Nord User Forum

Hi,
Brand new Piano 6 arrived a few days ago. Great instrument but I have not been able to instll the Nord Sound Manager on my Windows 11 Laptop.
It keeps aborting when trying to install the USB driver. Has anyone got a solution to this problem?
My laptop is a very recent one with a Snapdragon processor - is that the problem because it is ARM based rather than Intel??

That is a very good possibility, Nord has not created a driver for ARM-based systems. Drivers are generally low-level code and would be processor architecture specific, so code designed to work on an intel chip architecture is not going to work on an Arm processor directly.

Win11 for ARM has a built-in emulator for intel code that works pretty well for application code, but I'm pretty sure it does not support low-level device drivers.

Thanks for your insight.
It’s interesting that around half of the PC ads I see are now ARM based so I’m hoping Nord might pay attention to this. ARM seems to be the future because they offer so much better battery life.

There's another problem with the USB driver: It won't install on a Windows 10/11 system with core memory protection active. So it might be that your problem is not ARM related.

I've now tried core memory protection off plus a re-start (as well as disabling Windows Defender) and still no success - so it seems the problem is the ARM processor. I think this is something Nord should be addressing.

ReubenJohn wrote: ↑20 Aug 2025, 03:52 I've now tried core memory protection off plus a re-start (as well as disabling Windows Defender) and still no success - so it seems the problem is the ARM processor. I think this is something Nord should be addressing.

Nord or Microsoft? I mean, is Microsoft explicitly asking all devices manufacturers to issue new drivers for Win11 on ARM or should they (Microsoft) provide some HAL for compatibility, at least as a transitional solution (like Apple did with Rosetta2)?

I had the same apparent problem but learned that there is no need to install a Nord usb driver. Just ensure that your instrument is connected usb/usb and you can then start Sound manager