MBOX 3 Mini Static Issue

[JemG]

Hey guys how are you?

I've been a lurker here for a few years and finally have an issue that has stumped me that the forums haven't been able to answer...so far.

My MBOX 3 Mini has recently started emitting white noise/static sounds when a track is being played that either:

A) Has a fade on it at some point OR
B) Pretty much whenever it seems to feel like it

I've uninstalled/reinstalled PT twice, ran the session off multiple different hard drives (mostly WD Caviar Black drives) hooked up via SATA and have been unable to work out what the issue is. The issue is similar to the pone found below in this YouTube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8StsranQgUo

Has anyone heard of this before, or can anyone point me in the right direction? I would appreciate it a lot.

My system is as follows:

Mac Pro 2.8 Xeon (2010)
Snow Leopard 10.6.7
MBOX 3 Mini
ProTools 8.04 (also tried 8.05)
Waves Plug-ins
3GB RAM

Any thoughts?

Also, I regularly have started getting the message that the DAE could not get data off the drive quick enough? I've benchmarked the Caviar Black drives and they're easily able to transfer 100 MBPS...how could PT be stressing the drive out this much? I do have a fair few plug-ins going, could that be a cause of the problem?

Thanks in advance to anyone who is able to reply or help.

- Jem

[smkngrbt]

bump - having the same EXACT issue with an mbox mini 3rd gen.

period white noise bursts. also when pro tools renders fades, the fades are all static instead of actual files.

[GregV]

I just watched the clip... that's extremely bizarre! Sorry to hear you guys are having this issue.
The only thing that I can think of is checking your hard-drive specs.
I'm not sure if external SATA drives are compatible with PT. (??)
The recommendation is for FW 400 & 800, with certain chipsets. (Oxford, but I can't remember the number)
Make sure the drive is formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
It should also be 7200rpm.
The audio drive should not be the same as the system/software drive. Audio only - and not partitioned.
I'm not familiar with the WD Caviar, but it seems to me that it can only be the HD that's giving you this grief.
I hope this helps

[smkngrbt]

Originally Posted by GregV

I just watched the clip... that's extremely bizarre! Sorry to hear you guys are having this issue.
The only thing that I can think of is checking your hard-drive specs.
I'm not sure if external SATA drives are compatible with PT. (??)
The recommendation is for FW 400 & 800, with certain chipsets. (Oxford, but I can't remember the number)
Make sure the drive is formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
It should also be 7200rpm.
The audio drive should not be the same as the system/software drive. Audio only - and not partitioned.
I'm not familiar with the WD Caviar, but it seems to me that it can only be the HD that's giving you this grief.
I hope this helps

appreciate the response Greg - its definitely an issue w/ the device itself because in my case i have 2 rigs i can run PT on (a mac and a PC), the mac uses a FW 800 connected G-Drive, the PC uses an Internal 7200 RPM IDE HD (its an oldie but a goodie).

Both rigs worked just fine w/ my original Mbox2, but the main output amp died after 7-8 years of solid home use (cheers for that imo), so i borrowed my friend's mbox mini because i was in dire straits and had to finish a couple projects before the week ends. Issue exists w/ both the mac and the PC - so i know its not the machines/rigs im running PT on and most definitely the mbox itself.

Doing a search on here i found other instances of people reporting similar issues yet no word as to a resolution beyond a hard to find knowledge base article for PCs suggesting i turn off legacy support on my USB drives (my BIOS doesnt have that option).