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Hey Guys,

I've spent the week troubleshooting a client's studio problems and I'm looking for a fresh take on this problem.

System:
Mac Pro running Mavericks and DP8
2nd Mac Pro running Vienna Ensemble Pro streaming samples.
MOTU 2408 mk3 (1 main and 2 backups)
MOTU Traveler Firewire Audio interface (used to route audio normally, not as an interface)

What happens is:

Audio is dropping periodically (with a digital chirp) -- irrespective of what session I'm in, whether I'm recording, playing back or just input monitoring, or seemingly any other variable. 1 of 2 things will happen. Either the audio will just disappear for a few seconds and return or the MOTU Audio System will switch off with error message saying the system has turned off and to save my work. The error code is 57:0. I then have to turn the MAS back on manually.

There are a lot of "moving parts" over here, so I wanted to eliminate possibilities. Here's what I've tried so far.

-Software updates: Some stuff was out of date, but now it is all up to date: OS, Drivers, Vienna, Plug-ins. Still happens.
- I thought it might be something with Vienna Ensemble Pro, but we eliminated the other machine completely and it's still happening.
- Audio interface problem? We tried all 3 2408s in his studio. Same. We tried the MOTU Traveler Firewire interface he has in case it was something to do with the PCI card. Still happening. Let's try lower-level.
-The main hard drive needed to be repaired by disk utility (I thought for sure that was it!) but after repair it's still happening.

So, we've eliminated nearly all external factors: Other computer, PCI-424 audio interfaces and we're left with 1 machine and a firewire audio interface.

One thing that I noticed is that the hard drive he uses to store session data is starting to show signs of failure. Could that do it? That would make sense for recorded audio to cut out, but we're also losing live monitored audio, so I don't see how that could be it.

Does anyone have any experience that could possibly shed some light on this ridiculous situation? He's paying me to fix the problem and I feel like I've tried everything.

Tomorrow, I'm going to continue with lower level tests like RAM. If anyone has any ideas, I would be MOST grateful.

Signs of drive failure? Whoa. Drives are cheap. Regardless of whether this is the source of troubles being experienced, get a new one now. And back up yesterday.

If the MAS shutdown is a result of it losing contact with the audio interface, maybe it could be the audiowire or FW cables, or inconsistent power to the audio interfaces?

Well, my friends, I won't go into all the details because it'll take forever, but I've diagnosed the problem as a bad SATA port. I'm not sure if it's the controller or what, but since I eliminated that port (using the same drives) all is well.

Thanks for the help! That was a tough one!!

Thanks for letting us know!

jwiener wrote:Well, my friends, I won't go into all the details because it'll take forever, but I've diagnosed the problem as a bad SATA port. I'm not sure if it's the controller or what, but since I eliminated that port (using the same drives) all is well.

Thanks for the help! That was a tough one!!

How did you find that out? I am having audio drop out problems too.