Midi Keyboard causing MBP to MELT?? So confused....

gibsongretschfan

So.... I have a Roland A88 midi keyboard and when I attach it to my MacBook Pro and strike any key it causes the laptop to go straight to its top boost frequency and stay there. This obviously causes a lot of heat and fan spin. The laptop will only stop boosting and return to idle when I disconnect the USB cable attaching the keyboard

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers

I have factory reset the keyboard

I have tried a Roland A49 which shares the same driver as the A88 and this midi controller does not cause the same behaviour 

I have tried different USB cables, hubs and ports on the MBP itself

Yes, I did think I was going mad

No, I cant say for sure it wasn't displaying some of the same behaviour in 10.15.1 or 10.14- im pretty sure it wasn't but im really starting to doubt myself now

Ive opened a ticket with Roland, does this sound like a driver problem? This isnt right is it? Basically I just want someone to tell me im not going mad

octatonic

What happens if you put a powered USB hub between the keyboard and the Mac?

gibsongretschfan

octatonic said:

What happens if you put a powered USB hub between the keyboard and the Mac?

Still the same bet you Chopin never had these problems

octatonic

gibsongretschfan said:

octatonic said:

What happens if you put a powered USB hub between the keyboard and the Mac?

Still the same bet you Chopin never had these problems

No but he was busy dying of tuberculosis.

octatonic

And yes that is a shite driver issue.

gibsongretschfan

octatonic said:

And yes that is a shite driver issue.

Any recommendations for an 88 key midi controller that won’t melt my poor MacBook? I really liked the key bed on the Roland, any experience with the Komplete Kontrol 88?

octatonic

I actually have an M-audio keystation 88 that I am selling.
No driver required, it is class compliant.
I prefer full hammer action, hence selling it.
PM if interested.

gibsongretschfan

Little update to my own thread:

After a bit of digging I have found a few forum posts dating back several years now describing this same behaviour. Ive owned this keyboard since November 2018 and I am now wondering if a lot of the high thermals on my laptop have been caused by it

However, they definitely got worse with 10.15.2

I have taken up a customer service ticket with Roland although Im not holding out much hope as the reports seem to go back nearly 6 years- few that they are

In the meantime I guess ill have to go back to "council midi" and actually hook up a proper cable.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to apologise to my 2018 MacBook Pro, maybe you aren't as big a POS as I have been telling you that you are but you still need a physical escape key and your cursor arrows are dumb

Kittyfrisk

Not sure about your cursor arrow issue. There are free third party solutions such as Mousecape, but I can't swear to their effectiveness or stability.
Regarding the physical escape key, why don't you try remapping the esc. function to a physical key?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207358
Cheers.

gibsongretschfan

Kittyfrisk said:

Not sure about your cursor arrow issue. There are free third party solutions such as Mousecape, but I can't swear to their effectiveness or stability.
Regarding the physical escape key, why don't you try remapping the esc. function to a physical key?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207358
Cheers.

Already have it mapped to the § key but it still annoys me!! 

You know how the cursor keys on the 16-18 MBP are kind of squared off? They have reverted back in the 16inch MBP to an asymmetrical layout though. To be fair most of the time im using a bluetooth keyboard anyway

gibsongretschfan

Quick update: A lovely chap from Roland actually got back to me pretty quickly, said he remembered there being an issue like this a while back and asked me to send a system report so he can send it to Japan. Doubt anything will come form it but top marks for effort