Q: iMac late 2013 + Mavericks + USB Sennheiser - input freeze

I just recorded an entire podcast with my Blue Yeti mic and had no problems (with 10.9.2), which I wasn't able to do before. Hooray!

I have just updated Mavericks to 10.9.2, but I am unable to hear any sound when playing back audio recordings or screen recordings. I have a 13-inch, Mid 2013 MacBook Air. Frustrating.

Seeing many positive comments on that 10.9.2 may have fixed the issue. I will be sure to make a full backup of my current ML installation before hopefully 'upgrading' my machine to 10.9.x (in this case the released version of 10.9.2). I will report back after a few days of testing. Thanks also to all those actively posting and following this issue. im certain this is much appreciated by many. cheers!!!

Peter - I am interested in trying your solution of disabling the driver, but being something of a novice I'm wondering, what will happen if this doesn't fix the problem and/or I need to re-enable the driver for some reason? How would I do that? Or, another way of putting it is what are the down sides of disabling the driver?

Also, if a new version of Mavericks comes out and I install it, will the driver automatically be re-activated? Thanks.

Cedric,

There's no need to try any workaround now. Version 10.9.2 of Mavericks is now available and seems to have fixed the issue.

Just update your OS.

Thanks. I'm updated to 10.9.2 and sadly am still having problems. Some USB devices are working (such as my external HDs and speakers) but other USB peripherals are still dead (wired keyboard, printer, DVD drive).

Since this problem seems to be unique to late-213 iMacs with fusion drives, it looks like my only other option that I hear will work is to split the fusion drive in two: http://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html

I created a partition without doing complex splitting - re-installed Mavericks and my music software and it's rock solid. Easy to create a partition using Disk Utilities.

Strange to hear that OSX 10.9.2 has not solved this problem.  As a suggestion try to reinstall the OS using a Combo install rather than s/w update. Worth a try before you partition, as partitioning will undermine some of the speed benefits of the Fusion drive.  All of my audio issues were fixed with the update, and it seems this is the case for most of the others posting on this forum. Peter MacLaren (Apple just forced me to change my handle for some reason!)

Also try changing what's plugged in where if you haven't already tried this. Could be a h/w problem. The iMac has two separate USB controllers behind the 4 sockets. Also if you are using a USB hub check to see what happens when you plug the peripheral directly into the iMac.

I have the latest patch with a late 2013 iMac w/ Fusion capability. The update solved my DAC usb interface from 0% to about 90% of the time. There are still some conditions where my music, which is piped through usb into my DAC, will fail.

It is better but it is still not perfect.

LETSROCK - Can you be more specific? How big was your partition? What did you put on it and what did you leave off? (I think I understand the basic concept of a partition but have never created one.)

pjmacl - Thanks but I don't think it's a hardware issue. The same USB ports that will read my external hard drives will not acknowledge my printer or keyboard. Tried them with and without a hub, and no dice. Very strange and frustrating.

Also, I just downloaded and installed the combo update. It was a nice idea but it didn't fix the problem.

This has also been my experience. Much better but not perfectly.

I'm on 10.9.2 here and it doesn't work.

Reproducable after exactly 60 minutes of recording, sound recording becomes worse and then completly dies.

I tried three different USB sound cards on three different USB ports (iMac, Keyboard and external USB hub).

Only thing that helps for me is to unplug the USB device and then plug it in again and I get another 60 minutes. This is so weird.

I'm using a Sennheiser PC3 headset (non USB)

iMac, 27", Mid 2011, 3.4Ghz