How do I fix the issue with my Bose companion 5 speakers quitting intermittently?

I remember reading somewhere a while ago that the companion 5's fail to wake the usb port after the computer has gone to sleep and is woken again.

I had the same problem using lion, and it still hasn't been fixed in mountain lion.

If anyone knows how to force a usb port to stay on permanently that may solve our problem.

I faced this problem today. I hadn't used my Bose Companion 5 speaker for a while (few months). They used to work fine with OS X Lion. I have the latest Lion version 10.7.5.

I couldn't even see Bose USB Audio in either System Preferences -> Sound or Audio Midi Setup. Strangely my Macbook Pro doesn't even recognizes the speaker. I have verified that the USB port is working fine. I restarted my laptop couple of times but no luck.

I am confused how to solve this problem. Did anybody experienced this issue of not seeing the Bose USB Audio anywhere?

Same issue as others. I have my speakers plugged directly into my macbook pro so no chance of that being the problem. I called Bose. The rep had me disconnect the speakers from power and reconnect after a minute or so. It fixed the problem. I told the rep I had read the posts online and that if my only fix is to constantly disconnect and reconnect the speakers, I will return the speakers. He said he understood but was not aware of what his enginnering department was doing, if anything, to resolve the problem. Please call Bose and Apple if you have this problem. Make them give you case number.

I had this issue and this fixed it for me...some of it you might have done already but it's the Audio MIDI Setup that worked for me.

Can you check System Preferences -> Sound -> Output.

Do you see Bose USB Audio? If so select it.

Then open /Applications/Utilities/ and double click Audio Midi Setup.

Change Default Output and System Output to Bose USB Audio by right clicking on Bose USB Audio in the left hand side bar and selecting 'Use device for sound output' (also system sounds if you wish)

Click Configure Speakers, and click Multichannel, and click Apply.

It should work now.

Same problem with Lion on my iMac. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. If I touch the controller they stop working immediatley and I need to unplug and replug to get them to boot again. Works fine on my Snow Leopard machine. Must me a Lion Problem. Went to a Bose store and the sales guys told me it was Apple not them. When to the Apple store and they told me it was Bose. Check Mate, user loses.

I had this exact same problem with my previous Windows system. While researching it on the web I noticed that many others had the same problem on both Windows and Mac platforms.

My research showed the speaker system ran into the problem when connected via an external USB hub, either powered or passive. I ended up buying a USB PCi card dedicated for the Companion 5 system, and it cured the problem straight away.

When I swapped to my current iMac I stayed with the same principal and plugged them in directly to one of the ports on the back of the machine and again have had no problems.

Just an FYI

Jerry

Call Bose. I had the same problem + extreme overheating. They sent me a brand new set with next day shipping. Bose is one of the last great costomer support oriented companies now that John Browett screwed up Apples Retail and Tim Cook (the worlds biggest *******) fired him just to satisfy the public without actually changing Apples Money hungry retail policies.

I have the same problem with my Bose Companion 5 on my iMac Using OS X El Capitan 10.11.6. Speakers just stopped playing. Read this post, unplugged the Bose, plugged it back in... And it works. For how long, I can't say. I'll come back in the future if the problem recurs.

Honestly I have had this problem since Yosimite and it basically cuts out unless you do a restart which if you have a high end mac (I do) it's takes seconds but still is completely inconvenient. It could be a change on anything whether it be Safari,YouTube,ITunes, or anything else it happens randomly and sparatically for me. Hoping for some sort of resolution but I spoke with Bose about the issue and they said it was on Apples end. Literally hours of customer support for this and still

No help. If I find a solution I will keep you posted!!

Same issues as everyone, problem solved in Mountain Lion with the USB plugged directly into the computer. USB hubs seems to break contact with the BOSE Speakers. They work great now!

same problem man, did you solved? thank you!

I have had the same problem both on El Capitan and Sierra.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Same issues faced today. I unplugged the USB cable and plugged it to a new usb3.0 port and the problem solved. FYI&good luck！