24 i/o PCIe 424 issues

[floatingtrem]

I recently picked up a 24 i/o and a 424 card and have been struggling to get them to play nice.

On my Mac Pro 5,1 running Mojave (as well as High Sierra) the 424 shows up just fine, but when I try to turn on the 24 i/o, it blinks through the clock rates, and then goes blank without settling on one. The software never shows the 24 i/o as being active.

On Windows I was able to get it to startup at 48k (and I think 44.1 by changing the system sound card settings), and after that it worked just fine- if a still a little inconsistent when turning it on, but I'd like to run at 96k and on my Mac.

So presumably this is some sort of clock issue. I can run my UltraLite mk3 off of the 424's internal clock with no apparent issues, which leads me to believe it's generating clock just fine.

The 24 i/o is nearly 17 years old at this point, so I can't say I'd be shocked if it's the issue, but I'd like to make sure I'm not missing anything when it comes to setting these guys up on the Mac side. It seems like there are a fair number of you still running 424 systems.

I'm hesitant to pick up another 24 i/o not knowing what exactly the issue is, and with the 424 line being probably not too long for this world, but I'm also not wild about throwing down on a new 16A.

Any thoughts?

[monkey man]

Could be a glitchy AudioWire cable/connector.

Retest the Windows system you mentioned with this cable, card and interface just to be sure nothing's been damaged in the meantime / changeover.

[Releaux]

I own three 24I/Os and had this happen a few times. Occasionally, doing the "reset" trick (unplug it from everything (including power!), rapidly change the 110/220 selector switch on the side several times, then reconnect it) would bring it back to life and it would sync. But if that didn't work, the only option was to ship it back to MOTU for a $75 refurb swap. I believe the core issue is one of the custom chips that ended up being somewhat temperamental.

Unfortunately, the last time I had this happen (2016-2017 I think), when I wrote to MOTU to get it repaired, they let me know that they no longer had the spare parts needed to repair faulty units and weren't accepting them any more. At that point, I went ahead and moved to the 24Ai with Behringer ADA8200s for the outputs I needed.

I'm still hanging on to my old 424 cards and the 24I/Os just in case I end up setting up a legacy system with them, but I don't trust them to be my primaries any more. That made me particularly sad, because I loved having 72 channels of input AND output in 3u. While I like the AVB line, I really miss zero-latency hardware audio monitoring.

Wish I had a better story for you, but if the reset thing doesn't snap it back to life, you're probably out of luck and need to find a replacement, whether that's another 24IO or moving to a different setup.

EDIT: reread your post and had spaced on the fact that you could get it to pull sync on Windows. Is that using the same 424 card? I agree with MM's suggestion to try a different cable. You might also try putting the 424 in a different slot on the Mac and resetting the PRAM and SMC. Maybe there's something funky going on that a hardware reset like that might fix.

[monkey man]

Excellent advice, Releaux.

[floatingtrem]

thank's for the info.

it only syncs in windows when i set the clock to window's internal driver clock, and even that has been spotty and weird. i jumpstarted it into 96k through audition once, but that's not really anything i'd call close to "working".

i went ahead and ordered another 24i/o, so fingers crossed.

i think long term i want to move to something dante based, but given the difference in price point i think i'll try to get this setup working for now.

[mikehalloran]

How old is your NV RAM battery? If over 5 years old, time for a new one. A common CR2032 is fine in these. No need to spend $8 on Amazon for the heat resistant BR2032 that Apple uses.

A week battery causes all sorts of problems that can be impossible to run down. For $3 or so, you eliminate it as the cause.

[floatingtrem]

the new 24 i/o showed up today, and it works!

[sertem]

the new 24 i/o showed up today, and it works!

Can you use it flawlessly with mojave?

[floatingtrem]

Can you use it flawlessly with mojave?

everything seems hunky dory so far. mojave compains about the software being 32-bit and i haven’t gotten a chance to fully test everything, but it looks like everything is good to go.