I recently purchased a second hand BCF2000 and confirmed that it works on an older Windows 10 laptop. On my newer desktop running Windows 11, I can install the Behringer drivers and the BCF shows up in the list of devices using USB mode. I also confirmed that other USB-MIDI devices work with the new computer. However, when I attempt to enable the BCF unit in any software (DAWs, MIDI OX, BC Manager, etc.) I get a "there is not enough memory available to complete the task". I've tried pretty much everything I could find (i.e. virtual memory allocation, different USB ports, different wires, running driver setup in compatibility mode, and many more) yet the error still appears even after a clean Windows install. I know this is a legacy product and Behringer doesn't really keep up with it anymore; is there hope for my controller despite the new technology?
Thanks in advance!
Computer Specs:
Beelink SER3 Mini PC
AMD Ryzen 7 3750H 4 Core Processor
16 GB RAM
Windows 11 Pro OS (tested with Windows 10 on the new PC as well, no luck)
I don't have Windows 11, so I can't offer any direct advice.
Perhaps other people can comment on their experiences concerning the combo of Windows 11 + BCF/BCR2000.
But just to be sure: which Behringer driver have you installed?
If you want to use a Behringer driver, for Windows Vista and later this should be the Behringer 1.0.10 driver (e.g. available from the Drivers folder of the B-Control user file section at the Mountain Utilities website).
Of course you need the flavor corresponding with your operating system: 32 or 64 bit.
However, installing a Behringer driver isn't strictly necessary, at least not in Windows 7 and 10: Microsoft's generic "USB Audio Device" makes the BCF and BCR work correctly anyway, with the limitation that only one application can use this driver at any one time: this driver is "single-client".
So what happens when you uninstall the Behringer driver, reboot and reconnect the BCF?
Does Windows 11 then automatically offer to install its generic "USB Audio Device"?
If it doesn't, that indeed indicates a change in policy by Microsoft.
Mark.
I appreciate the fast response Mark!
I have indeed tried the 1.0.10 from both Behringer’s website as well as from here, still to no avail. Uninstalling the driver and allowing Windows to try and do it unfortunately does nothing; the controller is recognized as being plugged in, however any attempt at letting Windows provide the driver instead of a downloaded one yields no result. Windows simply tells me that the “USB Composite Device” is not working properly (and that the drivers are as up to date as can be). Only when I start throwing the Behringer driver at it is when it correctly identifies as a ‘B-Control’.
I’m not sure how this plays in but: If I have the driver installed and try and boot up the computer with the BCF switched on, it will actually freeze the entire boot and force me to hard reset (maybe the BCF is transmitting too much of some sort of data that the computer can’t handle?)
It appears Microsoft may have switched things up with Windows 11 like you said (yippee). In that case I suppose I am at the mercy of the proper OS patch and it’s release.
Indeed this seems to indicate that Windows 11 lacks the "USB Audio Device" of older Windows versions.
If I remember correctly, when I investigated the Behringer drivers for Windows XP (described in "Windows USB drivers for BCc2000.pdf", downloadable from the BCF2000/BCR2000 page), I got the impression that these Behringer drivers were merely a kind of wrapper around Microsoft's generic "USB Audio Device", as demonstrated by the almost identical list of driver files reported by Windows' Device Manager.
The Behringer 1.0.10 driver came several years later, and I didn't study it in such depth, but if it too requires the generic Microsoft driver (which appears to be absent in Windows 11), that might explain why the Behringer 1.0.10 driver doesn't actually do anything in Windows 11.
So you might try to manually copy the "USB Audio Device" driver files from Windows 10 to 11. I have no idea whether this can be done without Windows protesting, let alone whether it will make things work, but since you're in "Desperate Territory" it might be worth looking into it...
On a side-note: a similar problem occurred with the BOSS GS-10 (a guitar-effects processor with both MIDI and "wav" USB communication) when BOSS (i.e. Roland) refused to release a driver for Windows 10. However, in this topic people have reported various clever ways around this, with varying degrees of success. I have no idea whether any of those tips are of any use to you, but again: who knows.
I have an update!
I took a shot at both of your most recent suggestions (with the Windows 10 driver as well as the Roland trick) with still no luck. At this point ("desperate territory" as you put it) I decided to move on to trying to work the controller on my computer through a standalone MIDI mode.
I acquired a 5 pin MIDI to USB cable and the error message was no more! After figuring out the wiring, I was at least getting input and output between the controller and computer.
Now, however, a new issue has appeared. Upon examining the output from the BCF, it appears that changing the status of one parameter is linked to other seemingly random parameters within the device (i.e. moving fader 3 up also changes the value for knob 2, etc). Turning a single knob a continuous way produces a bunch of different random events (for example, one will be a 'Control Change', then the next will be a 'Bank MSB', then a 'Foot Controller' event, despite never switching which physical parameter I am using.
Could this be a faulty MIDI-USB cable? Or would it be some sort of firmware/hardware issue of the BCF itself? The driver that Windows automatically installs is "USB MIDI Interface", if that plays a role here.
Good!
However, strictly speaking this is just a workaround: if Windows 11 indeed doesn't support the BCF/BCR2000's USB modes, that's really bad. So I'm still very interested in other people's experiences in this regard.
A problem with the BCF's firmware seems unlikely: the BCF performs a firmware checksum whenever it is powered on, and halts if an error is detected.
It may indeed be a hardware issue in the BCF: people have reported similar problems: certain buttons/encoders erratically influencing others etc.
For instance, see this topic. In particular you may want to look at my first reply there: it contains tips to eliminate the possibility that this erratic behavior is due to software problems (i.e. weird preset definitions).
But it may also be a problem with the MIDI-to-USB cable/device.
In your original post you wrote that your BCF does work when connected to your Windows 10 laptop via USB.
So does your BCF exhibit the same erratic behavior in that configuration? If so, there is probably a BCF hardware fault. If not, there may be something wrong with the MIDI-to-USB cable or device.
Final update!
I purchased a name brand USB-MIDI cable and everything is now functioning perfectly through standalone mode!
Thank you so much for your assistance and knowledge Mark! Your help was instrumental in getting this all sorted out.
Over the last few days, I was trying to use my BCR2000 with an up-to-date Windows 10 system. The Behringer USB drivers do in fact cause an out-of-memory error on any MIDI access to the USB port. Even worse, I was getting random BSODs in a Line6 POD driver while the Behringer driver was installed.
I have resigned myself to using the BCR only via a MIDI cable, and abandoning the MIDI USB interface functionality on the device.
As discussed earlier in this topic, perhaps the Behringer USB driver no longer works with Windows 11.
But as far as I know, the Behringer USB driver works correctly with Windows 10. (Theoretically Microsoft may have changed something in Windows 10 recently that makes the Behringer driver no longer work, but I doubt that.)
So my best guess is that your problems are caused by a hardware fault in the USB interface of your BCR itself. To verify this, you might try to use your BCR with another computer and/or operating system, such as Windows 7 or even macOS: then you'll know for certain whether your BCR itself is defective.
You may indeed have to abandon the USB modes of your BCR, but since these modes are so useful, it's a great pity if they can't be used.
Mark.
Not sure it helps but I'm running the BCR on an up to date Win 10 system via USB without problems with latest Behringer USB drivers.
For me the out-of-memory error only shows up when I try to open a BCR port that is already opened by another application.