mbox mini hum issue

[msk011]

Hi folks,

I have an mbox 2 mini with PT 7.3 that I've been using for a few months now and I have a hum problem. I honestly can't say when it started. I'll try to describe the issue but it's a little hard to detail. I hook the monitor outs on the mbox up to my PA mixer and power amp setup most of the time. Sometimes I use headphones and the jack on the front of the mbox. The issue is that I get this hum sound all the time through the unit. This hum gets recorded as well so any playback I do has the problem. It seems to revolve around the monitor output knob. When I turn the knob, the hum becomes louder or softer with the least hum being centered around about three oclock on the knob. This happens with two different PCs, one being a laptop running on batteries, and through the headphones or external speakers doesn't seem to matter. I've switched out every pice of gear in the chain so now I'm thinking the box my be defective but I thought I would check here first to see if anyone can suggest something I may not have thought of.

Thanks,

Mike.

[DJ Decryption]

Hey Mike,

Join the hum club :-( I've found that the MBox Mini hums anytime it happens to be hooked up to something that's plugged in... and not your computer. I've tried a variety of setups as well, but it seems the key is to only have your Mbox plugged into (1) the computer and (2) an instrument that's plugged into a different power supply and has no connection to the computer in any way. This has been frustrating me as well since I run my keyboards through a mixer which also is hooked up to the monitor outs on the Mini. Now I can't monitor my keyboards and listen to the Mini outs at the same time. Maybe someone else has a more practical solution, but this extreme one is the only thing that's ever worked for me. I'm trying to figure out a better work-around as well. Sorry man - I hope that helps.

[bmenchen]

I get a hum or noise only when the DAE objects load
its anoying that a 500$ piece of gear makes this noise
I have tried a 3 different PC's and a MAc and it remains the same
sounds great when I dont launch protools

[RiF]

I had the very same problem and it could not be solved for my systems. Same symptoms here: No hum with headphones, no hum on batteries. The proposed "solutions" like changing USB-cables, using powered USB-hubs, using balanced cables (even on unbalanced connectors) and whatnot did not help. I bought a used 002R to solve it ;-)
USB + AUDIO = HASSLE