please help. new macboy has problems

[GUY SMILEY]

i bought an apple macbook pro. previously i used pcs
it's great. i much prefer it to pc's
but somewhere along the way of installing all of the legitimate licensed plugins, and other sundry applications I own, my liquid mix stopped working, the screen just flashes and then it crashes.
the liquid mix works fine with protools, but not at all with ableton.

if i create a new user account in apple and load up live (it prompts for a license code so i load it in test) the liquid mix works fine.
so it must be something i have done to live ? or the operating system ?

my question is what should i do ?

1. do an archive and reinstall of the operating system ?
2. use time machine to step back to an earlier date.?

is there a way to create a new user account without losing authorisation codes for all of my plugins ? i can't face installing all of them again it took bloody ages.
any advice from hardened mac users much appreciated.

[bencodec]

so the issue only appears when you are trying to use liquid mix in Live?

[GUY SMILEY]

so the issue only appears when you are trying to use liquid mix in Live?

yes exactly. all other plugins work. all other apps work. computer runs great.
only the liquid mix.. but it works fine if i log in as another user.
seems a real shame to have to ditch my setup for the sake of this (especially as there is a good chance it'll just come back)

have tried re-nstalling latest drivers many times, have deleted preferences, and used applcleaner to remove applications, and find any file to delete an extrneous files before reinstalling.. have also tried with a 800 to 400 cable connected direct to the laptop, as well as a 400 to 400 connetced to a bleking firewire 400 3/4 expansion card..

btw my cpu regulalrly runs at 85% (according to istat pro) ? is that usual ? you could fry an egg on this macbook ?

have also run onyx, repair disk permissions and repair disk from startup disk.
have also emailed focusrite.
have also run in live 8 beta test mode (and replicated the problem) but the log file doesn't shed any light on the situation either ?

fucked if i know what to do next ?

[Samsara]

so the issue only appears when you are trying to use liquid mix in Live?

I'd try uninstalling/re-installing the liquid mix driver software first .

Also run this

http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php

It fixes loads of odd osx problems.

[GUY SMILEY]

so the issue only appears when you are trying to use liquid mix in Live?

I'd try uninstalling/re-installing the liquid mix driver software first .

Also run this

http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php

It fixes loads of odd osx problems.

cool, am trying cocktail now.. thats exactly the sort of advice i was after.. thanks

[GUY SMILEY]

have tried running cocktail.
i think its fairly similar to onyx, repairs disk permissions, clears caches and runs apple scripts.

unfortunately the problem remains

what do you suggest ?

1. format hard drive and use archive and re-install
2. use time machine backup ?

does time machine even backup system files ?

Tks

[vicz]

In OSX there are two types of Library folders. There is one global one directly under the hard disc. Then there is one local one under the home folder of every user. Stuff installed in the global folder is available to all users, stuff in the local folder is only available that user. Usually an app will store stuff like license files somewhere in one of the library folders. Sometimes when you install or first run an app it will ask if you want it to be available for all users or just the user you are installing it under. Other apps will just pick one or the other. It sounds like you may have installed the app under one user and are trying to run it from another. Maybe you could just poke around with finder or spotlight and see what files are where. If necessary you can just copy them around between libraries, it wont do any harm. Or reinstall your app making sure you do it under the same user you installed Live under.

You might try repairing permissions using Disk Utility, this oft-recommended cure all sometimes fixes problems where an app cant find or read something you know is there.

You should never rename any of your users home folders or move apps out of the applications folder or you will get strange errors or won't be able to find files. Another issue can be if you are using filevault and the app creates non-standard files to hold license info.

I have been using OSX on several machines since it was first released and have never had to re-install it for any reason, you should always be able to work your way out of a problem once you understand what it is.

Finally, if you have not seen it Apple Discussions is a great source of OSX support info http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa .

[otnooishphoo]

i bought an apple macbook pro. previously i used pcs
it's great. i much prefer it to pc's
but somewhere along the way of installing all of the legitimate licensed plugins, and other sundry applications I own, my liquid mix stopped working, the screen just flashes and then it crashes.
the liquid mix works fine with protools, but not at all with ableton.

if i create a new user account in apple and load up live (it prompts for a license code so i load it in test) the liquid mix works fine.
so it must be something i have done to live ? or the operating system ?

my question is what should i do ?

1. do an archive and reinstall of the operating system ?
2. use time machine to step back to an earlier date.?

is there a way to create a new user account without losing authorisation codes for all of my plugins ? i can't face installing all of them again it took bloody ages.
any advice from hardened mac users much appreciated.

are you using universal binary drivers for your liquid thing?

if they are PPC they will not work.

[vicz]

are you using universal binary drivers for your liquid thing?

if they are PPC they will not work.

Good spot, especially given the high CPU utilisation. Latest version info here: http://www.focusrite.com/support/software/liquid_mix/

The other thing you might like to do is run Console (in the applications/utilities folder) and look for messages in the logs at about the time it crashes

[GUY SMILEY]

yes i'm running the latest versions of the software, but thanks for the tip. I will try the console approach. hadn't realised that was its purpose.. good suggestion thanks

[GUY SMILEY]

very little information spit out.

basically about five lines..
seems to be missing a log file or something ?

sorry.. bit confused..

is it better to use a time machine backup or try and install and archive from system disk ? which one will require less re-authorisation of existing plugins anyone know ?

[GUY SMILEY]

thank fuck.
I have sussed it.

i had been deleting the preferences folder for sintefex (aka focusrite) in the main library.
I deleted the sintefex preferences, AND the live preferences in the user folder, and re-booted.. and it now works.

That is such a relief. Thanks to bencodec and smasara for valuable input when i was at the end of my tether... turned out to be a fairly easy solution, as these things often are..

[vicz]

Its hard to tell whether the missing log file is the failure or is just the failure handling software failing if you see what I mean, and its hard to tell if its related to the three errors starting at 22:45:12 .

I don't use Time Machine so can't help you there.

I would be very reluctant to reinstall everything just because of this and of course the risk is that it doesn't fix the problem.

If you haven't already I would make sure the same vsts are in both the global library and the live user's library (not the Ableton Live library!) and try running everything like that. Or maybe copy all the vsts out to a spare folder then copying them back into the library one by one. Or check for multiple copies of the driver in different libraries, as for the vsts, in this case there should probably only be one. Does it make any difference if the box is plugged in when you try to authorise it? Are you running Live under the same user as protools? It does sound like an environment problem linked to stuff in the libraries.

Going to bed now, will check back tomorrow.

[vicz]

thank fuck.
I have sussed it.

i had been deleting the preferences folder for sintefex (aka focusrite) in the main library.
I deleted the sintefex preferences, AND the live preferences in the user folder, and re-booted.. and it now works.

That is such a relief. Thanks to bencodec and smasara for valuable input when i was at the end of my tether... turned out to be a fairly easy solution, as these things often are..

Beat me to it! Well done!

[GUY SMILEY]

thank fuck.
I have sussed it.

i had been deleting the preferences folder for sintefex (aka focusrite) in the main library.
I deleted the sintefex preferences, AND the live preferences in the user folder, and re-booted.. and it now works.

That is such a relief. Thanks to bencodec and smasara for valuable input when i was at the end of my tether... turned out to be a fairly easy solution, as these things often are..

Beat me to it! Well done!

cheers vic