Mbox 3 (non-mini/non pro) iMac & Mavericks - No Audio

[saywut]

SO......I've seen numerous post about the "No Audio Output" issues surrounding the OSX 10.9 updates but haven't seen any issues quite like mine. Meaning with my hardware. I see planty of the EXACT SAME issues regarding the Mbox Mini and the Mbox Pro (Both 3rd gen). So here is my issue and if you have any suggestions PLEASE HELP.

I originally and prematurely upgraded to Mavericks. All was goo until the first Reboot. Then NO SOUND. Later i discovered the post from Avid about NOT Upgrading. OK, Not a huge deal because 2 weeks later I see updated drivers...

All good right? Wrong, the driver didn't do Anything for me to resolving the original issue.

1. I've tried the following with NO SUCCESS.
2. Deleted the previous installs and reinstalled (more than once)
3. verified the latest driver 1.2 (mbox 3)
4. Switching the mbox internal clock from internal to spdf and back again
5. switching USB ports (including trying to run through a hub for kicks)
6. Multiple reboots
7. I've even tried using mbox pro and mbox mini drivers

I have verified that my hardware works as it does work on my Macbook Pro. At this point, I'm blaming the issue on either some weird freaky install of Mavericks on my iMac (maybe something go corrupt). Or the combination between having an the following setup:

21" iMac (late 2009)
Mbox 3rd gen
Osx 10.9 (Mavericks)

At this point my only options are:

1. Do a fresh install of 10.8 (don't really want to as by backups are corrupt)
2. Do a fresh install of 10.9 (same issue with backups)
3. Reinstall 10.9 over what's there
4. Wait til Avid fixes my issue.

If any suggestions, please let me know.....especially if i can avoid doing even more work for NOTHING!

Thanks!

[Darryl Ramm]

Out of curiosity what Pro Tools version (or other DAW) are you running on Maverics? Hopefully neither of the 8.0.3 MP or LE 7.4 listed in your profile? right?

If you want to do anything now the only real options are....

Do a fresh install of 10.8 (probalby 10.8.5)

Or

Do a fresh install of 10.9 and install the officially Mavericks compatible drivers and Pro Tools or whatever other DAW you are using version that officially support Mavericks and hope that works. I would only go that route if you can get an officially Mavericks supported stack of all the software you need to use, hoping that past problems were how you got to 10.9.

---

I am not following why it matters if any backups are corrupt if you are doing clean OS X installs? Just make another backup now of any user files. The whole point of a "fresh" install is you are not reinstalling from a backup but from the install media or online downloads, the bits on the backup that you need are just user files. Reinstall all apps, plugins etc. from their own installers do not try to just drag stuff over.

And how did two entirely different backups, imaging the system both before and after this upgrade fail? You have somethign else broken here? Go buy a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner and make bootable image backups before any OS/system changes and check they are actually bootable (boot them and start up Pro Tools etc. and check) before relying on them.

Buy Mountain Lion if you need to at http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313/...onsumer-single, or it will already be sitting in your app store account if you purchased it there before. You can make a install DVD-ROM from that if needed. For a clean Mavericks install you would start a reinstall off the recovery partition. All info you need do do any of this is online and easily findable.

[saywut]

Thanks for the feedback Darryl.

So first on the backups....
Apparently when I tried to roll back the first thing I checked was that my Time Machine backups were greyed out. The Apple tech told me this was due to incompatibility between Mavericks and Mountain Lion. Yes, I can reformat the drive and do a fresh backup to make sure it will work for a fresh install of Mavericks but if the technician was correct, then it would end any possibility for getting back to Mountain Lion. I just may try the "fresh backup, fresh install of Mavericks" since it seems I'm the only Mbox (standard) user that I've found with this issue.

I'm running
Itunes 11 - No sound (nor on any other application (Safari)
PT 11.0.3 - No Sound
Reason 7 - No Sound
Logic X Pro - Bad Static Sound (but only at 1024 buffer size)

Thank you for the suggestions...

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by saywut

Thanks for the feedback Darryl.

So first on the backups....
Apparently when I tried to roll back the first thing I checked was that my Time Machine backups were greyed out. The Apple tech told me this was due to incompatibility between Mavericks and Mountain Lion. Yes, I can reformat the drive and do a fresh backup to make sure it will work for a fresh install of Mavericks but if the technician was correct, then it would end any possibility for getting back to Mountain Lion. I just may try the "fresh backup, fresh install of Mavericks" since it seems I'm the only Mbox (standard) user that I've found with this issue.

I'm running
Itunes 11 - No sound (nor on any other application (Safari)
PT 11.0.3 - No Sound
Reason 7 - No Sound
Logic X Pro - Bad Static Sound (but only at 1024 buffer size)

Thank you for the suggestions...

If you want to rollback to Mountain lion, as I've said before, buy it at the Apple Store and reinstall it.

It is interesting that Logic Pro X works at all and the others don't. Still that does not help show if there is an internal bug in the driver code or if something gets screwed up on the system, or the driver installer is flakey/ultra sensitive to install issues etc.

You should not be using Time Machine as a substitute for proper bootable image backups made with a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner. Actually not "like" you want exactly Carbon Copy Cloner. What you just ran into is just one reason why not. A proper image backup on a stand-alone bootable drive will get you out of lots of different dark nasty places. Time Machine is great for backing up user files, or recovering individual sets of files if you screw something up on the system.

If you are using external audio/system drives with your Mac and they have a lot of free space then I'll clone the boot/system drive to them (being very careful not to delete/overwrite the audio/session files). That way I always have some backup boot/system drives with me.

I'm managing to run Mavericks OK on an iMac with an Eleven Rack and Logic Pro X but I'd be really avoiding Mavericks for now unless I absolutely had to have it and especially not if a business relied on it. And if I had to upgrade to Maverics I'd *not* be doing an insitu upgrade. Do a clean install and reinstall all the apps and drivers. See http://www.macworld.com/article/2056...mavericks.html

[saywut]

At this point, I've completely reinstalled EVERYTHING and still NOTHING!

Mavericks - from scratch
Pro Tools - 11.0.3
Logic x pro
Avid driver 1.2 (mbox 3)

Still No out-put. I have purchased support for both Avid and Apple and nothing. I did verify functionality of the MBOX on my MacBook Pro (IT WORKS THERE).

unfortunately that is my DJ laptop and not used for production.

I can't but help notice that the main issues that i see on the FORUMs are with iMacs. My setup is a late 2009 running OSX 10.9, Pro Tools 11.0.3, and Mbox 3 (standard) drivers 1.2.

I spent 1.5 hrs with tech support, waiting for the Tier 3 to call me back to see whats next.....

[saywut]

So after purchasing support with both Apple and Avid, numerous calls, freshly reinstalling OSx 10.9 and upgrades, my mbox does not work with my iMac. It's weird because Bit vendors verified my USB ports work however it's only the mbox device where no audio is working, I'll add that the interface does work on my MacbookPro. I'm either going to get another computer or purchase another interface (non-Avid) so I can get back to work.

[samueldriscoll]

This is the closest to the Issue I am also experiencing. I was given an Mbox 3 (not pro/mini) for Xmas.

I cant get any output from my macbook. It says "Hardware Connected" and "Streaming" when I play something in Itunes/ProTools. But no jumpy green line in the control panel and no audio. I CAN get low latency monitoring to pass through and record/monitor, but I can't play back my recording.

I have a VM on my laptop and so fired up windows 7 and installed all the nonsense and yes, Software returns work, I can hear it passing through to output1/2/headphones and the green line is predictably jumpy on the control panel.

Problem is my VM uses too many resources on this old laptop and I cant get protools to do anything without protools throwing errors and complaining bout CPU usage etc...

If only it worked with Mavericks!! (I am using the latest mavericks driver 1.2)

[saywut]

Do you get playback on non DAW applications?

[samueldriscoll]

Im new to this so I don't know what qualifies as non DAW.. sorry! non - Digital Audio Workstation? iTunes? I cant get it to passthrough audio from any computer generated source, only the low latency monitoring works with.. my guitar for example..

Thanks

[JoelG]

@ samueldriscoll - Please post your full system specs. Also, I wouldn't spend too much time testing with a VM. All the hardware is virtualized and not going to help with diagnosing anything.

@ saywut - I have scoured all the threads related to the Mavericks drivers for all Avid devices and forwarded the issues, system config etc. to Avid. I do know this is being worked on, but I dont have any update as to a solution or anything.

If it were me, I'd bite the bullet and do a fresh install of Mountain Lion to get working until there is a proper solution.

Joel