Mbox Mini Driver Issues with Windows 7

[D-B101 RRFEDU]

I work for an audio engineering school that supplies students with an MBox mini and Pro Tools 10. My staff and I handle tech support and have rarely seen anything that we collectively cant handle. Students are calling in (more and more frequently) about a distortion problem during play back.

This distortion sounds like super stretched out audio (like elastic audio) combined with some phasing.

It is only windows 7 systems and I have literally tried everything I can think of to fix this. Any help would be appreciated. Things I have tried:

-Rolling back to old MBOX mini drivers
-Reinstalling Pro Tools
-Choosing every combination of playback engine settings (Increasing /decreasing buffer sizes, # of CPU's, etc)
-Following all of Avid's recommended PC optimization suggestions
-Updating Windows 7 system drivers (graphics, audio, etc)
-Turning off Aero / Switching to Classic mode

The MBOX works in other DAWS (reaper, cubase, etc) --- Initially we suspected this was because of a bad batch of MBOX's, but now it seems it is a Windows 7 driver issue. A temporary fix has been to use Asio4all driver and selecting the MBOX on the Asio4all control panel.

[Bill@Avid]

Hi,

This sounds like an issue with the USB port or USB cable. If the PC has USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports make sure that they are using the Mbox Min connected via a USB 2.0 port.

We have seen behavior like this with USB 3.0 ports. Also make sure the Mbox Mini is connected directly to a powered USB port on the PC and not via a USB hub.

This can be caused by a bad USB cable as well. So you should try another cable to see what happens.

In the event that the PC only has USB 3.0 ports they should try using a powered USB 2.0 hub. I know I'm contradicting myself here but in situations where there are only a USB 3.0 port available odds are the powered USB 2.0 hub will resolve problems instead of introducing them.

Lastly they should be using the latest driver Mbox Mini 1.0.8 driver.

They should disconnect the Mbox Mini.

If you uninstall and reinstall the Mbox Mini driver while the Mbox Mini is attached the uninstall will not complete correctly.

Uninstall the Mbox Mini driver using the Programs and Features control panel.

Reboot.

Run the 1.0.8 driver installer and when it completes connect the Mbox Mini to a powered USB 2.0 port on the system. Windows will find and install the hardware.

Reboot and check to see if the issue is resolved.

Let us know what you find.

PS When you refer to the Avid Optimizations make sure that these are the ones you have been using.