Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

OK I'm running out of ideas here. I have searched through the forum and read lots of threads (most are either Mbox Pro or windows related) on the whole "Unable to locate hardware" issue. I have been using my Mbox Mini on my iMac i3 for almost 2 months now and so far it has worked great. Now all of a sudden it cannot locate the hardware. I have uninstalled/reinstalled PT LE 8.0.4, downloaded the new drivers...still nothing.

Last night I tried reinstalling PT again, and upon restart I plugged the Mbox hardware in like the instructions say. Then when the computer powered all the way up to desktop, the LEDs were flickering, flashing different colors and going crazy! Then normal blue light on, but still no hardware connection. I can even select the Mbox Mini in my sound preferences, but as soon as I close the dialog box, it goes back to internal speakers! I'm going to call Tech support tonight but figured maybe someone has an idea? Kind of wishing I would have gone with the Apogee Duet now :(

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

maybe, the extra driver is the problem, it belongs to PT 9, so right now, you've got two different drivers installed for the same device, that might be reason enough for it to go bananas.

Try to erase that extra driver, also get the latest PT update and see, what happens. good luck :D

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

Oh, and are you running anything else in the background ? PT doesn't recognize hardware, which is captured by another application.

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

Ok thanks, I am going to try removing the new driver that I downloaded. Should I do another complete uninstall/reinstall as well you think? When I installed the first time, it worked fine straight out of the box, no updates or anything. Also, when is the EXACT time to plug in the hardware? The .pdf online says when you restart, after installing the software...but does that mean after the computer powers off or on the initial gray apple screen you first see when powering up?

Oh and I wasn't running anything in the background either.

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

well, to start with, remove the extra driver, reboot with the Mbox plugged in, and see what happens. If that doesn't do the trick, do a reinstall according to avid directions.

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

OK I will try this when I get home...but what worries me is that all of this started happening before I even downloaded the new drivers. I literally just woke up my computer and it wasn't working anymore, no updates or anything...

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

If you select Digi hardware in sound prefs, then PT cannot use it.

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

It's not selected. Even if I try to select it, it just always goes back to internal speakers. When it was working, my internals were disabled.

So when I did the reinstall of PT, since I didn't remove the new drivers from my hard drive, was it trying to use both when I connected the hardware? The clean reinstall didn't remove all digidesign files?

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

maybe, it is also time for you to do some system service on your computer, boot with the shift key pressed, so it repairs permissions and all that other business, that you should do on a regular basis.

Re: Yet ANOTHER Mbox 3 Mini "Unable to Locate Hardware"
 

So I did all of this, and still nothing. I am so pissed that I bought this piece of crap over the apogee!! And I probably won't get my money back since I "opened" it. The sound quality is EXACTLY the same as the Digi branded Mbox, not any better like the people at Avid claim.

Thanks for your help Talisker/Park Seward, but I am dumping this thing, buying a Duet 2 and sticking with Logic.