Hey all, spent many hours diving into this last night and like many of you found that the method above is not working! However,
fortunately I was able to get the interface functioning again in OS 9 and will go through the steps I took. Still figuring out the “method” to this, but I think the important parts of the process are different than what I thought initially, as @aBc suggested.
Here goes:
First, I started by installing the most recent version of the driver supported on OS X 10.4.11 on the Pismo, which is 1.9.3, available here:
https://m-audio.com/support/download/drivers/firewire-osx-1.9.3. After installing this update, doing the usual power down/connect 410/reboot cycle, the firmware now listed the 2007 version that I'd seen before.
I continued with the steps outlined in the first post by then moving over to the Windows XP machine, where I uninstalled the driver completely and reinstalled from disc. This time around, I found that after the shutdown/connect/reboot sequence on the XP machine, the firmware was still showing the 2007 date! And of course this meant that I wasn't able to get it functioning in OS 9 when I tried there afterward.
At this point I thought that I might no longer be able to downgrade it again, but continued experimenting. Initially I focused on the XP machine, trying the earliest version of the driver I could find (found on the Internet Archive:
http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/drivers/fw410_1007_web.exe). Upgrading, downgrading, making sure all temporary install files were deleted, checking system folders, etc. did nothing and I was still seeing a consistent 2007 firmware.
Then I noticed something. On the initial reboot after install of the drivers with the 410 connected (having last been connected to the Pismo in 10.4 for the firmware upgrade) after a 5min+ wait for all the startup programs to load driver install prompts appeared for the M-Audio FW Bootloader and M-Audio FW 410 interface (see images 1 and 2 attached). After completely uninstalling the drivers, deleting temporary files, double checking system folders etc. for any trace of the previously installed drivers, reinstalling from disc (with 410 disconnected), shutdown/connect 410/reboot, I
only got the driver install prompt for the M-Audio FW 410 interface driver and no prompt for the Bootloader.
I spent a while trying to see if I’d missed any residual files related to the bootloader, but couldn’t find any, and then had a thought: maybe the firmware is triggered to load specifically when switching from a Mac machine to a Windows machine (or vice-versa)? I tried connecting the 410 back to the Pismo, which still had the 1.9.3 software installed, and then reconnecting it to the XP machine, and to my surprise after booting up the prompt for the Bootloader driver appeared!
This still didn’t solve the problem, though, so I started retracing my steps. As mentioned above (I think by @aBc again) I’d tried installing older drivers on the OS X side of the Pismo to no avail (or so I thought). So I booted it back up, uninstalled 1.9.3 and installed version 1.2 build 1078 from 2004 (available at the Internet Archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040629172859/http://www.m-audio.com:80/images/global/drivers/FW_OSX_build_1078.dmg), which is the version I’d tried previously. Did the usual shutdown/connect/reboot, and when I opened the FW 410 software, I was met with the message
“Please connect an M-Audio FireWire device to this Mac” (see image 3). Which was odd, as it was connected and powered on.
However, I noticed that though it was powered on, the power light was blinking rapidly, which if I remember correctly from the manual indicates that the firmware is not loaded. I figured this meant that if I rebooted into OS 9 now, the interface might be able to load the correct firmware using the Firewire 410 v1.0.1 build3 software that was still installed. And, after a quick reboot, it did! It's now fully functional in OS 9 again with the same firmware version seen in the first post.
So re: what I was thinking above about reloading the firmware on switching OS, I’m wondering if the switch to XP and then to the old 1.2 driver on OS X 10.4 is what enables this non-loaded firmware state, or if it’s possible to achieve the same by just uninstalling the newer 1.9.3 driver in OS X and then installing 1.2. And/or if the inability for it to load the firmware has to do with some components of the M-Audio software being incompatible with OS X 10.4.11 since it was released prior to 10.4. Definitely some continued exploration to do here.
Anyway, will keep testing this to see if it can be boiled down to a simple set of steps. Hope this is helpful and actually works for you all this time around!
