PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Screen redraw problem

I am having an issue with screen redraws. I am working with a 136 bar piece and trying to do some tweaking at the end of the song using F5. The screen has refused to redraw several times. I have to exit BIAB and restart. Anyone else ever experience this? If so, is there a fix or work-around?

Robb,

Have you checked to see if there is a later version video driver available for your hardware? Sometimes an upgrade (if one is available) fixes problems like you describe.

Regards,
Noel

I have the latest video drivers installed. The other programs running simultaneously are working fine. BIAB will freeze while the others update just fine.

I've had that happen on long sessions w/BiaB sometimes, shutting all programs down and rebooting the computer often brings it back, but not every time.


--Mac

Along with the other suggestions, don't run BIAB in anything other than full screen and see what you get.

I get the same thing. If my video driver was okay yesterday and the day before, why would I suddenly now need a newer video driver? I have read this kind of post from several people now and it all seemed to surface after the last update. It would be hard to believe that several computers suddenly need a video driver update. Remember, if restarting is the fix, that the same video driver is loading after the restart. If it was a driver issue it would be bad all the time.

Would that it could be that simple.

Actually, at this point we don't know if it is the video driver or not, some have indeed reported success with a video driver update or even just a reinstall of the same drivers, some haven't.

A driver can become corrupted but still be able to work until such time as a certain corrupted line is called, things like that make it very difficult to make blanket statements concerning the issue. Things may work differently at different times due to the state the code was in immediately previous to the problem, or not.

At any rate, it is certainly worth the shot for those experiencing he problem, worst case is that it won't get fixed and you may have to revert back to the original driver, only loss is a small bit of your time.


--Mac

I have had the same issue, especially if I have a lyric window open beside the main BIAB window. I usually will have the lyric window and the BIAB window split vertically on the screen with the lyric window taking about 1/3 of the screen and the BIAB window using the remaining 2/3 of the screen. As the song progresses and then reaches the end of the last line displayed in the chord window, BIAB won't shift the page properly and all I see is the new chord on top of the previous display but only as each current bar is played.
I have rebooted and the problem will correct itself for awhile then eventually it will revert back to this.


-Darren

I am having the same problem. (chord window will not scroll, but top of window gets over-written in a messy way) It seems to only happen on long songs (otherwise why would it need to scroll).

FWIW I have 1920x1200 screen resolution, which I think might have something to do with it, and I have three of those monitors on my system (which I don't think has anything to do with it).

Unlike some of the other posts, this happens to me very consistently, and rebooting or whatever does NOT help.

Following this thread with interest. How many people need to report this before someone on staff there at PG owns it and admits there is a problem? We ALL can't need "video driver updates" at once. And the fact that it has problems intermittently points to software, not hardware. If the video driver was really the issue it would affect the computer's display on every app and every screen from the minute that BIAB crapped out and forward until a reboot reloads a new copy of the driver. However, as I stated in another rant of mine, I don't have all day to be doing a forced shutdown of BIAB (because it freezes so much), rebooting, relaunching BIAB and then trying to remember what phrase I was trying to create next. Somebody needs to fix this and stop telling us it's our computers. My BIAB does the same thing on all of the 3 computers I tested it on. I can not need a video driver update on all three computers.

I am suddenly very unhappy with this product. I used to recommend it to everybody. No more. Not until the bugs are worked out.

Oh god this is awful. I can't even work because I can't get the video display to work properly.

I initially thought this was not a bug but now I'm not so sure. I'm using a 4 x 3 19" monitor at 1024 x 768 with a new Athlon Phenom 6 core, 4 gigs ram, 1TB HD running Win 7 64 bit using an on board ATI HD video chip on a Gigabit mobo. I opened a 32 bar song. That exactly fills up my screen with the 33rd bar for the ending partially cut off at the bottom. The screen would not scroll. The song has 4 chorus repeats in it so I unfolded it to one long chorus. The program automatically shrunk the size of the chord cells by half so it now displays 64 bars with the next line starting at bar 65 partially cut off at the very bottom. The screen would not scroll and when I let the song play, when it got to bar 64 the display somehow wrapped itself so the cursor was at the top but the chord grid was partially overlaid on top of the previous 64 bars and yeah you could say it looked "smeary" but I would be more precise and say I could see a bit of the chord grid underneath the current one but whatever we call it it was definitely not right. I opened another song that I knew was over 100 bars and the same thing happened but I could swear that when I played that song the other day everything was fine. This sounds like what you're describing and I have never seen that before.
I'm using files in the Biab Real Book that I downloaded from somewhere so there could be things in the file that's messing this up. I closed Biab and upon reopening with the same unfolded song, the screen now scrolls properly and so does the second song I tried plus 3 more. At least I did see what you're describing Eddie but whether or not I can consistently reproduce it is another question because it's working fine now. I can't simply say check your set up because I did just see the same thing.
This is my weekend to devote to this anyway since I'm also trying to get my Sonic Cell completely set up so I will test this screen issue while I'm playing with different Sonic Cell patches but instead of staying on one song for a while I'll make sure to test a bunch of them.

Bob

OK, now I see another thread on it .. did anyone actually contact support yet?
They may/may not know of this issue.

Hi guys,

There is a known issue that stops the Band-in-a-Box chord window from re-drawing properly, it happens after re-sizing or moving the Band-in-a-Box window. I'm afraid the only fix right now is to re-start the application, and then to not re-size the window.

We are aware of the problem, and it is being worked on.

It sounds like this is probably what's happening to Darren Green and Shelton Joe.

If anyone's having display problems without re-sizing the Band-in-a-Box window, that would be a new issue that I'm not aware of yet. Best thing to do would be to email support@pgmusic.com, and include computer specs, including make and model of the video card so we can look into it.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Ok, I've been testing this. Here's exactly how it works on my system using a Dell 4x3 19" monitor at 1024x768. Biab opens up full screen and I can't see the borders of the Biab window in order to grab it to resize. I have to hit the minimum/maximum button in the upper right corner next to the X that is used to close the program. Hitting that min/max button lets me see the borders. Just doing that doesn't effect anything. Biab plays and the screen scrolls fine. I can grab the side with the mouse and move it in to resize the window. Biab still scrolls like it's supposed to BUT, when I grab the edge again and move it either in or out that's when the scrolling stops working and the chord grid overlay happens. Then as Kent said I have to close it and reopen and all is good. I've done this 10 times now and this is exactly how it works.
The reason I have never seen or reported on that is because I have a 4x3 monitor and there's no benefit to try to have more than the main window open so I've never resized Biab before now. I can see that those with large wide screen monitors may very well want to have more then one window visible because they have the screen real estate to do it.
So Eddie, I know you said that closing and reopening Biab doesn't help. Are you absolutely sure about that? Are you saying that after a reboot and you open Biab for the first time you still have the scrolling problem? I'm thinking that the first thing you've been doing is to resize the window then open a song and play it. If that's the case, just let Biab open and don't try to resize, just play something and see what happens. If that works for you then yes, that's a bug but it's not a show stopper. You can get your work done until they can fix this.

Bob

The biggest problem Bob, is that it isn't consistent. Saturday I had to close down and restart 7 times. Each time, to eliminate it being the ubiquitous "video driver" I rebooted the laptop.Now, to that laptop is connected a 24 inch flat panel. The computer boots, I launch BIAB, and my first move is to drag it over to the big monitor. Then it's refresh roulette. It may scroll during playback, it may not. It may scroll ONCE, then stop. It may scroll 8 times, then stop. Saturday after 7 reboots, I worked for almost 4 hours with NO issue. Loading the same software, from the same hard drive, on a laptop with the same RAM, displaying on the same monitor, moving it with the same mouse, entering data on the same keyboard, outputting through the same M-Audio MIDI interface.... you get the idea. I change NOTHING and the results are hit and miss. There have been days I had no problems at all. Other days it is so bad I just quit and write everything on paper. Being a professional computer nerd, let me assure you I have tested thoroughly. Intermittent problems are the worst. I wish it was bad all the time. Then I would have something to report, but this dental chair syndrome is a pain.

Hi Bob,

The "screen redraw problem" does occur at certain times, and is fixed in this update.
Thanks for posting the detailed information on how to duplicate it. This made it much easier to fix.
Peter

http://www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#318


Summary of Changes for Build 318 (May 30, 2011)
Improved: Sometimes after resizing the main window, parts of screen wouldn't redraw.
Added: Some new style definitions.
Fixed: Sometimes using metal guitar soloist, would play a "too long" riff.
Fixed: Save Soundtrack wasn't working if the song was playing.
Fixed: Non-English versions only: Medley names were messed up.

Peter,

I originally reported this display bug to Support on the phone around April 12. I then posted this info on the Forum on April 15.

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=314217&an=0&page=8#Post314217

So it took around 6 weeks to come up with a software patch, which is reasonable.

As a retired IT professional who worked for major networking companies, one suggestion I'll make which would be a big help for users would be to have a simple trouble ticket tracking system, where users can track the progress of software patches. When PG Support is contacted (by phone or email), if it is determined that there is a potential software bug, a Tracking Number should be assigned and issued to the user. There could also be a section on the Forum where users can then go to check the status of Trouble Tickets. The online information would show the Ticket #, a brief description of the reported problem, and the status with respect to problem resolution (e.g., patch scheduled for Build XYZ, patch released in Build ABC, etc.).

This simple system would go a long way to improve communication between Software Development and users with respect to the status of software modifications.

I know I'd appreciate this system, as I have a few other bugs I've reported that I'd be interested in knowing if/when they will be addressed by Software Development.

Regards,

Dave R.