AudioBox USB, AudioBox Stereo and AudioBox Studio
Music Creation Suite (PS-49 Keyboard, Studio One, Notion, Nimbit, XLR cable, M7 Mic, Headphones and USB 2.0 Hub)
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So, I just purchased the "AudioBox USB 96" second hand from a pawn store. And when I take it home and start trying to use it, I run into this nightmare, with it seemingly unplugging and plugging itself in rapidly
First, I want to clarify that it can't be a hardware issue. I have access to an iMac, and to troubleshoot I tried plugging it into the iMac and it worked perfectly with no setup even necessary. But, this windows computer is mine, and what I'll be using it on, and it's not working.
Below is a video showcasing my problem. In the video, the only thing that's been installed is the drivers from the website - no 3rd party software. You can see that it's settings reset every time it does this unplug-plug thing
phpBB [video]

I will go into more detail: When I plug it in, before I've even started downloading the drivers provided from the website, this starts happening when windows sets it up automatically. Installing the drivers doesn't seem to do anything, and the software itself is having issues staying connected to the thing.
All I'm trying to do with it right now is use it as a DAC, but the inputs are doing the same flashing thing in the control panel.
In desperation to get it to work I installed various 3rd party drivers and software audio interfaces, and I found one (I think it was called Voicemeeter) that took the sound from windows and redirected it to ASIO, and that worked for like 5 minutes, but when I tried to uninstall everything and start from fresh so my computer wouldn't be cluttered with all this stuff, setting it back up didn't work and it kept doing this.
When I try to playback audio while it does this (in, for instance, youtube), I can hear it kind of stutter in for half a second before going silent again, not to mention it crashes the youtube player with an "audio engine error" after doing this for 3 or 4 times in a row (kind of further proving this is some kind of driver issue and not hardware/bad cable)
Speaking of cables, I have about 7 of these USB-B cables I've tried, and they all produce the same result, and I've tried multiple different ports on my motherboard (USB 3 and USB 2)
The instruments can be heard when I plug them in and set the box to input mode, but the input for instruments in the control panel in Windows is flashing just like how the output to the box is
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by rubytheguineapig on Sat Feb 22, 2020 11:56 am
Update:
So, what I have done is I basically tried doing a fresh install again. But this time, I pretty much removed any and all drivers that had anything to do with audio (The motherboard ones, the ones for my HTC Vive, everything), and did a fresh install. And, wala, that seems to have fixed some of the jank.

I'm still having issues where ASIO really doesn't want to work, even though it's showing up as an option. Ableton (DAW) refuses to do anything with it, and I got Foobar2000 (Media Player) to output to ASIO for like two minutes but then it stopped and no amount of restarting the app or my computer has gotten it to work again. It says: "Unrecoverable playback error: Could not create ASIO buffers"

Also, in general when my computer starts up it's super duper sluggish now, and the audio doesn't really kick in and start working until a few minutes after my computer turns on. It can also occasionally stop working and it'll do this behavior again, where nothing can really play audio (foobar refuses to play anything at all, and youtube shouts out an error saying "if playback doesn't begin soon restart your computer"). If I wait long enough it can come back, but it's super frustrating for it to happen at random

Does going back and forth between ASIO and the windows sound rapidly making it freeze up, maybe? Am I going too fast with my troubleshooting, trying to play youtube, then pausing it and trying to play Foobar, and both just freezing up?

What I've found works best with the sluggishness at launch is installing the universal controller but then just telling it *not* to launch at startup? It'll spit out the options for ASIO output in my software since the drivers are there, I just can't change the settings. But the slowdown seems to be improved(?) when that isn't running

It still seems like the problem is the software, since when it does this my software has a response, or maybe somethings wrong with the firmware in the box itself? The Universal Controller says it's up to date, and trying to force an update just throws up an error.

Also, sometimes there's random clicking / audio artifacts, it doesn't have anything to do with what is currently happening, it'll just click a couple times a second for 3-5 seconds, probably doing this every like 10 minutes


Since I said my computer was running slow, thought I'd also just spit my specs at the bottom here to show what I'm working with (and that it probably shouldn't be)
CPU: Ryzen 7 1st gen
GPU: GTX 1060 6gb
RAM: 16GB DDR4
one 256GB SSD for boot and two 1TB hard drives in raid as a mass storage (mostly for games, audio stuff is on boot drive)
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by cristofe on Sat Feb 22, 2020 12:53 pm
Sounds like a hardware issue to me. Could be your Audiobox's USB output jack has a loose connection. Have tried a different USB cable? Did you try disabling wi-fi? That sometimes causes issues. Have you scanned for malware/viruses? And, if you can, it might be a good idea to test it on another pc to eliminate that possibility.

https://soundcloud.com/cristofe-chabot/sets/main

PC'S: HP XW6000 Dual 3.2GHz Intel Xeon, 8GB RAM WinXP SP2 HP 6005 Pro AMD Athalon X2 B24 3.0Ghz, 4GB RAM Win8 Pro Dell Latitude E6410 Laptop Intel i5 2.67Ghz 8GB RAM Win7 Pro x64 Audio Interfaces: Terratec EWS88MT PCI (2), Audiobox 1818VSL USB & Firestudio 26x26 Firewire, Line 6 PodXT, Roland GS-10, NI Rig Kontrol 3

Monitors: Yamaha HS50M's DAW: S1 3.2.1 Pro

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by rubytheguineapig on Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:26 pm
cristofe wroteSounds like a hardware issue to me. Could be your Audiobox's USB output jack has a loose connection. Have tried a different USB cable? Did you try disabling wi-fi? That sometimes causes issues. Have you scanned for malware/viruses? And, if you can, it might be a good idea to test it on another pc to eliminate that possibility.


1. I had already stated I tried about 7 different cables, and that it worked fine on a different computer
2. I don't use wifi, I'm wired into the router
3. I know I don't have any viruses, but I did a scan anyways and confirmed it came up with nothing. I don't know why it would only be affecting this one device and absolutely nothing else I've plugged in.

I'm frustraited now too, because I let my computer sit for a few days and now I'm back to having the problem I had when I first posted this. I have a theory that it has something to do with windows drivers conflicting with each other, because the only thing I did while my computer was off was plug it into a different USB port. Of course, windows being dumb, when you plug something into a different USB port it thinks it's a brand new device and tries to set it up again, and I think this is causing issues

As far as all the problems I was having in the second post, I pretty much confirmed that it being all sluggish and glitchy was just because I was switching between window's driver for it's sound and ASIO too fast, I routed everything through ASIO using that voicemeeter program and it worked fine for a day or two. But then I didn't use my computer and it started doing it again after a few days
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by rubytheguineapig on Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:39 pm
Alright, so I did the same fix that I mentioned where I uninstalled all the drivers (including any other windows drivers for audio for my motherboard), plugged it back in and let it set itself back up (the flashing stopped, thank god), disabled the audiobox in the windows sound control panel, routed everything through ASIO using Voicemeeter, and now everything seems like it's stable. I guess I'll just make sure I never, ever, ever unplug the damned thing

I'll edit this with the solved thingy at the top if it continues to work over the weekend
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by thomasscholl on Mon Feb 01, 2021 4:43 pm
I am having this same issue, and not understanding what to do, what information do you need?
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by rossbaldwin2 on Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:41 am
@ thomasscholl

I recommend rereading the posts from @rubytheguineapig because they found a working solution. I'm running into the same problem and have found a another thread with folks experiencing the same problem we all seem to be. Sadly, I'm not in a state to try and figure the situation out after seeing the failures in the other thread and the hoops rubytheguineapig jumped through to get theirs to work while never being able to switch usb ports. (You're an absolute trooper ruby; thanks for sharing your experience with us.) I'll be returning this Presonus 96 and picking up something else. Damn shame.
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by oronohana on Sun Mar 28, 2021 2:15 pm
A few days ago I got a message in windows saying that my usb port was overloaded or something like that. I restarted and got the same message (I guess from my motherboard this time) preventing windows from loading. I figured out it was the USB96 causing it and switched the usb cable. Windows loaded again but from them on I get audio cut out every 10,20 seconds with the flashing red "X" on the taskbar sound icon.
Really disappointed to see that no one has found an acceptable solution...
Do Presonus not offer support on this forum? Has anyone opened a support ticket? I just did, We'll see how that goes.
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by jasonwilliams53 on Sat Jan 20, 2024 7:11 am
Man, this is a complete disaster situation. I'm using the i2 box and getting the same problem. I'm going to have to send this ENTIRE recording bundle back to the seller because of this INCREDIBLY stupid design flaw.
Why in god's name would you design an inbox that requires ALWAYS plugging in to the original USB install port?! And if that weren't enough, no dedicated power switch on the box and you always have to keep it on every time you fire up your PC, whether you're using it or not???

I can say without reservation that this is far and away the most dumpster fire piece of recording equipment I have ever seen or owned.

Welp, time to make that return ticket on Amazon.

Good god....

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