White Noise, distortion, pops, loud noise in Pro tools 9 and mbox mini

[Bigpit]

Hi. :) (It's solved now so check my last post if you need a "guide")

Peter, from Norway here. My english isn't too good but I will try explaining myself.

So, earlier on I was complaining about the mbox3mini. I'm terribly sorry about that. I tested pro tools on my laptop, which by the way is a very poor laptop and everything worked fine, both recording and playback.

But my desktop on the other hand, which I have been using since around 2010 with digi002rack (without any issues) is not friendly towards my mbox mini, not in protools and not in windows (mediaplayers, youtube etc)

I've tried reinstalling Windows, making sure I installed all the right drivers and software in the right order corresponding both to my motherboard, to avid manuals and so on. I've tried disabling all kinds of stuff in BIOS, HPET, speedstep, powermanagment etc, tweaking (or rather simplifying my windows experience, following avids instructions) etc.. sadly without making any improvements.

I'm starting to wonder if this might be a hardware issue. :S

Any suggestions greatly apprechiated!

[Bigpit]

It is working again.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For some reason (probably some troubleshooting article I followed) pro tools, youtube so forth works perfectly now when I use the USB3port which earlier never worked, only the USB2 port would "work" with mboxmini with my specs, allthough not as a charm..

I were frustrated and would have to adjust the playback buffer size back and forth to avoid the issue and it slowly decaded to a constant distortion which made me reinstall windows. It was my settings though, because the laptop had no problems.

Everything works perfect with USB3. I won't bother speculating anylonger why the USB2 ports ain't working. For now, as long as it's working I won't change ONE setting, anywhere.

So, for you who have troubles with mbox mini (third generation) and distortion, white noise, and loud noise that makes you worried about your monitors and ears. There is hope!

I will post a few things I've done (it's also easy to find this info on avids site as well if you don't want to follow a noob on a forum), but sadly I can't tell you exactly which point FIXED it in my case.

I kept a check list while adjusting settings in the end so here you go:

USB IRQ compability issues:

windows button + R, type msinfo32 and check IRQ doubles. (I didn't actually change anything here, I just checked it)

DEP? bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx OptIn (I never got to checking that point and I don't know what it do (search avid for more info)

Disable USB power managment:

Rightclick "my computer" and click the top "column" in the left (enhetbehandling in my language)
double-click on Universal Serial Bus Controllers.
Double-click on the first USB Root Hub item.
Click on the Power Management tab.
Uncheck the box that says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." and click OK.
Repeat this process for all other USB Root Hub items.

Go to systemadjustments and choose best performance under advanced and click backgroundservices(programs) and use that.

If your video display card supports it, enable Bus Mastering in the manufacturer’s Control Panel.

Further more I followed each guide on avid:

Windows 7 Optimizations and Troubleshooting

IRQ troubleshooting

Pops, clicks, crackles, dropouts, or distortion – FireWire Troubleshooting Guide


Best of luck to you!