VMS disappears from options

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Posts: 11
Joined: February 21, 2019 - 23:34
VMS disappears from options

Just wonderng if I can collect some information about how this all works so that I can diagnose my problem.

Encore has a MIDI setup options page. Usually VMS is listed there, along with the Microsoft default and so on. But frequently (and I mean all the darn time) VMS vanishes from this list. Nothing I do brings it back. Resetting in the configurator, restarting the machine (PC) etc has no effect. So I am wondering how tools like Encore locate the presence of these devices. If I knew how this works then perhaps I can find a simple setting that I can check or some such. As it is, I have to uninstall VMS and then reinstall it to make it reappear. This always works.

I am on the latest windows, have a good PC, and keep everything up-to-date. I am an IT-aware person although retired now, but I can understand computer-speak reasonably well as I worked in IT all my life.

thanks.  (Hi Bruce Kerr!)

Bryan

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VMS disappears from options

I'll start from these 2 registry keys:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32 (only on 64bit systems)

This is where "User mode multimedia drivers" like VMS register themselves in the system.
Maybe there's something that changes thair content...

Export those keys content to a .reg file just after VMS install (when VMS is working) then wait for it to disappear and export them again.
Now you can compare them to confirm something has changed.
If yes (and this is the hardest part) you need to investigate what's changing it...

Feel free to post your exports here.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VMS disappears from options

There's another post with a similar issue than yours, maybe it worths a look:
https://coolsoft.altervista.org/en/forum/thread/773

I'm going to add a "repair feature" to VMS, so users don't need to reinstall it completely to fix these issues.

Posts: 11
Joined: February 21, 2019 - 23:34
Re: VMS disappears from options

That would be a brilliant feature. Something nice and easy to find in the configurator right? Perhaps as part of this addition you could add an option to view the current contents of those keys so that we would then know whether or not to proceed with the repair. And it might also tell us what program changed them. Or perhaps just show them. In the meantime I will take your advice and export those keys while it is working (reinstalled today and working fine right now). And I'll look at that other thread you referenced as well. Thanks a heap. Will report back.

Posts: 11
Joined: February 21, 2019 - 23:34
Re: VMS disappears from options

Aha - a likely culprit indeed. I do update the Radeon settings from time to time as the new drivers arrive. In fact there is one waiting to install right now. I'll get to it and check immediately after the update. In the meantime I can advise that VMS is registered as midi1 in both those keys. I wonder why Radeon would reset it? Seems like a bit of bad behaviour there if you ask me. Maybe we should challenge AMD with this info. Anyway, I'll report back after I install the latest Radeon updates. Thanks all.

Posts: 11
Joined: February 21, 2019 - 23:34
Re: VMS disappears from options

Bingo! As suggested, the installation of the Radeon update set all the midi drivers back to wdmaud.drv. That is really bad behaviour on their part - I may drop them a line and tell them what I think! The fix was straight-forward - using regedit, just change those keys back to VirtualMIDISynth.dll. Didn't even need to restart the machine (but of course you do need to restart the program concerned).

Such a simple thing causes so much anguish. And so unnecessary too. Thanks a heap Mr Coolsoft - problem solved.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VMS disappears from options

Added a FAQ here, waiting for the new feature to be implemented ;)

Bryan Holden wrote:
add an option to view the current contents of those keys so that we would then know whether or not to proceed with the repair

This is already available: Configurator -> About -> Debug report
It generates a debug file that contains a lot of informations, including registry keys values.

Bryan Holden wrote:
And it might also tell us what program changed them
This is not possible, there's no API to get that info from the system.
Anyway, based on the tests you've done, Radeon setup seems to be the guilty ;)

Posts: 11
Joined: February 21, 2019 - 23:34
Re: VMS disappears from options

Thanks again. Yes indeed - Radeon. I sent a rather strongly worded complaint about what I consider to be the bad behaviour of their update program. They provide an option to do this in the "update success" page. It's doubly annoying because I don't see why a process to update graphic drivers should interact in any way with audio drivers. Looking forward to this nice extension to VMS.

Posts: 19
Joined: June 16, 2016 - 19:07
Re: VMS disappears from options

My uneducated guess is that it might have something to do with the HDMI Audio driver installed along with the GPU driver. When time permits I'll ask the question on AMD's forum, because this is indeed very bad practice.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: VMS disappears from options

Just released version 2.7.0.

It adds a new feature that will check driver installation at startup and allows the user to fix it if needed.

New version can be found here.

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