HI all
I need a bit of advice on setting up my express xt under win xp pro.
has been working fine under xp home for some years now although it was a swine to get it working i remember..
Just updated the mother board to ASUS k8v-x se put on win xp pro and the paralel port just will not see the dam xt.
I have downloaded th latest driver set, set the port to use any irq, and set the port to bi directional in bios, but no joy,
Any help or advice would be appricated ( going bold tearing hair out) lol.
Getting close to putting xp home back on..
regards phill
MIDI express xt (parallel version) xp pro install problem
Moderator: James Steele
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Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. with Windows
Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. with Windows
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Logicology
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:56 am
- Primary DAW OS: MacOS
- Location: Philadelphia
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Phill,
I'd guess it's more of a flaky driver issue than an XPPro one.
The topic came up recently regarding an MTP (all the unified driver, I believe). Check some of the details here if you haven't :
http://caps.pcrecruiter.com/MOTU/
Gotta hand it to Brain2000 for figuring that stuff out. They should give him a free interface or something (maybe a non-MOTU).
Is your box not showing any sign of life, during XP's boot sequence, or when running that god-forsaken port scan utility? There should be a brief flash (across the outputs LED's, I think) as the port gets polled. If you can get that, by running the port scanner, and then immediately open their clockworks app., it should open the panel, rather than opening with an empty box or a MIDIflyer or whatever. If that works, you should have access to all the stuff in the Clockworks panel. I don't use it myself, but you will need to keep it open, to prevent the disappearance of the interface (mine was usually gone before Nuendo finished opening).
I'm guessing that since you had it running before, your cable is the correct type, and that at least one of the port configurations works. Also guessing that you've got the "latest" 2.51 unified driver from '04 (hey, if it ain't broke...). Third guess is that this box runs the same stuff (Clockworks) as my Micro Express. When I opened mine once, the PCB said something like "MIDI Express half rack version" on it, so they're probably similar.
I run an A7N8X-E here, so we may even have some of the same port circuitry, and I run XPPro SP1 on the main studio machine. Lately my MIDI needs have been slim and I had even resorted to onboard MIDI. I've also gotten by with a 2x2 USB interface, but I'm working on building some controls and would like to ultimately have solid access to several MIDI ports. Should that happen, and the Micro gives me enough grief, I'll likely move to something else, but I can't see a different breed of MOTU MIDI being a logical solution for a Windows user. Even if the USB ones are doing OK for now, there's no telling how likely they'd be to revise the drivers, should the need arise with any future OS revisions. The fact that they had parallel boxes was the main reason I went that way. If you were stuck going USB, there are probably a few alternatives from more PC'centric companies.
Good luck with it,
George
I'd guess it's more of a flaky driver issue than an XPPro one.
The topic came up recently regarding an MTP (all the unified driver, I believe). Check some of the details here if you haven't :
http://caps.pcrecruiter.com/MOTU/
Gotta hand it to Brain2000 for figuring that stuff out. They should give him a free interface or something (maybe a non-MOTU).
Is your box not showing any sign of life, during XP's boot sequence, or when running that god-forsaken port scan utility? There should be a brief flash (across the outputs LED's, I think) as the port gets polled. If you can get that, by running the port scanner, and then immediately open their clockworks app., it should open the panel, rather than opening with an empty box or a MIDIflyer or whatever. If that works, you should have access to all the stuff in the Clockworks panel. I don't use it myself, but you will need to keep it open, to prevent the disappearance of the interface (mine was usually gone before Nuendo finished opening).
I'm guessing that since you had it running before, your cable is the correct type, and that at least one of the port configurations works. Also guessing that you've got the "latest" 2.51 unified driver from '04 (hey, if it ain't broke...). Third guess is that this box runs the same stuff (Clockworks) as my Micro Express. When I opened mine once, the PCB said something like "MIDI Express half rack version" on it, so they're probably similar.
I run an A7N8X-E here, so we may even have some of the same port circuitry, and I run XPPro SP1 on the main studio machine. Lately my MIDI needs have been slim and I had even resorted to onboard MIDI. I've also gotten by with a 2x2 USB interface, but I'm working on building some controls and would like to ultimately have solid access to several MIDI ports. Should that happen, and the Micro gives me enough grief, I'll likely move to something else, but I can't see a different breed of MOTU MIDI being a logical solution for a Windows user. Even if the USB ones are doing OK for now, there's no telling how likely they'd be to revise the drivers, should the need arise with any future OS revisions. The fact that they had parallel boxes was the main reason I went that way. If you were stuck going USB, there are probably a few alternatives from more PC'centric companies.
Good luck with it,
George
I'd assume there there are known and unknown issues with paralell port XT'S that users may be experiencing at this time.
My issues in this area have to do with losing and regaining the use of my control surface record/playback functions.
I use CakeWalk Sonar 4 along with the Peavey/CakeWalk StudioMix control surface and CakeWalk Tech Support says it may have to do with my XT Paralell port connection.
If there's anyone who has experiened similar issues I'd appreciate it if they might offer some advice as to how to troubleshoot as I am new to the forum.
S. See
My issues in this area have to do with losing and regaining the use of my control surface record/playback functions.
I use CakeWalk Sonar 4 along with the Peavey/CakeWalk StudioMix control surface and CakeWalk Tech Support says it may have to do with my XT Paralell port connection.
If there's anyone who has experiened similar issues I'd appreciate it if they might offer some advice as to how to troubleshoot as I am new to the forum.
S. See
S. See,
Are you losing *all* MIDI capability or just certain functions? "All" would sound like the same deal as me, where the MicroExpress would drop out of Nuendo. Have you tried running Clockworks in the background?
If it's just certain functions on the Peavey, and then they come back again on their own, I'm lost, but it could be related somehow to that issue with the "mangling" of SysEx streams (mentioned in that pcrecruiter link). Mine had problems with a JLCooper controller (proprietary SysEx messages), where it would send it corrupt data as well, but I have used it (the MOTU) with standard MIDI CC messages from a Peavey PC1600X and some other stuff with no obvious corruption. I'm not sure how much of that is software and how much is firmware, or whether it's the same exact bug across several interfaces, just keep in mind that it may have issues there. My JLCooper worked perfectly on a secondary machine running 98SE with the MOTU, so the notorious 2K/XP hacked driver is a prime suspect on that one.
Best route is obviously to try it for a while with a cheap MPU401 circuit on a soundcard or something, to make sure it really is nothing to do with Sonar itself.
Take Care,
George
Are you losing *all* MIDI capability or just certain functions? "All" would sound like the same deal as me, where the MicroExpress would drop out of Nuendo. Have you tried running Clockworks in the background?
If it's just certain functions on the Peavey, and then they come back again on their own, I'm lost, but it could be related somehow to that issue with the "mangling" of SysEx streams (mentioned in that pcrecruiter link). Mine had problems with a JLCooper controller (proprietary SysEx messages), where it would send it corrupt data as well, but I have used it (the MOTU) with standard MIDI CC messages from a Peavey PC1600X and some other stuff with no obvious corruption. I'm not sure how much of that is software and how much is firmware, or whether it's the same exact bug across several interfaces, just keep in mind that it may have issues there. My JLCooper worked perfectly on a secondary machine running 98SE with the MOTU, so the notorious 2K/XP hacked driver is a prime suspect on that one.
Best route is obviously to try it for a while with a cheap MPU401 circuit on a soundcard or something, to make sure it really is nothing to do with Sonar itself.
Take Care,
George
The loss of use of the control surfaceo only happens at indiscriminate times. I will have to continue to wacth it and make sure that I only use it alone as my method of transport.
Then perhaps I can determine better what particular circumstance triggers control surface to lose function. And yes it loses all functions when it quits.
S. See
Then perhaps I can determine better what particular circumstance triggers control surface to lose function. And yes it loses all functions when it quits.
S. See
I'd try to keep Clockworks open to be safe. Sounds like mine disappears a lot faster than yours without it. I'm not sure how much of a headache you're looking at, trying to see what knocks it offline though. Could be something way into the inner workings of the system/OS, rather than the obvious "user activity" (or lack thereof).
I really wished they hadn't dumped support for those boxes when 2K came out (and no the current mess doesn't qualify as "supporting" an OS). Parallel is a nice thing when it's supported, and the Mac people lost the serial ports, not all of us.
FWIW- Back when I was more into this topic, I was reading and corresponding with people on exactly how the 2K/XP support for those boxes got so flaky. From what I remember, all indications were that the core code really wasn't written for the way that those OS's handle the port, and rather than rewriting a proper driver (or set of drivers), they hacked some rather old routines to make them work (sometimes). As I'm not a programmer, it was a bit over my head, but some of it made sense to me. It's a shame Arth doesn't have one. We could probably get some pretty good insight on it, but I wouldn't wish the potential trouble on anyone.
George
I really wished they hadn't dumped support for those boxes when 2K came out (and no the current mess doesn't qualify as "supporting" an OS). Parallel is a nice thing when it's supported, and the Mac people lost the serial ports, not all of us.
FWIW- Back when I was more into this topic, I was reading and corresponding with people on exactly how the 2K/XP support for those boxes got so flaky. From what I remember, all indications were that the core code really wasn't written for the way that those OS's handle the port, and rather than rewriting a proper driver (or set of drivers), they hacked some rather old routines to make them work (sometimes). As I'm not a programmer, it was a bit over my head, but some of it made sense to me. It's a shame Arth doesn't have one. We could probably get some pretty good insight on it, but I wouldn't wish the potential trouble on anyone.
George
Hi and thanks for the feed back.
No sign of life whatsoever, like you said usually the inouts flash when i scan the port.
It's as though the drivers didnt install, it used to drop off on xp home but only ever at boot up time, scan the port and it woud be there. never had a problem with it going off during a session.
Im going to try starting from scratch iE wiping the hard drive and a total reinstall of everything, this asus board is a nightmare plugged in my digital adio i/o card and it turns off the onboard sound, like io want the windows sounds coming through the digi i/o when recording lol. had to plug in a seperate card.
It coud be something strange with the parralel port so gonna buy a plug in parralel card to try first. (worth a try)
Moto replyioed with the usuall install instructions and if it still didnt work to notify them!!!!!!
regards phill
No sign of life whatsoever, like you said usually the inouts flash when i scan the port.
It's as though the drivers didnt install, it used to drop off on xp home but only ever at boot up time, scan the port and it woud be there. never had a problem with it going off during a session.
Im going to try starting from scratch iE wiping the hard drive and a total reinstall of everything, this asus board is a nightmare plugged in my digital adio i/o card and it turns off the onboard sound, like io want the windows sounds coming through the digi i/o when recording lol. had to plug in a seperate card.
It coud be something strange with the parralel port so gonna buy a plug in parralel card to try first. (worth a try)
Moto replyioed with the usuall install instructions and if it still didnt work to notify them!!!!!!
regards phill