New Mbox2 Pro Trouble

[mark007]

I purchased a brand new shining Mbox2 Pro from Guitar Center and hooked it up the very same day. There was no sound out of the speakers, even though VU meters showed input/output. (as a side-note /sad-note, i was sad to see that the box had no seal and think it was opened before...)

After trying everything to the point of pulling my hairs, I pulled out the FireWire cable and put it back it, and it worked. I thought Great!

Next day, it wont work, again removing and plugging in the firewire cable makes it work. Not too good/happy.

Since its been hapening everytime, I uninstalled everything, reinstalled it on another Mac Pro. Same problem. Installed on a third Mac Book Pro. Same problem. Changed firewire cable. Same problem!

Since its less than 30 days, I called Guitar Center to return it for an exchange or my money back if they don't have another piece. They said I should call Digidesign to resolve the problem. Digidesign won't talk to me unless I register the product.

So I registered the product, spoke with Digidesign, then now I cannot return the product since its registered! I will be getting either a repair or hoping another new piece, not sure what its going to be.

Does Digidesign send a brand new piece in such a circumstance or will I get a "repaired" prduct? That isn't making me too happy to have paid full price if I have to pay the price for something I did not do. Of course I don't think I will go to that guitar center again.

Thanks.

[Dism]

Originally Posted by mark007

I purchased a brand new shining Mbox2 Pro from Guitar Center and hooked it up the very same day. There was no sound out of the speakers, even though VU meters showed input/output. (as a side-note /sad-note, i was sad to see that the box had no seal and think it was opened before...)

After trying everything to the point of pulling my hairs, I pulled out the FireWire cable and put it back it, and it worked. I thought Great!

Next day, it wont work, again removing and plugging in the firewire cable makes it work. Not too good/happy.

Since its been hapening everytime, I uninstalled everything, reinstalled it on another Mac Pro. Same problem. Installed on a third Mac Book Pro. Same problem. Changed firewire cable. Same problem!

Since its less than 30 days, I called Guitar Center to return it for an exchange or my money back if they don't have another piece. They said I should call Digidesign to resolve the problem. Digidesign won't talk to me unless I register the product.

So I registered the product, spoke with Digidesign, then now I cannot return the product since its registered! I will be getting either a repair or hoping another new piece, not sure what its going to be.

Does Digidesign send a brand new piece in such a circumstance or will I get a "repaired" prduct? That isn't making me too happy to have paid full price if I have to pay the price for something I did not do. Of course I don't think I will go to that guitar center again.

Thanks.

It seems GC has a history of selling repackaged MBoxes and calling them "new."

Honestly, after noticing it wasn't factory sealed and then experiencing it not working... I would have DEMANDED a factory sealed replacement from GC, or at least a discount. I think it is appalling behavior to even price an opened product as new, nevermind recommending you call Digi first after selling you one. I would still try going back and getting "disgruntled." Talk to management, and not floor staff.

In my experience, an opened product should already be discounted, regardless of whether or not someone took it home. If someone RETURNS an opened product sold as "new"... it should be replaced no questions asked. Shady business if I ever heard...

[flommer]

From your description, it is pretty hard to say that there is definitely something wrong with the Mbox. You haven't described what version of ProTools you installed or what OS you have on the computer(s), etc etc. Your description of "I pulled out the FireWire cable and put it back it" makes me quite concerned as well.. Do you have an approved external FW HD? How are you connecting it to the Mac?

In all seriousness, go here and read this:

http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=193636

Then go here and read and do everything in the list:

http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=54888

Digidesign is likely going to have you go through all the same steps before issuing any kind of an RMA so you might as well get started with the process.

[mark007]

Well, here's the answer to your question. I called Digidesign today (had to wait almost an hour on hold, I guess due to the Windows 7 issues), and finallay got to talk to a support engineer from Digidesign. After speaking, it was determined the unit had to be returned and I have gotten an RMA.

Since you asked some details, here are more details:
I installed the version of Pro Tools that came with the MBox 2 Pro, which is 8.0 LE. Machine I first installed it on was Mac Pro with 4 GB Ram, Intel Xeon based dual Processors, 500MB system drive and 2TB extra Raid Drive for data.

Second machine installed on, same but with only 3GB memory and less hard drive space, 1TB (this was the second machine that was available for my testing), then tried it on my Mac Book Pro, all three machines having Mac OSX Leopard as I have updated them via Software updates online.

Having tried this on 3 fairly new machines leaves me with no choice than suspect the Mbox 2 Pro. I even tried 2 different firewire cables, both of which have sustainable data rates both ways, when I did a benchmark on them by writing/reading back fixed amount of data with no errors, CRC or other.

Interestingly I found a temporary workaround (which I also mentionned to Digidesign, who hasnt heard of this problem before) by resetting its internal word clock, hence could be a bad switching in its internal clock, which is a piece of hardware inside the Mbox2 pro. Whatever it is, I don't deserve any frustration by buying a brand new product after paying full price.

[CisumBlue]

That story makes me mad at Digi; it sounds like they hassled you, but if it is true that Guitar Center sells used or repackaged as new, I will never buy so much as a guitar pick from them ever again.

[Dism]

Well I'm definitely glad GC doesn't exist in this country...