Mac And Fw 410 Options

[RJNY]

I've heard a lot of bad reviews of the MAudio FW410 and mac. Does anyone have any experience with it?

[chrisk4]

Apologies for the lengthy , and possibly confusing reply. The information may of use to some.

The following link should contain the info ,released by m-audio, but posted by a forum user on firewire connection issue.

http://www.macmusic.org/agora/forums/index...=ST&f=5&t=13996

With regard to that and the FW410, some users may be interested in my situation - I bought (april 2004) a FW410 after many months of reading on various sites and was reasonably satisfied when I first received the unit.

However, after upgrading to the latest (1.2.2 Build 1082 and also tried 1.2.1 build 1080) m-audio driver (G3 700MHz iBook, 640RAM, 10.3.3/4) the unit has now been returned, via the dealer I purchased from, to m-audio. Interestingly I sent the unit on 4th June and the link info above only appeared later in June - conincidental of course, must have been happening to more folk.

I could get the system to work by reinstalling the FW410_OSX_1.0.3_bld1068 driver - strange. M-Audio then suggested the return of the unit.

FYI below is the info I sent after having been instructed by m-audio to uninstall any pre-existing driver, search for any _other_ instances or _leftovers_ of m-audio preferences/plist files, and repair the permissions.

Please see following re getting the 410 to work using 1.2.2 driver version;

1.
uninstall existing m-audio driver
find all m-audio leftovers and delete
install new driver
repair perms
reboot without 410 attached
410 not recognised

2.
as 1 above
reboot with 410 attached
410 recognised but no cycling through indicator lights
recognised by OS X in Audio MIDI setup and M-Audio pref pane

3.
410 attached
switch off 410
remove fw cable
reattach cable and 410
lights cycle
410 recognised

4.
get some spurious connection failures etc switching off and
removing the fw cable but seems to be ok

5.
still have to try daisy chaining my ext fw drive as I have to use it for
audio even though M-AUDIO don't recommend this at all - man's gotta record any way he can...

6. Question?
What is recommended method of switching off/disconnecting the 410; can't be _put away_ like a fw disk?

Still waiting to hear anything on the unit of course.