope you will all take quick action and help apple solve this annoying problem.

Thanks and goodluck!

I still don't think that this is only an apple-problem. The griffin iMic is working flawlessly both on SL and Lion on a system which have had problems with other USB-devices. I believe that this is due to that Griffin have implemented the sound drivers correctly according to apple's changes while others haven't bothered to change.

Anyone else who have tried the iMic?

Boomhowler, the problem is not what worked and still works. The problem is what worked and stopped working as of 10.5.7.

It also may be a combination of internal mac components (chipsets, USB controller, etc.) and the new drivers. Overall, you have a few major points that get everybody frustrated:

- it all worked prior to 10.5.7, enough proof that this is a driver issue

- you can't rollback to 10.5.6 drivers for a "patch" anymore

- if you install Windows on macs capable of the problem goes away. It is exactly the same hardware, to the last piece of silicon.

Also, older macs still had the two jacks headphone system, one for headphones another for microphones. So you could still choose from a long list of non USB headsets. Newer macs though have that 4 pin jack, and that narrows down the list substancially. Granted you could use an iPhone headphone with microphone to solve the problem, it is the temporary solution I'm using until this is fixed, however, my USB headset had other characteristics that lead me choose it instead of an iPhone earphone.

That said, I thought of buying the iMic to try, but I simply couldn't take to buy yet another USB sound solution just because uncle Apple decided to screw up.

OK, it's not an Apple-only problem. That doesn't mean it's not Apple's fault. The fact that one USB device works only means that the makers of the device figured out a way around Apple's problem. As the comments on this thread have made clear, there are many devices that don't work and only one or two that do.

Like Morph21 said, telling everyone to buy a Griffin iMic isn't a true solution to the problem. I considered buying it, too, but besides the extra cost of the iMic, I would have to buy a new set of non-USB headphones to plug into it, as I currently have just one pair of headphones that happen to be USB.

I just got a reply on my bug report:

"After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 7076979. The original bug number being used to track this duplicate issue can be found in the State column, in this format: Duplicate/OrigBug#."

I've been looking around to find answers to why both my USB soundcards give me interference from my microphone - and find reports of interference with input from USB audio devices dating back for YEARS.

I've found something funny though, that no one else has mentioned anywhere:

I can often turn the interference noises on and off by touching the metal on my apple keyboard, or on the metal casing on my mac mini. It's weirder than ****. Does this happens for all of you as well?

Hope something happens some time soon. The mini doesn't have a microphone input, so unless I can get the USB devices to work, my only remaining option will be to find a bloody pre-amp to boost the signal enough to plug a mic through the line-in port.

Frustrating.

After getting this problem a long time with my creative head set, I actually never thought it could be something with the specific hardware. Always thought it was a software issue in MacOSX.

I just happend to dualboot on my Mac Pro, and actually got the exact same issue in Windows 7.

Most people in this thread don't get the robotic sounds in Windows. Only Mac OS X. You may be having a different issue.

"Static" or "robotic sounds" can be interpreted many different ways. It's possible that some people may be getting some kind of distortion that inst related to software. But, there was a specific change to apple's IOUSB kext driver in 10.5.3 (or thereabouts) that makes this happen. Any OS before that and it's fine.

In fact, the apple rep that was assisting me on the phone (skype via usb mic) was at first like "right...static in your mic eh?..yep - your hardware is the problem.. return your headset" etc etc. After talking with her and submitting lots of info - my mic flipped out during the call (while i was recording it) and then all of a sudden she was like "omg...yeah smething is definitely wrong..let's get this to the engi's!" haha.

Again - it's intermittant - not constant.

And to maclyspe: nope - not a harware / short for most of us. I've tried grounding myself on my mac pro - touching the alluminum on the keyboards, wearing foil on my head.... nothing. Sounds like you have a grounding issue.

Well, there we go, posted system profiles, even audio recording sample of the problem. After that, here is the answer:

This is a follow up to Bug ID# 10480800. After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 10557859. The original bug number being used to track this duplicate issue can be found in the Related Problem section of your bug report's Problem Detail view.

It bothers me that the "original" bug has a bug ID bigger than mine... anyway... that is all I got so far. Mine is closed and I can't follow up on the "original".

I spoke to the people that make the iMic. She contacted their development team and apparently there's zero reason why their hardware wouldn't be effected while other peoples' was. They haven't compensated for this in any way.

Hi everyone,

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here. Unfortunately, I attempted the terminal kext replacement fix before I realized it no longer works with 64 bit machines. Now I simply have no USBAudio driver loaded and my mic isn't recognized at all.

I know all I have to do is restore the new driver from the backup, but I don't know how to do it. Could anyone post terminal instructions for that?

Thanks!

@Fakeh

Apparently the issue occurs when any software that is controlign the mic requests a rate / frequency / quality change. Almost all USB mics support this feature - perhaps iMic doesnt have this "switching" feature.

I have been using Mister Joshuas fix

Yet another confirmation that it is not working on 10.6.5 I had to do a combination of the fixes here, when trying the first fix I had permissions issues. So here's what I did. All in terminal (After un-plugging my USB audio device, of course). 1. Unload the USB Audio Driver: sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext 2. Backup the newer (but broken) AppleUSBAudio.kext: sudo cp /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext Documents/AppleUSBAudio.kext.backup 3. Copy the older (but working) AppleUSBAudio.kext sudo cp Downloads/AppleUSBAudio.kext /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext 4. Fix the permissions on the file (I used the -Rv, "R" is for recursive (all subfolders) and the "v" is for verbose, so it tells you what it's doing...) sudo chown -Rv root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext 4a. You should get an output similar to this: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/CodeDirectory /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/CodeRequirements /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/CodeResources /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/CodeSignature /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/Info.plist /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleUSBAudio /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/MacOS /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/I nfoPlist.strings /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/Resources/English.lproj /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/Resources /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents/version.plist /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext/Contents /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext 5. Load the new (old) driver! sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext

This works for me and I have been doing so for around 2 years now! I have to do this each time I restart my computer or shutdown but I usually leave it on sleep anyway.

The driver I download is from the following link http://evo-wiki.cern.ch/twiki/pub/FAQ/AudioProblemMacOSX1057/AppleUSBAudio.kext. zip

I actually place the driver in the following location 'System> Library>Extensions>' Sometimes you can get an error message despite the sudo commands so just simply run 'repair file permissions' under disk utility.

I am running snow leopard 10.6.8. and sometimes my USB will not show although I find if i just follow the above commands a second time it will reappear. Its odd.

I know its not the fix apple should be providing but hopefully it can help those who in the meantime get driven crazy by the robot voice!

I also have this issue on 10.6.8 for the longest time. I use skype for my business calls a lot and I would often have the people at the other end complaining that I sounded like a dalek (robot) or that the line was terrible etc. I put it down to it being a skype connection problem/mobile phone at other end etc etc.

I have call recorder running and had to go back and listen to some earlier calls and found thar the robot voice / static was actually captured and recorded, so figured it must be happening locally on my machine before it goes anywhere. Thus I only stumbled into this thread by accident as lately it has been so bad I thought my headset must be faulty and was googling mac usb headsets....

I tried changing the kext over but the old one refused to load: Failed to load /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBAudio.kext - (libkern/kext) requested architecture/executable not found.

Bu what I did try was going into the Audio Midi setup utility, into the audio window, and selected my usb sound device. In the input tab selected microphone and set the format to 48000.0 Hz (default 44100.0 Hz) 2 channel 16bit.

This seems to have stopped the problem completley.

It was very easy to test using skype. Just call the inbult soud test. That records you and plays it back, on the previous setting there was robotic distortion and static for the first few seconds of the call.

Change and repeat until it corrects.

This is my sound device id:

Try that and see if it helps, its a better fix than replacing the kext, which will not work after an update etc.

Bu what I did try was going into the Audio Midi setup utility, into the audio window, and selected my usb sound device. In the input tab selected microphone and set the format to 48000.0 Hz (default 44100.0 Hz) 2 channel 16bit.

Wow... that simple after.. two years?!