[Monolith]

So I went and updated my Mac OS to Catalina last night. I've come to use Ableton Live and hooked my Digi Rack 002 (https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/digidesign-digi-002-rack) up. The drivers no longer work due to some 32 bit 64 bit bullshit I don't understand anything about.The drivers have been unsupported for a long time but I don't need support. Whisky fulfils that need.

Granted the interface is from the early noughties but it does the job nicely, was gifted to me and I don't want it to be rendered obsolete by some Mac fanboys.

Is there any technical nerdery I can engage in to get it working again? Ideally I don't want to revert back to High Sierra and nor do I want to run an emulator or anything like that.

Any help is warmly appreciated!

[remus]

I don't know much about the specifics of your hardware/drivers but the 32/64bit sounds ominous: Apple have stopped all support for 32 bits programs in catalina.

Probably the least technically challenging solution would be to go back to high sierra. Otherwise you're only bet is an emulator of some description. Sorry, not great news!

[Falling Down]

Hi mono- unfortunately you might just have to be patient and wait until someone writes a new driver (if that even works at all given the shift to 64 bit) or just revert back to Sierra.

 I tend not to upgrade my mac to a new OS for a while as it takes some time for the audio suppliers to catch up and I’ve been left unable to use my gear in the past.

Sorry I can’t be of more help.

B

[tomtom]

I’ve an old laptop in my office running Windows95 (remember that?) for getting data from one aging instrument... (scientific not musical...)

[Monolith]

Thanks all. After a few hours research, I've come to the conclusion that I'll need to revert back to Mojave. I only really updated to correct an Itunes issue which on balance, I don't care too much about.

This also got me thinking how despite Apple wish to be perceived as 'innovators' and 'disruptors', they've created a giant silicon scrapheap. Not exactly climate friendly.

[jwi]

Not exactly climate friendly.

Well, it is not as easy as that. If you want to keep backward compatibility with low bitrates you need to be willing to waste a lot of computer power = heat + cooling = lots of power generation.

[remus]

Well, it is not as easy as that. If you want to keep backward compatibility with low bitrates you need to be willing to waste a lot of computer power = heat + cooling = lots of power generation.

Perhaps Im misunderstanding, but how does maintaining backwards compatibility generate significant overhead? Just thinking of some real world examples, windows is famously backwards compatible  (at an API level at least) but seems to be pretty competitive in performance terms which would suggest it's not spending loads of computing power on comparability.

[Yossarian]

This also got me thinking how despite Apple wish to be perceived as 'innovators' and 'disruptors', they've created a giant silicon scrapheap. Not exactly climate friendly.

I work nearly every day for a varying number of hours on a 2008 quad core Mac Pro running Lion. It’s not exactly a perfect arrangement (sticking things in Dropbox etc requires going through a browser now, and browsers in general are unreliable) but the main thing is CS6 Illustrator and InDesign still work fine.

I’ve been meaning to upgrade to a new iMac for about 5 years, but keep failing to get around to it. I have illustrated nearly five books since 2016 on this ancient system though.

I expect it’ll expire with a puff of smoke later on this afternoon now I’ve written this...

[jwi]

Well, it is not as easy as that. If you want to keep backward compatibility with low bitrates you need to be willing to waste a lot of computer power = heat + cooling = lots of power generation.

Perhaps Im misunderstanding, but how does maintaining backwards compatibility generate significant overhead? Just thinking of some real world examples, windows is famously backwards compatible  (at an API level at least) but seems to be pretty competitive in performance terms which would suggest it's not spending loads of computing power on comparability.

On the contrary, microsoft's commitment to backward compatibility is what makes the PC laptops enormous with really bad battery life.

[Will Hunt]

Sorry to butt in here but I have a related problem.

I have a Macbook Pro. Can't remember what spec exactly but I could easily find out if it will help. It's not terribly new and not especially high spec. I want to be able to use Photoshop and some CS4 packages, but moreover, I just want to be able to use Word, open up photos, and generally navigate round in a reasonable way.

I made the foolish and naive mistake of upgrading to Mojave OS and it near enough bricked the laptop (tbf it wasn't incredible on whatever I was running before. Yosemite or El Cap I think) . If I want to do anything - even just open a browser - I have to start the laptop and let it do it's thinking for at least an hour before I've a hope of opening any application in less than minutes. I try and avoid turning the laptop off now.

Any advice on what I can do about this because it's really hindering my guidebook work. I could go back to an earlier OS but I'm not sure how I'd do that or if it's possible or whether it would sort out the problem. I could maybe install a solid state drive and hope that that improves things? Is that easy enough to do? I'm quite paranoid about losing data (I've got thousands of topo shots etc which have taken ages and ages to shoot and are basically irreplaceable). It's all backed up on a OneDrive account but still... With so much at stake the paranoia is strong!

[jwi]

That doesn't sound normal.

I suppose you have tried to reset the NVRAM (or PRAM is the laptop is really old)?

If that didn't work you might have a hardware problem, most likely on the hard drive. Check the health of the hard drive using the disk utility tool or possibly some other software, I am not totally a jour... You might be able to rescue your laptop by changing just the hard drive (get a solid state!)

[Johnny Brown]

First, check your RAM is maxxed out if user-upgradeable.

I swapped the CD drive in my old Macbook Pro for a SSD, cloned the c/ drive on to it, then wiped the old drive and moved the docs onto it. It was much faster. But I also kept it on an old OS. Obsolescence is the worst thing about Macs. We have a couple of high spec 2012 imacs at work that would be fast as fuck if Mojave hadn't crippled the wake from sleep.

I also have an old PC running my scanners on Windows XP. Appreciate there have been performance gains but every time I use it I'm reminded that OS user experience has improved very little since. Plus it's a tiny install that is rock solid.

[remus]

Well, it is not as easy as that. If you want to keep backward compatibility with low bitrates you need to be willing to waste a lot of computer power = heat + cooling = lots of power generation.

Perhaps Im misunderstanding, but how does maintaining backwards compatibility generate significant overhead? Just thinking of some real world examples, windows is famously backwards compatible  (at an API level at least) but seems to be pretty competitive in performance terms which would suggest it's not spending loads of computing power on comparability.

On the contrary, microsoft's commitment to backward compatibility is what makes the PC laptops enormous with really bad battery life.

Personally I don't agree. PC laptops are neither enormous nor have poor battery life (compared to macs).

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/all-day-strong-longest-lasting-notebooks

[teestub]

Will, my partner had similar issues with hers and got a more knowledgable friend to instal a SSHD now it works great, no more spinning wheel action. You can always back up all photos etc onto an an external HD or two before any messing about.

If you have thousands of topi shots, Russian bots,  etc. is your hd quite full?

[tomtom]

If you have thousands of topi shots, Russian bots,  etc. is your hd quite full?

Filled with Albatross pictures..

[dunnyg]

And videos of him doing karaoke to his favorite tune

[cheque]

This also got me thinking how despite Apple wish to be perceived as 'innovators' and 'disruptors', they've created a giant silicon scrapheap. Not exactly climate friendly.

I think your frustration in this case is more appropriately directed at Avid for stopping development of drivers for their hardware.

Will... is your hd quite full?

  Sounds like there’s no space for paging files on your hard drive.

[Will Hunt]

I've got 150Gb left of a 500Gb drive. Is that the problem?

If I have to delete my collection of saucy albatross photos I'll be very disappointed.

[tomtom]

If I have to delete my collection of saucy albatross photos I'll be very disappointed.

I heard it was quite a spread...

[dunnyg]

Spanning many "nice interests"

[tomtom]

Spanning many "nice interests"

Now you’re just fishing...

[Will Hunt]

I've got 150Gb left of a 500Gb drive. Is that the problem?

Answers also welcome.

[tomtom]

I've got 150Gb left of a 500Gb drive. Is that the problem?

Answers also welcome.

Get an SSD anyway Will - they're about £35 for that size now and generally speed up any computer that had a regular HHD before..

[cheque]

I've got 150Gb left of a 500Gb drive. Is that the problem?

Answers also welcome.

No, that should be fine. I had a look at mine (late 2012 iMac) and that’s a 1GB mechanical HD 300GB and Mojave runs fine considering it’s an old machine.

How much RAM is in yours?

Have a look in System Preferences- Users and Groups- Logon Items. That’ll tell you what starts automatically in the background. Sounds like it could be a bigger problem though.

[Will Hunt]

Ok, have done the reset RAM thing and cleared the startup programmes (there weren't many and none that seemed significant).

Spec here:
Macbook Pro 13 inch, mid 2012
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
4GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536MB
150 GB free on HD

Just tested opening Excel and it took 1min. Takes about 10 seconds to open a 12MB photo in Preview.

I'll restart now and see if boot time is improved.