midi-keyboard dropping out.

[melodymessiah]

it's a usb cable. i don't have any other instruments than my midi keyboard i can try out. i'm using a pc yes. tried to plug the cable in and out again, same issue.

[Len911]

a standalone instrument is a virtual instrument you can run outside of your daw, and you still will use your midi keyboard. outside the daw, but still on the pc.

[lesmac]

Using a VI in standalone is a good option for trouble shooting. If you can run one in standalone its worth doing. Change to another usb port if the problem persists.
The fifteen minute thing could be related to memory. This may be a Windows problem. Maybe an auto update?
Go through all the tweaks recommended for Sonar in your computer preferences.

Is this video relevant to your setup?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7QY3uIdzUQ

[ecurb]

On the stand-alone instruments, if you have something like the Kontakt player (free version or paid) you should be able to run that on it's own without running Sonar, and test out how the connection holds up that way... if you haven't run the stand-alone player before you'll probably need to go into its settings or preferences, go to the MIDI tab or whatever and tell it to use your keyboard for input. Maybe also go to the engine or audio tab and make sure it's using your soundcard too.

That said, and/or assuming that it doesn't end up making a difference if you take Sonar out of the equation... USB ports on PCs do seem to need a bit of black magic and crossed fingers to get and keep working at times. If you have any other stuff running off your PC, particularly any connections off other USB ports that you can temporarily do without, I'd try disconnecting the extras and see if it makes a difference. Each USB connection does soak up a bit more of the available juice from your power supply.

I'd also try connecting the MIDI keyboard to a different USB port if you can. And check your advanced power settings for the PC, there's generally a power saving setting buried in there somewhere called something like "USB selective suspend" which tends to put your USB ports to sleep periodically if the computer decides they're not currently being used. This is switched on by default and really should be disabled for music production PCs.

There's a bunch of stuff you can do to flush or reset USB ports on a PC too... though I think that's more likely to be needed if have a port that is no longer working at all. Google "flush reset USB PC" and you'll see details on that sort of thing anyway.

Hope that helps
Bruce.