Ableton Forum

Macbook Pro: OS 10.11.6
Ableton 9.7.1
Max 7.3.1

Both my Keith McMillen SoftStep (1st gen) and APC40 (first gen) are losing communication with my laptop. I find myself having to unplug the controllers and plug them back in before things can start moving again. Needless to say, this has made my last couple performances... sweaty and irritating...

I feel like I should mention that I rely heavily on Max4Live to hack the APC40. Not sure if this has anything to do with it... I really hope not...

... I actually don't use any (literally none) of the default controls of the APC40. Is there a way to turn off the whole APC40 secret handshake with Ableton thing? could that be what's causing it?

first suspects would have to be USB cables. also, are you using an external USB hub?

I am not using a usb hub. Can't stand the things... they never work out.

I did swap out a cable on the SoftStep a while back and that solved some issues. I'll do the same for the APC and see what's good. Although, I find it strange that the SoftStep was loosing communication too when I know the cable is not to blame here.

Sometimes USB devices get sent to sleep (Windows) - my softstep2 was having problems and I discovered this (er, didn't actually solve my softstep problem but it was good to know).

Softstep support always blame the cable first BTW.

Maybe this will help:
http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-xp-tips ... sb-device/