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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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1) Download the driver with antivirus scanner still turned on.
2) SCAN the dowloaded file immediately using your antivirus program's manual scanning (many allow that with a rightclick).
3) Shut down the Antivirus program.
4) Install downloaded software safely.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Hi Graham,
I have been away on tour and just logged in
We found the best way is to go to - Device Manager > Sound Video and games > Creative SB X-Fi Proerties > Driver - and either Roll Back Driver to the previous one OR Uninstall to remove the lot with "Delete the driver software for this device" checked if you feel comfortable with re-install - this is what we do
After reboot make sure that ALL applications are closed including those which go active at start up - like virus - spyware - etc before re-install of the driver update
jazzman
G'day Jazzman,
I am still envious of you having been on tour. Don't I wish!
Thanks so much for the advice. I let Windows do the replacement driver job and then made sure to close down EVERYTHING when the computer was doing the installation in the rebooting stage. Delayed close down now cured! 
There are still a bunch of people over on the Creative forum experiencing the same problem but I am not sure they read my post when I passed on the info.
http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&thread.id=142449
The support people at Creative don't do themselves any favours by not monitoring that forum of theirs themselves, do they? 
Thank goodness PG Music are always willing to jump in on this forum. 
Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2007
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I still reckon Creative should have hired Daniel K. instead of vilifying him...
--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya  --=--You're only paranoid if you're wrong!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Hi Graham,
I am pleased to hear that you have cured the problem with a correct install proceedure - once you have a faulty driver install the best way is to uninstall it and start again - over the top of a faulty install does not really work 100%
There is nothing wrong with the drivers but being a large package of features and drivers,due care is needed
We deal directly with Creative and receive prompt attention - they do monitor the forum - I am afraid that the Creative forum have some who are blind to their own shortcomings and just want to blame something and some dubious ones like the few we have on here from time to time - no wonder Creative only answer sensible questions
It seems strange that we have made over 600 installations of the X-Fi range over many different computers without problems and you cannot do that with bad drivers
jazzman
BIAB - RealBand - 2022
Windows 10 64
Zoo computer with 7i processor- SSD 1TB -2TB HDD
Roland keyboards
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I am sorry to drag up this old post but I feel some extra information might be useful to members of this forum using the Creative soundcards SoundBlaster X-fi series - in my case the XtremeGamer. And of course I have a Vista 64bit operating system, although the problem is probably more widespread than my setup specification.
What is the problem? Extremely long shut down of computer and possibly other associated problems.
After some suggestions from Jazzman in this thread, I felt the problem had been solved. But it kept returning. If you look at the thread on the Creative forum you will see that the problem is widespread and that several other solutions were proposed, all of which I tried, but they did not offer a long-term solution.
Creative themselves were very quiet on the subject but have recently admitted that there is a problem with the new driver. They are now offering to selected members of their forum via PM a bug fix for the driver. I am a bit loath to use it after reading the note which said:
"The following beta driver has been found to resolve the issue on delayed OS shutdown.
Before downloading this beta driver, please take note of the following:
* THIS IS AN UNSUPPORTED BETA DRIVER. No technical support is available.
* We recommend that only experienced users install this driver. Do not install this driver on a system used to perform critical tasks.
* Customers looking for stable drivers should wait for the final release and install the latest production driver when available."
I have been offered the new driver for testing but since my computer is used for critical tasks - i don't know too many that are not - I think I might wait for the final release.
I suppose I am still a bit surprised that Creative released a driver without proper testing in the first place.
I pass on this information for what it is worth. I know it has nothing to do with the Band-in-a-Box program itself but I am aware that many BB users have Creative soundcards. Hopefully not many with the X-fi series.
Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Disclaimers are necessary in today's litigational climate.
Feh.
You makes yer choice and you lives with it either way.
Soon it will likely be a full release candidate.
...Which may or may not work right either, given their track record...
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Well, this makes sense in that they say it's a beta driver. So, before releasing it in final form to the public, they want select users (who don't work for creative) to test it out in a real-world situation (different machines and configurations, etc). That way, when they do release it, they will have hopefully worked out the bugs.
If it were my machine, I would set a restore point and then take an image of my C: drive (which doesn't take very long); then install the patch and see if it works. If so, great; if not, it's easy to revert back.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Hi Graham,
I remain astonished to read of something that we cannot reproduce - we have used the previous and the latest update and the beta offering with no problems on all drivers regarding slow OS shutdown
Over the last few weeks we have had a deluge of MS OS and security updates and these have definately slowed down the shutdown of the OS
I have just done a series of shutdowns with and without Creative items in the start up menu and there is barely 1-2 seconds difference in the time - the only one we now leave unchecked is CTXfiHlp App as this has not worked fully since one of the MS downloads - this definately makes a slowdown as the activating/de-activating is held up by this now faulty app.
It happened before that an MS update has caused problems with various programs especially with drivers - as it is the drivers that can be the source of these problems.
As John states make a Restore Point then download and install the Beta and see if it does the trick - if not revert back
Remember to turn off virus and spyware before action and no other program open
jazzman
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
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I too, have experienced long shutdowns and in some cases, slow startups, too, on machines where the recent microsoft updates have taken place.
Maybe there will be future update releases to solve that, dunno.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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14 pages of complaints and the releasing of a beta driver suggest that there is definitely a problem. http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soundblaster&thread.id=142502I still think it is 64bit Vista which is particularly prone to the problem. I suppose it is possible that the MS OS updates (I got another 8 this morning!) keep making that Creative driver redundant but is definitely the driver because when I tried reverting to the old driver, the problem went away. Actually my operating system is still claiming the old driver is in place, whereas the Creative update process says the new one is in place. I am going to try the beta driver. I'll probably do it after work tonight - just in case anything critical is affected.
Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."
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