Hey guys,

So, I'm on Windows 10.

I have an Acorn Masterkey 61 MIDI keyboard. I've been using it for years.

Yesterday, I moved my computer and connected it to another USB port, and suddenly it doesn't work.

I get an error popup saying "the last usb device you connected to this computer malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it "

When I check in device manager, it's right there under "Universal Bus Controllers", named as "Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed), with a yellow "trouble" sign beside it.

I swear to you. I've googled for hours before making this post. Tried all possible fixes I could find. Nothing worked.

And yes, the keyboard is working. Just tried it on my Ubuntu notebook and it worked normally.

Before you ask, it's a plug and play device. It doesn't have any specific drivers I could uninstall/reinstall.

Does anyone here knows how to fix it?

Thanks in advance!

VVVV SOLVED VVVV

 

Last edited: Oct 24, 2019

Try (if you haven't already) unplug USB, restart PC, after fully loaded, plug USB back in.
When I've ever seen this:

Windows disables the USB hardware until it's restarted.
If you see the message again after plugging back in, try the power cycle again, but plug into a different USB port until you find one that works.
Maybe look into the chipset drivers update/bios update if this is a recurrent thing.

 

This can help a lot:
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

 

try

Spoiler: this

 

Thanks man,
I've tried this, but it didn't work.

 

Possibly the whole USB bus has a hickup.
I would unplug all USB devices close down windows and unplug power cable and press power a minute while PC is unplugged (to make sure everything is without power inside the PC)
Restart PC and plug in one USB device after the other in the same ports as before.

Consider the USB cable is broken. I've had this last week with a USB-LAN adapter

 

Last edited: Oct 24, 2019

Nice little utility, but all it does is showing the device with a "red light" beside it...I've no idea how to fix it.

 

I believe your Windows fucks up power management, so perhaps this is what you might wanna try as well:


EDIT: my idea of how I understand the issue is, plugging a class-compliant device requires 2-way "initialization" which if by any means fails (perhaps some fancy eco-friendly bullsh!t stuff or any other cause for insufficient voltage in usb bus chain, which sadly nowadays is software/kernel dependant) can simply "cutoff" your keyboard due to being considered nonexistent for system to look at

@twoheart let me explain my "troll-post" above actually IS the easy solution - I was experiencing very similar issue, where certain usb external drives randomly failed to show up in Windows, as soon as I installed MacOS on the very same computer (same motherboard, same BIOS settings, same usb ports..), I have never ever experienced the issue again (and also I was able to "remove" drive from MacOS and "add" it again without physically replugging it), so apparently there IS something done different in terms of initializing and accessing devices on Windows vs MacOS

 

Last edited: Oct 24, 2019

maybe this will help:

https://www.wiknix.com/usb-device-not-recognized/

 

No prob. perhaps I was a little quick - Yes, that may help.

But sometimes USB problems are just what they seem to be: USB-problems not connected to OS or computer hardware.
I have had some serious problems with USB in the past. At the end it was one single bad USB cable that ruined the whole bus. Especially for instrument cables it's a problem that cables are frequently kinked and insulation or shielding inside the cable is damaged without any signs from the outside.
As I said I had that problem last week with a USB-LAN adapter. Connects but every once in a while it lost connection or even refuses to be recognized as valid USB device. Changed the cable, problems gone.

 

Last edited: Oct 24, 2019

Some other hints (after being burned myself a couple of weeks ago, when upgrading from Win7 to Win10):

USB-Midi-Keyboards often do not like USB3.0 ports. So use a USB2.0 port. Even through a cheap USB-Hub connected to a USB2.0 port is better.

Some very picky midi keyboards "like" to work only on one or two of all available USB2.0 Ports of a PC. This happened to me, when only on one USB-Port all the six devices of one Midi-Keyboard registered correctly. On other ports, one or two were missing, despite Windows reported "success".

USB-Dev-View (mentioned already above) is a good utility. It allows to check that the correct driver files are loaded for device. In case of doubt, it allows to uninstall the device and driver. Then re-connecting the device might better find the right files.

 

Unplug Acorn keyboard -> in USBDeview right click on Acorn keyboard -> Uninstall Selected Devices -> Reboot PC -> Plug your Acorn keyboard back in PC.

 

I had similar issue with Novation KBD 49SL MkIII on windows 10 after update 1903... Maybe it could help you too?
1/ Switch off your Midi KBD,
2/ in Device Manager remove your device and driver for Acorn Masterkey 61 MIDI keyboard (Make sure you have somewhere the very latest version of this specific driver but should be reinstalled by Krosoft if DRV not corrupted!),
3/ Reboot,
4/ Check your device manager your KBD / DRV do not appear yet
5/ Use Driver Easy or equivalent and update your system (it is free and working well but could be slow depending on the size of your DRV so could check DRV REF with tool and go to manufacturer site to download full speed!?)
6/ Reboot again sorry
7/ Switch on your KBD to plug and pray ... (Make sure this is latest DRV visible from MIDI KBD Manufacturer and not any alternate or old drv by default)*<;-)
8/ Used to work for me to solve specific Midi drv issue but I had to reinstall windows 10 anyway since update 1903 completely messed up windows update and network / firewall in the meantime *<;-( I have used MediaCreationTool1903 from MS without loosing anything and all working well now so maybe check first which version / update is running on your PC?

-> MS Win 10 is working well and there is no possible turning back to Win 7 for me now but unless bloody MS System Updates are pushed to our Musical workstations, i must admit it is fast and stable in my case MS Win10 Pro V1903 + ABL V10.1.3 and most important behind my firewall !!!

Hope it will helps somehow ...

 

Disable all C-states from bios and OS. Set the power management to full power always on, no sleep (unless you need it, in that case make sure the usb ports are not put to sleep). Hope this helps.
Cheers

 

try to plug it back to the same usb port maybe ?

 

Requirements for your keyboard - Windows:
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7/8

I don't see Windows 10 there, so that could explain why the plug and play doesn't work.

However MIDI information is super basic information - try downloading a generic midi usb driver and see if thats helps your problem (please note your device will change name if you do this - just make sure to chose the right one in your input)

F.ex.
https://europe.yamaha.com/en/support/updates/umd_win64_kbd.html
or
https://www.korg.com/us/support/download/driver/1/285/3541/

 

Thanks for all the tips, guys, but nothing worked.

I literally tried everything.

I guess it's time to do a fresh Windows install...

 

Do you have another computer available? Maybe check if the keyboard works on another computer. Making sure it's windows and not the device. All in all, good tips. Especially that power management stuff, turn all off.

 

Hey Bandit,

Yep. Like I said on the OP, I've tested it on Ubuntu and it works fine.

 

Sort the field "Connected" with arrow down (connected first). Connect your keyboard and see if something new appears. If so, that is your unrecognized keyboard, click on it, right mouse -> Uninstall selected device. Unplug it, wait few seconds, replug it.