Hi all,

I'll try to put in as much detail as possible. This is regarding Band in a Box 2018 I'm running a current version of Windows 10. I installed the program to the default location (C:\bb and C:\RealBand), but put the real tracks in a folder at the root level of a portable hard drive with a fixed drive letter.

After attempting to start the program, I see a splash screen followed by a full screen window that says "counting candidate plugins". Then the program freezes while stating "counting candidate plugins". The menu bar will then give a message that the program is not responding.

If I click anywhere, I get a black box in the center of the screen, which then turns to a white box. The box is in front of everything else on the screen. Eventually a dialog asks if I would like to terminate the program or wait. Regardless of what I do, I cannot end the program/process (including via the task manager). The only way to end the program is to reboot the system.

I just recently did a system reset keeping personal files and have installed no other audio/midi programs since that reset so I don't know what could be conflicting with it.

The contents of the Plugin Scan Log are as follows:



Two times it did start up, but without plugins and only after the program wrote the file "MaxPluginsToScan" to the c:\bb folder. This file reads only:

If I delete the "MaxPluginsToScan" file, then the program goes back to freezing.

I have attempted to run it as administrator. I have turned off antivirus while installing. I have reinstalled it about 6 times, but the problem is persistent.

I did find a similar issue on the forum for version 2012 here:

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showthreaded&Number=388376&site_id=1

However, the resolution seemed to be to cripple one feature in order to fix another. Since this is six years later, I am hopeful that there is an actual fix.

I can't get a response from technical support either by email or by phone. Maybe just the holiday. Nevertheless, unless fixed, this is obviously a deal breaker. I've haven't had this severe of a problem with commercial software since Windows 95. Perhaps this was released too soon. I'm concerned about other issues that may be present in the software that I haven't even gotten to yet.

Any help would be appreciated, especially a solution. Thanks in advance.

If there is a faulty plugin, that's been known to cause software (not just BIAB) to freeze during the boot up process? Is it possible that this is the case?

Also, it's always best to use the "Run as administrator" option when starting BIAB and RB. This can be set permanently by right-clicking on the startup shortcut, selecting properties and setting the option that's found under the Compatibility tab.

Thanks for your reply.

I did a reset of windows so I don't believe that there are any plugins other than what BiaB installed. I've not installed any other audio software.

From poking around: In the 32-Bit programs folder, the only VSTs are the two installed by BiaB. There is no VST folder in the 64-bit programs folder. If there are other plugins, I don't know where to look.

And thank you for the advice on changing the shortcut to always run in admin mode.

Oh, and I did speak to PGMusic customer service. Apparently they received over 600 tech support emails over the holiday, which explains the delay in replies.

Try this...

1. Close BIAB.

2. Restart the computer to guarantee that all memories are fully cleared.

Now with BIAB closed and the computer rebooted, in the folder bb\Preferences...

3. Rename INTRFACE.BBW to INTRFACE.BBW.OLD (note the spelling of 'intrface')

4. Rename MYSETUP.DK to MYSETUP.DK.OLD

Also...

5. Check if there is a "MaxPluginsToScan.txt" file in this directory or any other directory. If so, rename it to "MaxPluginsToScan.txt.old".

6. Now right-click on the BIAB shortcut and select "Run as administrator" to start BIAB.



Does this help? If not...

7. Recreate the "MaxPlugInsToScan.txt" and set it to max=0 (as you've already indicated).

8. Now, once more, right-click on the BIAB shortcut and select "Run as administrator" to start BIAB.

Any joy yet?

Regards,
Noel

• one of my songs: This Road

Noel,

Thank you for taking your time to help me with this.

I made the first set of changes you suggested, adding .OLD to those three files. BIAB still crashed at the start up, but it did recreate the MaxPluginsToScan file (but not the others).

I rebooted and restarted BIAB with the newly created MaxPluginsToScan file with "Max=0". BIAB did start up so thank you.

Question: does this solve the issue or does this mean it will only run without plugins?

I did attempt to install Coyote from the help menu and then restarted BIAB. It did restart, but does not show Coyote in the VST/DX Synths/Plugins window and states that there are no DXi synths installed. Is this related or is this a separate issue?

ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE
What anti-virus software do you use? I'm finding myself wondering if maybe this is impacting on the program. Norton and lately McAfee have created issues for some users.

I suggest that you exclude c:\bb and c:\Realband from being checked by your antivirus software.


QUESTION
Regarding your question about plugins... I'm not sure about this but I suspect that setting max=0 in MaxPluginsToScan stops BIAB from loading any plugins. That BIAB boots up with this setting is also suggesting that there might be some faulty plugin that's failing the scanning process and causing grief.


ANOTHER LOCATION FOR VST PLUGINS
Another place to look for plugins is \Steinberg - if this exists on your computer it will be off the \'program files' and \'program files x86' directories.


PLUGINSCANLOG.LOG
There's a text file in \bb\Data\Logs called "PlugInScanLog.LOG". This would be worth looking at and seeing if it stops somewhere.

The below link is to my
"PlugInScanLog.LOG" for comparison purposes. Note that you will not be able to use my file in place of yours because the Windows Registry addresses will be different. At the end of my file you will see that it says that 37 plugins were counted successfully. It would be interesting to know if you get something similar.

PlugInScanLog.LOG (Noel96)


BBWERROR.LOG
The text file BBWERROR.LOG is also worth having a look at. The latter entries are the most recent (if I recall correctly).

This file might give some added insight.


COYOTE WT
To check if it installed, have a look under \program files(x86)\Coyote\CoyoteWT.

I find that I always prefer to install it by running the BIAB installer. To do it this way, just run the minimum install and make sure the CoyoteWT is selected.


WAS AUDIO DRIVER
Under "Options | Preferences | Audio", set the driver to MME. (See the below image.)

By default, BIAB 2018 chooses WAS as the default audio driver. My experience is that BIAB is much more robust when running the the Windows MME driver.


Hope something in the above is useful!

Regards,
Noel

Antivirus is Windows Defender. I had already excluded the bb and RealBand folders from scans per another forum post recommendation.

No steinberg directories appear to exist. I did find a VST folder in the C: root directory for u-he's Protoverb and Zebra2. (I don't know how they ended up there.) However, I don't think those programs are still installed because of the OS reinstall, they do not appear in "add/remove programs", and there are no .DLL files in the folder. It must just be old data.

I'm not clear on how to upload a file to the forum so I've included the contents of the PluginsToScanLog below:



So that would suggest you are correct. That there is an errant plugin somewhere. But where...?

BBWERROR.LOG does not appear to exist in the bb folder.

COYOTE WT is installed under the PROGRAM FILES (X86)folder, but does not show up in BIAB, probably because it was never scanned. I attempted to rescan from VST/DX SYNTHS/PLUGINS > OPTIONS > SCAN FOR NEW DX PLUGINS but that had no effect.

Per your suggestion I did change the audio drive to MME.

Thank you again for your help.

Just to be sure...

1. Set the Audio driver to MME as per my instructions in the previous post.

2. Exit BIAB.

3. Rename "MaxPlugInsToScan.txt" to ".....txt.old".

4. Also rename "PlugInScanLog.log" to "....log.old"

5. Start BIAB by right-clicking and using "Run as administrator".

If BIAB halts during boot up, see what PluginScanLog says. Posting it on here is fine.

Regards,
Noel

Also...

Check that you have the latest update of BIAB installed (my apologies for not mentioning this sooner... it's ALWAYS the best starting place).

To check this, have a look under "Help | About Band In A Box". Beside 'version 2018' there will be a number in (). This is the update number. The most recent is 508.

If your version if not current, go to the below link, download the update, install it while BIAB is closed using "Run as administrator".

http://www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#508

Now start BIAB after following the 3, 4, 5 in my previous post.

Hi Noel,

Thank you for your help. I have managed to find out the problem. There appears to be some sort of issue between BIAB and the Toshiba Dynadock, which is a USB hub that also has display outputs, audio in/outputs etc. When I disable the Dynadock audio, BIAB has no problem starting up and scanning plugins.

I found this out because after one of my reboots, a got a windows pop-up that said something called DIRECT SHOW crashed previously. So I started disabling hardware to troubleshoot and the Toshiba Dynadock was the culprit. If the audio adapter is disabled in the device manager, BIAB starts without issue.

Thank you for your help. I have no idea how to resolve the issue, but I have a work around.

Thanks again.

Of course, if you or anyone else has any idea how to resolve this conflict, any help would again be appreciated. But I don't use the audio part of the Dynadock so I'm not giving up much if its not possible. Take care.

Thanks for the update. That's most interesting. I haven't tried using BIAB over Dynadock but that hardware has caused me issues, from time to time, with a couple of other programs that I run.

I guess the moral of this thread is that when solving problems, it's always a good starting place to disconnect everything. Once that's done, get the program working with the computer alone and then start adding peripherals.

I've reported this thread to the developers as I'm sure it will be of interest to them.

Glad you got it all happening!

Regards,
Noel

I think PG Music needs to put Noel on the pay roll.