Presonus Firebox on Macbook Pro - Sound just stops!

[alvarez]

I am running a newly purchased Firebox on a Macbook Pro with the latest (as of 5 september) - FireBox Control and FireBox Mixer software for the intel mac.

I have a problem where the sound will just stop completely while something is playing and never come back. It happens in iTunes as well as Logic Pro and other DAWs. Once the sound has cut out, I cannot run the FireBox Mixer, it will just 'Not Respond'. The FireBox Mixer works fine before the sound cuts out.

The only way I can get the sound back is to pull out the firewire cable of the FireBox and then put it back in again. After a few seconds the FireBox will come back on and the sound will output. After a random amount of time of sound playing (sometimes a few seconds), the sound will cut out again and never come back.

FYI, I use a MacBook Pro 15" with 1GB RAM. I only have one firewire port and that is only connected to the FireBox. I don't have any other firewire devices attached. The sound works fine if I switch it to the 'Built-in Output' of the MacBook Pro and never cuts out.

Hope you can help.

Thanks,
A.

[alvarez]

I forgot to add that the blue light on the unit stays on after the sound has cut out, I presume indicating that the unit still has power?

A.

[speedydave]

does it do the same thing on a different computer?

that may tell you if its the firebox or the computer itself.

if firebox does the same thing (which it just might), return and get a new one. they ain't supposed to do that.

[Matthew Presley]

I'm betting your Firewire chipset is a VIA. I have seen this behavior. You can resync it by toggling the latency, sample rate and CPU load settings. Good luck.

Matt

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by Matthew Presley

I'm betting your Firewire chipset is a VIA. I have seen this behavior. You can resync it by toggling the latency, sample rate and CPU load settings. Good luck.

Matt

Doubt that. It would be an Intel chipset on an Intel mobo, as I understand it.

[Matthew Presley]

I'm not referring to the motherboard chipset, but firewire chipset itself. I could be wrong but I dont beleive intel makes a firewire chipset. They most likely use a 3rd party.

[AdamJay]

sounds like a driver issue

have you contacted presonus support?

[alvarez]

Originally Posted by AdamJay

sounds like a driver issue

have you contacted presonus support?

Yes, a day or so ago, but I don't normally expect a reply (I contacted Focusrite about a week ago with no reply at all)

re: the driver issue, the presonus firebox as far as I'm aware from the documentation / website uses the core audio drivers, and doesn't need any presonus drivers. I have the presonus control panel and mixer and that's about it.

A.

[alvarez]

Well, 'this morning' it is working so far. The Classic leave it overnight and it might be working again?!

I tried getting it working for hours yesterday with re-starts, shutdowns, and re-inserts with no luck, but now it 'seems' ok.

I guess it could be a faulty firebox (or firewire port - hope not!), so I will continue to run audio through it for a couple of days before taking any more action.

Thanks for help

A.