I just followed the procedure described by Alain (didn't see Bert's post till it was too late) and all works again: red border and PA is on. Thanks so much.

Bert I assume with your way you copy paste your old activation code?

If you are in the full OS mode do you have the volume of Windows turned all the way down? If so that would be your problem.

Thanks Alain, I really, really appreciate your clarifying this! Will now give it a try when I get home from work this evening---oh, of course I was copy/pasting the activation code.

Had no problem activating the official release version of 9Z-7 (undemo is gone from the core appointment area of settings) but it won't minimize, even after a system restore. Going back to 9Z-709 I can switch back and forth between full and minimize OS, BUT PA will no longer engage in 9z-709! Bummer.... I even did a system restore again and I still can't get PA to engage. Will sleep on it and, hopefully, you'll have an answer for me in the near future.   

 
Hey Georg, this description of yours is perfect. I'd only add that somehow the music becomes more "real" or alive sounding. When I turn PA off everything suddenly sounds flat in comparison.

One more thought, my last post was to be understood in the context of using PA; if you are not then I'm not sure of the benifit of the smaller SFS.

Maybe you need to set Q1 to fourteen. See below from this note from Peter: http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2093.msg21474#msg21474

Addendum :
A month or so after this was written originally, it was found that a very low Split File Size (SFS) solves about all of the theoretical problems we can run into. So, an SFS of 2 allows for a Device Buffer Size of 4096, a Q1 of 14 and a Q1Factor of 1, which gives the net result of a fairly short buffer size while Phase Alignment works beautifully; in this setting the repeat of the last buffer (by sort of mechanical organization) is very short but also very long in frequence. For net result it will even be difficult to detect it (think like 50ms worth of audio repeating 10 times now).
This is important, because it will allow everybody to use it, while at first it was thought that only the "huge buffer sizes" would allow for it, that sure not being able to dial in for all DACs.

And:

Addendum :
Referring to beforementioned SFS setting of 2 which works "the best", it has been found also that applying a Strength of 1 sure can improve. Again it is difficult, because it first required the general nature of sound (or quality of it) "depicted" by the SFS=2 setting before it started to work out. So, despite the warnings above, an SFS of 2 with further settings as described under the earlier Addendum, seems quite safe in order to try a Strength of 1. Sadly, again later it was found that with this Strength of 1 and an SFS of 60, sound seems to get as analogue as can be, hence totally different and seemlingly way better again. Sadly, because with the further settings the same, you won't be free of small ticks at stopping or Volume Change etc. Still harmless, but not free of anomalies (which SFS = 2 seems to provide).

Hey Mani, did you try SFS @ 2 and PA Strength at 1? This sent the SQ here even further into the stratosphere. In fact, I think that changing SFS to anything other than 2 degrades the sound--perhaps the SFS issue is now a non issue!

Thanks Paul, my thoughts exactly.

1. No. When you are reinstalling W7 you'll be asked which drive you want to install it on; select the SSdrive.

2. Saving programs, other than the original installation/setup file, isn't possible; programs like XXHighend and dbpoweramp need to be rinstalled after your new W7 install. If you know where they are, you can save the installation/setup files on the spinning disk before you do the OS reinstall. From your spinning disk you can reinstall them to the SS drive after you reinstall the OS.

3. Any installation/setup files, documents pictures, etc you want to keep that are currently on the SS OS drive should be saved to the spinning disk before you reinstall the OS; afterward you can move them back. Programs cannot be "saved"; rather they have to be reinstalled on the OS drive after installation of the new OS.

Hope this helps.

Hey Ivo, given the enormous changes in 9z-7 Peter only released it to a few beta testers so the majority of bugs could be worked out before a general release. Sit tight, its going, I believe, to be released soon.

When I was running Windows Home premium 32 bit I could never get the volume buttons to work. As soon as I started using my current OS they worked; getting the volume buttons to work was the primary reason for upgrading; man,  I got a lot more than operational volume buttons out of my upgrade! 

Though I never do anything (defrag, install, rip or burn cd's for the car, etc.) except play music in minimzed mode, I find that about once every three or four weeks I have this issue and I have to use my "established" restore point. Because I've been reripping all my music, I too go back and forth between minimized and normal mode several times a day.  I immediately know when I have a problem because I get windows sounds when minimized stops working, I then do a quik restore and all is well again.

Of course my "established restore point " changes after I install anything and I use the procedure you provided for setting a restore point. http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1972.0

Me too.

Thanks Juan, looks like I'll be making a trip to IKEA. Enjoyed the photo's too!

Brian