No MIDI connection available
How do I proceed to get an external MIDI port in Windows XP Home system device manager?
My setup is as follows:
A simple MIDI Keyboard without its own Windows software. A normal PC with a game port which I want to use as MIDI in /out interface. The soundcard is REALtek onboard soundsystem, newest driver are installed.
No sequencer software will detect this game port / MIDI port connection.
It probably doesn’t exist. My guess is that you will have the MS GS software synth as output but no input MIDI. I have a machine at work that has a RealTek onboard so I can check it when I get there. It’s a 64 bit machine though. I don’t remember seeing MIDI on it. I also have a Dell that has an onboard SoundMax. It has MIDI either. Those are both AC-97 chips.
FYI: I have a Dell OEM Audigy 2. It as well has no external MIDI at all. It has Creative’s onboard synths as output MIDI devices, but there is not one MIDI input available. The bad thing about this is that the documentation that comes with it is Creative’s standard docs, and Dell’s website points back to Creative for online support. There is nothing wrong with this card. The reason it has no external MIDI is because it’s a Dell OEM and the specs for it are different than Creative’s retail version of the same-named card. Even if you if you hook up everything just like Creative’s docs say to use external MIDI it will never work because the chip has been zapped so it is never detected by software.
I mention this because AC-97 chips, like the RealTek and SoundMax, will handle MIDI I/O if the manufacturer hasn’t intentionally disabled them.
You might want to try the Intel AC-97 Reference Driver. It’s a basic AC-97 driver that should work with any AC-97 chip, like yours. It might cause MIDI input to kick in.
Hmmm… my DAW box at home has a SoundMAX branded, onboard card. It uses the AC97 chips. No MIDI input here either. Before I bought an EMU card, I had an M-Audio Duosport 2x2 USB MIDI interface. Worked great.
TG
Just a thought ,have you looked in the bios for possible gameport / midi settings.
Nick