MIDI Issues with Sonar 5

I've been using Sonar for several years now, and recently switched everything over to a different computer.  I'm not sure how much of this information is relevant, but I'll try to be as thorough as possible to find a solution.

I have an Acer PC, 2gigs of RAM, Tascam us-800 interface, Ensoniq Mirage synth (yes, it's fossil!)

The other night I had recorded a drum midi track, vocal and guitar, and was playing along with the track, trying out a keyboard part, when the computer froze, stuck on one note.  I shut everything down a restarted.

Now, my PC will not recognize MIDI data coming from the Ensoniq.  I don't get any MIDI activity lights. Everything else seems to work fine.  
I hooked up the interface to my mac book in GarageBand and I can play and record MIDI there.

I uninstalled and reinstalled both the interface driver and sonar...still no luck.

I installed MIDI-OX and checked for MIDI activity.  I'm not 100% sure I know what I'm doing with MIDI-OX, but when I open Midi port activity bar,I don't see any lights flash when I push keys on the synth.

So, in short, Sonar recognizes the Tascam interface, can record live sound coming in from mics, but not MIDI data coming in from the synth.

Puzzling....Any ideas?

Yes...installer prompts you to do so in case you forget.  I restarted computer as well both after uninstall and reinstall.

So...the best solution may be to upgrade to Windows 7...or 8?  

I'll have to see if my processor can handle that....

Yes...midi devices lists us-800 selected and on the top.

Tried reinstalling the driver with the previous driver still installed; hoped the new install would overwrite or erase files that the windows uninstall might have missed.

This seemed to work.  Sonar recognized MIDI input...for :30, then it crashed again and will no longer recognize MIDI after repeated attempts to reinstall drivers.

Do you guys think upgrading to Windows 7 64 bit will make a difference?  I've got 2.6 process and 3 gigs of RAM.  (I mistyped 2 gigs earlier...sorry)

This system worked pretty well on an HP with XP with only 1 gig RAM.

Oh and another note, I just read what you said in last post about the crashes, And that is exactly what happened to me. It would work and then freeze everything when ever I tried to use a soft synth other than the TTS-1. And If I tried to record MIDI it just didn't work at all, It would be this huge delay and then crash. 

As long as I used it for nothing but audio it was fine. It would play MIDI files on the TTS-1 but even then the CPU meter would slowly climb and then audio engine would stop. 

So I just put the Tascam aside and only used it with my laptop for live recording's of bands and concerts. I reverted to my M audio which had other issues but at least the SPDIF and the MIDI works fine. 

I don't know why anyone didn't say anything about Sonar 5 and Windows 8. Honestly, I don't think Windows 8 supports Sonar 5 and vice versa. Windows 7 and 8 are used with the more updated versions of Sonar (such as 8-X versions). I use 8.5 producer edition and I wouldn't upgrade my Windows XP to 8 because I think it is not supported. Unless you plan on upgrading your Sonar version to X1 or X2, I think Windows XP would work better for you. I know this doesn't answer you midi question.

I had noted Sonar 5 in the thread title; I didn't think to put it in the post body as well.

I don't remember reading that software would not be compatible with W8.  Granted, I clearly did not do as much research as I should have.  I have, though, reinstalled Open Office and a few other programs that have run fine.  And, although I can't get the 64 bit version of Sonar 5 to run, the 32 bit, except for MIDI input seems to run fine as well.

Running XP on this machine doesn't seem like a viable option; it costs 3 times what W8 did.  Perhaps I could try a MIDI-USB converter and run MIDI into the computer from that?  Use the Tascam interface for audio?  I suppose my other option is to reload everything back on my lovely bride's HP machine that has XP.

At any rate, thanks for the help guys...I'll keep you posted.

You just have a problem getting the midi driver set-up. Make sure you re-boot fully after uninstalling any old drivers. Re-boot then shut down and re-boot again. Sometimes registry entries can get you stuck in a weird cycle. Always start fresh with system level driver installs. I wouldn't recommend upgrading to windows 7 or 8 either. As mentioned - 64 bit operating systems on an under powered low ram hardware will open up other cans of worms.