Mbox 2

[mrgrinch]

I've tried everything possible to fix my errors -9093 to no avail. I though the mbox 2 with pro tools LE 7.0sc3 would have help my home studio needs, but instead turned out to be nothing more than an expensive blue box.

My install went just fine. It's just these stupid errors that take the joy out of music recording (tried every buffer configuration). I'm wondering if I blew it on this purchase? Thank god I have 30 days to return it. The sad part is I am actually running a laptop that is stated to be compatible in their list (Acer 1522)

Here are the specs:

Mainboard : Acer (Aspire 1520)
Chipset : VIA K8M400 (VT8380)
Processor : AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 1800 MHz
Physical Memory : 512 MB (1 x 512 DDR-SDRAM )
Video Card : VT82C570 MV IDE Controller VIA/S3 Unichrome Pro VGA Adapter
Hard Disk : IC25N080ATMR04-0 (80 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-L532A
Network Card : Linksys (Was: InProComm Inc) INPROCOMM IPN 2220 Wireless LAN Adapter
Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RTL8169 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Professionnal 5.01.2600 Service Pack 2
DirectX : Version 9.0c

With a 120gb external.

I must say I am very dissapointed, after looking on this board.... I can honestly say I feel for everyone that thought this was going to be a good product.....don't get me wrong pro tools is the [bleep], that's if you can get it to work. This is the most expensive headache I've ever had. I hope digidesign really steps their game up, there is ALOT of pissed off people on this forum.

[tonebender]

Grinch-
I'm in the same boat. Compatible PC, 2 gigs ram, 3.2 ghz processor, 250 gig external firewire drive, done every trick/tweak in the book/forum and I still get the same buffer errors (6086). Very frustrating. So, I'm forced to go back to my Korg D1600 and track on there. Then I'll move the wav files over and try to mix/edit in Pro Tools. I'm sure I'll still get the same errors on playback though. I did experiment and used the Xbox with Cubase LE. No error messages at all, however I don't like the software.

Digidesign PLEASE HELP US with the buffer errors. Maybe a fix on a future release that will help??

[mrgrinch]

Were you runing your mbox driver and mbox with the cubase LE? I actually own that program as well, but I'd rather be using pro tools. What PT version are you running?

[spkguitar]

You guys are having two totally separate problems. Hard to help you when you cram them into one thread.

mrgrinch, 9093 errors are usually hard drive related. You only list one drive; are you recording to the system drive? If so, that could be your problem. Check out the comaptibility page for details, specifically the section about performance guidelines:

Recording to the system startup drive is not recommended or supported

and

Although limited recording and playback of audio tracks may be possible using the internal drive in laptop models, a separate external dedicated audio hard drive is required for maximum performance and track count. Digidesign recommends the use of FireWire drives for use with these computers. (see Digidesign FireWire Drive Requirements )

If you would both try all of the suggestions in the General Troubleshooting thread up to and including posting a sandra report, there may be some people here who can shed some light on the situation.

[mrgrinch]

Im going to try and change to external.

[Captain_Pants]

My guess is it wont fix the problem.

Shawn, if I may interject a possible solution.

I was having all sorts of those errors with my laptop and the Mbox2. My main PC uses a 001, so after that BS, I thought the Mbox was total crap...

Anyway.. I did some research, and the problem seemed to be tied to windows Power options. There are two modes, ACPI(which is recommended), and there is Standard PC. My laptop was set on ACPI, which, in short, allows the system to share the Interrupt Requests, or IRQ's. This seemed to conflict with my system, so I changed it to Standard PC, which WILL set the IRQs manually. Although I lost some functionality of my PC, it essentially worked, and I got GREAT performance out of my Mbox2. Downsides:

I had to disable the built-in Wireless.
I had no power display in the taskbar(was I at %50 battery? %90? Who knows)

After a while, a virus attacked my computer, and I reinstalled windows, only this time not installing all the extra crap that comes with PC's, I ALSO installed Windows XP Professional, and not the XP Home that came with the system. Since then, I am running normal again, in ACPI mode(yay! My wireless works again,a nd I have a battery meter!)


So, those are my suggestions:
1: Disable ACPI/Install Standard PC Power options
2: Reinstall windows, getting rid of the crap that comes with new PC's.


El Capitano..

Once again Shawn, not stepping on your toes, just relaying my problem and solution.

[AEW]

Captain got it right

I use my work laptop with PT Mbox2 so I need all the other stuff that windows has.
Definately do the following:
1. Sessions...to a external firewire drive
2. Set your recording session time to a limit eg 60 mins....peferences in PT setup
3. Absolutely disable the wireless gear
4. Get more ram especially if your laptop uses shared memory


Nick

[Skyflash]

Setup a second partition specifically to use with Pro tools. That way you can configure
it and keep all the important stuff safe on the other side. I've been doing this for the past
3 years and my system is running solid.

[spkguitar]

Once again Shawn, not stepping on your toes, just relaying my problem and solution.

Not a problem, Ben, not a problem. And good suggestions!

The ACPI solution is listed in the General Troubleshooting thread that I linked, though.

* Notebook users will typically need to disable wireless network adapters for smooth performance in Pro Tools LE. Some newer model notebooks also require that the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery device driver be disabled for smooth performance in Pro Tools LE.

It's good to get someone with first hand experience with it chiming in though. Hopefully it will help these guys.

[mrgrinch]

"My laptop was set on ACPI, which, in short, allows the system to share the Interrupt Requests, or IRQ's. This seemed to conflict with my system, so I changed it to Standard PC, which WILL set the IRQs manually." how do i do that?