Focusrite Saffire on iMac Intel 27"

RUSSLA

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Basically I got this soundcard like 2 years ago and never got it working because i havent really been bothered but im serious about production now but the fucking thing still crashes my mac everytime i try to use it.

I have literally done everything a million times, uninstall, updates, new firmware blah blah but even now still it wont fecking work.

Does anyone know of anyone who had the same problems? the only thing i havent actually tried is a new cable and adaptor but tbh i cant see that being the problem as i did actually manage to update the firmware tonight.

This is driving me mental and its sucks cos ive literally NEVER been able to use it :( The thing is brand new!

Cheers dudes!

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---------- Post added at 22:27 ---------- Previous post was at 22:25 ----------

Also I have contacted their customer support but the guy literally had no useful information and just kept asking for error reports and screenshots over and over and never actually gave me things to try.. Last resort it to speak to them again but they were fecking useless last time :/
 
Couple things to try.......

Use bootcamp and put windows on it then see if it works in that...bit of a long way to find out if it works, but just a suggestion.

Try using a USB hub with it, I know that sounds silly but might work as I know the iMac USB ports share hubs with other things like the built in camera etc .
Make sure it's a decent hub though that is powered .
On that note make sure it isn't on the same bus as an external hard drive as well.

Can't promise this will work but helps to narrow things down to what's wrong though.
 
bit of a long shot but saw this on here:

http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/article.php?id=221

"The Saffire Pro causes my mac to crash / grey screen.

Sometimes the Apple CoreAudio driver has difficulty connecting to the Saffire PRO 26 i/o. If this happens, it may cause the Mac to crash when re-setting the unit.

If you find that your Mac is crashing when you connect the Saffire PRO 26 i/o, then you will need to have the Saffire PRO 26 i/o attached to your Mac and turned on before powering up your Mac.

Alternatively you can put your mac to sleep when attaching the Saffire pro 26IO then wake it up.

This issue will be fixed in a future release of OSX (post 10.4.8)."
 
Couple things to try.......

Use bootcamp and put windows on it then see if it works in that...bit of a long way to find out if it works, but just a suggestion.

Try using a USB hub with it, I know that sounds silly but might work as I know the iMac USB ports share hubs with other things like the built in camera etc .
Make sure it's a decent hub though that is powered .
On that note make sure it isn't on the same bus as an external hard drive as well.

Can't promise this will work but helps to narrow things down to what's wrong though.

I havent got boot camp but ill give that a go to prove the unit is ok, good idea :) never thought of the usb hub either, i was suspicious of the firewire port so if i can rule that out that'd be good. Would a firewire to usb cable be the same you think?

bit of a long shot but saw this on here:

http://www.focusrite.com/answerbase/en/article.php?id=221

"The Saffire Pro causes my mac to crash / grey screen.

Sometimes the Apple CoreAudio driver has difficulty connecting to the Saffire PRO 26 i/o. If this happens, it may cause the Mac to crash when re-setting the unit.

If you find that your Mac is crashing when you connect the Saffire PRO 26 i/o, then you will need to have the Saffire PRO 26 i/o attached to your Mac and turned on before powering up your Mac.

Alternatively you can put your mac to sleep when attaching the Saffire pro 26IO then wake it up.

This issue will be fixed in a future release of OSX (post 10.4.8)."

Just about to try that now.. I did see that on their site but figured it woulda been fixed in an update but deffo worth a shot (y) thanks!
 
i'd update ur mac to lion
its only £20 through the jap store
if ur running logic u may get some issues getting that to work again. i know i did
 
Hmmm i'll leave that one until they sort the logic bugs out, my mates L9 crashed everytime he tried to flex. cheers tho
 
I feel your pain, I also own one of these and can honestly say I've seen better build quality by a 2 year old playing with lego bricks.

My issues started when I moved flat and took the cables out the back, in doing so one of the plastic connector broke. I then started using the next channel up but phoned Focusrite to get it fixed, when I again unplugged the cables to send it for repair another one broke. I phoned them to notify them that I now needed two
connector repaired and ask why they break so easily to which customers services told me "Well things break".

Since getting it back I've had issues with sound dropping out and other crap but really can't bothered to send for repair again because I feel something else will
just go wrong with it, I'm currently saving for a MOTU.

Focusrite = shit in my book now
 
Least yours worked man, my fucking thing just never stopped crashing my whole computer! Proper pissed off to be fair cos when i bought it it wasnt cheap! Very disappointed but its my own stupid fault for not taking it back at the time.. was in my lazy stoner days tho :/
 
I havent got boot camp but ill give that a go to prove the unit is ok, good idea :) never thought of the usb hub either, i was suspicious of the firewire port so if i can rule that out that'd be good. Would a firewire to usb cable be the same you think?



Just about to try that now.. I did see that on their site but figured it woulda been fixed in an update but deffo worth a shot (y) thanks!

Is it FireWire not USB ?

If so do you have a hard drive drive hooked into the other slot ?

I remember having issues trying to use 2 FireWire devices at the same time on my Mac, so used a USB hard drive instead.
 
There is only one mini firewire slot on my mac, i got one as soon as they came out, sept 09. Im using other usb ports for midi keyboard etc but no other f/w stuff :/
 
Focusrite seem to be pretty shit for bugs. I'm having similar problems with my Saffire Pro 40. Pro Tools keeps telling me I'm running out of CPU, but only when the Saffires running, If I use my built in card, its fine. Worked alright with Mac OS 10.6, but forgot to check for bugs before I updated to 10.6.8 (schoolboy, I know) and now its fuck-oed. Had a recording booked the other day, which thankfully was just vocals, so the Mbox cut the cake, but I can't take any multi-channel jobs on until Ive fixed it, so I'm planning on giving Focusrite a fucking good shouting at.

Looking at the posts above, I am daisy chaining a hard drive on the firewire bus as well, so will try without that. But I'm getting a CPU error, so it looks like a bug, as theres a different error message/code for when the drives can't keep up with the stream.
 
Can't really think of anything else apart from repair disk permissions.

Honestly I don't even know what that does lol , but I always see it on support forums.
 
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