Mbox 2 Pro & FW800

[MatthieuH]

Hi,
I'm on buying a new iMac and a Mbox 2 pro. Does anybody know why Mbox 2 pro and FW800 aren't compatible on the same workstation ? What kind of issue occurs ? Have we any chance to see a PT or driver's update with this problems fixed ? What about performances when chaining a Mbox 2 pro and an external FW400 hard drive ?
Thanks

[Mr. Anderson]

FireWire 800 drives seem to cause some strange error messages in Pro Tools. As of today, FireWire 800 hard drives are still incompatible with the Mbox 2 Pro. Perhaps some others could chime in with the exact issues they have experienced.

I use FireWire 400 drives with my Mbox 2 Pro and I have zero issues with performance.

[sky88dd]

It is true that FW 800 drives are not compatible with Mbox 2 Pros, but I've read somewhere(can't remember where) that if each is plugged into a different fw bus, then it should be fine.
I decided to give it a try and now I have the Mbox 2 Pro on a SIIG fw card and my fw 800 drives on the built-in fw ports of my computer.
Its been working out with no problems for a few months.
Hope that helps.

[MatthieuH]

Thanks for answering guys ! So it meens iMac has only got 1 internal firewire bus for both fw 400 & fw 800 ports ? Can anybody confirm that ?
Thanks

[Paolão]

Mi Imac have two Firewire ports, one for 800 and the other one for 400.
Imac 2.8 Ghz 24" Intel Core 2 Duo

[mcphoto]

Originally Posted by Paolão

Mi Imac have two Firewire ports, one for 800 and the other one for 400.
Imac 2.8 Ghz 24" Intel Core 2 Duo

The issue with ProTools isn't so much how many Firewire ports you have - it's how many busses the ports are connected to. G4 & G5 Macs have only one Firewire buss; I suspect the case is the same for newer macs as well.

The workaround for this is to install a Firewire PC card (or a cardbus on a laptp).

[docbop]

ProTools sometimes have issues depending on the FW chipset the drive uses. Also with limited FW ports you have to be careful with device order if you daisy-chain devices. The iMac has two ports, but they are on the same bus, so if both used at same time then they both slow down to 400.

[meeke]

i'm using a macbook pro, running os x 10.4 with pt 7.4, an mbox2pro and external firewire800 drives.

i experienced the classic "not supported" problems, but found out, that plugging the firewire drive in first- and afterwards the interface does the trick. sometimes i need to trash all digidesign databases and prefs first, but after all it works.

[drguitar]

meeke,

I am interesting in hearing more about this. So you're saying you plug in your FW 800 drive first? let it spin up, THEN plug in your Mbox to the 400 port, then launch pro tools and this method actually works for you without causing errors that stop playback on moderate track-count sessions?

I started a thread about this myself recently. I was thinking of getting an express 3/4 FW 800 card but haven't tried it yet.

I myself was okay for a bit using the built in FW 800 for my audio drive, but then it just completely stopped working

[fixxer49]

I'm considering the new iMac.
I've gone over several threads dealing with FW 800 issue and wasn't able to find the exact answer to my particular issue.

Daisy chaining 1 FW 400 drive with Mbox 2 Pro seems to work fine, but not daisy-chaining 2 drives. My problem is that I need to run a separate extra drive for sample streaming-intensive programs like Synthogy Ivory.

Question:
Can I load Ivory on its own FW 400 drive and connect that drive to the iMac's 800 port with a 400-800 adapter cable?