Use Command|8 with MBox2? (C8 is Offline)

[Luminous Genius]

I've connected the Command8 to every USB port on my PC, but nothing changed: I can control ProTools via the Command8, but on the display it still says "Command8 (Offline)"
It wouldn't be such big deal not being able to read the display, if it wasn't for the pop-up message I constantly get: "ProTools is unable to communicate with Command8. Power-cycle Command8 and check its connections. Note, if the Command8 is not in use, update the Periherals dialog to prevent further warnings."

Anyone have any ideas on how to solve this last problem?

[DigiTechSupt]

In Pro Tools go to Peripherals>MIDI Controllers and set the first (#1) slot to 'None', then click on it again and select the Command|8. This should re-populate the 'Receive From' and 'Send To' lists - make sure those are set to 'C|8 Surface'.

[Luminous Genius]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

In Pro Tools go to Peripherals>MIDI Controllers and set the first (#1) slot to 'None', then click on it again and select the Command|8. This should re-populate the 'Receive From' and 'Send To' lists - make sure those are set to 'C|8 Surface'.

Well, my problem is no longer that the 'Receive From' and 'Send To' lists aren't poulated. They are populated and I can control ProTools, the only thing is that I can't read anything on the display and I get that pop-up message all the time.

Anyway, I'll try your solution and let you know if it did the trick.

[Luminous Genius]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

In Pro Tools go to Peripherals>MIDI Controllers and set the first (#1) slot to 'None', then click on it again and select the Command|8. This should re-populate the 'Receive From' and 'Send To' lists - make sure those are set to 'C|8 Surface'.

I tried this, but it does not solve my problem.

Still have the "Command8 (Offline)" message on the display and still get the pop-up message "ProTools is unable to communicate with Command8. Power-cycle Command8 and check its connections. Note, if the Command8 is not in use, update the Periherals dialog to prevent further warnings."

[SKI]

You can always try hooking the Command up using MIDI connections instead of USB to see what happens.

For a troubleshooting method you could go into the MB BIOS and check the USB settings for the MB, they usually have setting for USB1, USB2 and Legacy USB.
Different MB's require different setting to work properly.
You could get a copy of Norton's Ghost and Ghost your system drive.
Reformat the drive, reinstall Windowsand do a basic PT installation and check to see the operation of the Command8 with the minimal setup.
If it doesn't work you can restore the system with the Ghost Image you created and have your original system back.

The best solution would be to stop using Windows but that's another story.

[DigiTechSupt]

This is definitely a strange one.

Let's try a few more things:

1. Trash preferences - info on how to do this can be found in the General Troubleshooting sticky below my sig.
2. Are you absolutely choosing C|8 Surface in the Peripherals dialog? Not 'port 1' or anything like that?
3. This one might be a bit tricky, but it may be that you have too many midi devices/drivers registered (Windows only allows 8...):

To check the number of MIDI drivers in your registry:
Choose Start > Run.
Run “regedit” to display the Windows registry editor.
Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tab.
Expand the SOFTWARE tab.
Expand the Microsoft tab.
Expand the Windows NT tab.
Click the Current Version tab.
Choose Drivers.32 to display the Drivers.32 tab.
Look at the entries in the right hand panel for MIDI entries listed as “midi” “midi1” and so on. If the highest “midi” entry is 8, then no action is required.
If there is an entry for “midi9” then the maximum number of MIDI drivers has been reached and at least one must be removed in order for the Command|8 driver to work properly.
To update the number of MIDI drivers in your registry:
Identify any identical (duplicate) entries and delete the one with the highest entry number. For example, if there are “rddv1009.dll” entries in midi3 and midi4, delete the higher one (midi4).
Identify any unused or obsolete entries and delete them.
Close and restart your computer.

Let me know if these help at all.

[Luminous Genius]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

This is definitely a strange one.

Let's try a few more things:

1. Trash preferences - info on how to do this can be found in the General Troubleshooting sticky below my sig.
2. Are you absolutely choosing C|8 Surface in the Peripherals dialog? Not 'port 1' or anything like that?
3. This one might be a bit tricky, but it may be that you have too many midi devices/drivers registered (Windows only allows 8...):

To check the number of MIDI drivers in your registry:
Choose Start > Run.
Run “regedit” to display the Windows registry editor.
Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE tab.
Expand the SOFTWARE tab.
Expand the Microsoft tab.
Expand the Windows NT tab.
Click the Current Version tab.
Choose Drivers.32 to display the Drivers.32 tab.
Look at the entries in the right hand panel for MIDI entries listed as “midi” “midi1” and so on. If the highest “midi” entry is 8, then no action is required.
If there is an entry for “midi9” then the maximum number of MIDI drivers has been reached and at least one must be removed in order for the Command|8 driver to work properly.
To update the number of MIDI drivers in your registry:
Identify any identical (duplicate) entries and delete the one with the highest entry number. For example, if there are “rddv1009.dll” entries in midi3 and midi4, delete the higher one (midi4).
Identify any unused or obsolete entries and delete them.
Close and restart your computer.

Let me know if these help at all.

1. I trashed the preferences as suggested (altough I did step 3 first).
2. In the Peripherals dialog I do indeed choose C|8 Surface. Actually it says "C|8 Surface (emulatie)". I guess translated from dutch that means "emulation). I select this option in both the "receive from" and "send to" drop down list.
3. I ran “regedit” and indeed the highest "midi" entry was 9. I didn't see any “rddv1009.dll” in midi3 and midi4 (or in any other). So I just went ahead and trashed all doubles, for each keeping the lowest number. Then I restarted my pc.
Now I have 3, well actually 4 midi-entries: one simply called "midi", the others midi1, midi2 and midi7. This right-hand panel is divided into 3 "columns": name, type and data. In column "Type" it says "REG_SZ" for all of them. In the column data it says "wdmaud.drv" for midi; "mbx2midu.dll" for midi1; "wdmaud.drv" for midi2 and "c8midi.dll" for midi7.
Should I delete the first (unnumbered) "midi" entry as well? Should I the re-number the midi entries to midi1, midi2, midi3?

I suppose that you can tell by my lengthy exposé that my problem still is not solved. Still the same pop-up and still no clear visual on the display.

Many thanks for your help though. Much appreciated.

[DigiTechSupt]

I think we're making a little progress in that having 9 entries would be causing the problems we're seeing.

At this point don't delete anything further from the Registry. Do an uninstall and reinstall of the Command|8 drivers and, hopefully, that should take care of it.

Let me know how it goes...

[Luminous Genius]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

I think we're making a little progress in that having 9 entries would be causing the problems we're seeing.

At this point don't delete anything further from the Registry. Do an uninstall and reinstall of the Command|8 drivers and, hopefully, that should take care of it.

Let me know how it goes...

Oh how I wish I could say that did the trick, but sadly no...

Anyway, I thought I'd re-examine Ski's suggestion about USB1 and USB2.
I checked in PC Wizard 2008, one of those tools that let's you monitor your pc. Under the section "Hardware/IO Ports" I found my MBox2 and my Command8. The USB version specified for the Command8 was 1.10, not 2.0 as Ski suggested.
Looking a little further down I found my iPod. Under USB Version it clearly says 2.0. Logically I concluded that I do have USB2 ports on my pc. I hoped it now would be as simple as switching the C8 to the port to which my iPod was connected. But that was not the case. In PC Wizard 2008, the USB version was still specified as 1.10. Also uninstalling and re-installing ProTools did change this.

So I did some reading on USB versions. For instance here:

http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jak..._20_or_11.html

Here I was confirmed that I have USB2 ports:

"To find out which version you have, open the Device Manager by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Properties (or with Windows key + Pause/Break on the keyboard). Click the Hardware tab and then click the Device Manager. Scroll down until you locate the Universal Serial Bus controllers and expand the list of controllers. If you have a USB 2.0 controller in your computer, the word Enhanced will be listed somewhere in one of those names."

Then I came across this: http://8help.osu.edu/1381.html
Here it was suggested that using a wrong type of USB cable might cause USB devices to malfunction:

"USB 2.0 is a higher speed specification vs 1.1 (480 Megabits per second vs 12 Megabits per second). The cables look the same and have the same connectors and may work. However, USB cables certified for USB 2.0(Hi-Speed Certified USB), should be used for USB 2.0 rated devices. Using cables rated for version 1.1 USB devices can cause problems, especially if they are over 6 feet long."

Might this be the answer to my problems? Might it be that I'm using a 1.10 cable? This might explain why in PC Wizard I still the C8 as USB version 1.10, whereas when my iPod was connected to that port, it said version 2.0? So instead of referring to version of the port PC Wizard is actually referring to the cable it detects?

Any thoughts on this?

[SKI]

Understand what I was referring to.
The C8 is USB1, but some motherboards require certain setting in order to work properly with USB devices.
They usually have a setting in the BIOS option-wise that says something along the lines of a selection for USB1 and USB2 or USB2 and Legacy USB.
If you have just USB2 selected it will generally work fine with most devices but will cause strange issues with somethings.
Enabling the USB1 or Legacy option as well allows the motherboard to have a broader realm of devices it can properly communicate with.

I have found both USB1 and USB2 devices that would not perform correctly without those settings in the BIOS.