USB Midi Controllers Not Working On Windows 8.1 (SOLVED!) [Windows Update]

Anonymous
2013-12-13T08:10:58+00:00

Hello, I have a problem (see subject above).

I have been trying to fix it on my own but nothing seems to work.

I have never had this issue before and I have been Producing music since XP.

On Windows 8 my midi controllers worked just fine. As soon as I updated via windows store, My controllers have become unresponsive.

I have checked (And updated!) under device manager all of the Universal Serial Bus Drivers.

Everything seems to be working fine there, except when running any DAW (digital audio workstation) such as: FL Studio, Cubase, Pro Tools, Ableton, Ripper, Studio One, Reason.

The midi controllers show up as available but do not send or receive any midi messages.

Both my external Audio Interfaces work as far as Outputting sound in both Directwave and ASIO.

But midi does not.

PLEASE HELP, I do not EVER wanna be a MAC fanboy... but this Windows 8.1 update is pushing me away.

No Midi Controllers = No New music from me = Shopping around for a new system pretty soon :(

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2014-08-12T22:40:13+00:00

Description of the issue:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2014/01/21/windows-8-1-usb-midi-device-works-on-usb-2-0-port-doesn-t-work-on-usb-3-0-port.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

Fix for this issue is in August update released this morning.  Please install update.  With this fix, you don't have to apply the registry setting to workaround the problem.

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx for x86 systems.

www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx for x64 systems.

-Eliyas

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Anonymous
2014-01-10T02:17:10+00:00

We were able to repro the issue with TEXTECH INTERNATIONAL LTD. (USB\VID_15CA&PID_0101 ) MIDI device. This device works when connected to 2.0 but not on 3.0 port. We debugged the issue and found the regression.

The 3.0 host controller driver in Windows 8.1 is forwarding a MSOS descriptor query to the device and that some how causes the device to get confused. The interesting part is that the even though the device is not fully functional, it doesn't fail any I/O. So from looking at the bus trace, every thing looks good. It is this one query that is sent during initialization causes the device to sulk, and then it never internally recovers.

Windows 8 doesn't send this query.

Another thing to note is that this issue manifest only for composite devices.

Fortunately there is a registry override to inform the core USB stack to not send this query. So I request you to apply the registry setting for now to workaround the issue.  We will try to get this fix added to a future update and roll it out widely. 

Get the VID/PID/REV ID of the device from the device manager. For example, for the device I'm using the VID/PID/REV values are 15CA/0101/F110.  With that, create the following registry entry (this registry key might have been already created in some case) and set the "osvc" value to 00 00.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\usbflags\15CA0101F110\

    REG_BINARY “osvc” = 00 00

Unplug and replug the device.

Let me know the results.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-03-30T18:26:39+00:00

    Thank you Eliyas.  I'll give them a call.  I hope it doesn't cost me too much (if at all).  FYI, I had no results in USB2 as well as USB3.  I forgot to mention that in my original post.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-30T17:42:45+00:00

    No there is no update exists today to fix this issue.  The fix will be published in a future update. I'm trying to get it out soon.

    You can call Microsoft https://support.microsoft.com/ContactUs ask a service personal to help you out with setting the registry setting.

    -Eliyas

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-28T17:00:30+00:00

    Hi Eliyas,

    I see that some people have had success with your recommendations but the proposed resolution is way over my head when it comes to screwing around with files/registries...whatever, on Windows 8.1.  I'm using a cheap Yamaha YPT-210 as a controller that worked fine with Windows 7 Home Premium but fails to work with Windows 8.1 on my new laptop (HP Pavilion 17-e049wm). My laptop recognizes the controller yet no MIDI data is being received in my DAW (FL Studio Signature).  Looking at the dates on this thread it appears as though this has been an issue for quite some time.  Two questions...1) Is there a download that exists to remedy this issue yet?...This would be great since I'm not technically savvy.  2) Is there someone familiar enough with the issue that I can contact for a live one-to-one walk through of the solution either via phone or chat?

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