Instruments such as the Yamaha TYROS, allow the user to plug via Universal Serial Bus (USB) into your home computer for transferring files and to use the TYROS as a Midi Interface. There have been numerous reports with people having problems with this method of interface, so here is a short guide that will hopefully fix most scenarios for people using Microsoft Windows XP/Vista. Issues experienced include loss of connection (drop outs) and no detection of the instrument connected.

Make sure you have the latest firmware for your keyboard before continuing with this guide (may not apply to your keyboard/digital piano).

Step 1

First of all it is very important to make sure you have the latest USB drivers from Yamaha which can be found here:

http://www.global.yamaha.com/download/ or http://music.yamaha.com/productViewAllDownloads.html

Step 2

It is also a good idea to run Windows Update which can be found under the start menu if you follow Control Panel > Windows Update.

Also check with the manufacturer of your PC to see if there are any updates for the USB Drivers on your computer. You can usually find this out by visiting their website and checking under your computer model.

Step 3

Although your computer may have several USB ports, these actually do work differently. Without going too much into the differences, it is important to understand that there are two kinds, primary and secondary. The primary ports are usually found round the back of your PC although this is only a general rule. Laptops (notebooks) you may find that you have ports around the front, side and back. In this circumstance your primary ports are probably located around the rear of the unit. Primary ports are best for connecting your instrument.

Secondary ports are actually a feed from the primary ports which are routed through a hub before they reach the actual port you use, because of this method for secondary ports it can cause problems for devices like Yamaha instruments, which sends midi data both in and out and the same time, rather then other devices which rely on feeding information in and then out at separate times. These ports tend to be located around the front of your PC for easy access.

If you are unsure of which may be the primary ports, try all your ports starting with the most likely.

Step 4

Hopefully by now your instrument has been detected when you turn it on, but you now need to tell Windows XP or Windows Vista where the drivers are located. You should have already downloaded the Windows XP or Vista driver in Step 1, run this *.exe file and it will ask you to chose a location to extract the files on your computer. Chose somewhere that is easy to remember for example c:\tyrosusb and click Unzip.

When Windows XP/Vista asks for where the drivers are you need to specify a location and select the folder you Unzipped the drivers to. Following the rest of the installation process should be just a question of clicking next until Windows is happy that the installation is complete.

Windows XP/Vista may ask you to restart your computer. Restart your computer and hopefully now your sequencer program will now list your instrument in the devices options.