Hello All,

during one of the upgrades in the last few months, I discovered that now when our dear program launches, it doesn't appear on my laptop screen, but somewhere else... possibly on a monitor that does not exist.

I have the Audiophile version and launch it off the E drive with all my files, drums, styles pointed there. When I plug it in, Windows explorer opens it, and I launch the 64 or 32 bit app from there.

Last time after it launched, I went to the task manager and maximized it. This is what I got (see pic's).

Strangely, when I am within the black window, I can do keyboard shortcuts, like ctrl shift N for Big Piano Window, and the big piano window will appear.

Any suggestions?

Tom Marvan / Dunbar7376

In my experience, usually freaky graphics things are related to graphic DPI or compatibility setting. Right click on the BIAB shortcut and try to change DPI settings on the bottom of the list to something else, just for testing purposes. Seems like it is a monitor/video card related.

Another thing to try, is just re-install latest BIAB patch from here:
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=600680#Post600680

It should overwrite the whole program, but not the content. That might help.
----

And something else.. Windows pushed update within last couple of days, and I know it messed up some drivers for people. In my case, it was audio interface driver. Just stopped working... Had to re-install to make it work again.

Good luck.

Thank you for the tips, I will work on these!

The strange thing is, Band in a Box works just fine when I launch it from the hard drive (C drive) - but it does not show the latest patch there (that you pointed to and I installed), not does it show PAK 9 which I installed today.

Tom.

Just guessing here, when you install the patch, did it asked you for location of the program...not the Rt/Rd folders...? Try to update both places (C and E drives) with latest patch, see if that resolves it.

Just checking a long shot, since you've been with BIAB since at least 2008:

Even if you run BIAB from the supplied audiophile hard drive, you must first have installed it to your computer. This puts seven or so Windows font files and a few other small things like the record of activation onto your boot drive. You do this by selecting the Minimal Install from your (I think) four options during setup. Did you do this?

Hello Rusty and Matt,

I did as Rusty just suggested - I installed the latest patch on the C drive (I had initially done so on the E drive, where the external drive is plugged into). It recognized the new patch and, after I rebuilt the styles, the new PAK9 and Loop 2 are there.

I have 4 shortcut icons on my desktop:

1. 32-bit "launches" from the C drive
2. 64-bit "launches" from the C drive
3. 32-bit "launches" from the E drive
4. 64-bit "launches" from the E drive

If I try option 3 or 4, I get the issue I originally posted.
If I try option 1 or 2, it now works, as I mentioned, with the new styles and latest patch visible (722) when I check the "Help...About Band in A Box" menu.

Within RealTracks and RealDrums, I see that my preferences are still pointing to the E: drive, so I presume I am getting the benefit of the audiophiles. I am not sure it matters if it the program is launching from C or E, does it?

And should I choose 64-bit over 32-bit? Maybe a topic for another time.

Thank you gents. With your help, I will happily be spending the rest of the weekend composing songs!

Tom.

PS: To answer your original question, Matt, I did at one point install it on my C drive, but with a subsequent version chose to run it off the E. Off the E drive was working fine until recently. I think you may be onto something, as was Rusty, in focusing on the C drive again.

I would do the Minimal install each time to drive C:

Yes, whether you run from drive C or your PG Music drive, Options, Preferences, Real Tracks (and same for RealDrums) determines where the program looks for the best sounds. You might enjoy reading my article about this; it’s the first post in the Tips and Tricks Forum here.

I run 64-bit whenever possible. For BIAB it makes little difference but it’s good to future proof. In the 32-but version you can’t run 64-bit plugins nor access full RAM without a utility called JBridge. However, in 64-bit BIAB you lose your 32-bit plugins. This is less of a problem now but the determining factor is what your plugin collection looks like.

I think this my 3rd year in a row of the Audiophile edition (although I have been a member of this forum since 2008, I do recall having band in a box since roughly 1999).

For the 2018 and 2019 audiophile versions, I did the minimal install to C (based on your article, and possibly some discussion on this forum between us), but then when running in 64-bit, there were some periodic error messages that - if I recall - support could not resolve and, either through their prompting or my initiative, I tried the E drive approach to see if I could get rid of the error.

It did not work. The support team then did suggest, to avoid the error in 64-bit, just run 32-bit.

I will run 64-bit now, and I am certain there will be an error again which I will share on the forum. The error doesn't prevent me from moving forward or saving files to prevent loss of my work, but it will sometimes stubbornly reappear unless I relaunch.

Anyway, I was able to successfully experiment with some of the new PAK 9 styles last night, lots of fun.

Thank you again for your help.

Tom Marvan

As far as the black screen issue and the program showing up off screen, I've found a simple solution when it happens to me.

I right-click on the screen and choose Display Settings and set the screen to a lower resolution. That will usually at least get your program back on screen. At that point, you can drag it around to the middle of the screen and restore your resolution back to what it was.

That's interesting, Steve. Does that imply either the user or the program changed the screen resolution? And are you saying this happens to you now and then?

Along those lines, I suppose it's theoretically possible to change the color scheme to be black writing and graphics on a black background ...

Not sure on that one so I won't imply it.


Matt, I was referring to other programs that go wonky. I've not had the issue with BIAB/RB.

Media Monkey is an app that I get the issue with on occasion. I have a 3 screen setup on my main PC and sometimes I unplug a screen to connect to my work laptop. That app tends to lose it's mind when I do that and the screen resolution trick helps me restore the app back on to the remaining screens.

I haven't tried running BIAB/RB when I unplug a screen to test that scenario, but I ASSume it would work to restore the app.


EDIT: Sorry for the confusion. I thought that first screenshot of the black screen was just the app being off screen. I didn't notice the BIAB bar running across the top. I'm not sure if the screen resolution trick would bring it back then... It's worth a try I guess.

Thanks. You know, on my iPhone I didn’t see that single top line either.

I would normally have asked the OP to do Options, Return to Factory Settings but I’m not sure he has any way to see to get to that.

Hello,

Try this: Save a file called safemode.txt in your bb\Preferences folder on the E: drive. The splash screen should indicate 'safe mode' when you launch the program. This simulates factory settings. Does the problem still happen?

Greetings. I don't have quite the same problem as the original poster, but I think it's close. I have BIAB 64-bit on Windows 10, and I've been using BIAB successfully. Starting today, when I start the program I see only the splash screen. It's not black; it's the usual screen, but the rest of the program never opens. (Naturally I first re-booted my computer.) Another symptom: I can't kill the program by x-ing it out from the Windows taskbar; I have to use the Task Manager.

Following Andrew's suggestion above, I created a safemode.txt, although in my case it was in C:\BB\Preferences. After doing that, the program does start, with the SAFE MODE banner on the splash screen. I got a few errors about unassigned drum notes. So thank you very much for that.

Now, my question is, how do I get out of the safe mode requirement? I assume that I have a corrupt song file or something that's freezing the program (right?). While in safe mode, I opened a song and set my preferences to "On startup, open last song." But that had no effect, and when I remove the safemode.txt file, I'm back to where I started. How can I identify what's getting in my way -- any ideas?

Thanks for your help,
Sam Buttrey

Hi Sam,

When the program works in safe mode then the settings are corrupt. You will need to open the program in safe mode then navigate to "Options" > "Return To Factory Settings ...".

Ay yi yi. Okay, I will do that, and thanks for your very prompt help.

I'm sad to say that Jim Fogle's eminently reasonable suggestion didn't work. That is, having "returned to factory settings," I still can't get BIAB to start. I will try to call tomorrow, but...Andrew?

Sam

With the BiaB program closed, create a new text file named "writebootuplog.txt" in the \bb\Data\ folder.

Start Band-in-a-Box. This should create a new file named "bootuplog.txt" in the Data folder.

The contents of that file may assist to determine what is causing things to go awry for you.

Please let us know if that assists.

Hi VideoTrack,
Thanks for taking the time to help me out on this.

I did as you suggested, and indeed a bootuplog.txt was created. I should mention that this arose from the situation where I was *not* in safe mode.

That file contains this:
C:\bb\Data\BootupLog.txt= Log file of bootup times. Paste into Excel for best viewing
LogThis: Start of this: Init Start Init1 [6/21/2020 9:23:03 PM] [ms since LogStart(boot)= 2 ], since last LogThis function = 2
LogThis: Start of this: InitCompleted. bbw.dpr started [6/21/2020 9:23:03 PM] [ms since LogStart(boot)= 48 ], since last LogThis function = 46
LogThis: Start of this: possibly showing splash screen... [6/21/2020 9:23:03 PM] [ms since LogStart(boot)= 48 ], since last LogThis function =0


which doesn't really tell me much. Can you think of something that this indicates?

With thanks for you taking your time on this,
Sam Buttrey

I think the next step is to return to factory settings (if not already undertaken).
As you can't do this from the program, you can do this manually by having BiaB closed and deleting (preferably renaming) two files as follows:

Go to your bb preferences folder (usually c:\bb\preferences), and rename the following two files:

Mysetup.dk
intrface.bbw

Then right click on your BiaB desktop shortcut and select Properties | Compatibility | Check 'Run program as Administrator' and click apply. Then double click on your Band-in-a-Box icon to launch the program.

Hopefully that might have a better outcome.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. That seems to have done the trick. Thank you again!

I notice that, contrary to my expectations, the program did not create a new MySetup.DK or intrface.bbw. Do you think that should concern me? Everything seems to work fine, so I will just forge ahead and not worry about it.

Thanks again!

Excellent, glad you got it going and provided feedback of what worked that others will be able to utilize in the future.

I'm not sure what mechanisms are used to create those files. It may be only based on when/if the user makes certain changes.

The program needs to create those files. You should delete the safemode.txt file, since that is only for testing purposes.

Sam, yes, safemode.txt should be removed. I understood that you had already done this when you previously mentioned:


Can you confirm?