The Art Of Sound
Level 6 (12,117 points)

Q: Information on 2013 iMac FD issue / USB2-3 Issue and Driver Incompatibility issue

I've created this new thread to outline the THREE different issues currently being discussed in various threads here and elsewhere in the hope of clarifying a few things and cleaning the 'mess' up a little!

 

There are currently THREE specific and different issues that a Mac owner might have in relation to Audio problems.

 

Some Users may well have all three problems at the same time or a combination of any/all of them.

 

Issue #1 - If you own a 2013 iMac with a Fusion Drive fitted then you wil get audio dropouts, clicks and other audio issues.

 

To test, unplug all 3rd party interfaces and test with internal Audio only.  Most people report audio dropout and noise via internal Audio.

 

Status - Wating on a software fix from Apple.

 

Possible temporary workaround options -

 

1) Boot from an External HD, (Very effective with a high reported success rate) and wait until fix is issued by Apple.

2) Split the FD into separate SSD and Mech Drives... (Fairly effective... but not as good as the ext drive menthod it seems)  and wait for fix from Apple.

3) Contact Apple and ask for a non FD replacement iMac (when/if possible)

4) Wait for the Apple Fix

 

Issue #2 = If you use a USB2 device/interface/whatever and it is connected to a USB3 port then that device might have problems.

 

Note: This issue does not affect Firewire devices for obvious reasons...

 

Possible Workarounds - Note: Users have reported varying levels of success with these fixes depending on the USB2 device in question. and what else is connected to your Mac.

 

1) Use a USB2 powered hub. Connect device to powered hub and connect powered hub to USB3 port

 

2) Use a Thunderbolt hub. Conect device to TBolt hub and hub to TBolt port on Mac.

 

Status - Waiting on fixes from the makers of these USB2 devices to correct the problem where possible.

 

Issue #3 - Incompatible drivers/hardware with either 10.9 and/or 10.8. Affects mainly audio interfaces that use drivers to communicate with your Mac... but can also affect USB2 Midi interfaces and Audio interfaces those that are supposed to be 'class compliant' and therefore do not use drivers... Class compliant devices have been fixed in the past by firmware updates whenever possible, by the makers of the device. In some cases however, makers of certain USB2 devices have not been able to correct the issue and have released new versions of their hardware to reolve issue (which of course were not provided as free replacements for users with these probmatic devices!)

 

Workaround

 

Roll back to previous working OS X version whenever possible and wait for updated drivers from Maker of your device.

 

Status - Awaiting updated drivers from the Makers of the USB2 device.

 

As can be seen from the above list, it is possible that certain users who have a 2013 imac with an FD fitted and own a USB2 interface could be subject to all three issues... and you should be keenly aware of this fact. When Apple release a fix for Issue #1 you may still have problems relating to either/both Issue #2 and #3... depending on the USB2 device you own....

 

Important Note:

 

Please feel free to ask questions regarding these three issues and their descriptions but try not to clutter up the thread with other problems or posts regarding comments such as  "Why isn't Apple/Maker of device fixing this?"  or "I'll switch to "Name of other DAW" if this isnt fixed soon..."  as frankly no one here cares about such things as none of us work for Apple

 

Thanks!

Logic Pro X, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Motu UltraLite V3

Posted on Dec 12, 2013 2:59 PM

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Q: Information on 2013 iMac FD issue / USB2-3 Issue and Driver Incompatibility issue

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  • by cdanr,

    cdanr cdanr Feb 26, 2014 5:55 PM in response to The Art Of Sound
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 26, 2014 5:55 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

    In truth, this issue was resolved for me from the first 10.9.2 beta so no changes with the final release.

     

    I'm glad to see it's apparently been resolved for everyone else who was suffering with it as well.

  • by YossiNirvana,

    YossiNirvana YossiNirvana Feb 27, 2014 1:57 AM in response to cdanr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 1:57 AM in response to cdanr

    Those are great news!

     

    I haven't installed the 10.9.2 yet, since I need to refuse my splitted FD,

    Is there anyone that did it and can help me on this one?

  • by cdanr,

    cdanr cdanr Feb 27, 2014 5:47 AM in response to YossiNirvana
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 5:47 AM in response to YossiNirvana

    I haven't installed the 10.9.2 yet, since I need to refuse my splitted FD,

    Is there anyone that did it and can help me on this one?

    There are instructions around the web for this, such as here.

     

    However, I recently split up a Fusion Drive in Mavericks and was surprised that whenever I went to Disk Utility, the split FD appeared in red and Disk Utility offered to rejoin it and create the core services group for me.

     

    So, when it came time for me to do so I let Disk Utility do it and it worked fine.

  • by Iglamannen,

    Iglamannen Iglamannen Feb 27, 2014 11:41 AM in response to The Art Of Sound
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 11:41 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

    Sitting here, sad and disapointed!

     

    But I'm glad that it's working for some of you. I have a late 2013 Imac with fusion drive. To that a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface. After uppdating i was happy because the clipping didn't start after 5 minutes as it did before. But after 15 minutes the same problem occured. The clipping escalate so after a few minutes it's mostly a distortion symphony.

     

    I don't now what to do know. Change audio interface again to something that somone else can confirm that it works. I don't want to split upp my FD cause to my wifes work with videoediting.

  • by The Art Of Sound,

    The Art Of Sound The Art Of Sound Feb 27, 2014 11:45 AM in response to Iglamannen
    Level 6 (12,117 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 11:45 AM in response to Iglamannen

    iglamannen,,

     

    Just to confirm.. Are you using your 2i2 in class compliant mode as described here?

     

    http://global.focusrite.com/answerbase/using-a-scarlett-interface-on-osx-109-mav ericks

  • by Iglamannen,

    Iglamannen Iglamannen Feb 27, 2014 11:48 AM in response to The Art Of Sound
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 11:48 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

    Yes, I've been in contact with focusrite and tried out everything that they asked my to do. I have sent them system files and logfiles, but that was before the update to 10.9.2

  • by cabin neighbors,

    cabin neighbors cabin neighbors Feb 27, 2014 1:41 PM in response to The Art Of Sound
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 1:41 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

    So I returned my imac with a fusion drive for one with at ATA HD and the output problem is fixed now. But when ever I try to record with it. There is a lot of latency and clicks and pops that I can actually see in the waveform. How do I get my Scarlett 18i20 out of class compliant mode? Any ideas on how to fix this? I changed all the sample rates And buffer times, that didn't do anything.

  • by YossiNirvana,

    YossiNirvana YossiNirvana Feb 27, 2014 2:19 PM in response to cdanr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 2:19 PM in response to cdanr

    Hi cdanr,

     

    Thanks for the link.

    Regarding refuse in Mavericks, I took a look at the disk utility, and didn't found it. nothing appearce in red,

    and the disk utility doesn't offers me a rejoin option.

    can you please help on this one?

    one more - does the rejoin option keeps your files and data or is it a fresh install?

    thank you!

     

    I'm using OSX 10.9.

    Screen Shot 2014-02-28 at 12.10.33 AM.png

  • by cabin neighbors,

    cabin neighbors cabin neighbors Feb 27, 2014 6:30 PM in response to YossiNirvana
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 6:30 PM in response to YossiNirvana

    When I rejoined the fusion drive I had to reformat them, which does wipe them. Here is this post on how to make a fusion drive http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html, but when I called apple tech support they have different instructions and a different code which worked for me.

  • by cdanr,

    cdanr cdanr Feb 27, 2014 6:34 PM in response to YossiNirvana
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 6:34 PM in response to YossiNirvana

    Hi YossiNirvana,

     

    I'm not sure why your Disk Utility isn't showing you the option to rejoin. I get it every time I start Disk Utility.

     

    APPLE SSD SD0128F Media 2014-02-28 11-30-37 2014-02-28 11-31-21.jpg

    At any rate, there are instructions at this site for creating Fusion Drives.

     

    I used the instructions from here to split my Fusion Drive.

  • by cdanr,

    cdanr cdanr Feb 27, 2014 6:50 PM in response to YossiNirvana
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 27, 2014 6:50 PM in response to YossiNirvana

    Speaking of which, I'd really like to know if there is some way to get Disk Utility to stop asking me if I want to rejoin the drives every time because I intend to keep them split and will create the FD manually in the future if I decide I want it again. It is a bit annoying to have to hit "Ignore" every time I use Disk Utility.

     

    How did you split your FD, YossiNirvana?

  • by YossiNirvana,

    YossiNirvana YossiNirvana Feb 28, 2014 10:35 AM in response to cdanr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 10:35 AM in response to cdanr

    cdanr,

     

    I splitted my FD using Terminal, you can find it here:

    http://www.macworld.com/article/2015664/how-to-split-up-a-fusion-drive.html

     

    About disk utility - could it be possible that i need to upgrade to 10.9.1 or 10.9.2 in order  to have the rejoin option?

  • by cdanr,

    cdanr cdanr Feb 28, 2014 3:06 PM in response to YossiNirvana
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 28, 2014 3:06 PM in response to YossiNirvana

    YossiNirvana wrote:

     

    About disk utility - could it be possible that i need to upgrade to 10.9.1 or 10.9.2 in order  to have the rejoin option?

    That's definitely worth a try. Sorry I can't say for sure because I never tried splitting the FD until I had 10.9.2 installed. I ended up rejoining it after all and will continue to use it as a FD, even though I am now booting to an external SSD via Thunderbolt.

  • by YossiNirvana,

    YossiNirvana YossiNirvana Mar 1, 2014 2:59 AM in response to cdanr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 1, 2014 2:59 AM in response to cdanr

    thanks cdanr.

     

    So now I will do the following:

     

    1. backup my system using Time machine

    2. upgrade to 10.9.2

    3. backup again

    4. rejoin FD (hopefully it will be possible using disk utility)

    5. restore from backup (assuming the rejoin will wipe my disks)

    6. finally enjoy the full features of my iMac

    7. thanks god.

  • by YossiNirvana,

    YossiNirvana YossiNirvana Mar 1, 2014 4:04 AM in response to YossiNirvana
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 1, 2014 4:04 AM in response to YossiNirvana

    So I did steps 1 to 3, but even after updating to 10.9.2, I still don't have the rejoin option in disk utility.

     

    Screen Shot 2014-03-01 at 2.02.04 PM.png

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