Wednesday, February 13, 2008

How to fix a psycho Mac Pro

Hi,

I'll just act like there hasn't been a huge gap in posting...

I have a Mac Pro. It's been acting... well... completely broken.
On startup, the two DVI screens take it in turns to flick off and on for three minutes before i can log in, my SaffireLE starts up desynchronised from the firewire bus, and my USB-MIDI devices literally crash out after a half-hour of use.

Today I fixed it.
If you have any symptoms like this, the following information may just save you a metric ton of grief.
Bit of a disappointing fix, but here it goes:
- Connect your DVIs through VGA adapters.
Rubbish, I know, but there -seems- to be some weird timing issue whereby the DVIs -spank- the data clock from the graphics card, which is messing with the bus clocks for the USB+FW. Ouch.
I genuinely can't believe that this could happen, but it certainly does look this way.

Now all my devices work fine (although my macpro still takes a full minute to boot, somehow... i'm just spoiled I guess). The Saffire works perfectly, and the system is rock solid. Awesome.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh...well at least you found a fix even if it is a kludgey one. Onward: how was NAMM? Godot cigars? And of course - how's the word form the beta testers? :)smtpwc

Anonymous said...

Note to self: stop leaning on Firefox spell check!

"Good" cigars - any GOOD cigars? :P

Anonymous said...

Well...notice nobody's commenting any more - it's because we all want to let you complete the good work :) Hope all's well with you and the rest of the crew.

Colin Bradburne said...

Glad to see it's not just me who checks in regular to find nothing new.

Dave Sonalksis said...

Sorry!!

I've been locked away writing code.

2.04 has gone to beta (again) with ALL the beta feedback incorporated.

The Mastering plugs are still getting final tweaks - we got some super elite mastering dudes in to give feedback, so things are being reworked to make sure they land with a bang ;)

I'll try and be around more soon.

In the meantime, go download the free mixes from curvve recordings (thanks to Chris@AD for the tipoff) and think of me :D

Anonymous said...

dave:
this is a known 10.5.7 problem.
-110