This is a post in response to some customers experiencing this issue with the Mbox 2 PRO.

When they plug in the Mbox 2 PRO via a firewire cable, to their computer.. the LEDs on the Mbox 2 PRO do not light up. They automatically assume that the unit is dead (and rightly so) However, this is not the case.

The unit is active, but the drivers have not been loaded yet, so the LED does not light up. Here are some of the steps recommended by Digidesign to fix this:

"First spot to check: Device Manager (Windows) or Preferences (Mac) Windows will show it as "MBox 2 Pro", but the "?" accros it shows: device recognized, but no drivers installed - Good! (if you have your audio notifications on, it'll sound the usual "knock knock, I'm here" to indicate the adding of a device) On the Mac, you will gain access via the MBox 2 Pro preference on the very bottom of the preference window - Good!

Next thing to do: Install the supplied PT LE version, and connect the MB2P via the supplied FW cable (2 out of 3 of the MB2P we got back have our FW cable still originally shrink-wrapped in the box - the one that has the reported "pop" when plugging it in is one of them....no comment)

After the installation, in Windows you might either update the drivers manually, or simply disconnect/re-connect the MB2P.

Still no LED activity? Launch Pro Tools. It very likely will prompt you with a "downloading firmware" dialog. And this is the moment: during download, the MB2P goes "blank" (no LED would indicate any download in progress). At this point, it's likely that some customers might disconnect it ("hey, it hang during firmware download") - and at this very moment, the bootloader file is broken. Please ensure that you enquire with your customers what where the steps they attempted, did the unit "hang up" during download?

Uh, what to do now? If you're on a Mac, you'll need a jumpstart by a friendly Windows CPU. Any windows CPU with a FW connection will do. (hook it up, it's likely that windows will see an MB2P in the device manager. If you can install PT LE and fire it up, it'll download the firmware/bootloader, and you're good to go again)

If you're on a PC, you're safe (this time), just re-initiate the download, this time DON'T disconnect it...let PT start up, and start working. So, it's unlikely we'll hear a lot from PC users...."

Some customers return the Mbox 2 PRO to us, when we connect it to our test system (Mac Book Pro) the LEDs start up right away. If the steps above don't work, return it to us - we will hook it up to our system, update the firmware and return it to you (plus shipping costs of course, unless you plaon on driving in and dropping it off and picking it up!)

Hope this helps