MOTU Stage B‑16 on Windows 11 – ASIO Driver Not Installing / DAWs Can’t Initialize

[Louderthanu]

Hi all,
I’m running into a driver issue with a Stage B‑16 connected over USB on Windows 11, and I’m hoping someone here has seen this before.
Setup
• Single Stage B‑16 connected directly via USB
• No AVB network
• No additional MOTU interfaces
• No device aggregation
• Just the B‑16 on its own
The issue
Both Pro Tools and Studio Pro 8 fail to initialize the “MOTU Pro Audio” ASIO driver. The behavior is identical across both DAWs:
• “MOTU Pro Audio” appears in the ASIO device list
• Selecting it causes the DAW to hang or throw an initialization error
• No inputs or outputs populate
• The DAW falls back to Windows audio or fails to open the engine
What’s working
• Windows does detect the B‑16’s WDM endpoints:
• In 1–24 – MOTU Pro Audio
• Out 1–24 – MOTU Pro Audio
• Plus the standard 2‑channel WDM device
• These WDM devices function normally in Windows
• The B‑16 itself is visible and controllable in Pro Audio Control
What’s missing
The MOTU installer never creates the expected ASIO directory:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\ASIO\
OR C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\ASIO\

There is no ASIO DLL installed there, and the DLLs in the MOTU installation folders ( and ) do not contain ASIO entry points. They cannot be loaded by any DAW as ASIO drivers.
This suggests the actual ASIO driver either isn’t included in the installer or is failing to register during installation.
Troubleshooting already done
• Full uninstall of all MOTU software
• Manual cleanup of leftover folders
• Registry cleanup
• Device Manager removal
• Reinstalled with device unplugged
• Verified missing ASIO registry entries
• Verified missing ASIO driver folder
• Tested in two DAWs with identical results
• Confirmed the B‑16 hardware and WDM layer are functioning normally
What I’m trying to determine
Has anyone seen a case where the MOTU Pro Audio ASIO driver simply doesn’t install on Windows 11 for the Stage B‑16?
Is there a separate ASIO component or known issue with the current driver package?
I’ve opened a support ticket with MOTU, but I’d appreciate any insight from users who’ve dealt with this specific failure.

Thanks in advance.
Kevin Howell

 

[Philbo King]

One idea: Reinstall while logged in as admin

Another idea: Contact MOTU support

 

[Louderthanu]

Thanks Philbo! Good advice. I'd already reinstalled as admin, BUT a call to MOTU solved the issue. They were FANSTASTIC! Totally surprised me, as in my experience Support calls are the worst, but Matt at MOTU was excellent! Turns out- the MOTU Discovery service needs to launch on startup, simply by adding the app to the "Startup Apps" list, all my problems from the last 3 years magically went away! YAY!

-Kevin

 

[Philbo King]

Glad to hear you got it sorted out.