MBP 2011 won't recognize Roland PC-300 USB MIDI keyboard

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MBP 2011 won't recognize Roland PC-300 USB MIDI keyboard

I just bought a new MacBook Pro 15" (2011) and my Roland ED PC-300 MIDI keyboard is not recognized. I installed the latest driver (v1.3.0) but it doesn't show up as a device in the Audio MIDI Setup Utility. I called Roland US and was told that there was never a Snow Leopard driver update (and that there really was no future hope of one being written due to the fact that it's a legacy devce ~10 years old). The crazy thing is that the PC-300 works on my early 2008 MBP with the same driver under the same OS (10.6.6). The only thing I can think of is that when I updated my old MBP from 10.5 to 10.6, I didn't do a clean install, only an update. So all of my settings (including my MIDI devices in Audio MIDI setup) were migrated forward.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled the driver and repaired permissions, but no luck. I've copied the ...user/Library/Audio/MIDI Configurations/Default.mcfg file from my old MBP to the new one-- all of the device icons show up, including the PC-300, but it's still not recognized as a device.

So Mac Brainiacs, what am I missing here? Why is it not recognized using the same driver and OS as on the old MBP? Is there something else besides the driver that gets installed and is necessary for its function?

MBP (2011) 15", Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 8, 2011 8:13 PM

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Answer 1

beatsan

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Mar 15, 2011 1:29 AM in response to floobygoop

Exactly the same problem here. Solutions would be very much appreciated!

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Answer 2

moliva

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Apr 1, 2011 2:55 AM in response to floobygoop

Exactly the same problem here too - not working on the new machine, fine on my 2 year old machine, same software, same driver, same OS - someone please help...

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Answer 3

praha994

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Apr 23, 2011 9:23 AM in response to floobygoop

again the same problem... it goes perfectly with my MBP 15' 2.2 Ghz (2008) but nothing with my new MBP 13' 2.3 Ghz (2011). i guess we can use again our pc-300 with any external midi interface cable.

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Answer 4

praha994

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Apr 25, 2011 2:54 AM in response to floobygoop

tried with an external midi interface, model roland um-1. no way! it seems that is just the pc-300's hardware not compatible with our new mbp i5/i7.

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Answer 5

cjani86

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Jun 12, 2011 6:51 AM in response to floobygoop

Hey guys,

I was having the exact same problem with my PC-300 and have found a solution so I thought I'd share it here. The difference is I was trying to get it to work on a new Mac Pro (not Macbook Pro) so it might not work for you... but worth a try.

Turns out my machine was running in 64 bit mode, not 32. Apparently the driver is not compatible with 64 bit mode. Copied from some Apple docs:

Use the System Profiler to determine if you're running a 64-bit kernel.

From the Apple () menu, choose About this Mac, then click More Info.
In the Contents pane, select Software.
If 64-bit Kernel and Extensions is set to Yes, you are running a 64-bit kernel.

(n.b... check to see if this is the case on the computer that it DOES work... I found that I had this set to "no").

To select the 32-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

As soon as I did this and rebooted, the PC-300 works fine 🙂

For more info see these docs:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4287?viewlocale=en_US

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2937?viewlocale=en_US

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3773

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Answer 6

kolek3k

Level 1

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Jul 16, 2011 6:14 AM in response to cjani86

Hey,

i was having same problem too with my USB dirvers and Roland MC-808 on my MBP early 2011, but this solved my problem! thank you a lot!!

the easiest way to solve this problem is to hold keys 2 and 3 while booting up and the OSX will startup in 32bit mode and everything just start to work 🙂

thank you cjani86!!!

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Answer 7

cjani86

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Jul 24, 2011 8:13 PM in response to kolek3k

No probs 🙂

I think if you hold down those keys while booting it will only run in 32 bit for that boot. If you restart your machine again it will go back to 64 bit (if that is your default) (*I think*). Doing the terminal thing makes it stay in 32 bit mode, so you don't have to think about holding down the 3 and 2 keys every time you restart 😀

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Answer 8

Oct 3, 2013 3:08 PM in response to cjani86

Use the System Profiler to determine if you're running a 64-bit kernel.

From the Apple () menu, choose About this Mac, then click More Info.
In the Contents pane, select Software.
If 64-bit Kernel and Extensions is set to Yes, you are running a 64-bit kernel.

I'm having trouble here. Under software I see several subheadings: Accesibility, Aplications, Components etc.... I can go to to Extensions (one of the subheadings) but I don't see "64-bit kernel" anywhere. I do see a list of extensions and the collumn 64-Bit (Intel) are all set to Yes. Does this mean I'm still running 64 bit? I tried the terminal command and the holding down 2 and 3 trick, and no luck! I tried the uname -m command which tells me my processor is running 64-bit. Is that the same thing?

I appreciate any help you can give me. I'm really frustrated!

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