bob, yeah... I always check that my programs get uninstalled, just never been in the habit of checking drivers... never really had hardware issues like this in the past. I'm pretty lucky, I guess.
mettelus, no, it's been 6 days since Dan made a reply.
paul, things are getting set up slowly, I'm still totally confused by act... even with the tutorials and the reading and trial and error. seems like once I get something set up and working I'll try to make a change or add to it and I end up breaking the whole control surface and need to start over lol for example I had a few things working on my footpedal, I saved a preset, then after changing things and plugging and unplugging gear trying to get my keyboards working my footpedal is no longer working, and the preset I saved for it is missing. I'm thinking this is just noobie error, but yeah, "it shouldn't be this DIFFICULT!" lol xD my midi setup for guitar rig standalone was SO easy, I was done with it in 2 minutes. oh well, I'll get it eventually!