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Sound Keeps cutting out, and it gets weirder

Ok this is weird. But my Mac Pro has been solid since I got it. I've been using computers for nearly 25 years now, and I've never seen memory affect sound, but here goes.

I installled 2gb of new memory ... Kingston Fully buffered 1gb chips, reviews all said work great with mac pro. I am using a Motu 828 Mk II. Well since the new memory, my sound keeps cutting off every once in a while. The computer still recognizes the Motu as the sound device (through firewire), but no sound, and I have to reboot to get it back.

Has anyone had experience with the Motu (which didn't do this for the entire first month until memory) cutting out on the mac pro after a while, or does anyone know of a problem with sound cutting out on Mac Pros? Memory causing sound to stop (extremely weird)?

Thanks

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 20, 2006 8:57 AM

Reply
115 replies

Oct 20, 2006 9:17 AM in response to chaosngn

User uploaded fileYou're probably using the wrong memory kit from Kingston. More than likely you're using their ValueRAM product, which has a KVR model number, which is not reliable when it gets hot in a Mac Pro as the heatsinks are large enough. What you should have is their Mac Pro specifica RAM which has a KTA model number, specifically, KTA-MP667K2/2G. Given you already have the RAM you might want to consider buying the MaxUpgrades heatsinks for them.

Oct 26, 2006 11:21 PM in response to infinite vortex

Nope, I've confirmed, it's the mac pro. The design is bad placement. I have tried with ram and without. With ANY ram on the second board, sound going out through firewire will just stop dead and start off and on. I've tried three different kinds of ram, including max upgrades ram and apple ram. This is a fault in the design, and being a niche market now I have to get Apple to realize it 😟

Oct 31, 2006 11:09 AM in response to chaosngn

this has been happening to me too.

i've had my macpro for 1 month and i've noticed some peculiarities. notibly the sound. i'm using jbl creature speakers that plug into the line out jack in the back.

several times this week the sound would cut out with a loud pop. i'd go to the system prefs and switch to internal speakers then it would pop again. no sound would come out of the internal speaker then i'd switch to line out and the sound would pop and begin playing normally.

now, since yesterday, sound from flash or youtube (in safari) would play thru the internal speaker. youtube sound in camino, etc. would play thru the external speakers as normal.

weird. i haven't done more testing to find other abnormal combinations. when i do i'll post them.

in the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions on a work around/fix?

thanks!
cheers,
sean

Nov 1, 2006 3:17 PM in response to David Bear1

I would make sure you have the very newest EFI and SMC images
burned and if that didn't help I would get an RMA and take it
in for a repair/new motherboard.

I'm guessing this is a MB (or component) revision problem as
I have memory on both boards and I have no troubles with
sound.

I use Logic Pro, Garage Band, ReNoise, and some freebee cute
stuff. I use the three mentioned above there quite a lot
and I haven't heard a single pop, crack or drop-out.

I hope I'm wrong! WWhen does your warrentee expire?

Nov 1, 2006 9:44 PM in response to Tesselator

Very strange. I just noticed that when the audio cuts out, iTunes won't playback - that is, the music/podcast time elapsed bar does not move so it's not just muted, playback is totally disengaged. Same thing with any playback in Quicktime Player.

If I switch the sound output prefs to internal, audio and playback are fine. It's just when output is set to the MOTU 828 mkII.

Anybody with similar weirdness?

Nov 5, 2006 9:54 AM in response to chaosngn

i've had the same problem with my tascam fw-1082...
also hadn't happened until i installed more ram (i'm up
to 2 gb). however, my ram is straight from the apple
store, so that definitely isn't the issue.

i just use the fw-1082 for recording. what happens is
that it loses firewire connectivity arbitrarily, usually
for about 2-3 seconds. it has caused quite a few
problems with recording, naturally. does anyone
have any real leads on this problem

Nov 8, 2006 10:15 AM in response to chaosngn

You're right it's the firewire. I'm wondering if a seperate card would work, since it is a PC motherboard after all and those have never worked well with FW. The weird part is, my MOTU 828 is ALWAYS recognized by the firewire even when there is no sound. I can even select it, it's just silent or itunes won't budge.

I realize this now because my FW hard drive would work, not work, work, and I chunked it into the closet thinking the drive had died, but now I realize it was the firewire cutting in and out, but it's DEFINITELY worse with more than stock memory.

Nov 9, 2006 11:55 PM in response to Alan Yagi

I have exactly the same problem with my 828 mkII. Audio via FireWire is lost after several hours. When I switch to another output, all the sounds kept in the buffer (from Entourage) play. So I can have an idea of the duration of lost output.

And I have to restart (with MOTU unplugged) to recover the FW audio output. Because reset on the MOTU doesn't work. The FireWire must be resetted.

I thought it was because I installed Wiretap Pro, a good Ambrosia app which had problems with FireWire audio management (I helped them for that). Wiretap is not native. Wiretap uses an extension kept in the system folder. So I disinstalled it to see if, without the extension, the audio output would be kept.

And I believed it was the case : during 24 hours, I had no problem. But the problem is back again and the cause is elsewhere... 😟

I checked the FireWire cable. Nothing changes.

As I know, the Mac Pro has only one FireWire bus, 4 ports but only one bus. As I have a disk drive plugged on a 800 port, perhaps it's a bug which causes to loose the audio sync on a 400 port (there was such a problem on the G4 MDD FW 800). But I don't know.

For now, I have no explanations for this problem. It didn't occur immediatly.

Perhaps the problem began after I plugged an iSight for the first time to use with iChat. The iSight is now unplugged but perhaps it left some garbage in the sound system and its preferences.

I don't think that the problem is with the MOTU or its driver. But I actually have no solution.

I'll try to throw away the sound prefs...

Nov 10, 2006 10:13 AM in response to jjardoino

I have some news : one person I know has the same problem with a RME interface. His Mac Pro is older than mine and, as I only know OS X 10.4.8 on my new Mac, he used his Mac Pro with 10.4.7. And he never had a problem with the audio via FireWire before the 10.4.8 update.

So it seems that the problem is not with the interface, neither with the driver, neither with the hardware (FireWire bus). The problem seems to be in relation with the update 10.4.8 of Mac OS X.

I hope that Apple will rapidly know about it, and publish a 10.4.9 or a patch for the 10.4.8. Because many musicians on Mac Pro have some trouble today to work...

Sound Keeps cutting out, and it gets weirder

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