Mbox is Unreliable

[todzart]

Hello,

I have searched the DUC and tried eveything I found. I called digidesign tech support and was told "all my ducks are in a row" and was added to the bug report list. I've requested tech support via email and received a short reply today asking about my hard drive and if I can run the "Be There" demo to which I replied and am waiting for response. I am producing a project using Mbox for preproduction and some tracking while recording at a studio with a Mix3 TDM system. I have vocalists coming to my house this week for BG arranging and have an unreliable PTLE system.

Description of problem:
Mbox running PT LE 5.2 randomly gives Errors 9136 and 9094 while playing and/or recording audio and/or MIDI. The sessions all produced errors when using the internal drive or external drive so I don't think its the FW harddrive. The Errors occur as often as every three minutes. Track count and buffer settings do not appear to be problem as even 1 audio track will error. I cannot play the "Be There" demo session w/o errors.

Hardware /Software:
Apple Ti Powerbook G4 667
512 MB RAM
Mac OS 9.2.2
Mbox
PT LE 5.2
DAE Version 5.2
DSI Version 5.2
Roland XV-2020 usb sound module (with editor)
Avammo Hush 5400 FW Drive - formatted by avammo with apple's drive format utility.(errors occur with or without this HD)


Troubleshooting already attempted:
Followed all Digidesign installation recommendations as well as.
-updated Mbox firmware to rev20
-updated usb driver to v1.0.1
-disabled apple ethernet extension
-disconnected usb midi sound module (Roland XV-2020)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Todd

[Egghd]

Are you sure your ethernet is disabled? I would check the appletalk and TCP/Ip control panels.

[guisquil]

This may be impractical, but did you try formatting the PB and starting from scratch?

Sorry for the lame answer, that is all I can think of...

Nestor

[vf124]

Mbox running PT LE 5.2 randomly gives Errors 9136 and 9094 while playing and/or recording audio and/or MIDI.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Wow...I've been beating the piss out of my Mbox since the day they were released...sadly, I'm yet to get an error of any type in 9 months...No firmware update...only the PT Le SW update...nothing more...

The only break this "lil blue box" has recieved, is when the 002 arrived...and now I'm back to beating it up some more...

Have you tried reinstalling the PT Le SW?

[bozabus]

Sounds to me like you need a decent audio hard drive. The internal or that external FW 5200 rpm hard drive probably are not capable of your audio recording demand.

[Slim Shady]

You told digi that you have a 5400 and 4500 rpm drives and they said all your ducks are in a row? Somehow I doubt that, but maybe it never came up. If you check the compato documents, you'll see:

* Minimum speed of 7200 RPM & average seek time of less than 10.0 ms

also, firewire drives need to have the oxford911 chipset to be compatible with protools.

I'd start there if I were you, sounds like you're having some throughput problems.

[todzart]

Thanks for all your responses. The best thing going for Pro Tools is the Users.

I double checked the TCP/IP and appletalk and there is no ethernet option because I disabled Apple Enet in the extension. This got me looking for similar port related issues so I turned of TCP/IP and then disabled any and all Infrared extensions (My Tibook is older and has an IR port) I think the IR extensions were the culprit because now I can play the "Be There" demo no prob off either internal or external drive. I'm reformatting my external FW drive with apple erase disk as Mac OS Extended (HSF+) just in case and will dump all my session files on there and test those.

[rubaiyat_23]

There are two USB controller ports on the rear of the TiBook...try connecting the Mbox to the USB port closest to the ethernet connector.

The other USB port is shared internally with the modem, on which I've universally had problems with the Mbox.

rubaiyat_23