Win7x64 USB driver hassles!

[Duggle]

I've used my GM5 midi interface with the Ploytec drivers for many years without issue (Win7x64 PC). 

I've recently resurrected an old Midibox NG (LPC17) project and am having much difficulty getting it to work reliably or at all with it's usb midi (on same machine).

I've ensured that the bootstrap setting of set single_usb 1 to eliminate the possibility of the windows/usb multiple connections issue.

I find that the NG is bound to the GM5 driver. I found that this midibox NG project connected properly to a laptop (win7x64) that had never seen the GM5 drivers.

Is there a way to force this midibox NG  to bind to the legacy (non GM5) drivers?

Are the newer Ploytec drivers appropriate for this situation?

Thanks for any suggestions or comments.

[latigid on]

Seems like a German has the same issue:

 

I don't use any LPC Cores, nor do I run Win7. But it's a constant struggle with this OS; the invisible hand of constant updates borks everything from touchpad controllers to audio playback to MIDI drivers.

My non-scientific solution was a mix of disabling/removing/reinstalling drivers until I got it to stick. 

Sorry that I don't have more help to offer...

 

 

 

 

[Duggle]

Thanks for chiming in.  Windows 7x64 has been really good to me overall, but I think weaknesses in USB midi are well known.

First of all, I could use the installed GM5 driver with the bootloader jumper J27 closed. If I then flashed NG, I could use it for the remainder of the session until re-boot or reconnect. It wouldn't work and the computer would hang during "shutting down..." at restart/shutdown.

I ran the GM5 un-installer a few times but the NG would come up with the GM5 driver in device manager. To eradicate it I followed this:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-remove-old-unused-device-drivers-in-windows-7

basically with NG not connected, reboot, make unused devices visible in device manager then from there uninstall and check "delete driver files".

Now the NG comes up as a device with the name I gave it in the bootloader rather than "Midibox.org GM5".

It seems to work well!

Does anyone know what Windows 10 is like for USB midi?

Edited October 7, 2016 by Duggle

[Altitude]

 I havent had issues on 10 or 10AU but I am using the ploytec driver (1.3.3 IIRC), I DID have issues with the "Midibox GM5" one which is 2 version older than the current one.  That being said, I still have the GM5 disappearing issue with multiple interfaces (I have 3 5x5s), I had some correspondence with ploytec about this and he said it was a USB hub issue with my motherboard but I dont buy that, it's a bug with the chip for sure.  I've had these interfaces across 4 motherboards, various add-in USB cards, different hubs, 4 operating systems and the issue persists without fail.  It's a nuisance more than anything but it would be nice if they acknowledged and fixed it.

Edited October 7, 2016 by Altitude

[Duggle]

4 hours ago, Altitude said:

  I am using the ploytec driver (1.3.3 IIRC), I DID have issues with the "Midibox GM5" one which is 2 version older than the current one.  

Is that the one that says it's for Midijunction iii (or something)? 

Have you had issues with core32's  enumerating as GM5?

[Altitude]

I havent used a core32 in a long time so I cant comment on that but yes, the midijunction drivers.  The current STM core works fine

[kilius]

Im the german who have this problem too ;)
After some weeks trying I gave up. Now im using my old XP Laptop for this. Im sorry

[Duggle]

I'm contemplating upgrading to Windows 10.

At the moment I cannot use my NG core and my Gm5 at the same time, the enumeration and device names are wrong if I boot with both connected, and neither will function!

I can live without multiple midi endpoints with my NG project but to not be able to use GM5 at the same time will not do.

So I'm considering the radical step of win10. I suppose I can roll it back to win7 if something else is broken.

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm still very interested in this topic of how to get midi USB drivers working right with midibox cores and Gm5 etc, under win7 and win10.

Comments appreciated!

 

[Hawkeye]

Personally, i can recommend Windows 10 over Windows 7 MIDI-USB wise, i have a machine with a connected mbseq v4, the mbprogramma and the mbloopa, all can be used simulatenously,  no additional USB drivers installed. Sometimes, there are some hickups during device detection in MIOS studio, port rescans help... No experience with GM5, though...

A recommendation for the update, if you have another harddisk (even an old laptop drive), just clone your existing win 7 disk, then upgrade, the rollback is as easy as swapping the drive or cloning back :-).

Many greets,
Peter

[Duggle]

Great, that's what I was hoping to hear!

Do you have any cores set up with 

set single_usb 0

The overly permissive privacy settings of win10 can be opted out of if one takes the time to do this (I will).

The clone style backup is a good idea ( I use Windows backup image on C:/) I understand there is a rollback option as part of the upgrade process as well.

 

 

[Hawkeye]

Hey Duggle,

I've nothing set up with "set single_usb 0" here, but just tested again (thought it would be wise, after a million windows system updates in the last year or so), and Win 10 seems to be partially bad for me again - while all MIDIbox USB devices are properly detected and listed in MIOS studio, i can always only talk to a single device at a time (even when there are 12 usb midi ports visible, always the same unit will answer)... I also tried installing the ploytec gm5 drivers, but they would not even install (afterwards I read, they were not supported for STM32F4 anyways), so multi-MIDIbox-usb is still problematic in windoze land, sorry!

For my usecase, win 10 it is still better than running windows 7, because at least all devices, when connected one at a time are always detected,  i will simply switch off the other MIDIboxes i don't need to talk to.

Maybe setting "single_usb 0" would help here. But, as a conclusion, if you only need to talk to a single MIDIbox device at a time, Win 10 works great (much more stable than Win 7 detecting stuff, i have two STM32F4s and one STM32F1 here and there was no problem yet. Only sometimes you need to "query" multiple times within MIOS Studio, until you get a response, but that is an old problem).

For Win10, there are also auto-privacy tools, that let you disable all the "M$ talking home" stuff in a few minutes.
Other than that, you might want to consider installing a Hackintosh or Linux (if you can get the software you are used to for these platforms).

Many greets,
Peter

 

[Duggle]

Thanks for the update. 

Single_usb 0 allows multiple USB ports per core which can be useful but didn't work in Windows. Could be OK in win 10 .

I may try Windows 10 and midijunctioniii driver with my gm5, and ploytec gm5 driver with my lpc17 based midibox ng (ie, a multi client driver)

 

[Duggle]

I've upgraded to Windows 10 x64.

The midibox ploytec driver fails with an error after connecting the GM5 during driver installation.

The midijunction II 1.3.3 driver fails to see the GM5 during installation. (I can't seem to find were I downloaded the driver from....?)

In both cases I explicitly deleted the default device driver before attempting installation.

If I simply connect the GM5 it shows in MIOS Studio as:

"Ploytec GM5 www.midibox.org" as the first port,

"MIDIIN2 (Ploytec GM5 www.midibo" as the second

"MIDIIN3 (Ploytec GM5 www.midibo" as the third, etc, up to MIDIIN5

now if I plug in my midibox NG as well (usb name: Beast NGb), suddenly (WTF???) MIOS Studio sees the GM5 as "Beast NGb" (port1), "MIDIIN2  (Beast NGb)" (port2), etc,etc. as well as this there is a sixth device listed as "Beast NGb" which I thought might be the actual midibox NG but no, the GM5 port 1 responds to this selection in MIOS Studio.

It is as though the system can't tell the difference between the midibox NG and the GM5 interface.

TK (or anyone!) if you're reading this, is there anything in the programming of my NG core (lpc17) that would make it possible for the system to seriously confuse the 2 different devices???