USB devices cannot be seen

I have a couple of midi input devices connected to my computer via usb1.1 sockets.
Asus A7s333 Mobo, Rme soundcard, Matrox g450 dualhead graphics, with additional firewire card and scsi card.
Everything was fine but now although device manager can "see" the usb devices and says everything is fine, NONE of my audio applications can see the Usb devices.
I am not sure when this happened, as I haven't been using usb lately.
I have reinstalled the usb hub drivers the usb device drivers etc, etc.
I have been to clear out the entries in 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Drivers32' for all midi choices, and then reinstalled.
I have now updated to sp2 but still after re installing the usb devices if I don't open an application they dissappear for use.

Please any ideas???

 

I have found the answer and will post it in case anybody googles this problem.

In admin/services, windows audio had been disabled and firmware loader wasn't being called up.

once set to automatic, problem appears to be solved.

Midex was showing in the device manager as being o.k, but no apps could see it, but now they can, without having to reinstall on power up.

Ye ha.

Best

D.H