Midi problems with Sonar 8.3

Having been at a friends house today helping her sort out some issues with sonar, I noticed a problem that had me scratching my head a little.

In attempting to show her how to use Session Drummer, by tapping in beats on the midi keyboard, I realised that there was no midi activity showing on the little icon in the system tray and nothing in sonar, midi or audio. (Clicking on the individual kit pieces with mouse pointer activated sound and you could play loops/drag and drop & play in sonar fine)
So I checked the Audio interface settings and midi device settings in sonar which all showed fine Right soundcard, ins and outs selected in both midi and audio settings, ins and outs used at top of list. Then closed sonar and opened reason to test the midi keyboard and midi cable to find that the keyboard was playing fine and dandy, sounds and activity.
I decided to check that out in Sonar ... load it up, tap some keys, no midi activity showing???? insert>rewire>reason.....up it pops and I can play the keyboard and get sounds in reason, but still no midi activity showing on icon.
Then loaded up SD2 to check to see if the midi worked in there, nopes, not a thing.

I've reinstalled the latest update and still no wiser.

The system she is using is running Vista. And the Audio/midi interface is the cakewalk powerstudio 250.

This is an issue I really would like to get sorted out as soon as possible as it's going to be plaguing my mind until done lol, not to mention that the poor lass has loads of stuff to record and so little time that it seems like sonar is making it harder for her.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Chris.

Yup both midi input and out puts showing as Cakewalk SPS25/250 ticked and activated. Just seems sonar isn't recognising them, yet allows you to play reason when it's rewired as a slave, but still sans-midi response in activity meter???.

Midi send from Keyboard on Channel 1, on midi input in sonar channel 1 selected, no result, omni selected, no result. Main issue here I think is that there is no activity showing in the Midi Activity monitor bottom right side of screen.
BUT,
it seems odd that with reason as slave to sonar, you can play instruments in reason, but if you load vsts in sonar, they get no signal at all, neither does the midi tracks. All inputs have been checked as far as I can. Obvious ones were the first priority. I use sonar with no issues on my studio pc, same version also,  as i'm not tempted to upgrade yet as I'm happy with how mine runs, so in comparing settings there is little difference to speak of.

I think I will have to resort to a full reinstall of sonar and audio card on monday for her if I cannot get to the bottom of it. Not Ideal, but that's how it goes. Cheers for suggestions so far.

If anyone can think of anything else, please throw it this way lol.