PCs and multiple midi devices

[thedonal]

Hi,

Not sure if here is the best place or the computers/games etc thread..

I'm having a bit of trouble with my PC- it won't boot if I have lots of midi devices plugged in and switched on. I know this is something to do with different USB busses on the motherboard, but I'm wondering if there is a way to manage this.

I have 2xMidiSport 4x4 plugged in. Boots OK with both plugged in at once.

If I boot with my Axiom and Blofeld plugged in too, I get a blue screen of death before Windows even starts.

Is it something as simple as changing device numbers on the Axiom/Blofeld? Would Windows 7 cope better (I'm running XP)?

I'm wondering if it's a factor in Reaper dropping all MIDI signals sometimes too...

Any advice gratefully received..

Cheers

D

 

[Lokasenna]

Looks like it's been a known issue for a number of years, but I can't find a fix.

I used to have a similar issue with my Tascam US-122 crashing Vista whenever I put the system to sleep. I just got in the habit of unplugging the Tascam whenever I wasn't doing music work.

 

[thedonal]

Cheers. Yeah- I don't think Reaper is great when it comes to dropping midi sometimes too.

All I can do for now is boot the PC with stuff switched off. But will try changing device numbers, to see if that helps...

 

[synrgy]

I eventually got tired of fighting my XP system, and upgraded to Win7 about 6 months ago.

The problem is deeper than you even describe. I can't tell you how many times I had to uninstall *all* my device drivers (and or the entire OS) and start over from scratch, because XP basically thought that if I plugged *the same device* into 4 different USB ports, that I was "installing" 4 different devices, so it took no time at all to hit their apparent driver limit before it just stopped recognizing devices altogether. Until I upgraded, most of my USB devices were very expensive paperweights. And don't even get me started on the installation limits imposed upon us by software developers like Toontrack. Every time you reinstall a piece of software on the same machine (for any number of legitimate reasons) their system presumes you're doing it on an entirely new computer...

So my suggestion is to upgrade. I spent so long taking the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach, but I didn't realize how badly 'broke' XP really was (for the purpose of using contemporary music software and peripherals), until I finally switched to 7.

 

[Grindspine]

I stuck with XP for as long as I could too, but really, it has its limits. Upgrading to Windows 7, especially a 64-bit version, will open a lot of possibilities in hardware/software compatibility. What hardware (CPU/memory/hard drive) does your current computer have?

 

[thedonal]

Cheers guys. It's a Core2Duo with 3Gb ram. Plenty of disk space if I need it and room to move stuff with a network drive too.