MboxPro 3 issues. Doesn't work unless I restart iMac

[Muttzippy]

I posted the following in another spot and want to see if I get more answers over here.


Hello all and welcome to my nightmare,

About a month ago i got the MboxPro3 and it shipped with Pro Tools 10. I was having the best time learning all the crap and the system seemed to work great.
Here is what i had.

iMac i5 4gig RAM Sno Lep - 10.6.1
Mboxpro 3 with the Aug 2011 Drivers, via Firewire
Pro Tools 10

So i got a little bold and thought I might add the Eleven Rack with Expansion Pack to the system and run it through S/PDif. I installed the drivers that came with the 11R but they turned out to be the old Mbox original release drivers. This was problem one.

Now the Mbox won't work, i called support we uninstalled the old drivers and put in the brand new June 29 2012 drivers for the Mbox. the Firmware updated and the Mbox worked again, or so it seemed. The funny thing is that now when I leave the computer and turn off the Mbox I can no longer just turn it on again and launch PT10 because no sound comes out and the inputs don't work. Every time I want to turn on the Mbox I need to restart the iMac after I turn on the Mbox and then make sure the little blue light on the Mbox it flashing before I start PT10 or I get no sound. Before i just turned it on and went to town recording.

So I call support again and they remote my Computer and look around and can't get it to work right without either reinstalling the drivers, which needs to be done every time, or restarting. They also had me boot from DVD and repair the HardDisk which didn't help. So I am still restarting.

Maybe firmware is causing the problem or I have conflicting Driver info somewhere on the Disk. My last guess is that the Mbox is syncing with some other program, but I installed nothing new aside from the 11R drivers.Has anyone seen this or have a way to fix it?

A list of stuff I do know.
Mbox is in the Setup Hardware section of PT
Mbox is listed as the Playback Engine
My I/O settings are all good
I tried switching these around to see what happens and nothing unusual takes place.
I have the latest Drivers from Avid for the Mbox and 11R installed
The Mbox Firmware says its .3 just like the driver says it should be.
System Preferences are set to internal speaker for sound, and if I switch them to Mbox I lose computer sound unless I restart after the switch.

The bad part is that I still can't figure out how to hook up the Eleven Rack S/PDif. When I restart so the Mbox works and the two units are connected with S/PDif Ins to Outs and I launch Pro Tools I can only see Mbox in The Setup hardware part so I can't switch clocks. I also don't know how to get the 11R sound through the Bus and out the mains or into the channel for that matter. I tried all the inputs that were listed. Does anyone know what might be going on there besides all the above crap?

Sorry about the long post but man this is a pain. I just want to play guitar ya know.

Jeff

Update: I have tried to turn on the Mbox and then start the computer but that don't work either. Seems like restart is the only way short of adding drivers every time. The eleven rack works fine on its own too.

I hope one of you cats knows whats up.

[lgordon]

Hello Muttzippy,

I'd just like to say i am also having a similar issue to what you have been experiencing. I am not sure if you have resolved your issue yet. If you have, i would really appreciate some advice on how you go about fixing it.

Ever since I started using my ART digital MPA 2 as an external clock source it seems to have destroyed my mbox like you have described in your post. What baffles me is where i begin to fix this problem. Is it firmware, software, or hardware i am not sure. I updated to the latest firmware from Avid's website which they have said to do (package 1.1.3) and it seems to have made the problem worse. What originally started as my mbox telling me to decrease my buffer size due to it underflowing has now turned into it not even showing up on my computer. My driver is also saying 'Hardware not connected' but the blue light on my mbox is not flashing, it is a solid blue. Every so often it will tell me its connected then cut out again.

I was hoping someone out there in forum land could help me with this.

Sincerely

Liam