Unable to locate digidesign hardware.....

[Alan B]

Hi,
Brief history; I purchased PT-8 LE with an MBox 2 Pro several years back installed on my PC and used for home recording with moderate levels of reliability. After a couple of years of frustration due to compatibility issues I bit the bullet and purchased a Mac i5 to achieve a more plug and play studio efficiency. However, on installing PT-8 LE on my iMac I discovered that it was unable to recognise the M Box. After consultation from the local protools dealer I invested in PT 10 but still no luck. My iMac is still not able to locate my M Box hardware. I'm yet to record anything on my iMac.

I've scoured this forum and other sites following instructions on:
Downloading drivers
Manually deleting drivers and reinstalling drivers
Clean uninstall and reinstall of PT 8 LE, PT 8.0.5, PT10, PT10.3.9
Unplugging and plugging hardware in various combinations of PC and PT start-up.
Purchased a new Firewire 800 cable.

I'm at a loss as to what to try next. Any tips, advice, information or assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Alan B.

ps. The Power LED flashed RED with Firewire cable connected only and flashed Green when connecting a 12VDC supply. The power LED never stops flashing.

[Craig F]

welcome to the forum

please review the Help Us Help You link at the top of the page, you have left out very critical details

[Alan B]

Hi Craig,
My computer includes:
iMac 3.1GHz intel Core i5
OS version 10.7.5
Avid hardware model M Box 2 Pro
I have both Pro Tools version 8 and 10
Amount of RAM installed 4GB
I'm using a FW800 cable with a FW400 adapter plug in to the M Box, and the cable is 6' in length, this is the 2nd cable I've tried purchased last Wednesday.
I no longer have the original cable but the original cable never worked on my iMac either.
No other devices are connected to the computer.
I have done everything I could find in the Setup and General Troubleshooting threads.

2 days ago I could plug in a guitar to a DI input and the signal would register, gain pot operated, and monitors were also working. Today, I found that the same M Box, guitar, monitor set-up does not work. No input signal, no LED working except the power LED that is still flashing Green with the 12VDC supply and flashing Orange/Red with the power supply disconnected.

The iMac is still unable to locate the M Box hardware.

I hope this additional info provides adequate details for someone to assist me, but please let me know if any further details may assist.

Kind regards,
Alan B.

[albee1952]

Try holding down the N key while opening Pro Tools and try to select the Mbox as the "audio engine". Besides that, note that LE cannot share the system with PT 10(assuming 10 is compatible with your OS, there is no reason to install 8 at all)

More info by clicking this link in the top section of this(and every) DUC page:
Software Updates, Drivers, Manuals, Compatibility, Optimize, Troubleshoot, etc. (Links)

[Alan B]

Hi Dave,
I had previously tried holding down the 'N' key whilst launching ProTools, but had no effect. I saw this tip on one of the previous threads. I just repeated the exercise but still no effect. What does holding the N key alter during startup?

I have tried PT updates & drivers. Clean uninstall and regular uninstall operations, removing PT 8 LE before installing PT10. Clearing trash of old drivers before installing latest drivers.

I have gone back to basics, clean uninstalled PT10 and installed PT8 LE with the M Box 2 Pro that came with PT 8 LE. My Mac i5 Ver 10.7.5 and 4 GB RAM would appear to satisfy system requirements, but same problem. Unable to locate digidesign hardware..... message is displayed during PT launch & startup.

Any other tips will be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Alan.

[Alan B]

Hi,
Since my last post I checked compatibility of the various components. PT10 install instructions suggest installing latest hardware drivers and for an M Box 2 Pro this is http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/d...-2-Pro-Drivers for VER 10.3.3
However, the 'info' section indicates Mountain Lion (10.8) is supported whilst 10.7 Lion is not mentioned. So I upgraded from 10.7.5 to Mac 10.8 (Mountain Lion) but no change.
I then repeated the Avid Knowledge Base, MBox 2 Pro not recognized by Pro Tools or the computer instruction:
Move the "Mbox 2 Pro" folder from /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/FireWire/Firmware to the desktop

HOWEVER; there is no 'Firmware' folder or 'Mbox 2 Pro' folder ??

I then tried to install drivers from the original PT10 DVD to see is any firmware folder would be installed, but no such folder is written to:
Move the "Mbox 2 Pro" folder from /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/FireWire/............

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Alan.