My computer is retarded!

GAAAH! My computer is absolutely garbage! I'm using Finale 2007 (or trying to) with Garritan Personal Orchestra 2.0 Finale Edition and my computer struggles with it! During playback the music begins to skip like a broken record and I get an error message saying that the program needs to close...

Someone told me this was a soundcard issue. Do I need a new sound card? Do I need to update my drivers? I can't afford a new computer...

I read somewere that SoundMAX Digital Audio doesn't support ASIO (whatever that is)... Can someone please explain to me what all this is and how I can get Finale running smoothly on my piece of junk computer?

Any help is largly appreciated.

There is a few different reasons that you may be having the problems you are having with your computer, but based on what information you have presented, I would hypothesize that the sound card is the issue. If this is the case, then the solution is obvious; acquire another soundcard that is compatible with ASIO. That being said:

"Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) is a computer soundcard driver protocol for digital audio specified by Steinberg, providing a low-latency and high fidelity interface between a software application and a computer's sound card. Whereas Microsoft’s DirectSound is commonly used as a stereo input and output for non-professional users, ASIO allows musicians and sound engineers to process their audio via Windows computer software instead of external hardware." - Wikipedia

If you don't have ASIO on your computer, then you can download and install it here:

http://www.asio4all.com/

But, if your soundcard is not compatible with it, then you'll need another one.

I hope this information proves valuable to you.

Finale 2007 doesn't use ASIO. ASIO was added in Finale 2009.

Most likely, you do not have enough RAM to run the number of instruments you are loading. Or, you may have a crappy sound card.