Apogee Duet causes Kernal Panics

[pedrodash]

so, i was going to buy a duet yesterday and i saw this thread..
i assume that my macbook with 4gb memory will have some kernell panics too?
this is bad.

[ironbut]

Wow! I'm soooo glad I found this thread. I was really on the fence about getting a new firewire interface and the Duet was gonna be it. Looks like I'll just save a little more for a Metric Halo. At this point, even if they fix it soon, the way you guys were blown off by both companies,.. forget it!
Mac Pro Quad w/8G ram

[pedrodash]

the number of used duets on ebay is becoming bigger everyday..

[FFTT]

Originally Posted by kincept

Are you saying above that I cant plug the DUET into the macbookpro while its on?
I have to shut off the macbook pro? then plug it in at start up?

thats not what they show on the apogee website.

Well for the sake of saving you a lot of grief and expense, I would not hot plug
ANY F/W device while your system is running. It's a worthwhile safety precaution on these delicate powered ports.

You also want to make sure your system is not set to auto-update and verify the Apogee or other interface drivers have caught up to the latest OS update.

Also some of your older 3rd party plugins may not be ready to roll with the latest OS update, so you have to keep track of this stuff.

As mentioned before, after each software installation, you should open Disc Utility
and Repair Permissions and in some cases, you'll need to re-start or log off and on again to get the new software or updates rolling properly.
These are just Mac basics and a good way to rule out pilot error.

[tonerowlabs]

8-core mac pro w/ 6GB owc RAM
duet
kernel panics nearly every time i switch sample rates or between logic and dp. have to restart between to be safe.

[GCL]

If Apogee would just tell us if we have to wait for 10.5.3, that would be an acceptable reason for the long wait. 10.5.3 was recently seeded to developers; I wonder if any of them could chime in on this -- is the problem fixed with the beta of the latest OSX build?

[hatzalam]

I also don't think that 10.5.3 will fix the spotty Maestro performance/popups that I have. I'm assuming this is an Apogee thing, independent of the kernel panics. Or even if its not, it should be something that a driver update will fix. 6 months since a driver update... do they have just 1 part-time dude compiling code??

[cali316]

Have you guys been sending in your crash reports? I have been every single time. I want to overload Apple with this stuff until someone out there gets a clue that this is a serious issue that needs resolved asap. How are we expected to run large sessions, especially when scoring to film, with only 2 gigs of ram???

[GCL]

Originally Posted by cali316

Have you guys been sending in your crash reports? I have been every single time. I want to overload Apple with this stuff until someone out there gets a clue that this is a serious issue that needs resolved asap. How are we expected to run large sessions, especially when scoring to film, with only 2 gigs of ram???

I must have sent Apple over 50 crash reports in the last 3 weeks for this single issue.

[Virtuoso]

I send a report every time. The EFI update fixed the sample rate/kernel panic issue for me, but waking from sleep still triggers a panic if the Apogee Duet is plugged in.

[unvs]

The newly released EFI firmware update for iMacs didn't help with the samplerate/kernel panic problems for me. Still SOL

dfegad

[obcbeatle]

Hmmm....I was thinking of buying a Apogee Duet until I saw this thread. So does the kernel panic occur on macbook's running leopard, with 2gb's og ram? Thanks!

[macleodgrant]

Originally Posted by obcbeatle

Hmmm....I was thinking of buying a Apogee Duet until I saw this thread. So does the kernel panic occur on macbook's running leopard, with 2gb's og ram? Thanks!

i've never experienced a kernel panic with this configuration

[waldo99]

I when I got the a new mac pro with 16Gb of memory, the kernel panics started. Application switching, unplugging the device, running itunes in background, Anything that my use's core audio, upsets Duet, I always have to reboot, glad I am not on my own. Bring on the update. On my old mac pro the Duet was rock solid. It's a possible fire wire issue, I glanced at the crash log and the backtrace reported a group firewire IO kext's, one is IOFireWireFamily.kext. Very annoying can only run device at a time. Hurry up APOGEE

[waldo99]

oops double post

[twoohfour]

Definitely glad I found this thread...

I was looking for information on the Duet, cause it looked like a pretty solid I/O for my live rig...

Finding out that even the Maestro integration is shoddy *without* all the Kernel panics is enough to answer my question.

Are there any small (size wise) FireWire I/Os that *don't* require one of those software interfaces?

When running a laptop cycling dozens of tracks in Ableton and processing new live samples in real time I don't want to have to worry about some clunky software interface hogging any bit of processor/RAM, you know?

[Max]

Originally Posted by waldo99

I when I got the a new mac pro with 16Gb of memory, the kernel panics started. Application switching, unplugging the device, running itunes in background, Anything that my use's core audio, upsets Duet, I always have to reboot, glad I am not on my own. Bring on the update. On my old mac pro the Duet was rock solid. It's a possible fire wire issue, I glanced at the crash log and the backtrace reported a group firewire IO kext's, one is IOFireWireFamily.kext. Very annoying can only run device at a time. Hurry up APOGEE

Not Apogee specific. Any class compliant FireWire device will experience similar issues with over 2GB of RAM.

[SL_]

Originally Posted by Max

Not Apogee specific. Any class compliant FireWire device will experience similar issues with over 2GB of RAM.

Working on MBP 2Gb RAM + MH 2882 DSP+
Didn't had any problem with hot plugging and unplugging the device even while Logic8 session was actually in playback. I do make sure that I power up my MH from it's own power supply and NOT from FW bus...maybe that's where the problem is? Is Duet only FW powered or can you power it up with external PSU?
It seems like new Macs coupled with all them new versions of OS and apps had problems with FW powered devices. Guys reporting that their MHs when bus powered will make MBs not startup properly due the fact. So I'm thinking if those are somewhat connected issues.
P.S.: regarding a post of FFTT about never hot plugging. Sorry, might sound stupid as I'm new to Macs, but this one I hear for the very first time. Is it what you saying that anything that connects with USB or FW needs first shutting down the system, connecting it and the starting up the system again? What am I really risking by not doing it this way? Is it related only to bus powered devices or by hot plugging my USB HDD and MH I'm burning out my USB and FW ports?
Thanks.

[Whitecat]

yep, both my focusrite saffire pro 26 and my duende have exhibited this issue. the duende is more off-and-on but the saffire will cause a kernel panic on something as simple as a sample rate change, so if I need to load a Logic session that's not what I'm locked to it's safer to reboot the computer first.

I'm on 10.5.2. desperately praying it's resolved with 10.5.3.

[nagal]

I just wanted to chime in again on this, I was one of those having kernel panics with the Duet, 8GB ram and running 10.5.2. Kernel panics would happen in any audio app. I did a fresh install of 10.5.1 and my kernel panics stopped. Of course still had major issues with Logic in 10.5.1 so decided to go with 10.4.11 and have had no issues at all but that is another story

[hatzalam]

Originally Posted by Max

Not Apogee specific. Any class compliant FireWire device will experience similar issues with over 2GB of RAM.

Max,

Could you give a timetable as to when the new driver/Maestro is coming out? And, if not, is there any way to fix the spotty Maestro pop-up performance?

[Max]

Originally Posted by xaipemw

Max,

Could you give a timetable as to when the new driver/Maestro is coming out? And, if not, is there any way to fix the spotty Maestro pop-up performance?

First of all, let me just say I would kill for some Kopps right now (Milwaukee FTW!!)

If I could give a date I would. We are hoping things are going to be fixed very soon.

[waldo99]

I bought a firewire 800 to 400 cable and the kernel panics have stooped. Everything is stable at the moment. I will report back in 24 hours.

[nagal]

Originally Posted by waldo99

I bought a firewire 800 to 400 cable and the kernel panics have stooped. Everything is stable at the moment. I will report back in 24 hours.

So you are saying you are using the FireWire 400 to 800 cable to plug the Duet into the FW 800 port of the Mac Pro? Were you also running 10.5.2?

[rlg]

MBP, 4GB, 10.5.2, no problems with the Duet so far.

[waldo99]

Originally Posted by nagal

So you are saying you are using the FireWire 400 to 800 cable to plug the Duet into the FW 800 port of the Mac Pro? Were you also running 10.5.2?

Yes 10.5.2 and 16 GB of ram, latest mac pro

[rlg]

Hmm, as mentioned above, I hadn't had any noticeable problems with the Duet, but stupid curiosity after reading this entire thread led me to hot plug the Duet into my already running MacBook Pro (something I hadn't done before) to see what would happen. Sure enough, kernel panic.

[hatzalam]

I'm actually writing this from the local Apple Store. My Macbook Pro has started to crash the "Duet Pop Up" program every time I start my computer up and log into my user account. Interestingly enough, this does not happen on a 2nd account I created to test, and it also does not happen if I boot up from my cloned external hard drive. I'm still not sure at all what is going on with my computer and/or Maestro. I of course am in contact with Apogee Tech Support about this problem. So far, I haven't heard any answer.

At this point, however, I'm almost not expecting one.

This is a sad state of affairs, as far as I'm concerned.

UPDATE:

the Duetpopup crash must have been related to something that got corrupted in my account. The genius I was working with created a new library for me, and now I no longer have the crash at startup. They didn't understand exactly what happened, either. But the Apple Store employees kept asking me about the Duet--apparently I can cause gear envy over there!

[Dysanfel]

Its a shame really. I love my Duet. Its rock solid, has never crashed, and sounds better than any gear that I could touch in its price range. Sorry about all of you guys troubles, but realize that there are people using this unit and getting BRILLIANT results.

I hot plug my Duet all the time and it has NEVER crashed.

[foldback]

I guess I'm glad I never bulked up on ram on my new Logic Machine. I have 2-gig of DRAM on a 4-core Mac Pro running Logic 8, it is as reliable as any Protools machine we've had and Duet sounds great. No Kernel panics here. This MacPro also runs Windows XP very well too.