Akai APC 40 help please!!!

[alicemusik]

Could not found any LowerFilters in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

But I found some elsewhere deleted the first one (can't remember where it was) and that doesn't fixed it, there are several other LowerFilters in criticaldevicedatabase but I don't want to touch it. Hey! We are not supposed to play into that! The APC 40 should have been tested on Windows systems and apparently they failed. I have several other midi controllers and they are all working fine on my windows os without any hack into the registry. That is a sad story.

[arcadekid]

I recommend that you contact akai tech support.

support@akaipro.com

or

https://www.akaipro.com/content1024

or

401.658.4032

apc40 is plug in play, it uses USB Audio CODEC which is built into WIndows + Mac OS X. It is a driver that should be present and operational on your computer.

Every once in a while PC users have conflicts because of another device which also uses USB audio CODEC, or because of a device that may have written an extra file to the USB audio Codec driver file location, such as a Logitech or Labtech webcam.

That is where these registry type solutions come into play. You would only resort to that after you had tried everything else (disconnecting other USB devices, for example)

does your APC40 work on a different computer?

I'd recommend calling/ emailing akai tech support for more help

[alicemusik]

My APC40 is now working. I've uninstalled automap 3.0 (Novation) and my RME Fireface400. Not sure which one was the culprit for the moment. BTW, I've sent an email to Akai support and I've never heard from them (it's been 2 weeks...).
Thanks for you replies guys!

[dontask100]

Dang! Your post from your Akai rep is helpful but makes for a difficult search. Allow me to add for keyword clarity to future searches:
AKAI Technical Support does not recommend connecting the AKAI APC40 to a USB Hub. Rather, make a direct USB connection from the APC40 to your computer's USB.

answered my question. Akai recommends a direct usb connection to your box

i just got a response from akai. no epiphanies just yet, pretty basic troubleshooting...

---

Thank you for your interest in Akai Professional.Sorry to hear about your trouble with our product. So you have an XP computer w/ SP3. Laptop or Desktop? What USB ports are you connecting too? Are you using a Hub? What have you tried in terms of your own troubleshooting, so far?

Please connect directly to the rear USB ports of your computer.
Do not connect through a hub.
Do not connect through front USB ports, keyboard USB ports, or monitor USB ports.
Please disconnect all other USB devices other than a keyboard and mouse.
Try and use the APC40, does it work now?
Try a different USB cable.
Try and use the APC40, does it work now?
Do you or have you ever had a Logitech or labtech camera?
Have you tried to use the APC40 on a different USB cable? Please try this.

---

Update: I just got off the phone from AKAI. If you have previously installed a Logitech web camera, the device drivers conflict with the basic windows drivers used for the APC40. They are emailing me a zip file with an executable that will uninstall the Logitech drivers. I'll report back when I try this out.

[flashy12]

My goal is to be able to use my apc 40 and mpk49 at the same time on my dell inspirion desktop running windows XP. Right now only one of them will work at a time on that computer. it picks them up as 'usb audio device" 1 or 2 or 3 but even setting them on separate ports still will only work if one of them is not plugged in.. It has got to be a windows xp issue
also the windows xp computer is brand new out of the box ableton live 8 is the only program i have installed since takiing it out of the box.. no cameras or other stuff....

on my laptop, which is a dell inspiron with windows xp, it works flawlessly and true plug & play both apc 40 & mpk49 work at same time so i know it is not a hardware issue..

i e-mailed ableton support and akai support with the same plea for assistance so i will see who responds 1st.


If they could just send a driver for xp or make it available for download or each other's sites that would be great.



I want to keep them hooked to the desktop and not have to keep hooking/unhooking to the laptop as it travels with me daily

[Sandstorm]

Hi all,
I just got my APC 40. Got the Ableton APC software installed, but the pc (windows XP) doesn't recognise the APC. In the Ableton preferences I can't select the APC as input and output in the Midi sync tab.
I read about this problem here. I have no Logitech stuff installed, only an Logickeyboard for Pro Tools and a Digidesign M Box 2 for Pro Tools.
Can someone help me fix the problem, because in this way It's no plug and play and I can't use the APC.
I've tried using different USB ports and cables and turning on/off/ installing equipment in various orders.

[gordontinnitus]

I have exactly the same prob as Sandstorm... Same setup too.. thought it might have been the Mbox interfering but it doesn't install the driver when it's unplugged either...

I know it's not the APC 40 cos it works on my Mac no probs. Definitely a windows only problem.

[ark]

Yeh ive tried rebooting, it appears to me that the driver for the apc is not installing correctly. I've treid removing it from device manager and every time it reinstalls as USB Audio Device. Iss this correct or should it appear in device manager as APC 40?

It is correct.

[gordontinnitus]

Sandstorm : I believe our particular problem may be caused by a conflict between the apc and mbox drivers. I have my machine's system disk partitioned into two, one for internet etc and the other for my audio apps.

I was able to install the apc40 drivers on the side of the system that had never had the mbox installed on it before. I then tried to install the mbox drivers AFTER the apc 40 drivers were installed (the plan was to install all my audio apps on the partition that the apc40 was working on) but the mbox drivers now will not install.

It looks like I will have to use one or the other so I have one partition for protools and one for ableton. Bit of a ball-ache but that's the only way I have managed to get it to work. If you come up with an easier solution please let me know!

Gordon

[Sandstorm]

Thanks for your answer. But my disc has only one partition. So can I add another one without having to format it and install everything all over again? I heard about programs to do that, but there's no guarantuee that things won't get messed up. By the way: does it now work OK for you with drivers of Ableton and M box on different partitions?
Anyway: APC 40 has no drivers..right?

Cheers Sandstorm

[gordontinnitus]

i got pissed off with it all and reformatted my entire disc. I currently have both working at the same time, basically when I installed windows I had all my gear plugged in and turned on, so when windows had finished installing the devices were all recognised... (by the way apc does have drivers but they are just standard ones that come pre-installed with windows)... then installed the Mbox drivers first. This is obviously a lot of hassle to go to. If you want to partition your disc you can use partition magic to do it BUT i highly recommend backing up first. I once destroyed all the partition information with it which was irritating. I got all my data back but only after running drive recovery software. And even then it was messy and unsorted (lots of files had different names etc).

You could try doing a windows repair install over your existing one, perhaps that would help? I'd still backup first though.

Best of Luck

GoRdon

[evolwizard]

P.s. I'm thinking about putting that piece of junk on Ebay very soon because it's seriously wasting my time.

how much you want for it?

[Fuzzytk]

thankgod for macs

[Popeye]

Hi guys,
same prob, which you described all.
What I did, I wrote yesterday to AKAI tech support, I received a e-mail with two attachments (USB audio codec files & Logitech Camera Fix) today with the following, which I like to share:
If you have a Logitech webcam, or have ever had one, we do have a fix for you.
First, uninstall Logitech driver software
Unattach the apc and reattach it, try and use it
* Try and record – does this solve your problem?
Run all windows updates and service pack updates
Unattach the apc and reattach it, try and use it
* Try and record – does this solve your problem?
Attached is the Logitech webcam fix -
Try running the fix, or manually removing lvusbsta.sys if you have vista and have that file.
Customers who do have or have once hooked up a Logitech or Labtech webcam sometimes have to use the Logitech camera fix. There is an autofix reg tool for XP customers in the attachment. Vista customers would have to determine if they have the extra file then manually delete it.
What happens is Logitech webcams also use the USB audio codec driver, but in addition to using the driver they leave an additional file in that driver location usually called lvusbsta.sys. Sometimes it is called something else, but just look at the list of files that should be there on the PDF and if there is a file in addition, then you know it is the problem file. What this means is that the computer thinks any USB audio codec device is a Logitech webcam and the APC40 won’t show up in Ableton as it needs to.

So you can run the auto fix in XP or if you have Vista you go delete the extra file not on the list of files in the PDF. (usually it’s called lvusbsta.sys)
Unattach the apc and reattach it, try and use it
* Try and record – does this solve your problem?

Attached are usb audio codec files in case those are missing or
The USB Audio codec files are also attached. Sometimes the USB audio codec files, and/or the INF PNF files that initialize the USB audio codec are missing altogether on a customer’s machine. Usually the symptom you would see would be that the hardware wizard would pop up and say – cannot recognize the device, device drivers cannot be found, or unknown device, or please load the disk that came with the device. The hardware wizard isn’t supposed to run at all and ask you to take action. Normally, you just plug in the APC40 and the computer quickly figures out what to do with the device, it uses USB Audio Codec and the customer doesn’t have to take any action. It’s a ‘plug and play device”

Try to get the USB Audio Codec files, this helped in my case.
Bye
PopEye

[DJ Jun]

Hey guys,
I had the same problem where my hp laptop (xp) was not recognizing the apc40. However, my emachines tower (win 2000) had no problem. I did some research on the web and came across this post:

"The solution to usb audio codec problem:
In the c:\windows\inf folder there must exist two files:
wdma_usb.inf
wdma_usb.PNF
It is really the .inf file that is important. Some software seems to knock these out by renaming them to:
wdma_usbinf.bak
wdma_usbpnf.bak
I simply made a copy of the two files above and renamed the copies to the correct names, restarted my pc just to be safe, and then the USB Audio device was correctly detected next time I plugged it in.
Note that the inf file refernces the file
c\windows\system32\drivers\usbaudio.sys
which must also be present, as well as some other supporting files. But these are most likely present. So it's prob the .inf file which got renamed or deleted. You can also copy these files from another pc which has them."

After reading this I went into windows explorer and compared the c:\windows\inf folder on both pc's and noticed that my emachines tower had the two files (wdma_usbinf.bak & wdma_usbpnf.bak), but my hp laptop did not. I just copied them over and then my laptop recognized the apc40 right away.

I hope this helps someone.

-Jun