Can I get MIDI input through the game port in Windows XP?

April 4, 2004 4:01 AM

MIDI input through the game port in Windows XP - does this actually still work, or is it just me? [More Inside]

I've just bought a new PC, but am having trouble connecting my MIDI controlled keyboard through the game port. I've disabled the onboard sound system, because it doesn't actually have a games port, and I've tried both a Yamaha DS-XG soundcard and a Creative AudioPCI sound card - but in both cases, it claims the game port won't work because of resource conflicts (but different I/O addresses are the problem with each card). The soundcards themselves work fine, just not the 15-pin connector.

Now I don't have that much in my system that would hog hardware resources - standard setup: a network card, AGP video card and a soundcard, and I've disabled the onboard sound. I've tried the soundcards in different PCI slots, and with new drivers, but to no avail. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be? Looking around the net and the Microsoft site in recent days, there seems to be very little mention of connecting MIDI through the gameport - it all seems to be USB these days, which requires a curiously expensive adapter. It's a bit depressing when I got a new PC to reduce latency times when making music!

posted by Jimbob to technology (5 comments total)

MIDI through the Game Port should be a breeze--I do it all the time with my controller. Get to the device manager (control panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager, at least in classic view, or right click My Computer and go to properties), go down to 'Sound, video, and game controllers'. I'm guessing you'll see a Game Port with a little yellow and black exclamation point. If you hit properties and go to the Resources tab, it should tell you what it's conflicting with.

If not, I'm at a loss, because I've never once had an issue with the game port conflicting with something else. The only thing I can think of would be the onboard sound, but like you said, you disabled it.
posted by angry modem at 8:07 AM on April 4, 2004

Well that's the problem - I look at the properties for the device, and although there is a resource conflict, it doesn't tell me what the resource is conflicting with, which is quite unusual. Changing the I/O range to different values continues to tell me simply that there is still a conflict - and this happens with both soundcards.

It's also strange that when I use the default Microsoft drivers for the Yamaha card, I get a resource conflict, but if I use the updated Yamaha drivers, the properties box tells me "This device uses no resources"...then "This device cannot start", which is a different situation again.
posted by Jimbob at 5:28 PM on April 4, 2004

The onboard gameport may be a separate option from the onboard sound in your BIOS. Look harder? :-)
posted by shepd at 4:44 AM on April 5, 2004

The onboard gameport doesn't exist physically in this universe! The basic PC doesn't actually have a gameport, hence my trying to use the gameport on a separate PCI soundcard.
posted by Jimbob at 3:41 PM on April 5, 2004

Although I should note that it is a separate option in the BIOS, but I switched it off too (...despite it not even being a physical bit of hardware).
posted by Jimbob at 3:45 PM on April 5, 2004