Firewire Quit Working In Mountain Lion

Question

Level 1

0 points

Firewire Quit Working In Mountain Lion

I have two devices that previously worked in Mountain Lion and recently both stopped working at the same time.

The first is an Allen & Heath ZED R16. The second is a MOTU 8Pre. Both are Firewire Audio Interfaces for a recording studio.

These have worked in Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and more recently Mountain Lion. I recently (January) did a complete fresh install of Mountain Lion on this system. Afterwards I installed the latest drivers for both devices and they both worked fine. They were working fine up until about a month or so ago when they just both stopped being recognized by the computer.

I have tried uninstalling all drivers and reinstalling (with devices off of course). I have tried three separate Firewire 400 cables and two Firewire 400 to Firewire 800 cables. The computer has a 400 and 800 jack so I have obviously tried each device with each port.

Since I had tried all of this, I had started to assume that it was the Firewire ports gone bad on the computer. However, last night a friend of mine brought over his Macbook Pro and we tried both devices on his system (also running fully up to date Mountain Lion) and neither were recognized by his system either. When he got home he plugged his Firewire Audio Interface into his laptop and it too was unrecognized. Fortunately for him, he updated the drivers and it found it. Like I said, I have tried updating my drivers multiple times to no avail.

Also, if I go to my Firewire section of the Mac info it says FireWire Bus: Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec. I am assuming this means the computer is recognizing the ports?

I have a hard time believing that both of these devices had Firewire port failures at exactly the same time. They are both plugged into studio quality surge protectors and power conditioners, as is the computer.

Is there anyway to reset anything or test any further? I am out of options.

Specs:

24 Inch Mid 2007 iMac

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

ATI Radeon HD 2600

OS X 10.8.3 (12D78)

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Mar 23, 2013 7:14 AM

Reply

Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 23, 2013 10:51 AM in response to MindMachine

Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.

Reply

Answer 2

MindMachine Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 23, 2013 11:08 AM in response to baltwo

No such luck. Tried both of these twice and retried both devices. Still the same result. Any other ideas?

Reply

Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 23, 2013 11:35 AM in response to MindMachine

No. All I futher suggest is a visit to an Apple repair station.

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 25, 2013 12:07 PM in response to MindMachine

the more points... the more generic the reply.... who are these people and do they understand what Apple did?

Apple screwed up firewire with 10.8.3. My Large Epson printers cause my new macpro to reboote every time I go to print. Apple knows they caused the problem.... if they care they will fix it with a patch. Who knows.

10.8.3 has caused numerous firewire devices to stop working.... search the web .... you will see firewire

advisories from many manufactures.... Level 9's may be unaware of the reality of the situation and

ask you to spend hours on troubleshooting that will never work..... Unless you know how to write a new driver,

it's going to take a patch from apple to fix this mess.

Reply

Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 25, 2013 12:44 PM in response to marc mccarron

All I can state is that all my firewire externals work with 10.8.3 and no one reported issues during the beta test period, that I know about.

Reply

Answer 6

MindMachine Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2013 12:49 PM in response to baltwo

I have no ill feelings towards apple. I would just like my hardware to work.

An update to the problem, I was able to test the computer with an M-Audio Firepod Audio Interface and the iMac did recognize it and it functioned properly.

It seems extremely odd that two separate Firewire devices (each with two Firewire 400 ports) would both completely stop communicating via Firewire at the same time but it does appear that that is the issue.

There is still a small chance that it's something Mountain Lion related, but it's really hard to say for sure since I can get neither device to be seen on either machine.

If perhaps there is an OS X update someday and they show back up that would be great, in the meantime I will see if they can be serviced.

Reply

Answer 7

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 25, 2013 12:59 PM in response to MindMachine

I was able to test the computer with an M-Audio Firepod Audio Interface and the iMac did recognize it and it functioned properly.

That implies the ports and mechanisms are working. Try other FW cabling. Other than that, I'm afraid you'll have to contact Apple support or visit a service center.

Reply

Answer 8

MindMachine Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2013 1:02 PM in response to baltwo

I agree it implies the ports and mechanisms are working. I have also tried other cables with no luck.

I am not sure an Apple Support or Service Center will be of much help as it appears both computers are operating correctly.

I will update if I find anything else, but at the moment I am going to concentrate on the hardware itself.

Reply

Answer 9

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 25, 2013 1:08 PM in response to MindMachine

Okey, dokey.

Reply

Answer 10

Mar 25, 2013 1:16 PM in response to MindMachine

my fire wire ports work also baltwo .... I can get them to see my video camera.

It's an Apple issue plain and simple... 10.8.3 has issues. There is not an Epson pro printer

with firewire connections that will work with 10.8.3. it causes a hard crash and reboot.

Apple is aware of it ... and has given lip service in saying that they are working on a solution.

People are having problems with third party firewire cards. google 10.8.3 and firewire and see what you get.

It's not the port on a computer that's the problem... its how the OS update crashes the firewire cards on the

other end. 10.8.2 workded fine.... MindMachine's cards are fine.... if the manufacture rewrites the driver it they may work... if Apple undoes what it did with 10.8.3 they will work... this is not a hard issue to understand.

Reply

Answer 11

MindMachine Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2013 1:28 PM in response to marc mccarron

For what it's worth.. the laptop I am testing on is actually running 10.8.2 at the moment and it is not seeing it either.

I hope that there is a Mac OS X update that fixes it, but I am not holding my breathe on that and will check out the hardware in the meantime.

If I can get either device to show up on another computer then I will be convinced that it is indeed Mountain Lion.

As I said in the initial post, these two devices both worked with a clean install of Mountain Lion and later stopped working.

This morning I put a clean copy of Mountain Lion on the laptop using the same Mountain Lion USB stick I used on the iMac and was hoping that the devices would be recognized and help me narrow it down to a Mountain Lion update, but unfortunately, neither device was recognized there either.

I am about to finish the 10.8.3 update again and will try again.

Reply

Answer 12

May 15, 2013 5:49 PM in response to baltwo

I was experiencing a problem with my MOTU Ultralite audio interface via firewire. I had experienced two problems since upgrading to ML on my MBP.

1. MOTU would not mount properly via FW when MBP was woken up. On Snow Leopard, it did. Changed after upgrade.

2. MBP would recognize but not auto-select the MOTU as default output/input.

I can say that the NVRAM and SMC resets have seemingly fixed #2. Will test to see if it helps with #1.

Reply

Answer 13

May 15, 2013 5:48 PM in response to MindMachine

Not sure how old the machines you are using, but the NVRAM reset instructions made mention that if the reset did not solve the problem, it could end up being an issue with the battery that supports the NVRAM on the logic board:

If issues persist, your Mac's logic board battery (not a portable Mac's rechargeable battery) may need to be replaced. The logic board battery helps retain NVRAM/PRAM settings when your computer is shut down. You can take your Mac to a Mac Genius or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on the logic board.

Reply