To be able to read a midi file you sound card should be able to handle
midi file and and a midi mixer.
Most current sound cards (if not all) have a built in midi decoder.
Since the midi sound is interpreted with the sound card, the result
may be very different depending on your configuration.
If you have problems to read midi files, your sound parameters are probably not
setted up correctly.
I don't think that it is possible to give a better answer to this question.