BIAB / VSC3 Problem

Jim Landers · Post by **Jim Landers** » 4 Jan 2002 8:51 pm

I could sure use a little help from one of you 'puter gurus.

I installed BIAB 11 last week, but I did not install the VSC3. I ran BIAB with just the SB sound card and everything worked fine, but I was not happy with the sound. A couple of days ago I installed the VSC3 as recomended and have had all kinds of problems ever since.

The machine freezes, commits bright blue fatal errors and will not start unless I hold the 'control' key down to keep it in the safe mode.

I re-installed W98SE today and ran the 'System File Checker', which found and corrected 12 corrupted files. When I restarted the machine it froze up again, and the little grey box appeared saying: Msgsrv32
"This program has performed an illegal operation and will shut down".

I uninstalled and then reinstalled the VSC3 thinking that might correct the problem. It did'nt, on start up it froze up again and the same illegal operation window came up.

Do any of you guys have any suggestions on what I might try next to get this thing working right? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

jim

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 5 Jan 2002 4:07 am

1. Dump VSC33. 2. you may have to reload the operating system to get everything straightened out.

The Roland sofware MIDI synth works on most systems but I had problems with an older machine with VSC and had to uninstall it. It would hang up the system periodically and when I would shutdown windows I had a 50/50 chance on getting a "blue screen of death".

Ole Dantoft · Post by **Ole Dantoft** » 5 Jan 2002 5:39 am

Jim,

I also recently bought BiaB 11, and I've had absolutely no problems with VSC3 - in fact I love it, as it sounds way better than my sound card's MIDI implementation.

My personal idea about your problem is, that you either have,
1 : A hardware conflict, probably with an IRQ that's shared among two units, or,
2 : Your computer has one of the "less-well-known" processors e.g. a Cyrix, as I know these have been known to cause problems.

I suggest you go to http://www.pgmusic.com/ubb/
which is a forum hosted by PG Music, and ask there, as you'll get very qualified answers there, or ask PG Music support directly - you're entitled to support if you registered your copy of Biab with them.

Ole

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 5 Jan 2002 8:09 am

I've ordered BIAB 11 but it hasn't arrived yet. Does anyone here know if the VSC3 will work with Windows 2000 Pro?

------------------
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Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 5 Jan 2002 9:06 am

Here's the linke to the write up on VSC3 at pgmusic. http://www.pgmusic.com/rolandvs.htm

According to the specs it will work with NT

Jim Baron · Post by **Jim Baron** » 5 Jan 2002 10:41 am

The following is from the spec sheet...
"Using a PC equipped with a Pentium processor with MMX technology or Pentium II processor (or better) will facilitate smoother, stress-free MIDI performance.

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 95/NT/2000/Me/XP"

I have installed it on one machine using 2000, but it was a dedicated DAW and did not have a sound card installed. We couldn't get it to send out info thru an audio card, but it wasn't freezing anything up. We didn't spend much time on it as we were only trying to compare sounds of the VSC3 against the Stienberg Halion VST instruments.

The new VSC-MP1 [upgraded VSC3]is out also, and it has DXi and VST spport. Will get to review it soon at the NAMM show.

Steve Benzian · Post by **Steve Benzian** » 5 Jan 2002 9:54 pm

Well, I had the same problem installing VSC that comes with BIAB version 11....I tried installling it from the downloaded version as well as the CD and in each case the program installed but on the required Windows reboot I got the same error "msgsrv performed illegal operation". The windows boot would not complete in each instance...rendering the computer unusable. So I used a boot disc to boot the computer and then restored a previous version of the registry. I think that the install corrupts the registry in some way. I have a pentium III running Windows 98.

I reported this to PG Music asking if anyone else had reported the same problem. They responded with some interest but never got back to me about what the problem is. I am afraid to try installing it on my other computers.

Jim, If you need help in restoring the registry let me know and I can tell you how it's done...very easy...takes 5 minutes or less. Basically, the computer boots in DOS and you change directories to get to C:windows/commands and then type
scanreg /restore and hit return(there needs to be a space between scanreg and the /. You will get a list or previous registry dates..choose one and hit enter and you should be back in business.

If you think you won't need a boot disc for your computer think again. It's good insurance against a problem like this.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 5 Jan 2002 10:07 pm

I have BIAB 11 and VSC....it's on an HP
Pavilion [ME] and seems to work fine. My only gripe is that I have an MS Pro Internet
Keyboard that had a nice pop-up VOLUME control and now with VSC in place, is functionless. But VSC is a much better sound than the Windows AudioCrystalCodec. A lot crisper.
FWIW......ChipsAhoy

Jim Landers · Post by **Jim Landers** » 5 Jan 2002 11:18 pm

Thank all you guys for the input. I have tried just about everything that has been suggested plus a few more, and nothing seems to work except what Jack said. "Dump it!"

I have uninstalled the VSC a couple of times now, and each time I did everything starts working the way it's supposed to again. No problems on start-up etc. Maybe they will get a new version and I 'll try it again then

Jim

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 6 Jan 2002 3:15 am

I've tried VSC severeal times, since the original attempt that kept giving me the "blue screen of death", and with my current PC and a SoundBlaster Live (MP3+ 5.1) I can't hear any difference between the SB MIDI synthesizer and the VSC. Since it's no better there's no use adding another software application or off loading more work to the CPU. My Speaker system is a three piece Labtec system with a separate bass speaker.

However, with the built on mother board audio that came with my Compaq Presario the VSC was an improvement. Actually anything would have been an improvement over the onboard ESS audio module.

Dave Van Allen · Post by **Dave Van Allen** » 7 Jan 2002 7:53 am

Actually anything would have been an improvement over the onboard ESS audio module.

TESTIFY, brother!!!
The ESS module in my Compaq 1640 laptop suqs!! and the VSC demands too much horsepower on the old 266mhz system to make it a practical alternative.

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 7 Jan 2002 10:32 am

Just a Question....

Isn't there suppose to be a way to turn off the sound portion of these intergrated mother-boards ???? I thought it was a jumper or sometimes a bios (software) thing.

I know that you can turn off the on-board video section of the "Gateway" machines. I'm not too sure about the HP and Compaq machines.[This message was edited by Bill Crook on 07 January 2002 at 10:33 AM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 7 Jan 2002 12:33 pm

On the Compaq Presario's (at least the model I have) there is nothing in the BIOS for the sound.

I have the on board ESS audio "removed" in the Windows System Properties. The status for the on board ESS audio shows a yellow circle with an Apostrope in it but windows doesn't "find new hardware" and try to install it. My SoundBlaster Live board status is all operational.

Don Walters · Post by **Don Walters** » 10 Jan 2002 1:00 pm

b0b, I have VCS3 working on win2kPro. On the installation CD, there are 2 files in the VSC3 folder called README.TXT and README_E.TXT. The latter one has an older file date, but has a comment about win2k installation.
Mine works fine.