I've upgraded 4 academic MC2.8 Studio Essentials suites (that use Mbox original for sound i/o) to MC3 but now cannot get the software to recognise the Mbox, getting "failed to initialize audio hardware" on startup and then the program shutting down.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to how to resolve this -

I'm reluctant to bin the Mboxes?

Sorry I dont have have the answer to your question. But I do have a question of my own.

How did you get the Mbox to work with Avid? I did every freaking possible thing, called Avid, wrote on the forums and at the end of it all I ended up selling the Mbox and Pro tools.   I even had an Avid tech tell me that it wont work.... when they package it in the studio pack and show you a diagram of how to connect it to Avid... nice.