No the SL3 should still work i have one my self and i have done gigs and practiced without the power adapter. But i have seen that it does work better with one.

ok so anyone know what might be the problem? I hooked it up and it worked fine for like 20 min then it died.

the day after hooked it up again worked for like 30 min then again no signal at all.

It may be the USB connection try connecting it to a different usb.

right after we lost signal we hooked up my fiends sl1 and it worked fine. used same usb. Next time I hook it up we are going to use a different laptop

Did you try it for more than 30 minutes?
Another problem could be the USB cable.

does the usb cable have to be a certain cable?

I dont think so.
Do you use the same cable when your connecting the SL1 and SL3?

do you need different software for sl1 and sl3?

No.

The SL3 should be working fine. Have you updated the Firmware for the unit? Are you plugged in directly into the Computers USB Ports? Are you connected to a USB 2.0 Port? The SL3 requires a 2.0 port...

I used my friends laptop (whos from Honduras too) and I dont know if he has a 2.0 port. I dont think he has updated the firmware. He uses a sl1 and it works fine without any issues. We thought it would just hook right up.

It almost sounds like your computer USB ports are shutting off after some time. Have you turned the computers sleep setting to Never?

Also - does the program freeze when this happens or does it look like its playing a song - just no audio?

The first time it happened everything was fine for like 20min then the tracks started to play real slow as if it was in slow motion. We had to go somewhere and could not really find out what went wrong. IThe second time we hooked it up it was fine for 30 min then the sl3 had no signal at all and no power. The little blue light was off. We hooked up my friends sl1 and it worked great. We did a party with his laptop and sl1 this weekend w no problems. I bought the power adapter for my sl3 and last night i hooked it up to my sl3 and a yellow light come on. Might my friends 13 inch macbook not be suPplying enough power? I just bought a macbook prO but i wont get it until later this week so i can hook it up tO my sl3 and find out whats going on.

Sorry i forgot to answer the last question. The program looks like it freezes since the sl3 has no power. The little blue light turns off as if nothing is hooked up.

The SL3 requires a USB 2.0 port. Maybe that laptop doesnt have one?

Im sure it does have a 2.0 usb its a 2008 macbook. What happens if you hook it up to a laptop that does not have a 2.0 usb?

Typically it will not recognize. Try the unit on another computer and see what happens.

Im getting a macbook pro soon ... Maybe by this weekend. When i do ill hook it up. I talked to a guy from a local dj store here in LA and he said that the laptop might not be giving the sl3 enough power and that i should always have it connected to the power supply. The first 2 times i hooked it up to my friends 13 macbook i didnt have it connected to the power supply. I bought my sl3 from craigslist and it didnt come with a power supply. Might this be the cause?

Any working Intel Mac should power an SL3 perfectly well without the power adaptor.

See what happens when you try another laptop, but it's starting to sound like you maybe got sold a faulty box...

Yes im starting to think that as well . The sl3 can be fixed right?

Of course, we can fix anything we build. Try it on another computer and see whats up.

I will as soon as i can. I appreciate the help guys thanks

No prob.