Multiple drivers proliferating in SONAR

God help me if one of my USB Midi modules should cut out during a SONAR session. What happens is that sometimes a module "disappears" from the Windows Device Manager, so I re-install the driver (or sometimes this happens automatically) and then SONAR somehow "knows" that this is the second time the device has been installed and calls the same old Midi module "2 - Edirol SD-80" or whatever the name of the module. Which means that every time I open a sequence using that module, SONAR can't find it and I have to manually re-assign each track using that instrument to the new driver. Which lasts until the next time the Midi module is turned off in the middle of a session or gets unplugged and it's "shampoo, rinse, repeat" except this time the module is called "3-Edirol SD-80" and so forth.
 
I have tried uninstalling the instrument and deleting the driver, but somehow SONAR knows the Midi module has been there before. I believe I have fixed this in the past by uninstalling the driver and then going into the Registry and deleting any reference to the Midi module, but that is a pain.
 
Any ideas on how to convince SONAR to keep the driver name the same?
 

Just because you can't see a driver/device in device manager does not mean that it is not there. Some USB devices will install another instance if they are plugged into another USB socket, and often there are dozens of devices installed, but not active, some of which may cause problems. In order to see "nonpresent" devices you need to set an environment variable. That is a lot less irksome than doing a registry search and you are less likely to break something if you do it via device manager.
 
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/show-non-present-devices-windows
 

Laptops typically have dual setups for power management. 1 for powered and a more strict version for battery operation.

jpetersen
Early USB3 ports were flakey in this way. I have a PC that spontaneously dismisses, then re-recognizes external hard drives mid-backup. Useless.

That happens to be an issue with my HP laptop which has non-standard USB3 ports.
 
However, that is not the real problem. The real problem is that SONAR recognizes multiple variants of the same driver for a Midi instrument and assigns them a different number, requiring all sequences using that driver to not recognize the Midi instrument.

Losing Midi Modules due to USB issues rarely happens to me, the most common reason is some idiot turning off the power, so the Midi Module shuts down while my laptop continues to run on batteries. This happens during setup for gigs, where the roadies are constantly playing with power and lighting and the mixer.
 
Sometimes I am the idiot, my Edirol sometimes goes into GM mode rather than Native mode if a sequence has a SYSEX file that instructs external modules to go into GM mode. After that, I need to power cycle the Edirol to get back to Native mode, and that can cause my laptop to install a new driver if I forget to turn off my laptop while shutting down and restarting the Edirol.
 

Another variation on this theme is what happens if I plug the USB cable into a different USB port on my laptop, this sometimes provokes the laptop to re-install the driver for the Midi USB device.
 
I know, Henny Youngman would say "so don't plug the USB cable into a different USB port".