iMac Not Finding Interface

[lockjawdavis]

I'm new to the whole digital recording thing, so please bear with me. I have a Presonus Firebox interface that I've connected to my iMac (OSX 10.5.4). It's powered up with one of those wall-warts and the blue light on the front indicates all is well. However, the Mac does not recognize the Firebox at all. Any tips as to what may be wrong or something I'm missing?
I've called Presonus and listened to about an hour of bad jazz fusion on hold before giving up on them.

 

[nixoblivion]

hey there.
i have a similar problem posted just about 3 threads under yours
unfortunatly i havent gotten my saffire interface to work either, but maybe i can help u a little. what do you mean when you say the mac does not recognize it?

how are you connecting your interface to ur imac? have you checked the system properties? if you go on audio (dunno what its called in english but i think audio should be right) you can check ur inputs and outputs. are you able to choose ur interface?
maybe also check the audio/midi setup (search it in spybot).

 

[lockjawdavis]

Sorry. I didn't see your previous post. I'm having a heck of a time getting this thing to work. Sometimes I can go to the AUDIO/MIDI panel in Utilities and the interface shows up, sometimes it does not. Even when it does, and I change all the audio settings to accept the interface, then I can't hear a thing in Garageband. Totally frustrated here.
Thanks for the advice, by the way.

 

[nixoblivion]

ok that seems weird that u can find it sometimems and sometimes not...

have you been in the system properties yet? over there you can choose the input and output. i think normally it should dot it automatically when u connect ur interface, but maybe there is some sort of problem?

 

[headfuzz]

As GarageBand is built on the Logic engine I suspect you have to specify in GB's preferences that you wish to use the Firebox.

Are you running anything else on the same Firewire bus? If so I'd disconnect the other peripherals and see how you get on.

 

[lockjawdavis]

Thanks all. The Presonus Firebox is just not showing up in my audio options. The light is on, but no one's home. It has to be a faulty box. I'm sending it back and hoping for better luck with my next interface. Just getting the gear out of the box, got me all fired up to do some recording so I'm moving forward maybe with another Firebox or a similar firewire interface.

 

[nixoblivion]

i really doubt that the interface is faulty... that would be a real bad coincidence.
have you checked if its compatible with mac?
maybe some drivers are missing or sumthing?

remember my problem a few posts earlier?
well it seems the core audio is messed up on my laptop but i dont know how to fix it! maybe you have something similar?

 

[lockjawdavis]

Thanks, Nixo. But according to Presonus, it's compatible with Mac and Leopard with no additional drivers or downloads needed. Anything I plug into that firewire port shows up in the hard drive except the Firebox interface so my only conclusion is a bad interface. I wish there were some magic bullet that would get the thing working, but I've searched everywhere and can not find an answer that gets me a fix.