I temporarily fixed my problem after reading a posting on gear slutz from a guy who works for presonus, his posting is below which is what I followed so the first part may or may not have been relevent and the end is different to what I did but it got me to my problem of the device conflict, i then reconected some other gear (mouse, firewire soundcard)and it stopped again, now this wont fix it anymore
what fixed it was---
Start Menu > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Default device MIDI music playback ...
FaderPort was set as default device, this was causing reaper to not open midi ports
was quite excited when I thought I had it sorted, reading further down the thread I find a link to a registry fix
http://www.andrewmoyer.com/?p=10
well , thats next to try, let me know if you beat me to it
Hey all, this is J.B. from PreSonus' Technical Support Team.
If the
FaderPort doesn't show up as 'USB Audio Device' under MIDI Music Playback in your Sounds and Audio Devices Properties, then try the following steps to re-enumerate the
FaderPort.
1. Disconnect any other USB MIDI devices from your computer
2. Go to Start Menu > Control Panel > System > Hardware (tab) > Device Manager > Sound, video & game controllers ... Right-click "USB Audio Device" and 'Uninstall' it
3. Disconnect the
FaderPort from your computer
4. Reboot your computer
5. Reconnect the
FaderPort to your computer
6. Go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Default device MIDI music playback ... ensure the
FaderPort shows up as a 'USB Audio Device'
7. Please call or e-mail PreSonus Technical Support at 800.750.0323 or
techSupport@PreSonus.com