Peter,
BTW, my settings most of time (when I not experimenting) are identical to yours. In fact I found out that if I turn on Persist my RD session will freeze after music playing finished on audio pc. Only way out of this will be force reboot audio pc.

So most likely my LAN disconnection during music play is because of my music server pc --> audio pc is not wired correctly.  Currently they are both connected to Ethernet switch (not router), but not to each other.

In your diagram, audio pc has no internet which is probably by design I guess. I never thought you can connect PC's to each other to get a LAN connection! Like a daisy chain which reminds me of early Macintosh network. I might be wrong.

I will experiment.

Best,
Zheng

So I need two Ethernet ports on Music Server PC... I see. I read somewhere on forum about this two ports thing...

ZH

Peter,
I am wondering if Remote Server Port in xxhe settings needs to be filled. I know the IP but what is Port #? Is it RD port on music server?
ZH

THANKS! you are infinitely patient.

Well this is a good step in right direction, baby steps...
I just did a RD session between audio pc and music pc both connected via LAN. Audio pc is in minized state with LAN, PAN and Persist all ON.

But it behaved just like my iPad-->audio pc. Everything is fine in Attended. But in Unattended playing, network connection lost and so is RD. Not possible to reconnect until the current song is completed and plus 15 seconds. Then I can start a new RD session from music pc.

I tried with PAN off and on, and tried Persist off and on. All behave the same. This is the crunch time! Hope you can point me again in right direction to troubleshoot.

Of course in the meanwhile I can always enjoy my "home-made" iPad-->audio pc "purest connection method", no LAN or Bluetooth, nothing. Just lots of time to enjoy music in its entirety...

Best,
Zheng

OMG I SEE, all this time...
Here is what's puzzling. My audio pc (with XXHE running) has only LAN capability and no wifi at all. My current RD session is just between a wifi connected iPad and LAN connected audio pc!

I do have a music server running with a 4T raid storage and 4T non-raid disk. My audio pc accesses music server via local network on LAN or play directly from its own onboard SSD's temporary music folders.

My question: How does music pc control XXHE on audio pc? Via another RD session? I'm confused but excited...

Best,
Zheng

I think I found a work-around to use iPad RD Unattended play in a repeatable and reliable manner and here is how:

1. Start RD session from iPad and play a song Unattended.
2. Immediately while xxhe is still preparing the song, finish RD session on iPad.
3. Let the song play in its entirety. No resuming RD session is possible at this point.
4. After song is finished playing, resume RD session on iPad.
5. One side benefit is xxhe PC is totally left alone: no keyboard/mouse, no monitor, no RD connection while music is playing!
6. Second side benefit with this method is you have to listen to the entire song which really enhance overall music experience.
7. Third side benefit is that you can read on iPad all the Trump news while music is playing.

ZH

Here is the pic. ZH

Peter,
Any thoughts on memory speed? Currently mine are on MoBo's default 1333. Would it be ok to put in the memory's native speed and its latency numbers? My thought is that with CPU running at 800mhz in my case, some long classical tracks especially MQA ones (30 min. and up) are taking very long time to load. Would memory speed even help without a penalty at SQ?

Best,
Zheng

The analogy is all so fascinating! The resulting music presentation is always the last word. I tried putting CPU back to its default 3200mhz (not even overclocking) and soon I lost interest in following the music. I found myself restless and music became shrieky and irritable. Now my CPU runs at its lowest allowed 800mhz.

Zheng

Hi Peter,
Just for your info that I never had RD troubles during Attended play with iPad focused on current task. All my problems so far (this past 3 days) started because of using Unattended play using iPad. I feel if I use iPad at all, I need to find out a way to reliably play Unattended. Otherwise it seems too much to give up.
Best,
Zheng

I am sending you pics via email.
ZH

Yes for some reason my jpg image uploading was denied.
ZH

Peter,

First good news, this morning I was able to use RD solely with an ipad without monitor, keyboard or mouse in Unattended mode! But during the playing, it was not possible for ipad to communicate anything at all, Alt-x or Alt-s. I had to wait for the track to finish and then after about 10 seconds, ipad resumed RD connection. All this with "Persist" being OFF. (switch "Persist" ON will freeze both RD connection and XXHE PC machine at the end of a playing, I think. Need to try more times to confirm)

The sound of music was the best ever from my meager setup #2. It was focused, warm, open, detailed with vigor. Bass notes became more active and effortless while top frequencies started to melt into the mid range. Song just became more interesting. A glimpse into what is possible.

Now back to other persisting issues. I think I started to make things more complicated but let me explain:


First I need to state that all these issues occured AFTER I started using RD and XXHE machine random freezes when being connected via RD. The issues being error messages "MemOrg 02.. and try turning off Garbage collecting," something about "wrong string.." and later even "not possible in XP," asking permission to run .exe program containing a check box "Always..". which happened after I re-applied 2.09 patch files in my current 2.08d folder that has been updated to 2.09 previously. You are also right about the fix for "XP.." message and display of WIN32 in cleared playlist box (rename xxW10.tss to .tst fixed it and yet to put it back to .tss)

Here is what I found out: during the first run of XXHE after applied the patch files, it will ask for permission to run a few .exe programs. But when the message box is from Win10 style then I just uncheck "Always.." box and hit Run. But the two message boxes (ChangeWP.exe and Reg86.exe) are in XXHE red border styling (see attached pic), the "Run" button does NOT work. Only option it to dismiss it which will result in messy situations.

My work around is to open XXHE folder and directly double-clicked the two program files and then I get a normal Win10 message box where I just uncheck and hit "Run". Next I started XXHE which will start without asking any questions.

I hope this makes some sense to you because for me I just found out which way it will work without understanding the internal workings.  

Just saw your latest post regarding an older quote about iPad. It explains what happened to me. But if I close RD session on iPad right after Unattended started, and open new RD session when play completely finished and it works but need to repeat many times to see if its stable...

Best,
Zheng
 

Hi Peter,
1.  Solved problems with ChangeWP.exe, Reg86.exe by running them directly in the xxhe folder, then uncheck Always... Before Run.

2. RD operation seems buggy. I was able to get to unattended play without being disconnected for a while but got freezed in the end on both iPad and xxhe machine. Reqires force reboot.

3. I started to think it might be OS 10586's problem?!

4. Still got occasional "MemOrg 02..." and "Turn off Garbage..." messages. I might have to live with garbage collecting Off

Best,
Zheng

It's always unexpected fun! When I turned on the machine I found that xxhe lost activation. Too much mangling I guess.

1. Replaced xxhe and xxdata folders with a saved copy of 208d.
2. Re-copied over 209 updating files without "changeWP.exe" to avoid trouble.
3. Everything seemed fine both in normal OS and minimized.
4. Unfortunately "MemOrg #2..." Occurred again but after turning off garbage and turn back on trick seemed to be working.
5. Got to minimized OS state, RD started working. Playing tracks, stop, playing again. Great. THEN on iPad I turned on Unattended, hit play. My iPad immediately lost connection to xxhe player machine. Music started playing. Keyboard and mouse to xxhe machine no longer work. I had to wait music to finish. Xxhe machine popped back to Windows logon screen and keyboard and mouse started to work. At this point iPad can connect to it again. Also tried both "Persist" on and off, and behavior was same.

I wonder if I need to activate Wake-on LAN function in BIOS if there's one? Will report back again.

Best,
Zheng