Are you trying to use Finale with another audio program, such as a DAW like Cubase, FL Studio or the like? I've only had a problem like you're describing when I've had a driver conflict between programs. For example, if you are using Cubase, and you have your AISO driver is in use with Cubase then the two programs will compete for control, and one will end up erroring out.

Most audio cards have multiple outputs, so you could always try routing finale to a different output on the card and see if that helps.  

After reading this post, I opened up my Setup Audio menu in Finale v25 to find ASIO selected as described in this post. I changed the selection from ASIO to Direct Sound. As I suspected, installing the Dorico free software caused havoc with v25 even though it ignored v2014.5 completely. Upon selecting Direct Sound, the program crashed, restarted and allowed me to reopen the recovered file I had open for testing. Once the program was up and running, I reselected the audio setup menu to find that my Direct Sound selection remained in effect (see attached screen shot). Then back in the music file, I began playback and everything worked as it should.

I highly recommend that MakeMusic/Finale WARN its users to be aware that loading the Dorico software onto the same computer on which Finale v25 resides shall cause the problem(s) I described.

Many thanks to John Hayward and James Creider.

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I have done everything suggested in this forum. Here what I have already done:

1) Change ASIO to Direct Sound

2) Disabled SoundBlaster 

At this point, I think Finale Version 25 failed to communicate with my SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Fatality 1, maybe due the lack of direct link library or .dll. This sound card has been working fine with the followings softwares: Cubase Pro 9.2, Waves Version 9, SampleTank 3, Qin RV, Kontakt 5, Reaktor 6, EzDrummer Pro, iClone 6, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Adobe After Effect CS6, Autodesk 2015, Cinama 4D,  Adobe Premiere CC 2016, Adobe After Effect CC 2016. 

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As you can see,  the sound card works with all of the above Softwares but not with Finale Version 25. It must be a technical glitch in the Finale Version 25, or maybe Make Music just got tired of communicating with the Creative Team. 

I recently encountered a similar problem where one of my VST instruments dropped off the face of Finale and temporarily even Garritan started generating error messages. My contact with MM via the "Submit a request" link produced the following response.

Too many times MM support assumes that we are coders and programmers working down the hall from them. We are not paid to resolve their software's problems. Rather we are the customer who has encountered an unprovoked error with their product and are asking for help. For one, I do not feel comfortable editing files of which I have no understanding or training in the file's creation or purpose. I usually ignore such tech heavy advisories as posed in the instructions above.

100% agree with James Creider comment above. 

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Tech support at MM had suggested to me the steps Adrian Verkouterren took, but it is still not working. The other suggestion by MM is to buy a new audio card. I just don't have the budget to do that at the present time (-_-). 

If you peruse the Dorico Forum, you will find that sound driver issues are not exclusive to MakeMusic products. It is quite possible that Windows driver issues have caused the problem. I prefer to work with MM to solve the problem rather than to assume they are the cause.

 I can run Notion with no problems.   It is the 21 century and every app should be able to use ASIO drivers.  No one uses direct sound unless it's on board audio. All of my DAWs runs ASIO from my audio interfaces.  

If the suggestion is a new audio interface then I think it's easier to replace the notation program.  Even the budget ones don't have these issues.

The 32 bit versions of Finale were stable for me. I might have to put 2009 back on.   

As I have mentioned above, the Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Fality 1 card works fine with Cubase 9.2, Cinema 4D 2015, iClone 6 Pro, Waves Version 9, After Effect CS 6, Premiere Pro CS6, Adobe Audition CS6, Kontakt 5, Qin RV, Sampletank 3, Reaktor 6, Miroslav Philharmonik 2, Superior Drummer, EzDrummer, EzKey, and many other software. By the way, it works fine in Finale 2014.5. Just Finale version 25 that does not work with this card.  

I have followed MM techs suggestion and did what they told me but so far I have no luck of getting version 25 to work with this sound card. I think I have to uninstall version 25 and reinstall version 2014.5.  Buying a new sound card just to run version 25 alone, I don't think I ready to squeeze that budget of mine.  

Sorry to say what I have, but it is what it is.

 I've read many revert to using 2014.   After messing around I got sound to work again. Who knows how long that will last.  I have way too many inconsistencies with sound.

BTW a new card is not really a fix.  I have better luck with my M-Audio AP2496 and the lest drivers were for W7.  I have bigger issues with my Steinberg UR22.  Odd.  I also had to disconnect my Guitar Port because Finale 25 would select that as Midi In (still can't find that on the Guitar Port) and couldn't change that either.

I have found that with the upgrade to 25.3, the VST problem I had experienced with 25.2 (and which Finale Support helped me fix with a work-around) is no longer a problem. The latest upgrade has worked fine for me so far.