External USB Audio source occasionally freezes, hanging Mac and affecting any USB (but not FaceTime) camera

[LimeyInSD]

I've been battling this occasional insidious problem with OBS (various versions) and USB sources. Partway (randomly) through a stream, the audio freezes with a short repeat (here's the short section of audio recording: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9tv9i3wyzymdiwq/OBS CoreAudio Failure.mp3?dl=0), hanging the Mac (MacBook Pro core i7 2014 with Mojave OS).

The Log file below shows "core audio get device name failed" messages (timestamp 16:58 onwards). If there's a USB camera attached (not in this case), the camera blanks too. System recovers if I'm using Advanced Switcher once it moves to the FaceTime camera (the FT camera is not affected). This time it also recovered on its own (I was using the FT camera).

Any idea what's going on? This might happen once every 1 - 2 hours and it's not regular. I'd welcome any thoughts / solutions on this.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Valeuu]

Same problem ! It's good til 1h streaming but after 1h. The audio does like your exemple in your post.. i don't know what it is. Thx

 

[dgatwood]

This sounds like a USB bus reset. Check your system logs in Console.app to see if anything interesting is going on at right around the same time stamp, then report back with what you find. My guess is that one of your devices is badly misbehaving. Try moving them to separate USB busses and see if the problem goes away (or if it goes away for one of the two devices).

This could be anything from a macOS bug to a device bug to a failing USB controller on your logic board. If the problem is the computer itself, then a Thunderbolt dock with USB ports might help. But my guess would be that your audio interface is badly behaved and needs a firmware update to work reliably.