Midi / USB drop out since Lion upgrade!

Question

Hi all, i have had great responses and success in the past with this forum, i really really hope this will continue.
I have been gigging using mainstage 2 and a M-Audio Oxygen midi keyboard controller for a few years now and until lately it's been fantastic. I will never go back to a stand alone manufactured synth. I am using a macbook pro, 2.93ghz with 8 gb ram. I initially upgraded from snow leopard to lion when it was launched but had to go back as Creative hadn't any lion drivers for use with my emu 0202 audio interface. Last month i found that they had done them and i re-upgraded to Lion. Since the upgrade i am experiencing Midi drop outs. This is to say that whilst performing i get an error message saying something like midi input device no longer available. This has happened a few times now but last night (new years eve!!), not only did i get this message which i sorted with a reboot but a few minutes later i had a midi note hang and i noticed that there was no longer any usb supplied power to my keyboard. The answer again at this stage was a reboot.
I would ideally not like to reinstall snow leopard as there are quite a few great things in lion which i would miss, but obviously if i can't resolve these issues i don't see that i have any other choice.
Any possible suggestions as to what may be causing these problems will be very much appreciated.
Thanking you in advance
Mark
PS    Happy New Year

Answer 1

My experience with Lion was great for a while, it was effortless, everything I had attached still worked with no problems aside from needing occasional drivers.  Once Lion 10.7.2 was released, I updated my system and again, no problems.  If I recall correctly, 10.7.2 was released in October.  Suddenly in December, I began having random software and midi issues all around my system.  I do not use Mainstage but I have noticed others have had similar problems with various software and USB midi controllers, and have not seen a fix.
I regularly use Pro Tools 8, Ableton Live 8 and occasionally Reason 5.  I also have an M-Audio Axiom 61 and Korg padKontrol attached via USB.  After about 2 months of trouble-free operation, Live and Reason would not open and the accompanying software for my padKontrol no longer would either.  These apps would just "hang" and I would eventually have to force quit them.  In addition, Audio Midi Setup would also hang when attempting to switch to the midi preferences page.  Pro Tools still worked, but I could no longer receive midi signals.  I also use a wireless USB stick to connect to my home wifi signal and that no longer worked and neither did the accompanying software.
It's possible that there are deeper issues in your system as well as mine and the others having similar problems.
At times, I wonder if there is some kernel errors embedded in my computer.  I got my MacPro when Snow Leopard was fairly new and had numerous kernel errors resulting in many applications not functioning.  I eventually sorted them out but ran into similar USB related issues with the Snow Leopard 10.6.8 update, so I remained on 10.6.7 until Lion was released.
The only successful fix I've had is switching from Lion back to Snow Leopard 10.6.7 after erasing my entire hard drive.  I've tried reinstalling Lion through both upgrading from Snow Leopard and a clean install of 10.7.2 after erasing my hard drive again.
I believe my USB and midi problems stem from kernel errors somewhere but cannot find them (I have used Disk Utility many times).  I really liked using Lion but I lose so much functionality and my internet connection so I have determined that I will not be using it.  I may try Lion again when 10.7.3 is released but am wary.  If anyone has ideas on how to fix these issues, I would love to hear them.