I got a better solution without hacking. I don't know if it will work for your situation though, but it works fine for me. The solution? Dont Place the FreeTextBox inside an UpdatePanel.
That's what I did.
File.aspx
<updatepanel>
<triggers>
<asyncpostbacktrigger id="btnSave" />
</triggers>
</updatepane>
<freetextbox />
<button id="btnSave" />
File.aspx.vb (or <script>)
protected sub btnSave_Click(sender as object, e as eventargs) handles btnSave.Click
dim someText as string = freetextboxid.text
end sub
NOTE: I wrote the code above in semi-pseudo code... I assume you all know what that is
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