Alesis io26 firewire issues!

I

icebergash

New member
Hi there,

Please help! I'm using a mac book 2.2 ghz 120gb osx 10.4.10
I've had my alesis io26 for about 1.5 years, its been fine until recently. When I plug it in via firewire the green light comes on, so its getting power, but the yellow firewire light doesn't come on. And the interface isn't being picked up by the mac, so when i go to inputs and outputs to select the sound card it isn't there.

So I'm assuming this could be a problem with my firewire port? I've rebooted osx and the tried various different versions of alesis drivers but nothing has worked and its very frustrating!

It seemed to be fine until i updated to osx 10.4.10.

any suggestions please.

Thanks
 
Alesis io 26 firewire issues

I too am having similar problems.
The Alesis io 26 works fine with my PC running Windows XP (with the original Alesis drivers). Up til recently it worked fine with my laptop too - using Vista and the latest Alesis drivers. Now with the laptop connected the firewire light does not show and sometimes when I plug in the Firewire cable even the power light goes out.
I was convinced that it was a Vista problem until I read your post. I have tried disabling the wireless network since that can create a conflict and initially that seemed to work. So the nest thing I might try is to get s different firewire cable.
But you're right, it could be the port itself, although in my device manager it says that it's working properly.
 
Running into the same issue

I'm new to posting on here but not to coming here. I also have the same problem with my Alesis io 26. I've had mine since 2007 and it wasn't until yesterday that the FireWire connectivity light stopped working, which resulted in OS X not recognizing it.

Specs on my computer:
Macbook Mid-2007 White
OS X 10.6.3
2.16ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
120 GB HD
2 GB Ram
Logic 8 for my DAW

I've rarely used the AC adaptor with io 26 so I rely on bus power. The bus still powers the io 26 but no FireWire recognition. I've tried several different things troubleshoot the issue: Un/Re-install drivers, older drivers, verified and repaired disk permissions within OS X and even opened the io 26 up to check for loose connections. All yielded no solutions.

Up until yesterday, I was a huge fan of the io 26. For the price, I was very impressed with all the features it had to offer and its portability. Now that its not working, I've lost my options for recording, in-ear monitoring and a few other things :(

Has anyone made any progress on this?
 
Wow
i'm having the same problem
i have been using this Interface since 07 on windows XP SP3
i've tried reinstalling the drivers, System Restore,even tried to install it on another PC, bought a new firewire cord, etc... My Maudio firewire interface works, so this tells me that it's not the card or wire
but

i called Alesis Tech support and they told me that i need to have a firewire card with a TI (texas Instrument) chipset
but why would i all of a sudden need this pacific type of FW card and i've been using my regular old one for 3 years ?

they recommended these cards

Belkin Model F5U503
and Adaptec AFW-4300A

it's been hell trying to find these cards in Computer Stores
i don't like to order stuff online
and i still haven't gotten it

will keep yall posted when i do
 
still problems

Strange that we all seem to be having this problem. Its been a while now since i originally posted and luckily was lent another interface by a friend. That needs to go back now so i'm back to my alesis io26 firewire problem!

I took the io26, my mac, my cables etc to a friends house on the weekend. I have ruled out any problem at all with my mac. Infact as i say i tried another soundcard via firwire and my mac picks that up fine... but it still won't recognise the io26. I have no option but to send it back to alesis for repair. Obviously i'm annoyed about this especially as I'm not someone who records every day/ night. I probably only got to use it 30 or so times in the year and half I had it before it broke down! Obviously its out of warranty... not best please for the money! although I loved it when it worked!

If anyone else has any updates on fixing these issues, please post.
 
BlastMaster SW said:
how do we do this ?
Click to expand...

You might have to Google it, you press a particular F key on start-up to run setup - actually, I think you're sometimes prompted with this option on startup.

It's definitely worth trying - i had similar problems with my Alesis and this simple change fixed them.
 
same issue

I have the same issue, brand new Alesis io26, brand new iMac with OS 10.6.3. Downloaded all the latest drivers from Alesis website. I find that when the firewire light is on, the Mac picks up the io26 fine, but as soon as I switch the Mac off, and back on the next day, the firewire light does not come on, and the Mac cannot see the Alesis. I have to physically unplug the firewire and plug it back in. Sometimes it takes a few tries, before the firewire light comes on again and the Mac picks it up. Then all is fine again, until I switch off the Mac again, or even put it to sleep. I have tried it with the mains power supply and without (power through firewire) and the issue remains the same. So far it is not a huge problem because I have managed to get it going each time by removing and reconnecting the firewire cable a few times (on the Alesis end). I would however like to know if there is a solution for this issue because it is annoying, and I can probably still return the Alesis now, but not in a few months time. If anyone from Alesis is on this forum, please comment on this issue. It seems to be a common one, I have read about it on several other forums too, but haven't seen a solution yet. It is clear from this thread that is not a MAC issue but an Alesis issue, else PC users would not have the same problem.
 
An update on my end

Quick update

First and foremost, Alesis has been one of the worst companies I've had to deal with when it comes to customer support/tech support.

My first encounter was over the phone with them. After being put on hold for 25 minutes, the person on the line simply hung up. After trying 2 more times, I abandoned ship on the phone service.

My next encounter was with Kevin Jordan via e-mail. Alesis's tech support e-mail return time is suppose to be 72 hours max. I received a response back nearly 2 and a half weeks later with the convenient excuse of my e-mail ending up in his spam folder. He sent me a pretty hefty troubleshooting procedure that looked promising....until I realized he gave me directions for the MultiMix and not the io26. I send him a response telling him that he sent me wrong product information. The waiting game starts again....

Roughly a week later, he sends me a response telling me that there are new drivers available and includes a link....to Windows 7 drivers. What good are Windows drivers on Mac OS X? After checking Alesis's site, there were new OS X drivers and of course, they yielded no solution.

I getting very close to boxing this thing up and pitching it.
 
Looks like my brother is having the same problem. For him it happened about the same time as he upgraded to windows 7, so we thought that was the issue, but the same macbook that he always used it on isn't working either, and neither is the imac I'm typing. Firewire sends power to the unit, but the firewire light does not come on, and it isn't recognized. This is a shame. How much does it cost to repair it?

My brother called tech support, and he said that the the tech said that he wouldn't troubleshoot the problem on a windows 7 machine (all he had on hand at the time) because that had not been stable but that he would have if he was on a mac. That sounded pretty bizarre to me. Now that I've found these posts and others like it, it's clear to me that there is an issue that Alesis should know about and have a fix for. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that the issue may be hardware related because the problem is in the unit itself, not the computers its being used with. If that's the case, that's some pretty poor performance.

That said, a MOTU 828mkii is my main experience with interfaces, and mine died after 3 years of moderate use. They charged me $100 to replace it. Maybe these things don't last forever? Maybe there's a brand out there that does? I'd love to hear that there's a solution to this one.
 
This is CRAZY!!!

Hi Guys. This is my first post.I've have had my IO 26 for 3 or more years now.I've used it on PC's running XP/Vista and Mac's running OSX/Snow Leopard. It started acting strange a year ago.Sometimes it would work other times as mentioned by a member here I had to unplug and plug the F/W cable back in.In april or may I was in the process of finishing an album. I did a Mac update and this piece of $#!% hasn't worked since on any OS. Only the green light comes on now. I called Alesis who's customer service is the absolute worst I've ever experienced for different reasons.One very strange reason Is that after holding for 40 minutes on a follow up call I got the same rep as a previous time.What's the odds of that unless theres only 10 people covering a nation full of customer questions.I was out of warranty they said my only option is to send it to a company in New Jersey (who is not Alesis) and cover shipping there and back.I shouldn't have to ship it at any where if it was made right.I shouldn't have to buy a different board it should have came with it.I'm pissed off! They made their money off of it and abandoned it. When a certain cell company provided a fix for a problem the didn't fix before launch.When car companies discover a problem recurring or other (no matter the year) they recall their product. They should be held responsible. Too many people are having the same issues. CLASS ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!
 
this is unreal........

When a certain cell company provided a fix for a problem the didn't fix before launch.When car companies discover a problem recurring or other (no matter the year) they recall their product. They should be held responsible. Too many people are having the same issues. CLASS ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]
I would however like to know if there is a solution for this issue because it is annoying,
Click to expand...

Thios also my first postand i have just sent mine a couple months ago to this place that Stoned is reffering to in NJ and have used it 3 times and yesterday had the same issue which was the issue i had fixed by this company, but it will not no matter how many times you unplug and plug recognize the firewire. so whatever they did didnt work i guess and the repair and shipping cost $200 i am not happy at all and after reading all of these posts i am glad i got this for nothing and didnt pay $300 fot this peice of junk, i have used an Alesis d4 and d5 for a long tome and never any probs i know it is not top of the line gear but never had issues with funtionality this thing is flawed and i am going to throw it in the trash and buy a real interface unless someone has a better idea :D
 
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I Have just bought the io26. I have a Macbook pro intel core 2 duo 2.4Ghz 15" Momentus 500Gb ssd hybrid drive and 500Gb external Firewire drive for audio running off the Firewire 800 bus. I had a lot of problems the first few days getting the io26 to be seen by Logic (even when it said it was seeing it!) a look at the manual reveals that the io26 should be plugged in after you have booted up your Mac. It is simple I know and it solved my problem immediately. it's inelegant to have to plug and unplug the io26 each time... but it works. Firewire is great bandwidth wise but it seems a little glitchy with a lot of devices. It is not just an Alesis problem by any means. I have to say the this is a lot of hardware (ins, outs, inserts on every channel!, ADAT ins, midi etc...) it sounds very good, the preamps are not very different from my Focusrite mic pres certainly not worse... so far so good. I'm running Mac OS 10.5.8 BTW.
 
I know this thread is old, but I had the same problem a while ago on my PC running XP. After trying every option I could think of, I eventually had to reinstall windows and then reinstall the io26 again before it would work... Lame.
 
Fixed It!

I was having this same problem. I would plug in the interface and the interface would light up but wouldn't show up on my macbook pro. I knew it wasn't a hardware problem or cable issue because I had my external hard drive daisy chained into the back of the interface and THAT would show up on my desktop no problem. I tried reinstalling the drivers several times. I Repaired Disk and Disk Permissions in Disk Utilities several times. I kept getting the "...alesisfirewire.kext and digidal.kext was installed improperly" crap! But! I opened AlesisFirewire Control Panel one last time and with the "No device detected" window open I got frustrated and just started frantically turning knobs and flipping the Mic/line phono switch back and forth. After doing that I clicked "ok" and there it was! I don't know If I did something else that actually fixed it but this is what I did right before it showed up so guess it's worth a shot for you guys.
 
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