Windows XP MIDI Device Limitation

Last updated on 3/31/2016

The information in this article applies to:

  • V-Studio 700

All versions of Windows NT, 2000 and XP maintain an internal list of 32-bit MIDI and wave drivers.  Windows only allows for a maximum entry of 10 devices on each list.  Once the maximum of 10 devices is hit the list will not reset or allow additional device drivers to be added. Unfortunately this is a limitation of Windows and not something that can be fixed by the driver installation. V-Studio users are at a higher risk of experiencing this issue if MIDI device drivers were installed on the computer prior to the V-Studio as the V-Studio driver has a total of 7 MIDI ports.

How can I tell if this limitation is affecting me?

The quickest and easiest way to check is from within SONAR:

  1. click Options | MIDI Devices 
  2. under both 'Inputs' & 'Outputs' check all the MIDI devices you have listed
  3. click the [OK] button, the dialog will close
  4. click Options | MIDI Devices again to return to the dialog
  5. check to verify that all of your MIDI inputs and outputs are still enabled - if any have become de-selected then please continue reading.

How can I fix this?

There are two ways to correct this problem.  It is highly recommended that device drivers be re-installed after using either method.

Simple Fix - M-Audio has created a utility that will remove the list of previously installed MIDI devices.  Cakewalk does not make any claims to the reliability nor is it officially supported but our support team has found it useful in correcting this issue.  You can download this utility here.

Advanced Fix - This can be addressed by manually editing the registry.  If you are not comfortable with editing the registry or have not done it before, be sure to back up your registry first by clicking File | Export and setting the "Export Range" to "All"

  1. Open the run prompt by clicking START | RUN
  2. Type the following into the prompt: regedit
  3. Click [OK], this will open the Registry Editor
  4. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32
  5. Clicking on the Drivers32 key will display a list of entries in the right pane
  6. Locate the entries with the name midi, midi1, midi2, midi3 etc..
  7. In the 'Data' field the name of the driver will be listed
  8. Duplicates and unused entries can be deleted by right-clicking on the entry and choosing 'Delete'
  9. Once all duplicates (or all midi entries) have been cleared out close the Registry Editor and then re-install your device drivers

 

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