Audio Dropouts / Overload (USB Sound assertion, Overload, Kernel errror, AppleUSBAudioDevice)

[jleahy2]

Hey Guys,

I'm battling my last remaining issue on my Hackintosh build, and it's a puzzling one. This system was built with the primary purpose of being an audio production machine, so I'm really hoping someone can help me sort this issue out.

It seems to happen when working with audio (Ableton Live). It doesn't happen non-stop, but frequently enough that it's annoying. Basically what happens is occasionally, and seemingly randomly, audio just drops out for 1ms, then comes back.

I can't seem to find a correlation of what causes the issue. The audio buffer inside Ableton is not being overrun, so that's certainly not the issue either. This is a brand new audio interface (Focusrite Clarett 8Pre USB). I failed getting thunderbolt to work properly, so I instead went the USB route for this interface.


Searching around, I've found a lot of issues related to people running into similar issues with on-board audio, but found nothing helpful or relevant specifically to USB audio interface problems. 'AppleUSBAudioDevice' My on-board audio is completely disabled in Bios.





I'm kind of wondering if this is related to some kind of underlaying USB issue. I think I have everything setup properly, but part of me still suspects there's something goofy with USB. I still haven't managed to ever get my usb 3.1 C port working, and finally gave up on it, and I still suspect my USB 3.0 speeds are not reaching what they should be, but I'm not 100% sure.

If this is related to some sort of USB 3.0 issue, the board itself only has 3.0 on it and no 2.0 ports so, I can't really say for certain if that's causing it or not? I did notice that for some reason, USB shows everything connected to one and only one single USB bus on the system. I haven't really seen this on other Hackintosh builds? Is this a problem? A limitation of the board?



In either case, I finally managed to capture some logs of this and have attached them below, along with a copy of my Clover config in case it's applicable:

default    23:35:13.792505 -0400    kernel      engine started
default    23:35:13.792505 -0400    kernel      bufferSet <private>
default    23:35:13.792506 -0400    kernel      output clientBuffer <private>
default    23:35:13.792507 -0400    kernel    + IOAudioStream[<private>]::addClient(<private>)
default    23:35:13.792509 -0400    kernel    - IOAudioStream[<private>]::addClient(<private>) returns 0x0
default    23:35:13.792510 -0400    kernel      input clientBuffer <private>
default    23:35:13.792511 -0400    kernel    + IOAudioStream[<private>]::addClient(<private>)
default    23:35:13.792512 -0400    kernel    - IOAudioStream[<private>]::addClient(<private>) returns 0x0
default    23:35:13.792513 -0400    kernel    - IOAudioEngineUserClient[<private>]::startClient() - 1 returns 0x0
default    23:35:13.792518 -0400    kernel    - IOAudioEngineUserClient::externalMethod returns 0x0
default    23:35:13.793259 -0400    kernel    IOAudioEngineUserClient[<private>] - AUDIO OFFLINE. online=1. state=1. loopCount=0, lastLoopTime=0
error    23:35:13.794035 -0400    coreaudiod    HALS_IOA1Engine.cpp:312:EndReading:  HALS_IOA1Engine::EndReading: got an error from the kernel trap, Error: 0xE00002D7
default    23:35:13.794254 -0400    Live    HALC_ProxyIOContext.cpp:1068:IOWorkLoop:  HALC_ProxyIOContext::IOWorkLoop: skipping cycle due to overload
default    23:35:13.870976 -0400    coreaudiod    HALS_OverloadMessage.cpp:159:perform:  Audio IO Overload inputs: 'AppleUSBAudioEngine:Focusrite:Clarett 8Pre USB:567:1,2' outputs: 'AppleUSBAudioEngine:Focusrite:Clarett 8Pre USB:567:1,2' cause: 'Unknown' prewarming: no recovering: no
default    23:35:13.920695 -0400    kernel    USB Sound assertion (Resetting engine due to immediate error on read) in /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleUSBAudio/AppleUSBAudio-312.6/AppleUSBAudioDevice.cpp at line 6199
default    23:35:14.048899 -0400    kernel    USB Sound assertion (Input Fell Behind) in /BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/AppleUSBAudio/AppleUSBAudio-312.6/AppleUSBAudioDevice.cpp at line 6185

 

[jleahy2]

I can confirm the problem is not related to the audio interface, and is likely related to the audio system, or USB, as trying a completely different audio interface (also usb) exhibited the same symptoms.

 

[jleahy2]

Can anyone tell me why Chrome is attaching itself to AppleHSBXHCI ?

 

[spnsir]

My issue was fixed with:
- setting RAM from 3200Mhz to 2666Mhz
- setting GPU to Gen3 instead of Auto in BIOS

Not sure which did it, I'll test eventually.

 

[antmaper]

You managed to solve this? i got EXACTLY same problems as you (z390 aorus ultra/i7 9700k/radeon 5700 xt/evo 970/focusrite 2i2/latest catalina/opencore 6/latest mobo firmware) for music production, built in soundcard works perfect. I manually recreated all SDTS to match my mobo, remaped all usb ports, updated kexts but still getting same "USB Sound assertion" problems with 2i2 and dropouts when I open chrome or logic alongside ableton. :/

 

[jleahy2]

Ultimately...no... I did not. I worked around the problem.

I eventually gave up, upgraded to Mojave, changed my motherboard out to a board with a better supported Thunderbolt onboard chipset (Gigabyte Designare z390), and swapped my interface over to a thunderbolt one.

 

[kthxbyebye]

Hey @antmaper
I managed to work-around it by disableing the RX 5700 XT and using only the iGPU. Not the best way but ableton is working flawless.

 

[antmaper]

Its really, really strange because im using audio interface of my AudioTecnica USB microphone with ZERO problems. For me it looks like its a hardware combination problem with Focusrite, maybe 5700xt audio output. I will use onboard card until solve this since i dont record too much vocals/instruments and use windows to OBS livestreaming until discover how to solve this. Thx Guys.

 

[antmaper]

@kthxbyebye I cant because i usualy play with opengl shaders. I will try to discover if there is a way to disable only 5700 audio controller

 

[antmaper]

Curiously all the problems completly disappears when computer come back from sleep.