Mbox 3 Mini Static problem

[simsimdabear]

Hi everyone I have had the same problem with crackling and white noise on my mBox Mini and have recently discovered a fix, sorta, it's not fast or clean but it worked for me, mostly simple computer diagnostics. Disclaimer: This worked for me not sure if it will work for you, especially Mac users but you can still apply what I did in my fix to Macs just have to go about it differently but again there are alot of differences between Windows and the Mac OS. Also in no way am I an expert I'm just simply saying how I solved my problem, if people know more than me or if I'm saying something wrong please comment!

Quickly my problem was that my mBox Mini (bought very recently) would randomly start popping and crackling, as if there was a buffering problem when I was listening to music or creating music. I don't use ProTools I use Fruity Loops 9 and Windows 7 64 Bit on a Dell XPS L502X, i7 2.20Ghx, 8GB of Ram, USB 3.0... I tried all of the quick fixes off google and nothing was working.

In the past when I had slower computers I knew the sound of buffering problems very well when using FL w/many plugins active so when my mBox started making those same noises I knew it had to be a buffering problem. Also I tried changing the mBox sample rates to very large sample rates (changeable in mBox Control Panel) and it still didn't work it would eventually start popping and cracking no matter what sample rate. I know my computer is well within the performance range needed to smoothly run an mBox so the only thing I could think of is the performance being bottle necked by the USB.
*****And another thing is that I used it as a sound card essentially too to listen to music on Beatport.com or Youtube.com and the same problem would arise, even worse than when I was using it with FL. Or even in Winamp sometimes but not as often.

The problem with my solution is that I did many different things and I'm not sure which one(s) worked because I didn't check after each time I did something. But hopefully this will help you out or give you an idea to try something that you haven't tried before.

Here is everything I did to my laptop and the result is the buffering issue or whatever the issue was, is now gone.

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING TRY INCREASING YOUR SAMPLE RATE ON mBOX CONTROL PANEL I feel like most people have tried this already like me but I thought I should put it in there.

1)Optimize Laptop for Performance
-Power management settings -> High Performance, etc...
-Disable unused sound devices (i.e. default sound card or others, I use a HDMI to a monitor from my laptop and for some reason nVidia tries to play sound off of the monitor, so I uninstalled everything relating to that, I also had some weird creative sound [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] that I uninstalled too, I left my default realtek sound enabled but not set as default).
-Set your mBox as the default playback device.
-Limit startup programs and services especially other sound programs that would interfere w/ the mbox like Creative for example, there are a lot of background applications running that deal with sound that could interfere with the mBox. Be careful here and don't start un-checking services that your computer needs for it to operate smoothly. If your unsure don't un-check the service. The only things I left checked were Microsoft services, nVidia graphics card services, and of course the mBox.
-Change windows graphic settings for performance
-Make sure the USB devices are not being automatically turned off by the computer to save power *go into device manager under usb devices -> right click -> Properties -> Power management -> Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"... Now I didn't believe my computer's performance was the problem as my specs are very capable of handling the mBox.

2)Limit unneeded (for music or sound) USB devices that are plugged into the computer, iPhone, USB MP3 player when using the mBox.

3)Make sure your mBox's hardware is function properly, try using it on another computer or a couple other ones and see if the same problem arises. If it does it might be a problem with the mBox Hardware or the USB Cable, but if there is not then I feel it's pretty safe to say the problem is with your computer.

4)I like to use ASIO drivers in FL, so try re installing those, but I use the mBox ASIO when I use FL so I'm not sure you need the separate ASIO drivers (ASIO 4All), I'm not really clear on how ASIO works so I'm not sure if mBox is using it's own ASIO drivers I dunno maybe someone can clarify.

5)Unplug the mBox, uninstall all mBox drivers

6)Unplug all USB devices.

7)Re-install your computer's chipset drivers for the USB ports. For me it's very easy to find my drivers as they are listed on Dell's website. To find yours just go into the device manager again and look at the USB ports to see who made your USB port, go to their website and download the drivers. *Also it doesn't hurt to make sure your Windows is completely updated and all your other drivers are updated.

8)Restart the computer.

9)Reinstall mBox drivers, restart, plug in mBox and other USB devices.
*Try plugging your mBox into a different USB port this time.

This is all I did, nothing really fancy, no professor [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] and it worked for me. It's been a few days since I've heard any popping, crackling, white noises, when I couldn't go for more than 20 minutes before without hearing those noises. Also I'm running the mBox at 512 buffer size.

I'm not exactly sure why this got rid of my problem but I think it has to do with some drivers in my USB ports being corrupted that slowed down the speed of my USB or caused issues which ultimately caused performance issues with my mBox and buffering the sound.

Hope this was helpful!

[DefunctSlade]

I am on a Mac, still tried all the things that was applicable and didnt work... also as my previous post I stated I would try and get a powered USB hub... it deadened some of the random computer noise, but definitely didnt fix this problem... this is freaking annoying!

[f69tele]

The only time I ever had an issue with my MBox 2 is when I closed my laptop (put it to sleep) and later opened it back up to continue working on a session. After I shut down the computer, unplugged everything, waited a couple of minutes, re-connected everything, then re-started the computer, the problem was gone. Have not had an issue since.

[browniespeaks]

Have had noisy pot on the MBOX3 mini a few times. you can pull off the big knob and hit it with a little deoxit. It is an analog pot. no adhesive or anything.

[dma000]

Originally Posted by simsimdabear

Hi everyone I have had the same problem with crackling and white noise on my mBox Mini and have recently discovered a fix, sorta, it's not fast or clean but it worked for me, mostly simple computer diagnostics. Disclaimer: This worked for me not sure if it will work for you, especially Mac users but you can still apply what I did in my fix to Macs just have to go about it differently but again there are alot of differences between Windows and the Mac OS. Also in no way am I an expert I'm just simply saying how I solved my problem, if people know more than me or if I'm saying something wrong please comment!

Quickly my problem was that my mBox Mini (bought very recently) would randomly start popping and crackling, as if there was a buffering problem when I was listening to music or creating music. I don't use ProTools I use Fruity Loops 9 and Windows 7 64 Bit on a Dell XPS L502X, i7 2.20Ghx, 8GB of Ram, USB 3.0... I tried all of the quick fixes off google and nothing was working.

In the past when I had slower computers I knew the sound of buffering problems very well when using FL w/many plugins active so when my mBox started making those same noises I knew it had to be a buffering problem. Also I tried changing the mBox sample rates to very large sample rates (changeable in mBox Control Panel) and it still didn't work it would eventually start popping and cracking no matter what sample rate. I know my computer is well within the performance range needed to smoothly run an mBox so the only thing I could think of is the performance being bottle necked by the USB.
*****And another thing is that I used it as a sound card essentially too to listen to music on Beatport.com or Youtube.com and the same problem would arise, even worse than when I was using it with FL. Or even in Winamp sometimes but not as often.

The problem with my solution is that I did many different things and I'm not sure which one(s) worked because I didn't check after each time I did something. But hopefully this will help you out or give you an idea to try something that you haven't tried before.

Here is everything I did to my laptop and the result is the buffering issue or whatever the issue was, is now gone.

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING TRY INCREASING YOUR SAMPLE RATE ON mBOX CONTROL PANEL I feel like most people have tried this already like me but I thought I should put it in there.

1)Optimize Laptop for Performance
-Power management settings -> High Performance, etc...
-Disable unused sound devices (i.e. default sound card or others, I use a HDMI to a monitor from my laptop and for some reason nVidia tries to play sound off of the monitor, so I uninstalled everything relating to that, I also had some weird creative sound [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] that I uninstalled too, I left my default realtek sound enabled but not set as default).
-Set your mBox as the default playback device.
-Limit startup programs and services especially other sound programs that would interfere w/ the mbox like Creative for example, there are a lot of background applications running that deal with sound that could interfere with the mBox. Be careful here and don't start un-checking services that your computer needs for it to operate smoothly. If your unsure don't un-check the service. The only things I left checked were Microsoft services, nVidia graphics card services, and of course the mBox.
-Change windows graphic settings for performance
-Make sure the USB devices are not being automatically turned off by the computer to save power *go into device manager under usb devices -> right click -> Properties -> Power management -> Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"... Now I didn't believe my computer's performance was the problem as my specs are very capable of handling the mBox.

2)Limit unneeded (for music or sound) USB devices that are plugged into the computer, iPhone, USB MP3 player when using the mBox.

3)Make sure your mBox's hardware is function properly, try using it on another computer or a couple other ones and see if the same problem arises. If it does it might be a problem with the mBox Hardware or the USB Cable, but if there is not then I feel it's pretty safe to say the problem is with your computer.

4)I like to use ASIO drivers in FL, so try re installing those, but I use the mBox ASIO when I use FL so I'm not sure you need the separate ASIO drivers (ASIO 4All), I'm not really clear on how ASIO works so I'm not sure if mBox is using it's own ASIO drivers I dunno maybe someone can clarify.

5)Unplug the mBox, uninstall all mBox drivers

6)Unplug all USB devices.

7)Re-install your computer's chipset drivers for the USB ports. For me it's very easy to find my drivers as they are listed on Dell's website. To find yours just go into the device manager again and look at the USB ports to see who made your USB port, go to their website and download the drivers. *Also it doesn't hurt to make sure your Windows is completely updated and all your other drivers are updated.

8)Restart the computer.

9)Reinstall mBox drivers, restart, plug in mBox and other USB devices.
*Try plugging your mBox into a different USB port this time.

This is all I did, nothing really fancy, no professor [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] and it worked for me. It's been a few days since I've heard any popping, crackling, white noises, when I couldn't go for more than 20 minutes before without hearing those noises. Also I'm running the mBox at 512 buffer size.

I'm not exactly sure why this got rid of my problem but I think it has to do with some drivers in my USB ports being corrupted that slowed down the speed of my USB or caused issues which ultimately caused performance issues with my mBox and buffering the sound.

Hope this was helpful!

instead of messing with all this installtion/re-installation and turning all the system upside-down I would better prefer not to deal with this device.
So [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] this [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ing mbox, and [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] avid!!

[Carlos Corral]

Yeah I have the same static problem with the Mbox3 Mini. Temp fix is what was said a few posts back about leaving the Mix know in the middle (at 12 o clock) or using it as an alternative to the volume knob. I feel like you can get better interfaces instead of using this generation of Mboxes. They feel cheaper to me for some reason.

[TomJones]

Hello folks ! I'm new to the forum, but i have been looking for the solution to this issue for a lil while now.. I own a Mbox 3/ Windows 8 pc... Same thing as the mini though,, Volume knob issues
Need help.. its still under warranty but didn't wanna be without my box

[nerowolfe]

As browniespeaks stated, the problem is basically a dirty analog pot. It has nothing whatsoever to do with drivers, your computer, cables or USB hubs. Browniespeaks solution restated and clarified:
1) Power down
2) Remove master volume knob by gently pulling it out.
3) Angle the front panel upward.
4) Use a pure cleaning agent like isopropyl alcohol (Deoxit isn't sold in europe so I'm not sure what it contains, but whatever you use it should be a pure cleaning agent without added lubricants).
5) Hit the spindle with a short burst of spray (or a drop if using liquid) and turn the spindle forcefully back and forth over the whole range a few times.
6) Reconnect and problem should be solved!

[alexfree]

This problem is an design mistake!

You can actually decrease the noise or take it fully away! But for that you need to tear it down, dismantle it!

First you need to unscrew all screws from the backside...even the the nut-screw from the monitor outputs needs as well to be taken away

On the front you need to pull out the 2 gain knobs, the volume headphone knobs and the big volume knob.

Then you need to carefully take away the plastic stands and unscrew those 4 screws.

After that you should be able to pull out the whole card...Now look at the volume knob pot...and the cabling is very close to the iron that is holding the front-panel stable...now you understand that the cable is way too close and that gives the crackling of the volume knob.

I just took insulation tape and teared it around the iron peg/rod several times....

This helped me!

[gavriil1]

Originally Posted by alexfree

This problem is an design mistake!

You can actually decrease the noise or take it fully away! But for that you need to tear it down, dismantle it!

First you need to unscrew all screws from the backside...even the the nut-screw from the monitor outputs needs as well to be taken away

On the front you need to pull out the 2 gain knobs, the volume headphone knobs and the big volume knob.

Then you need to carefully take away the plastic stands and unscrew those 4 screws.

After that you should be able to pull out the whole card...Now look at the volume knob pot...and the cabling is very close to the iron that is holding the front-panel stable...now you understand that the cable is way too close and that gives the crackling of the volume knob.

I just took insulation tape and teared it around the iron peg/rod several times....

This helped me!

I wonder if there is a video on how to do this. Also when you say "this helped me" you mean it went away completely or still there? If still there, give us a percentage.

Because even after repetitive alcohol spraying attempts the static is still there with same ferocity.