XXHighEnd

Hi Peter -


I am trying to track down a problem with my o/s can you please let me know what privileges are set?

Regards

Paul

Hi Paul - Does this help you ?
http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1547.msg15678#msg15678

Thanks Peter - I tried this earlier and it did not work so tried it again manually adding me and administrator to the list (again) and that did not work - straight away. So then after reboot and retry many times it now seems to be working. Fingers crossed that it continues to do so.
Thanks for your help as always
Regards
Paul

Well problems continued - XX would not consistently run with any SFS at all (i.e. anything above 0.2) so in the end after complete removal of XX twice and re-installation it now seems to be working OK within one exception. With SFS at 430 it XX runs on straight contiguous provided that I first run it on Mixed otherwise I get "straight contig" error messages. I can live with that but it seems odd - I have not had these problems before and this is on a clean install of W7 pre SP1.

And hot keys works - yippee!! I could not get hot keys working at all on SP1 no matter what security settings were used.

Must be something odd Paul. Especially since it looks to be happening with 0.9z-6. But is it really ?

- Could you use SFS-SC before without issues ?
- Did you acually use Unattended before (reg. your HotKey thing) ?

The latter is not really related, but somehow I feel it might.

Let me know,
Peter

I have W7 SP1 on original partition on same PC - no problems running XX9-52 and XX9-6 (with SFS 240 & SC) on that partition apart from hot keys did not work properly. To be honest I did not spend much time trying to sort that out. I did not really use unattended.

I have an old W7 RC prior SP1 version on a new second partition to be used only for XX. It is on this partition I have had the problems - it will work now with SFS at 420 & SC but only if I run XX on Mixed first. This problem happens with xx9-52 just the same as xx9-6 and it also happens just the same whether the o/s is minimised or not. I have tried unattended a couple of times the first time it worked ok the second time it locked the PC.

Ok. "Most probably" (but far from sure) this can be related to whatever it is you did to that partition. It also looks similar to what boleary described the other day.

In the end this may go back to whatever it exactly was you did on indication of others (you may recall that).

*If* you recognize such a thing, it may not be a coincidence that for sure boleary applied those changes, after things got messed up. What I don't know though, is whether boleary set up the OS from scratch after that. And, if that was something like a dual boot situation. But even if he did set it up all over (and even if you did) ...

Remember what I ever back told about dual boot situations influencing eachother. They really can - and I'm not even sure whether this would be an MS bug.

Yes, this makes things fairly complex - I know ...

Peter

I created a second partition on same disc. Formatted it then installed W7 - very straightforward bog standard install.

When I get time I will install W7 pre SP1 on a stand alone disc i.e. no dual boot and see what happens.

At present SP1 partition works fine and pre SP1 partition works but with the problems posted above.

Regards

P

So I disconnected the original disc that came with the PC which had W7 Pro originally installed on which XX works OK (but problems with hot keys which did not work). A second partition with W7 Ultimate 2009 pre SP1 was set up on which XX was very flaky see earlier posts.

So I disconnected the above originally supplied disc and connected a new clean formatted disc - loaded W7 Ultimate of 2009 vintage pre SP1. This is a clean copy and installation bog standard. Installation of XX9z-06 was very straightforward no problems. So no dual boot now and very straightforward system set up.

So what happened? I still have the problem that I have to run XX in "Mixed" memory mode first even for just a second stop change to "Straight Contiguous" and then it works fine ( I can operate up to 600 or 700 SC without a problem). All functions seem to work and I can shut down and start up XX and it continues to work OK. But if I reboot then I do need to run in Mixed first before running in SC - if I don't then I get "SC - reboot" error message.

The difference compared with the second partition dual boot version is that the single disc single boot version is much more stable apart from this strange little problem.

Mmmmmm strange methinks - but of course it is a computer so there must be a simple logical explanation.

P

I will be working on it Paul.

Thanks much for "sharing" (yea, sounds strange I know, but still - helpful !)

Peter

Hey Paul, so what does a SFS of 600 or 700 do to the sound compared to 300 or 400? Just wondering cause 350 is as high as I go.

I didn't even see that !

But I say : impossible. And when it looks like that : must be a bug.

There is definitely something wrong - it seems I can set SFS to anything (provided I first run in Mixed then switch to SC) but in resource monitor I always see about 1.3Gb memory usage - I would have thought XX would reserve more memory the bigger the SFS file (Peter ?) this is on the new install of "vanilla" W7 Ultimate pre SP1 of course.

I now I have fired up the original disc and am running on the original W7 PS1 partition - memory being used as shown in resource monitor is 4.6Gb (regardless of SFS setting) and I can also increase SFS (when running SC) up to anything I like but it does not change the memory being used.

I cannot comment on sound quality because I only have one speaker working, one of my amps is out of action and NOS1 is in a box awaiting a short break in Holland.

............... but this looks suspicious I need to check out what memory is being used by which apps etc but I just put some Gill Evans on and I am rather wanting to listen to it all the way through and enjoy a rather fine glass of red wine which sits beside me as we speak :-)   - I will make some more checks tomorrow. By the way I have 12Gig memory but even so I do not think that would allow the SFS of 1300 I went up to (and I think I could set it anywhere really).

Peter if there is anything you want me to look at please let me know.

All the best

P

Paul, this is definitely a bug. You are just ahead of me by perfectly supporting what I thought of last night;

What happens is that now the Audio Engine leeps on running all the time, this memory is not re-allocated. Well, this was the whole idea about that. Still, one can change the SFS along the way. Ehm, that *setting*. Not the workout, because nothing happens anymore after a first "allocation" which is at the first attempt of playback ...

A small thinking error on my side ...

Either setting the SFS lower or higher should have no effect anymore after this firt playback. What's extra confusing is that when the allocation fails, the Engine stops (the program quits) and *then* you can have another attempt of setting it lower. To you (and boleary undoubtedly experienced the same) it seems that the first attempt fails, a next with Mixed Contiguous (or Mixed alone) works (this would be true) to next see it happening that Straight now works too. But this last step is a "fake" one ...

Solution for now : Stop de Audio Engine (the Off button) and *then* retry as usual.

Peter

Peter - I am finding that Engine 3 stays in memory and I have to kill the process via task manager (even if I shut down XX GUI) before having a go at CS again. But it does appear that the amount of SC I can allocate successfully is small say around 50mb which is very small for the resources I have (i970 with 12Gig)

P

Paul ... the Off button ...

Hi Peter - durgh  :(  I never noticed that before. Anyway I made a few more checks this morning and what is happening is clear now but I still have a problem: -

Problem 1 - The original "as supplied" W7 SP1 partition works with SC set to 420 engine 3 starts and grabs about 4.2Gig of memory. 420 is about the max my system will do with SC. As you pointed out Peter whilst Engine3 remains loaded the amount of SC will remain the same (regardless what SC is set to) until Engine3 unloaded again. This is not much of a problem now that I know what is happening.

Problem 2 - On my new "vanilla" W7 pre SP1 build XX works exactly as above (no real surprise) but XX can only run on SC with an SFS of 15 and Engine3 does not seem to (be able to)  grab any more memory. Both Administrator and me are listed in the allowed to "lock memory" privileges.

So any ideas as to why XX cannot grab more memory for SFS on my vanilla W7 Ultimate install would be much appreciated. With the privileges OK and plenty of system resource (there is loads of free memory) I have run out of ideas.

All the best

P

** UPDATE **  AH HA - JUST TRIED ON ON VANILLA W7 PRE SP1 XX WORKS OK WITH SC AND SFS AT 210 (STILL NOT AS MUCH AS 420 ON THE PRESP1 INSTALL) WITH THE OS MINIMISED SO SOMETHING ELSE MUST BE GRABBING MEMORY WITH "FULL OS". ANOTHER SMALL STEP FORWARD.

** UPDATE NUMBER 2 ** - I HAVE ALSO TRIED VANILLA W7 PRE SP1 ON THE DUAL BOOT SYSTEM AND IT EXHIBITS EXACTLY THE SAME CHARACTERISTICS AS DESCRIBED ABOVE FOR VANILLA W7 ON THE STAND ALONE DISC. SO DUAL BOOT DOES NOT SEEM TO BE A PROBLEM AT THIS STAGE.

I don't think the last step is a fake one here. Once I'm in SC by using the above described procedure, I'm able to change the sound by changing the SFS in SC. So, just last night I was listening to the difference in SFS of 200 and 350. Because the lower size has more of an edge but is more clear or articulated I reduced from 350 to 315 and had the best of both, though I'm not sure whether its album or track specific. I mean it could be that some albums play better with slightly different settings.

Because I was able to hear these changes, I don't believe that the last step--switching from MC to SC is fake over here. I do have to do this every day when I turn the PC on or I can't use SC.

One more thing, using the higher SFS has completely removed a particular edge I've had in every version of XX including Z-6, though Z-6 is so much better than everything I didn't know that edge was still there untill I started changing SFS settings last night. Hope this makes sense.....

Hey Boleary - I have been looking at resource monitor and I can see engine3 grabbing memory (in SC) when fired up but the amount of memory taken does not change until engine3 is unloaded from memory (at which point all the memory reserved is released again). So certainly for my system Peter would appear to be correct.

I'll check whats going on using the resource monitor when I get home this evening. Hope you get that other speaker going soon!

Paul, it is obvious to me that with the OS Minimized XX can take more SC memory. So, nothing strange there.

Can it be so that the differences in the two situations are about Pro (more SFS) vs. Ultimate (less) ?
If so, things woule be a kind of logic to me ... (but I'd have to dig further first).

Peter

Minimized does not give me more SC. (50) (4GB RAM)

Home Premium

 :)

I am not using Ultimate but Pro and I can get it up to 500 (including fresh reboot) without a problem. 510 was too much but if once played unattended and minimised then even 550 was not a problem but rebooting will this then give the SFS error again...

I use this PC with a clean OS (not any update whatsoever) and for XX only.

Bert

Hey Peter,


According to your signature you are running W7 Ultimate and getting SFS of 430 with 8Gig ram. I am running W7 Ultimate with 12Gig ram with max SFS 210 ???

P

I'm just more demanding ...

IOW, no clue at this time.

(but the 430 is the normal figure, really)

Just to add to the confusion, I'm running W7 with Sp1 and updates, offline and all that implies--basically only use the pc for audio, but attended, OS NOT minimized, Engine 3 shut off, with 300 SC, no problem.

I'm afraid to try minimize OS and Vanilla-izing the system because it sounds great as is and I don't want to incurr problems so that I can't listen to it.

Did anyone notice that I said it sounds great with SP1? It seems to sound much better (sweeter--in a very good way) then the previous incarnation of XX, with a slightly clearer soundstage and better detail--which usually doesn't go along with something like "sweeter."

-Chris

So now I have installed a clean vanilla W7 Pro (pre SP1) on a clean formatted disc. Install of o/s bog standard again and installation of XX no problems. So now running on W7 pro pre SP1 (stand alone disc) exactly the same as vanilla ultimate I can get about 210SFS with full o/s and 260 max with minimised o/s.

Very curious the original install of W7 Pro Sp1 gets SFS well over 400. I have the resources available but somehow I am being prevented from using them. Task manager shows lots of free memory not being used by any other processes.

** Update ** on vanilla W7 Pro XX with SFS 410 now seems to be working and reliably - it seems that if the very first thing I do after start up is run XX in at 410 SC it seems OK even if you then reboot. But going back to W7 Ultimate on 2nd boot partition does not work reliably at all with SC. And a stand alone W7 Ultimate vanilla I could not get above SFS 210 whatever I tried although it was more reliable than the 2nd boot partition install.

Very strange - I can not even begin to imagine what is going on.

P

I can Paul. It will be tough to copy all what you experience out there, so I must work from theories (and first make them, haha). But you are a great help.

Don't expect me to make something out of this, but when I see the light, I will.

Peter

Well not entirely true i guess.  :(

I started all over and I did use Peter's comment about the way OS minimise should be used http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1810.msg18425#msg18425

Also i use the settings from Boleary.
SFS  Straight Contiguous can be used overhere with 140!  :)

Like to say that ticks/clicks are gone now.  :)  SFS? or Boleary's settings? Does not want to go back 

:) :)

Hi - back to square one. I have changed nothing and now I am struggling to get SFS to anything on SC following a reboot. I was running on SFS = 400 and provided I left engine3 in memory it was reliable.

Now the best I can achieve is to increase gradually SFS by starting at SFS = 0.2 (that is the only way I can run in SC) start to play a track then click OFF (ie Engine3 out of memory) then increase SFS by 2 (and no more or I get error messages) and keep repeating this process but I can only get up to around SFS=30.

This is on W7 Pro vanilla pre SP1 and a simple install just for XX and music (music on separate disc). The only thing I do notice is that the volume control does not work (one click brings up the green bar which does not disappear no matter how long you wait). When I can set SFS volume works OK.

Nothing for it but a complete new install as I cannot think of anything else to try. I did install everything and run XX before using the minimise o/s function so I do not think that is the problem.

Privileges are set OK.

GGGrrrrr

P

I have that for many months now.

But i alway's press stop before changing volume and than i have no problem.

 :)

I have reinstalled W7 vanilla and XX now I can just about get SFS 100 with SC also the volume control OK. Frustrating when I know how much resource my computer has available. A couple of questions for Peter though:

When I first use XX on SC I get the "Privileges set .... reboot" message. But after I reboot and then run XX on SC again I get the same message. So XX is unable to set privileges I guess. I then have to set the "lock pages" privileges manually. Does this give any clue as to the problem is there maybe a security issue I have overlooked?

If XX is requesting contiguous memory and the o/s is not able to meet its request is the only reason for this that there is not enough contiguous memory available or could there be another reason?. Checking resource monitor I have lots of free memory available.

P

Same volumecontrol problem here.

Now with minimised OS on vanilla, the bar stays green. Before it would sometimes change volume suddenly after 20-30 seconds. Sometimes...

I also have the habit to stop play when i intend to change the volume.

Furthermore i have issues with unattended, which I don't use since I prefer to have the buttons directly under the mouse. Sq wise I did not find a significant improvement over attended since 09z5. Imho not worth the inconvenience.

Regards, Coen

Paul, the inconsistent behaviour on SC you see may spring from how long after the reboot you start playback for the first time. Do this as soon as possible, and let's at least see that you can keep up the higher numbers then.

Not that this is the way to do it, but we must try to proove that something spreads over memory fairly quickly after the reboot. When you are ahead of that, it can't.

Also, it might NOT be the best way to start low and go higher. More good (for you and at this time (!!!)) is having the knowledge that 100 is possible, so start out with that. If you ever saw 150 ? start out with that right away. So, not try 100 and 150 after that because 100 worked. It will have eaten itself, so to speak.

Are you using a normal Windows OS install ? (or an OEM thing with manufacturer logo and stuff)

How much memory do you have on the video card ?
Is the video integrated on the mobo ?

Maybe important : are you seeing this since 0.9z-6 ?
(and if Yes, are you 100% sure you didn't change other things in the mean time ?)

Since when did that Privilege thing start to happen ? (yea, now I may need to read back in the topic, sorry ...).

Let me know please. It is getting rather confusing for me by now, especially because the inconsistent behaviour must come from somewhere (eh, that would be you, haha). This is two folded IMO : 1. You may incur for environmental changes without realizing it. 2. You may not notice otherwise incurred for environmental happenings and thus get on a wrong track.

Peter


PS: I already implied it, maybe by now I have to reread the whole topic and I did not do that. Seems to make me more confusing.

Ok, I have read this by now (again);
Although this might help, it is not theway to do it, and anyway and doesn't tell me anything. If you can't get whatever higher amount right away, something is wrong.

Paul, notice what "contigous" means; this is parts of (unused) memory without interruption of used pieces. This *is* related to your total amount of memory, but in the end tells nothing about it being free in sufficient contiguous fashion. On that matter you would be destroying things already when you'd be starting whater "monitor" programs first.

If you don't have switched on Garbage Collect in XX, maybe do that.

Peter

What do you mean by OK? Does it work always as it should at attended playback and at unattended playback or only when the player is stopped?

For me it only works when I don't play anything. For the rest I can see the slider go up or down and then a green bar shows (will always be like this until I stop the player without having actually changed the audible volume). This is at attended (unattended probably too but then I can't see anything) but also with minimized OS and also with SFS at 0,2 ( and mixed, mixed SC or SC).

Nothing changes the behaviour of the volume control, it simply does not work here for me.

Must be something else in the software turning off something during playback or generating a never ending loop stalling this functionality to adjust the volume during playback?

Bert

Bert, since you have it as you have it - and then mainly referring to Unattended :

When you change the volume (just ONE time Alt-U/D and *only Unattended pleas) and you observe TaskManager; How long do you see XXHighEnd being in there (if at all) ?
Please use the Wallpaper for your confirmation; it won't change at the same time as the volume - both may go independent of eachother - you might have to watch for the volume change itself as well because of it (meaning : the fact that the Wallpaper doesn't change may not say a thing).
Also, the Wallpaper being there or not (shutoff or on) may imply different behaviour of the volume itself).

You seem to be the best example if I may say so, because of the fairly consistent behaviour. Plus it is and has always been like this with you ...

Thanks a lot for spending the time involved,
Peter

From memory (attended and unattended) it is always there (at attended 2x XXHighEnd). Even when the player is stopped or turned off it remains there all the time (unless I kill the process with taskmanager).

But I will test unattended again with Taskmanager in the background...

Bert

Aha ! If *that* is so, this will already be a major clue. For Attended that is. But ... this should be some AutoHotkey anomaly (mind you, per my own config in there, most probably), and this can thus be not be related to clicking the buttons. Otoh, *if* clicking the buttons fireup XXHighEnd, there's again another anomaly in order ...

Let's keep in mind (to avoid confusion on your side), this is 100% unrelated to the Unattended situation.

But a question in between the lines : did you alter your XX.ahk config file ? and do you now indeed use the latest version, as it came with 0.9z-6 ?

Just back from a nice bicycle tour... :heat:


Same file as it came with 0.9z-6, nothing changed in it myself. Did that before to remove that "path" message, it's not there with the new version so no need to change anything...  :)

Will test the situation as suggested in a few minutes. I'll be back.

Bert

Okay, test. See picture for test configuration (minimising possible resource hungry functions as far as I can tell).

What happened after I click on [PLAY]:

• XXHighEnd dissapears from the desktop but desktop stays (no Cover Art shown at first)
• One time Alt-Up, XXHighEnd appears in Taskmanager and disappears after a few seconds, volume did not change.
• Again Alt-Up and XXHighEnd shows again but does not want to go away on its own and after some time a popup message comes up telling me about a Wrong Command. Apparently the first command was still on going hence the error after the next command
• Removed all extra XXHighEnd from memory through Taskmanager and did Alt-N for a next track.
• Next track starts playing and Cover Art shows but it does not look the same as before (volume part shows ".0")

I wanted to make a screendump of the shown Cover Art but I am not able to have XX to show me any covert art at all again (as background).

Even after rebooting et all, no more coverart to be seen at unattended?

Anything else you want me to check?

Bert

Okay, covert art shows after half hour playing without touching anything...?

Alt-N plays next track and only one XXHighEnd shows in taskmanager, so far so good.

For Volume nothing changed (Alt-U, extra XXHighEnd showing in taskmanager, gone after a few seconds, no volume change) but also the cover art does not show any changes (-34.5 still -34.5 after one Alt-Up).

After 10 minutes trying Alt-Up once more but after a short while the Wrong Command Error shows again.

No visible changes whatsoever.

Bert

Hey thanks Bert.

In between lines : I don't think SFS=0.2 can play well, or otherwise maybe other anomalies may occur (as well). Not sure, but it could be better to test with a normal SFS. Okay, you of course did that long ago.

It would be interesting to have the log files of this exact situation (from your post with the picture !). Can you still find them ? (please don't make mistakes). If you are not sure, please do it again, and in the mean time use a larger SFS (12 would be very ok).

No hurries Bert, but I *do* want to solve this at last ...
(well, you know)

Peter


PS: I prefer to have the log files of the exact situation. I mean, it looks like you perfectly described what happened, and it is important to not have another situation in the log files than the text implies. To let you write the "perfect" description again is also something I don't like you to do (have a beer instead).

Log files? I'll have to check that option first... :(


Will do all over again...later. :wacko:

Bert

Clarification :

You may recall the last time we did this excercise, and at that time this was about a file which couldn't be found but which should be there, remember ? That time though there wasn't exactly this very well done description going with it.
That is why I'm eager to see those log files again; Already back then things could not be as they were, and your description from today also implies the impossible. So if I now could join the both together, maybe we can get somewhere.

Additionally, IIRC it started to work with you at some stage (BUT you never told about the event/how/what/etc.), while now after installing a new OS (agin, IIRC) it happens again ??

I could also say : what the heck is going on ??

But please, might you run into the situation that it starts to work, I want to know it ! It seems crucial for the solution ...

Again thanks Bert,
Peter

Nothing changed since then, it only got worse now.

With the previous version playing unattended never worked as it should but after calling XXhighEnd (Alt-X) and then change the volume during playing worked well).

With the last version as it is now (new clean install of OS and XX) nothing works related to the volume. Not unattended, not attended either (exactly the same response with both). Only when XXHighEnd has stopped (not playing any files) makes it possible to change the Volume.

Mind you that the coverart section is acting weirdo too somehow as you can see from the tests. Probably not related but still, it might...

Will start logging the events...

Bert

As I said, the Coverart might be related ...
And at least *that* can happen to me too. Not lasting until the next track, but at least 30 seconds or so. But that is all (and it is W7 Vanilla related - I'm almost sure (used 0.9z-6 for two months with SP1-RC never seeing the problem - ehh, IIRC)).

Regards,
Peter

Okay, new tests and related remarks...

My guess it is all related to Hotkey itself (not the coverart!).

Okay, PC rebooted, checked Log and started to PLAY Unattended

• Same as before, XX from memory and it starts to play but coverart does not show. Cover art only shows at the start of the next track (not manually but when XX starts to play the next track when the first one ended).
• Alt-U and nothing happens but looking in the log-files I do see that file error again. Reactivity not different than tested before but now logged...

See log-files...

I tried to play tricks with the file "XXRequestPending.dat" and followed what happened.

• Open XX-folder and looked for the file but not there at all...
• Copied my own made file into the XX folder but it will be deleted as soon as XX is starting (the program) and then things are back to normal situations as before...
• Copied the file again into the XX folder (XX already running) and then clicked to play and then file remains there
• Now the weird part, Hotkey does not work anymore in unattended mode?!

At least I do not see any response in Taskmanager or anywhere else but the file is still there. Log-files don't show any activity either (those are not attached).

It is needed to remove Hotkey from memory and to restart XX to have all things working again as before...

Bert

Hi Peter & Bert,

Well I also just got back from a bicycle ride but I bet there aren't many hills where you compared with here :-(

I rebooted my PC and fired up XX as soon as possible with SFS = 420 on SC. I hit the play button as soon as I could and well before the o/s had settled down. No problem XX grabbed the contiguous memory it needed and I am now running at SFS 500 on SC.

Just out of interest I tried again but this time letting the o/s settle down first - XX could not grab any contiguous memory. So it appears that the problem is solved by hitting play as soon as possible. With my old W7 SP1 build this was never a problem.

Thanks Peter it appears that the answer was simple but I guess that something in the o/s is untidily grabbing RAM during start up and I have to just get in first.

By the way for much of the time my volume control does not work any attempt results in the green bar and that is the way it stays until stop is pressed. But this is not always the case sometimes after a reboot the volume control actually works well but it will always end up with the dreaded green bar. Well hopefully this will be solved with NOS USB.

P

Bert ... that is more or less (or even more) what I meant;

What do you think I can do with those log file now ? Try to interpret your own manipulations ? Maybe it is not useless what you tried (for yourself), but I can't do a thing with it.

Why ?

So here this ends ... again. Sorry.

Hey Paul ... I can't do anything with this. This will be about Attended, of which I am *stating* it does not work properly. First things first, and this is UNattended. No matter how much you think it is logically the other way around. It really is not.


Good. If you only see yourself that something it missing here. You are saying that at applying 420 you obtain 500. Right ? Of course, from logic follows that you attempted another reboot and next tried 500. But you didn't tell that exactly.


Without telling accurately what exactly happens we will never get down to the problem. Otoh, it looks like it just is solved for you. No matter what is causing it at waiting a little bit too long. Right ?
(if not right, just say so please)

Peter

OK apologies I should have made it clear  -  I rebooted the PC, fired up XX as soon as I could and then pressed play as soon as possible at SFS 420 (whilst the o/s was still busy doing its started up stuff). I then played like this for a couple of albums and then just out of interest clicked stop (taking engine3 out of memory) increased SFS to 500 and no problems it worked fine. Nothing else attempted tonight - but I did have a nice meal with family and of course good music.

P

Ah, like that. Ok Paul, that sure also can happen. But is this with the same system you could hardly get above 0.2, so to speak ?

Oh, and FYI, of course the audio engine should just start right after booting, but because 0.9z-6 really was a kind of rush job because of the NOS1-USB, I never got round to that part. Next version ... Maaaybe the one after that. :teasing:

Thank you Paul.
Peter

Ok, maybe it is allright. Because I assume that


this little text actually says "see log files for what I described above here". Is that correct ?
I hope so, because then it is useful.

Peter

Ok Bert. I will just start describing what I see.

a.
It takes 18 seconds to start that album for unattended. This is way too long in my view; you should be having a rather normal system like mine (i'm just thinking of a system without special attention, no overclocking and stuff), and then this should take ~4 seconds for the 13 tracks and 8 cores.
This seems to indicate a general problem.

b.
The no acces to that Requestpending file of course.

More I can't see after 45 minutes staring to it all. It just goes wrong because of b, and that by itself can not exist but does.

But ... huray for something like a forum, and look what I found here : Re: 9z-5 AutoHK problems (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1680.msg16953#msg16953) and the owner of that post is ... Paul.

Here's an excerpt from that post (from a thread which just deals with the same) :


There is one important combined message here :
- At that moment (May 2011) it worked Unattendedly for Paul, and while Attended does not work, the cause is the same : no access to that Requestpending file.
Now, this *IS* of vast importance, because -and as said- I appreciate the problem to be inherently there for Attended, or at least in my system it is. This means that I most probably now know where to look for (that same file thing) and can start from there (because *I* have that problem !).

For my own reference, here is the earlier topic from Bert's problem : Re: XXHighEnd Model 0.9z-4-1 problems (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1635.msg16499#msg16499).


Well, at least I am able to explain now what actually goes wrong :
This Requestpending file is created by XX, telling that it is dealing with a Remote Command. This, so a next command will be in a queue nicely waiting. However, this file which XX created herself, can not be deleted by herself. Then a next attempt (Alt-u) etc. comes along (the first one failed already), and because the file is still there, the command ends up in the queue forever (after 2 minutes reporting "error at remote command". One little problem : The file is not there at all if "we" look at it with our eyes/means.
Maybe it is sufficient to create the file by another means.

Peter

Thanks, then at least the yesterday tests that were done was not totally done for nothing...


This is the very first track played after a reboot (as described in the post). After that is takes only a few seconds (even with SFS set back to 500 again).


Great, then we only need a solution for this and the existing problem is solved.

Good to know that this is not a problem I've created myself being a "user" not restricted by any knowledge whatsoever.

I hope you'll find the solution for this situation soon...

Bert

Hi,

I came across settings that significantly affect the operation of Straight Continuous memory on my PC. I thought his may help generally / be relevant here.

Starting point

The maximum Straight Continuous memory I could previously obtain directly after booting and after starting XX High End was 19mb, frustrating given the PC has 8Gb in it. I could get 77mb Straight Continuous provided that I first played music using Mixed Continuous at 100mb and then went back to a Straight Continuous setting of 77mb.

BIOS setting changes

Peter mentioned in an earlier post to this thread to watch out for on-board graphics cards (which I have on my Motherboard), this placed a spotlight in two settings in BIOS;
1)   The setting that allows the “remapping of PCI memory” in BIOS. This was changed from ON to OFF.
2)   The BIOS can set the amount of memory allocated to the on board graphics card. Values range between 32Mb and 256Mb. This was changed from AUTO to the lowest value of 32Mb.

Effect of SFS

After the PCI memory remap was set to OFF in BIOS, immediately Straight Continuous memory went up to 175Mb without the need to play Mixed Continuous first in order to get Straight Continuous above 19Mb.

Next with the Graphics memory set to 32Mb in BIOS Straight Continuous setting got up to more than 375Mb (have not yet tries to go higher). Again no need to run Mixed Continuous first to get this value now.

The sound is as expected much better with higher SFS.

I hope this may help.

Nick.


Update......

Straight continuous runs out at 600Mb but I have to coax it that high, it will not just go straight in at that. 475Mb seems a good value as a default, what a difference.

I should have said that I have 4Gb memory installed in the PC not 8Gb as above !

Hi Nick,

I find that if I set SFS=500 with Straight Contiguous then provided I play a file via XX as soon as possible during the boot sequence then XX works fine (i.e. Engine3 grabs SC memory before other apps. do). However, if I let my PC go through the whole boot sequence go off for a cup of tea, wonder around, have a chat, read the paper then come back and play a file then I tend to get SC alerts and will not run on SC.

The strange thing is that provided I have been through the procedure of a reboot, run XX as soon as possible so that XX works on SFS 500 & SC then for all subsequent reboots there is no problem running on SFS 500 on SC even if I do not rush to run XX after a reboot. I cannot think of any reason why this should be - maybe there are some subtleties of memory allocation that are not obvious.

SFS=500 is about the max I can get easily and as Nick states above it is possible to coax it higher. It seems although I have 12Gig of memory this does not particularly help in getting a bigger SFS.

Question for Peter SFS=500Mb is shown in settings in XX so why does Engine3 grab over 3Gigs of memory what is the relation between SFS size and actual memory used?.

P

Sorry I should have been more clear as I started by mention of the onboard graphics card. The remapping of PCI memory is in the Chipset > Memory settings of my BIOS not in the area for video card settings.

The option title in the BIOS screen is "Memory Remap Feature"

The BIOS help explanation "ENABLE = Allow remapping of overlapped PCI memory above the total physical memory."

Hope this helps,

Best,

Nick.

Well, still can't find "remapping of PCI memory". In fact, there is no option whatsoever for "chipset", though it is shown in the BIOS system information screen, but its grayed out which I believe just means it's stating the info regarding the chipset.

 Anyway, in the "Advanced" tab I selected the "Integrated Graphics Config" and changed the "DVMT/Fixed Memory" from 256 to 128. That resulted in my being able to select any SFS, even 2000 SC, though I still had to start with the MC 200 SFS first. Clearly these huge SFS's were "fake." After playing around with things to try to get real SFS changes, about 40 minutes (turning off the minimize OS, several reboots, etc.), it started to "work" again: Going above a SFS of 400 resulted in a SFS error message and there was a clear difference in sound between a SFS of 200 and 400.  What's really strange though is that XX now acts like the OS is not minimized:  the first time playing XX after a reboot, with the OS minimized, the stop services screen takes forever to disappear, just like it did before the "Minimize" feature. BUT, I am able to get a SFS of 400 (anything larger gives an error) which I could only get with the OS minimized. Not sure what's going on.... :wacko: Though I do have my good sound back.

SFS freak !
haha

I think I will put up something like 0.9z-6-1 today, so at least you can't confuse yourself with combinations which won't work anyway. I don't say you do, but I will say that I don't understand much of it anymore. So, it will be more for myself, ok ?

Peter

Sounds good Boss. (If you haven't seen Zorba the Greek, you should.)

Hi Paul,

I also tend to play as soon as possible after booting. As Peter mentioned this seems to have a better chance of getting the memory allocated. You would think with your 12Gb there would be a very long run of continous memory somewhere  :)

Best Nick.

Hi Nick,

I have to say that I was expecting a bigger SFS to be possible with 12Gig of memory. Maybe there is a limit in the o/s regarding the amount of contiguous memory that can be allocated to one programme otherwise it does seem odd that 12Gig does not allow significantly more. I can easily get 520 on a normal boot but not more. It is possible to nibble away and get more but it will be lost on a re-boot.

P

Around 500 is the absolute maximum; this is related to the audio engine being a 32 bit application (which it will stay for a while).

In the end it is about how much can be played from memory, and how "gapless" it will be. This means all has to be several times in there. So, the 2GB available is enough for an album to be there twice (think 800MB max for an album), but it is far from enough when we start to upsample that to 705600 in 32 bits (now suddenly an album is 25.6GB. See ?

As soon as 2 albums don't need to be gapless (and they don't of course) and 1 would fit in memory, all is different (could be setup differently by me). But 1 won't fit ever. Not with these upsample rates.

Don't think the 12GB in your PC isn't useful, because it allows for an easy contiguous memory allocation. Although these days it goes with 8GB as easy. Maybe with even far less.

Peter

Well Z6-1 works as described: changing SFS restarts the sound engine. The result is that I can't get a SFS larger than 200, so I'll be using Z6 instead. Call me crazy, but I get a much less "articulated" sound with a SFS of 400 which I can get with Z6. 

Perhaps someday the Maestro will figure this out.  :)

So what you are saying is that with 0.9z-6 you are able to allocate 200, -watch the memory *increased* useage- and next allocate 400 and see double of the increased memory used. Right ?

A rhetorical question of course... :) What can I say? The sound is the sound. I sent you some pics in case they offer any clues.

I can get 300 now. Don't even need to start MC first.

I play as soon as i can as Peter said we should do.

 :)