SoundSticks like to cut out, then crash my system

[MDLarson]

I emailed this to Harmon's tech support email...

I have your Soundsticks installed, along with the iSub. I play a lot of Starcraft, and every once in a while (maybe 1 in every 10 games), my sound just cuts out. I'm left in total silence!

When this happens, "SoundSticks" still shows up in my Sound control panel in System Preferences. When I switch to "Built-in audio controller", I can hear sound out of the speaker of my G4. When I switch back to the SoundSticks in the control panel, I return to silence.

Well, this sucks. "Hey," I remember, "USB is supposed to be hot-pluggable!" So I pull the USB cable out of USB port #2 of my G4, and MOST of the time, I can plug it back in and revive my dumb SoundSticks (dumb as in mute...)

BUT, every so often this procedure results in a weird crash. The last time I tried it, the instant I UN-plugged the USB cable all my programs crashed (including the Finder) and dropped me into a big blue screen. No, this wasn't the Blue-Screen-Of-Death that Windows people used to enjoy, for Mac OS X proceeded to sort of, log me back in. No error messages, just bringing back my desktop and launching my auto-launch programs.

So there you have it -- the entirety of my problem! I hope you can help me solve my problem...

Sincerely,

Matt Larson

Does anybody have any ideas?

Now I realize that I neglected to mention that I have a USB 2.0 PCI card installed. The SoundSticks are not plugged into this, however, so it shouldn't matter.

I chatted with arden about this a bit online, and he suggested to swap speakers. I strongly suspect this issue to be USB related. Non-USB speakers certainly might not produce the same symptoms as my SoundSticks right now, but a good test would be some other USB-based speakers. I have none, so why I'll just post the problem already...

[dixonbm]

the usb sound sticks are the buggest speakers. My family has them on their imac and it always has problems. The volume keys on the keyboard only change the internal volume. For them to work with the sound sticks volume I have to manually go into sys. prefs and change sound output to internal and back to soundsticks. Then the volume keys on keyboard with work.

My advice: Ditch the sticks.

[Arden]

I still think you should try the JBL Creature. Those look and sound awesome.

[MDLarson]

Emailed to me by HMM Customer Service 1
Dear Mr. Larson,

The problem you are having is not specific to the SoundSticks. It happens with other USB devices. This is a common problem with Mac OS 10.*. When some USB devices are unplugged and replugged, it can cause random crashes or kernel panics. Please contact Apple for patches or updates.

<sigh>

I don't want to buy new speakers.. I just want my existing ones to work. They sound great, the issue is a software problem, and somebody should fix it for me. I know, whine whine whine...

[Arden]

Have you ever had this kind of problem with any other USB peripherals, including other speakers? Harmon shouldn't just blow you off like that without offering you any support whatsoever. I suggest you email them back saying that you've never had any other USB-related problems like this (if this is true) and that you would like them to try to help you or they will lose a customer.

[MDLarson]

No, it has always been the SoundSticks. I don't plug / unplug a lot of USB devices (except a USB flash keychain), but to further point the finger at the speakers, the sound cuts out before I do any plugging / unplugging.

Yeah, I'll email them back, asking them who wrote the USB drivers, at least...