September 6th, 2010 – I’ve had my M-Audio Firewire 410 for a long time. I picked it up in 2004 when I needed a mobile recording solution and I still use it. Lately though, I’ve been having audio drop outs. The software mixer will register audio output, and the card itself will light up its LEDs, but no audio will play. I can unplug and replug the interface back in, and it still won’t register.

What’s especially weird, is that it will be already working and cut out. For example, I’ll be listening to my iTunes library and all of the sudden a song will cut out and I won’t be able to get any audio back. I used to restart my computer, but that was also a crap shoot if the sound would work again.

Apparently, this problem is not localized to me; I’ve read a lot of complaints on the forums about it with others who are on Leopard. M-Audio hasn’t updated the drivers since November of last year and since it’s a discontinued product, I doubt they’re rushing to fix it. I’ve completely removed and re-installed the drivers several times to no avail.

In the meantime, the only way to bring the audio back consistently is to go into the M-Audio software and change the sample rate, and then change it back. Doing so allows you to get the audio back without rebooting, or hotswapping the interface. Are any of you running into the same problems in Snow Leopard?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 7:56 pm.
Categories: Engineering, Gear.

8 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. red

    Just because of the lack of dedication of the avid people I decided to jump to the Apogee Duet and would never go back…

    Sep 6th, 2010

  2. Rick

    I had to do the change sample rate (in Audio/Midi Setup or whatever) for my PreSonus FirePod, but thus far my ProFire 610 is working well. But I do need to restart the computer fresh each time to get audio coming out (if I ever unplugged the FireWire). Kind of a pain, for a “mobile” solution. I’m thinking about the Apogee One now. I don’t think I have enough going on where I *need* a FireWire interface.

    Sep 7th, 2010

  3. Sean

    argh…the sample rate switching “fix” no longer works for me. Looks like it’s time to retire the 410.

    Sep 12th, 2010

  4. anti maudio

    I have the 410 on a Mac 10.5.8 laptop.

    Suddenly decided to stop working, blinking dumb blue lights, zero support from Avid/M-Audio.

    Never going to buy any M-Audio crap again. £250 on this piece of crap.

    Here’s a hint – try developing WORKING drivers for your audio cards and you might retain some customers.

    Oh and screw Avid, Final Cut Pro is cheaper and better.

    Nov 27th, 2010

  5. anti maudio

    Seriously pissed off.

    This is supposed to be pro-gear, not some Radio Shack crap.

    Absolutely useless waste of time and money.

    Never again will I be buying anything from M-Audio.

    If you’re not going to bother making your shit work with OSX machines, then say so, that way Apple users will know to avoid wasting their money.

    M-Audio gear does NOT work on Apple Mac machines, and their after sales service is a joke.

    Nov 27th, 2010

  6. Rick

    I still haven’t had any problems with my ProFire 610. Let’s hope it stays that way. Then again… I could use an excuse to buy an Apogee Duet :)

    Nov 29th, 2010

  7. Sharma

    I’ve had this problem periodically for a long time. My situation is almost the same. I bought my M-Audio 410 in about 2007 and have used it with my G5 iMac since, originally running OSX Tiger. Now I’m on OSX 10.5.8. I get exactly the same fall out happen periodically, meters on the software faders but no actual sound. Normally turning it off, waiting a few seconds and then turning it on again has been enough to solve the problem. However, just today, it happened and was being particularly stubborn. Even after several restarts, uninstal and reinstal drivers, it still wouldn’t work. Hence when I discovered this post. In the end it started working again after turning it off, unplging it, quitting the software, pluging it back in and restarting it and then the software. This problem is extremely tedious though. I would like to know whether M-Audio plans to update the drivers or even weather they have been identified to incompatible with a specific mac update so at least then we could avoid that happening. It’s such a pity because aside from this I have found the 410 to be an excellent product.

    Dec 15th, 2010

  8. Sean

    I’ve been using the 410 for 5 or 6 years now and I didn’t have any problems until recently when I moved to Snow Leopard. Since the time I wrote this post, I sold the FW410 to some friends who haven’t had any problems using it in Garageband. I’ve moved on to an Apogee Duet which I’ll be writing a review for soon.

    Dec 30th, 2010

Reply to “M-Audio Firewire 410 issues with OSX 10.5.8”