Pro Tools Express cannot locate MBox2 hardware

I know this has been discussed elsewhere but the solutions discussed aren't getting me anywhere, and I'm rapidly losing hair and braincells, also completely new to all this. I have an MBox 2 which came with ProTools Express ver. 10.3.4. I got this earlier in the year, and installation seemed to work fine. I could get into ProTools no problem. Due to a change in circumstances I didn't get a chance to use it until now, except that now as Pro Tools starts it throws up the message 'cannot locate hardware...check connections etc' . The Mbox2 I'm using, has all the lights coming on, and the Mbox control panel is happy to load and shows hardware connected. I've downloaded the latest Mbox driver from Avid, I've tried different usb ports. I've tried without the ilok dongle and obviously it wont load at all that way. I'm using PC with i7 processor. Win 7.... any suggestions?