Avid and iLok can go f@&k each other up the @ss all the way straight to Hell for all I care!!!! I hate both companies and I wouldn't so much as piss on any employee even if they were on fire!!!!!

 

Not experienced problems with this particular setup, However I have had some very similar experiences with plenty of USB devices before. As far as sleep mode goes, there is a setting somewhere (cant remember where) to allow USB devices to stay awake when sleep mode occurs. That will resolve one part of the problem, the other one is unwittingly your mistake. When you disconnect a USB device, the ONLY way to do so correctly, is by using the removal wizard in the icon tray. Merely unplugging it doesn't tell the computer it's disconnected so it believes it has malfunctioned.

Hope this helped.


EDIT:- I just read your question again. Oh sod it you're on a mac. Please disregard everything I've said UNLESS there's a chance a MAC will interact with USB in a similar fashion. If not I apologise.

 

Now if only I could remember what the Avid MBox driver was called so I could kill it...