14. Why is my playback jerky in Band-in-a-Box®?

This type of problem is not as common with newer computer setups as it used to be, however the ideas are useful for troubleshooting similar problems.

  • Stuttering can occur if your machine is doing something else and hogging the CPU, like writing a big file to the hard drive or checking a Net connection, or if other programs are working in the background. Anti-virus programs are sometimes the culprit. Troubleshoot this by closing as many background programs as possible.

    On Windows 2000/XP, look for icons in your task bar next to the computer clock, and close/exit/disable these programs. You can also troubleshoot by using the Selective Startup feature. Go to Start | Run, type msconfig, and press OK. Click on 'Selective Startup', and uncheck 'Startup items'. Press [Apply] and restart the computer. Note: Windows 2000 doesn't have the system configuration utility.

    On Windows 98/ME:

    1. Hold down Ctrl and ALT on your keyboard, and press DEL once. This brings up the Close Program window.
    2. Click on any item listed in this window except for "Explorer" or "Systray" and press [End Task]. If another window pops up saying that the program is not responding, press [End Task] again.
    3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each item listed in the Close Program window, EXCEPT for "Explorer" and "Systray"

    Note: Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del twice in a row will restart your computer. If you restart your computer accidentally during this process, most of the background programs will likely be loaded again. You can configure which programs load at startup in the Windows System Configuration Utility (go to Start | Run, and typing "msconfig").

  • An improperly installed MIDI interface or sound card could also be the problem. Reinstall the sound card/interface, using the latest drivers available from the manufacturer. After you do this, reset Band-in-a-Box® to the factory settings by deleting the 'intrface.bbw' file from the C:\bb folder.

  • Another issue might be that the PCI bus is being locked out by the video driver. This can be caused by accelerated video drivers taking over the system for 50ms or more. The solution is to disable accelerated video. On Windows 98/ME, go to Start | Settings | Control Panel | Display | Settings | Advanced | Performance. On Windows 2000/XP, go to Control Panel | Display | Settings | Advanced | Troubleshoot. Turn the Hardware Acceleration slider to none.


Alyssa - PG Music