PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Odd error occured plugging BiaB drive in

This was very odd. I just got my BiaB Hard drive in. Looks good. Nice box and nice looking drive that says Band in a Box on it. Good looking. I plugged it in. Then my main monitor went black. But the right monitor stayed working. I couldn't get it back on. So I had to press the reset button. It reboot. Then the words came up Can't find Signal. I am not sure verbatim. I know something like that with Signal at the end. Can't Find Signal comes to mind. I reboot again it said the same thing. This has never happened having that sentence come up and no windows. I shut the pc down by pulling the plug. Maybe a cold boot could fix this. I turned it back on and still that Can't locate Signal or Find Signal in the middle of a black screen. So then I shut it down. Cleared the cmos on my pc. Then got it back up and running finally again. Now it is running fine. I then plugged my BiaB drive back in because I am fearless and it is ok. But for some reason the first time my system wasn't too happy about me plugging that drive in for some reason. That has never occured.

Now I am installing it on my hard drive. I choice to install it all on my pc. It told me about 80GB. But then it said it was only installing the compressed files. So I guess the 80GB's are all the compressed? I will have to check it out after it is complete. I guess it installs all of the compressed then I can install the uncompressed folder by folder? When I get some tracks together that I really like replace them with Uncompressed? Just enjoy putting some songs together with all the compressed then I guess I can easily replace them before I get real serious?

Let me know if anyone ever had that freak storm and trouble when initially plugging in their BiaB hard drive also. Like I said this has never happened to me. It is more than just a coincidence. This system has ran fine for many many months. And never once in my life have I have seen that black screen with Can't find Signal or to that affect. I should have wrote it down. But I know it was a negative then Signal. Can't find or Can't locate Signal. Whatever it was it seems to be find now. It shocked my system somehow. It may never do it again. The installation is going well now. It is a long install. This may take a while

Hi Sly
I have been using BIAB USB removable drives for a while. I never saw the issue you described. I too copy to my PC hard drive instead of always running from the USB removable drive.
But connecting the removable drive on the USB should not produce the issue you mentioned. Could there be a driver problem with the PC itself?

I have never heard of such a thing happening. As USB takes such low power, this is unlikely, but perhaps your PC's power supply was exceeded? Do you have a number of devices plugged in, along with that extra monitor? If this is a store-bought PC like HP, Dell etc. they don't give you enough power for much more than what comes in the machine.

I thought you said you were buying the audiophile version, but what you described is not.

I'm not sure if this is related to the new BB HD.... but my Western Digital keeps throwing error messages about not being able to write to the drive. Every minute this error pops up and I click to dismiss it.. I've even let it run it's course.... it comes back.

I need to investigate this when I have the time. It started doing this shortly after the BB HD was installed.

I have BB running from the HD with no apparent issues and I'm able to access the Western Digital drive so it's a bit puzzling.

I've found that sometimes its necessary to open a USB drive case and simply disconnect the internal hard drive from the circuit board plug and reinsert same, mechanically cleaning and possibly also realigning internal contacts and establishing good connections again.

That routine is now a routine maintenance item with my own gear s well as when I'm out on consults and the client is dependant on usb drives.

To date this has solved every one of those kind of problems. Some day it will likely actually be a bona fide bad drive, statisically speaking, but I must say I have yet to encounter that, at home or out in the field on these USB drive cases.

Carefully figure out how to open the case without forcing or damaging, disconnect the drive and immediately reconnect it, put the case back together.


--Mac

Mac, I have had the small screws come very loose in the HDs in the past. They were easy to make your suggested repair. I still have my little screw drivers . For 2014 I received a more modern streamline case. After some set up issues, like five minutes to recognize my PC, I let it run. 26&1/2 hrs. to complete a set up (Everything Pak.). A different Hd was shipped to me next day, and a recognize time of a few seconds, and a full set up was made in less than 2 hrs. So, they do fail to perform sometimes. I was ask not to open the case of the first HD, rather return it. Support wants to find the problem, if any exists. What a great bunch if folks to deal with.------Leon

He wasn't talking about the pg music shipped usb drive up there, Leon.

He was referring to his own Western Digital drive acting up...


--Mac

Sly I recently had something similar happen to me while connecting a digital camera to my pc. Camera was connected to usb cable but the camera was powered down. Plugged the usb camera into a free usb port and ... monitor screen goes black and pc speaker emits five beeps. After a few seconds the monitor displays loss of signal while the pc speaker keeps repeating the five beeps. I disconnect the camera usb cable and problem presists. Front panel power switch warmboot no help. Front panel power cycle no help. Finally remove power cable from pc power supply for a few minutes and get normal power up. I tried other usb ports and camera either does not recognize it is connected or knows there is a connection but refuses to connect. Funny thing is the camera interfaced fine with my computer for almost three years and continues to interface with my wife's laptop. Go figure! Even stranger, everything else usb continues to work when plugged into my computer and all the usb ports on my computer continue to work; just not with my camera.

My suggestion is to ask for a replacement drive because THAT drive does not work with YOUR computer.

Well it was just a freak situation that is all I can say. My screen has never went black ever and I never got that message. My system was somehow shocked by it in some strange way. I will bet you it won't happen again. It just didn't like it being plugged in for some reason at that moment. After I cleared the cmos and got back on my system I fearlessly plugged by BiaB drive back in and it worked fine. Thanks for the input on your situation. And thanks to all the rest who commented. Case closed.

"I shut the pc down by pulling the plug. Maybe a cold boot could fix this. I turned it back on and still that Can't locate Signal or Find Signal in the middle of a black screen. So then I shut it down. Cleared the cmos on my pc. Then got it back up and running finally again. Now it is running fine."

The 'no signal' message was coming from the monitor. It was not receiving a signal from the computer's video adapter.

Since a cold boot followed by clearing CMOS memory solved it, I'd put my money on static discharge. Classic symptoms.

Were you wearing shoes on a carpted surface, by any chance?

Jon