PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Something strange just happened with my BIAB- Update installed BIAB 2017 instead of 2020

I have BIAB on two computers, a desktop I use for work (and some music) and a laptop I use exclusively for music (mounted above my Yamaha Piano with the usually spaghetti cables).
I* don't use BIAB as much as I would like., The reason will be a topic for a different post.

The other day I composed a song in BIAB and listened to it while I was composing it. Worked OK.
Suddenly, the sound stopped completely. I checked my sound cards (I have near field speakers with two inputs: my laptop headphone jack and my Prosumer sound card. Both should and can play out of the speakers at the same time.

Yet, BIAB went through the motions and no sound was coming out. I changed the style, in case something went wrong there, no dice.
I loaded a different song I know has always worked fine. Again, no sound.
I even plugged headphones in my laptop and made sure to point the output to the internal sound card. Again, nothing.

At that point, I noticed BIAB was telling me to upgrade. I figured "Why not?" maybe it'll fix this issue.

I run the suggested upgrade, picked "Launch BIAB" and... I got the BIAB 2017 splash screen.
Even worse, it wanted me to enter the serial number. I went to get it, I entered it and it refused it.

I think I did have 2017 at some point, but for sure I upgraded to 2020 in.. 2020 sometimes.
On this laptop I never even installed BIAB 2017, as I purchased the laptop in 2021.

I am a bit at a loss. Of course I can get my 2020 installation files and install it again, but I was wondering if I did something wrong.
I don't want to repeat the error again.

Almost forgot: at some point I moved songs composed on my BIAB 2017 onto the 2020 folder. Maybe I moved a file I shouldn't have?

Any ideas?

Thank you.

Tell us more about where/when this message appeared, and exactly what actions you took. E.g. did you already have an upgrade patch available, or did it download a new upgrade from the PG Music website, etc? Can you provide the exact name of the upgrade file that you used?

Sure, thank you for your answer.

As I mentioned in my post, I was already struggling with some sound issues. In the process, I went to "MENU >>> HELP" and while there I saw the "Check for Update" (or whatever is there).
I then saw a window that told me there was indeed an update for my BIAB 2020 and asked me if I wanted to download it and install it.
I said "Yes" and I proceeded with that.
I should note that a month or so ago, I updated my BIAB 2020 on my desktop, without any issues, so I wasn't paying that much attention to the process.
I had purchased and installed BIAB 2020 back in... 2020 and I installed it on both my computers on the same day.
A month ago I updated my Desktop copy without any issues, so I proceeded with the prompts without reading every word (as I should have done, I know better) but I'd like to think that if it said "Update you BIAB 2017" I would have noticed. I was distracted, but I wasn't hallucinating.

When the update was done, it gave me a prompt to "Launch BIAB". If you put a gun to my head I couldn't tell you if it said "Launch BIAB 2017" or 2020. I think the Splash screen was either "generic" BIAB without a date or said "BIAB 2020".
I just clicked finished and BIAB started.

Except that upon starting, the splash screen said "BIAB 2017" and immediately I got a notice prompting me to enter the key code because my trial period had expired.
I went to get the key code (I use an online/offline password manager called "Roboform" where I keep all this info) and I entered it.
It said the code was invalid.
In tried launching it again, but I couldn't.
I tried to use a different BIAB code I have, but I couldn't tell you if it was for 2020, 2017 or even older (I think over the years I purchased 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2017).

I searched for my 2017 BIAB code, but I couldn't find it. If I recall, I bought 2017 for my daughter's computer as she still lived with me back then, so the code is likely in her computer.

At the end, I just gave up, I opened BIAB on my desktop and checked that everything was OK. And it was. My desktop copy is BIAB 2020 and It is updated to the very latest version.

In fact, ast this point this issue has become academic as I just purchased the 2022 version of BIAB and I am installing it on my desktop as I am writing this.
Very likely I'll uninstall everything from my Laptop and start with a fresh installation, if it lets me.
If not (and I think this happened to me back in 2007 or so) I'll just move the C:\bb folder over to my laptop and install 2022 over it. It should work. At least it used to.

For the record, I have been using BIAB since the early 1990's. I run my first copy on a 512K Mac Plus that I upgraded to a whopping 1MB of RAM with a 1MB hard drive the size of a toaster oven.

I mention that because I am not a new user, but I never was very proficient at it, because all I ever needed BIAB for was practicing guitar. It's only more recently that I decided to attempt some songwriting, but I am struggling a bit to get decent sounds out of my BIAB.
In fact, I am still struggling with all the "realdrums" and "realband" features.

As far as I can tell, my BIAB 2020 (and 2022 now, specifically "Band-in-a-Box MegaPAK Upgrade 2022 for Windows (BUMS-I)") is carefully designed so that whatever "Style" I need for a given songis visible, plays the preview just fine, but when I apply it to my song all I get is MIDI sounds, occasionally with Realdrums in it, but rarely with all the instruments as they sound in the demo.

One of my upcoming questions on this forum is going to be about limiting my "Styles" view only to styles I own and with a way to tell the MIDI styles apart from the Realband/drums styles.
I don't have $500 to drop on BIAB at the moment, but I'd sure love to have a specific set of Styles I can use for my songwriting so that I don't have to spend an insane amount of time choosing a style.
I seem to be very unlucky with both BIAB and my DAW Based songwriting in general. I have had laptop logic board get fried just as I was mastering a song. I have has soundcards refuse to make any sound at all, only to work perfectly with other programs.

It may be time for me to watch a few hours of tutorials and see if I can come up with a workable system so the time between inspiration and a song's backing track is not hours but more around 15 minutes or so. I am really not that picky with my styles and I usually plan a song so I overdub guitar, bass and keyboards myself.
I am positive I am not using BIAB at its best, but that's a post for another day.

In any event, in regard to my failed update, I am just trying to understand what I did wrong so I don't make the same mistake again.
I will make sure that no trace of BIAB 2017 is anywhere on my laptop, if it ever was there, that way if it happens again I can troubleshoot it better.

Sorry for the long winded post. Hopefully, after installing 2022 I'll be able to use BIAB without any issues. With any luck I may even find a good sounding style for the song I am working on.

Cheers and thank you again.

I think this is easily resolved.
Go to the PG Music Website https://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.htm

Log on to your account at PG Music, click on Account > My Products (top RH corner).

Scroll to your BiaB 2020 download link, download it and then run the installer after it has downloaded.

Do let us know if this helps resolve.

Thank you. I am installing BIAB 2022 anyway, and I am doing it on an external SSD so as not to take up too much space on my C drive.
I am actually not sure if the BIAB license allows 2 computers. Do I have to deactivate one and activate the other each time?
Not a big deal, but I could swear BIAB used to allow two licenses (desktop/laptop) at one point.
Anyway, I have decided to do a deep dive on BIAB this time. The realtracks quality is amazing. The plugin feature is also amazing. What's not amazing is that to buy the styles I like, I also have to buy a bunch of styles that, while great in their own right, I'll never use. But for all I know, there are options to purchase I haven't found yet.
And I thought BIAB was complicated back in 1990 or so.

Thanks again.

EDIT: When I went to install BIAB 2022 on my laptop I discovered that indeed I had BIAB 2017 as well as 2020 installed (each in a different folder). How that happened I can't figure out. I suspect my daughter moved her folder over to my laptop at some point and when I updated, it found 2017 and run with it. We are talking pre-pandemic here. Anything could have happened.

No need. But I will remove the 2017 version. The licenses are not the same, that's why you had this problem.

That is a plausible explanation. I do suspect that human intervention occurred, otherwise we would be more aware of such an issue.

Good luck, and let us know the outcome.

Each yearly version gives you three activations for that version.

Thanks. Indeed it now works on my laptop without issues. I also have another laptop (same vintage +- 2016) that was a desktop replacement, so very sturdy. 16GB of RAM and an Intel i7. Problem is that it gets very hot and the only room I have to put the laptop in doesn't have good airflow (It's a repurposed built in shelving system).
I have a cooling base with USB powered fans, but both laptops suffer, so I just took off a large fan from one of my older computer cases and I'll connect it to a power brick with adjustable voltage (right now, at 5V is not pushing enough air).

The heat makes both computers crash and/or freeze even when inactive. Especially when inactive. Between that, the inherent Windows 10 issues with sound cards (I have a stack of them that no longer work with Windows 10 but work great with my iPad, go figure), my "musical inspiration" often turns into "musical desperation".

I am actually thinking of building a small form factor desktop just for my music station. Laptops are great for people on the go, but I work at home and my laptop is essentially a backup for my desktop in case of disaster. While it works great in that role (I tested it), the cramped confines of my music station are not great for cooling, so I end up doing most of my music in the office, where I have a pull out MIDI controller and a AMD Ryzen with 128GB of RAM and a GeForce 3080ti with 12GB of Vram. That machine hums!

However, my mixer, amps and especially my Yamaha Digital Grand are downstairs in a corner. I just have no room for it in the office.

It's less than ideal for sure, but it's great news that I can use BIAB on up to three CPUs. That will allow me to experiment on the placement of my third computer without having to deal with the spaghetti cables behind the Yamaha piano.

All I want to do is be able to sketch songs on my guitar or my piano, enter the Chords in BIAB, work out a melody and sing over it.
Easier said than done and not because of lack of creativity (that too, of course) or skills (ditto), but because each time I try, something always goes wrong.

I think by the time I'll figure all of this out, I'll be too old, deaf and dumb to play.

conticreative you might want to check out the free Open Hardware Monitor. It will tell you everything you need to know about your computer include CPU temps and fan outputs. If your fans and/or power supply are not up to specs this would tell you.