XXHighEnd

This is so persistent that it deserves a separate thread.

The issue is that win 8 needs two boots to work properly.

Every other boot the music suddenly stops after some playing (will determine if this is a fixed interval next time). The first stop is accompanied by fierce HDD activity, further stops nothing special is goin on.

Moving the mouse gets the music playing again until it stops again, etc, etc.

These stops disappear after rebooting. SQ is also slightly different. The next time I boot the stops are back.

regards, Coen

Hi Coen,

Just yesterday I had that same weird situation of the music stopping and then only restarting once I touched my mouse.  I just assumed that it was a windows update issue because I had left the ethernet cable in place after transferring some music to the library on the XXHE pc (normally completely removed from the network - I should turn off automatic windows updates).  All I did was 'un-minimize' the o/s then minimized the o/s again.  I assumed that the restore point that is used to un-minimize the o/s would get rid of any windows updates.  Of course I did not think too much about it but it did work a charm.

I do find that win8 sometimes needs a second boot.  Sometimes, and it seems random to me, a little pop-up is displayed at windows log-in that says something along the line of "Failed to log-in to a windows service" with a heap of text after it.  Whenever I see this I just restart the pc and then I don't see the message again.

Not a lot of help here Coen, but a little commiseration.  Perhaps try un-minimizing and then re-minimizing the o/s and see if that counters the playback stall.

Regards,

Anthony

Hi,

I don't recall experiencing this situation, but if it is not related to update(s), nor anti-virus, defender or something like this, it could mean that some task(s) are scheduled to activate at certain times. Many tasks can be set to activate when not much is happening (no mouse moves, no keyboard activity). If this happens while the system seems to be idling, it could be it.

Alain

I agree Alain.  My first thought was that it might have been some o/s process like a screen saver or turning off the monitor or usb or PCIe power management because it seemed to happen about the same time into playback.  I only put up with it three or four times and did the o/s trick I mentioned above after a simple restart did not fix the problem.

Regards,

Anthony

I am afraid to suggest things that could do more harm than solve a problem. I am vague in my explanations. I hate to do this, but if something bad occurs after I suggest something, I would feel quite bad. For the moment, I am (silently) asking Peter to chime in about this.

I can experiment things since I have a full backup of my OS and am not afraid of reinstalling it if things turn for the worse. But this is not the case for many of us...

Alain

Thanks for the replies.

I've gone twice from minimised to normal and back.

It looks like some service that is running ( from the boot on) every other boot.

Regards, Coen

Coen,

While this will not solve the problem, it could at least help you determine what is going on...

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Event Viewer
There should be folders in the left portion of the screen. I would choose Windows Logs, then System and check the date and time of what occured...

It's not a remedy, but at least a start to diagnose what happens ?

Regards,

Alain
PS: If you are unsure about this, I could post some screenshots

Now I remember a few stops but every once in a while, typing Alt + X made ​​the music come again.

Juan

Alain I checked this and the only events that areclogged are at the boot time.

The positive part is that is is very systematic every other boot. I'm very shure that it has an audible impact. This makes A-B ing of mobi tweaks that need reboots a little tricky.

I tried to start logging of all events but that didn't go probably because of minimised OS.

What else to do?

Regards, Coen

Reboot ?

:swoon::swoon::swoon:

:)

Hi Coen,

If it is not possible to have the events recorded because you are in Minimize OS, maybe you could test things while in Normal OS ? The idea is to identify what runs at boot time (or at the time this disk activity starts) to identify what is happening.

While the symptoms does not seem to reflect this, have you tried to check if your drivers were up to date with W8 for your motherboard and peripherals (added cards and stuff) ?

There is a free program called "LatencyMon" (http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon). It does not require that you go back in Normal OS mode to install and may show if a driver or a process is a source of latency problems.

Finally, I may suggest that you show a print screen of the services you have active, also the processes from the Task Manager (other print screen). I still suspect that this comes from a hidden task, but eliminating the "usual suspects" could help better point to the real culprint.

Again, I am aware that I may not be pointing in the right direction, but while Peter is a champion to diagnose situations from distance, I really am unsure of the symptoms you are experiencing... It looks more like a task at idle time, but it also seems related to booting the system.

Does it happens even while XXHE is not working ? If you wait 10-15 minutes at idle, does it behave the same ?

By the way, do you use networking ?

Regards,

Alain

I don't think there is any need to look at services etc.; I've been looking too much at everything myself in similar situations that I think I know this won't bring a thing.

What I would do for trials is shut off hybernating. If you want I can dig all up from somewhere, but this is about the actual "hybernate" mode W8 puts herself into while rebooting (or shutting down), which is the trick to boot faster. And it is here where things for sure "happen", although I don't recognize your situation Coen. But this doesn't tell a thing by itself.

Ok, the link I had for it is dead by now, but this one looks to be OK : http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15140/what-is-hiberfil.sys-and-how-do-i-delete-it/
Maybe it is different for W8, but I guess Google will help you here.
So, the "trick" is to disallow W8 to use the hybernation facility at normal shut down (or reboot). Undoubtedly this will slow down booting severely, but I think this is going to help. Notice : for consistent behaviour, which may mean that you now have the problem always.

Investigate first how to re-avtivate this (I didn't look whether that is in that page I linked to).

Peter

I have to post about this ...

Knowing about the subject here, I did not tell about what happened day before yesterday. And just now it happened again.

It must be "months" now that I did not see any of these stops. Until day before yesterday that was;
How scientific (for what I observe) would be this situation :

First of all, day before yesterday I rebooted because it wouldn't sound right. That this sheer fact happened was "months" ago. I sure will have rebooted a couple of times during that period (audio PC is always on), but never for the SQ reason (anymore). And after this reboot ... a stop. Move mouse and sound continued.

Yesterday no problem anyway. Best sound in the universe. No reboot needed nor performed.
Today, sh*t sound to my belief. A strange layer upon the highs. So, rebooted.
10:45 after the start of Playback - a stop. Move mouse, sound continues.
5:30 minute after that (actually during this typing) again stop. Move mouse - go on.

SQ is still strange.

Do I need that second reboot ?
(Coen will say "sure" :))

Ah, at the 20:00 (total) mark again a stop. This time right between two tracks.
So I will reboot ...

Peter

... But that did not help at all. Worse, I can calibrate my watch on that first stop happening. 10:45. ALSO after not just moving the mouse, but stop playback and just press play again.
I even changed the processor's frequency from 430MHz to 500MHz (without reboot) but that did not help.

So, the fifth time I thought to change the volume at the 2 minute mark. Aha, now it keeps on playing (well, into minute 22 now).
And I also reported about not being sure about what was first : bad SQ which was solved by Vol-Up or not applying a high volume because of SQ being too bad (I know, this doesn't seem to be logic). Anyway, SQ is now great again, and I applied Vol-up, while most probably I always change the volume once a new day with playback session started. But I sure did NOT today (feeling that SQ was not right after initial (staic) Vol-down which I always perform (can easily be 9dB less than last nights last playback).

Coincidence ?

One additional remark to cover everything :
I am 100% sure my processor frequency was at 760MHz before I rebooted. The reboot itself causes it to drop (which is that nicely utilized bug I talked about before). This, while I played with that 760MHz for ages. So maybe the too low frequency is playing a role here, because when I had the stops before I was always playing in the 400MHz range ...
But this would be my situation.

Lastly, I coincidently had my Logging on, and it is just that all stops (the sound engine does not receive "time slices" anymore). Move the mouse and all wakes up again.

29th minute now and still going strong ...

Peter

PS: Music is all preloaded on the RAMDisk (XXHE being there as well). So it shouldn't be about disks refusing to answer as well.

Btw I now recall that one time (longer ago) I just waited forever and after 10-15 minutes music continued playing automatically.

Peter,

I'm glad the stops were accidentaly reproduced in your system :). We aready picking the fruits of that misfortune!

I have a remark about rebooting. There is a difference in w8 between closing it and restarting the pc and a win8 coordinated restart. The latter seems to take far more time and strange stuff happens. If i understand correctly your cpu multiplier changed, anyway i experienced a similar situation that my multiplier was changed (if that was the case with you). That was after a win8 coordinated reboot.

I've not been playing attention to my vol changes and when I apply them. I will check this later tonight.

Regards, Coen


Regards, Coen

I will also check the updates! (I was talking above about the volume setting Peter hints at to making a difference in the stop behaviour).

Regards,
Coen

I Googled on this and it seems that hybernate is NOT a default option of WIN8 anymore. All tips are about locating this function to be part of the options again.

The hiberfil.sys file is used for speeding up all boot cycles in WIN8. It is not recommended to delete this file.

Regards, Coen

My timings are different:

I booted from a win7 session into win8. For shure the stops will occur. And they did.

The first stop happened today (after volume up) at about 8:30 minutes into the track accompanied with heavy HDD activity. After that I can play 3:58 minutes before the next stop. Stopping and starting gives at exactly that same time a stop repetitively.

Changing the vol slider up or down seems to have NO effect.
SQ has a fuzzyness.

As below my cpu is @30X100MHz. This seems unrelated.


After shutdown and restart there are NO stops anymore ánd NO fierce HDD activity at 8:30, the HDD starts though but very modestly.
I did NOT touch the volume slider nor the mouse after starting xx (actually only the mouse for initating playback).
SQ is clean.

So it is not some uncorrelated WIN8 process. It has to do with the dataloading of whatever needs to be loaded for XX playback.

Contrary to your postings I find a reboot makes all the difference in both sound and stops.

Regards, Coen

[edit] My first tracks are FLAC. Please note that I am open to the possibility that it is NOT boot related at all, but so far the stops have been cured by a reboot.

Just for the record:

I've absolutely no updates or hidden updates on my music PC.

Software version is "plain vanilla" Windows 8 Pro 64 bit, build 9200.

Regards, Coen

Well I did try the Windows Update for "experimenting" and I strongly advise against it... Something is generating a Service error and unattended does not work (in Minimise OS that is)...

There are lots of "unknowns" in W8...

Alain

Hi Coen. I don't think you got the message from my post about this (looks like you didn't read it at all ? :)).

Now, eliminate that process (and yes, didn't I tell about slower boots ?, so ... read please).

Peter

Ok, its off. Powercfg -h off.

I followed your recommendation to google for win8. I found lots of tips that I don't trust. Experience tells me better safe than sorry in such a situation.

Regards, Coen

Coen, that is OK.

I shut it off in my W7 ages ago.

For W8 it is about the "trick" it applies for faster boot, of which I have already proven it can do strange things. So, it now always works consistently.
No guarantee that it works for the better either - I just don't know. But to remove the inconsistency coming from it ...

There should also be no difference anymore between cold boot (after power up) and reboot. There 100% was which I can easily see (with a dual boot and some tweaks regarding that).

Peter


PS: What happened to me yesterday ? still no idea. But after that Vol-up no single stop anymore for all the hours I played.
And to remember (for myself) : When it happens (after a boot) and I stop playback and start again, all is happliy reset and the stop happens at the exact same time (different tracks, incluing tracks longer than before it stops).
I didn't watch disk activity, but if so it can only be the OS disk (the only disk in there).

Ok,

Solved?!!!!!

Without having any notion of the cause, but with plain practical thinking. Time will tell if it is really solved.

Here is what I did:

1) I booted into a "stops" version of the OS.
    I disabled the hiberfil.sys
    I rebooted, played some tunes, rebooted, etc

    As I expected the stops are there now at all boots.

2) so I enabled the hiberfil.sys again
    And booted into a "non-stops" situation
    I disabled the hiberfil.sys.
    I rebooted, played some tunes, rebooted, etc

   As expected the stops are absent now at all boots (at least 3 in a row now).

So Peter, if this applies to you (disabled hiberfil.sys) it looks like you are in situation 1), at which apparently over time the stops disappear at resetting the volume and magically reappear by an unknown event.

Of course this has to work for some time before it can be proclaimed "finally solved", when I run in to trouble again I will post.

Regards, Coen


[edit] To clarify "as I expected": my working hypothesis was that the hiberfil.sys was the cause of the "flip" between stops and no-stops operation.

Check defender,  I ran into similar after an update. If it is about windows logging off.

Coen,

That was a smart idea of me, right ?
But your stacked idea is brilliant ...

Peter

You know teamwork: 1+1=3  ;)

Regards, Coen

Congrats to you two for this solution :) I would never have thought about this ! But I also have to admit that I don't get it ?

While I understand that hibernation in W8 keep what is active in ram, I don't understand how this had to do with the behavior about these stops. But on the other hand, I have to add that I never got these stops. I am clueless...

Does this mean that the ramdrive is already there when the system boots ?

Regards,

Alain

No, this means of faster booting is only for (driver) parts of the OS. But the principle of course is the same as normal hibernation (which indeed would reload all into memory as well).

Peter

FWIW :

Applied a cold boot last Friday, and sound stopped after a while (didn't take notice of the time). Stopped, Restarted and applied volume up. No more stops in something like 20 hours of playing in a row. ;)

Applied a cold boot yesterday. After 10 minutes or so, sound stopped. Moved the mouse, applied a volume DOWN. So, no Stop-Play this time. Did not help. Stop again after 10 minutes.
This time I did nothing and I just waited. Sound automatically continued after 3 minutes. I stayed out of any volume change (IIRC for all the hours I played), and no stop anymore.

The volume down not doing the job is I think the wrong conclusion. It just needs a Stop-Play. But when it happens again I will do that (with volume down).

Peter

I had no more stops since I disabled the "hiberfil.sys" in the right OS condition.

Regards, Coen

Peter,

I am getting those stops regularly. Sometimes with every track. Sadly until now i cant boot in a situation where these stops do not apear.

Love the sound of though....

See my previous post ...

After a warm reboot, stop into the 10 minutes.
Moved mouse, Vol-Up this time. Stop again after the 10 minutes.
Moved mouse, did nothing, stop after 3:50.

So by now I now that Vol-Up or -Down doesn't matter and all is completely repeatable.

Only Stop - Play and then change the volume helps to eliminate it throughout the boot session.
And I sure can not relate that to anything in XXHighEnd ...

Peter

This is a way (see link below) to see if this hiberfil is on or off. Meaning dir c:\ /ah

I think i managed to get rid of it by means of the trick Coen wrote. Until now no stops anymore.

http://www.nextofwindows.com/hiberfil-sys-in-windows-8-and-why-you-shouldnt-disable-hibernation-to-delete-it/

But i have changed more things in the same time to be honest. I now that is stuppid.  :(

 :( Just reading thru these posts now as I am encountering exactly the same stops randomly during playback. I assumed it was clock as I was running playback at 1ms (Q1=14, Q5=5, Qx1=10) with standard settings elsewhere and no Xtweaks.

I found that changing clock to 10 or 15 ms seemed to stop the er...stops. But perhaps it was just me moving the mouse that did it? Have no idea but is frustrating.

/Lee

Hey Lee,

The Clock Resolution is highly suspect, but only in theory; The processor frequency would be as suspect and at least that does not help (I tested that). Still, although both are related to eachother, the ClockRes on its own could do a couple of things.

Anyway, one time VolUp during playback (I assume Unatteneded and no idea whether that in itself is related) and the problem is gone for that boot session. Here that definitely helps. So, it is only frustrating when one doesn't know about this "trick".

Regards,
Peter

Yes, strangely, this vol thing seems to work. Any idea why?

/L

No. But is it something in the OS. Things which after a precise amount in time fall together and all stalls. I didn't investigate it (because it can't while moving the mouse already activates is) but it wll might be so that the whole OS is stalled at that moment.
As I said earlier in this topic - the log files show that just nothing happens anymore. Unrelated to the playback software.

Btw, I have the hunch that just using Alt-m after a reboot and when Unattended Playback commences, might do the job as well (so instead of Alt-u or Alt-d). I will try that when I rebooted for whatever reason (can easily take 3 weeks for that to happen here). In the mean time others may try that too.

Peter

No, Alt-m does not help;
I had an idea about it all, but the wrong idea obviously.

Forgot to tell :

For some test (more about this tomorrow) I changed my Q1 x xQ1 (@4096) from 14 x 10 to 14 x 1 while (because) I changed my SFS from 120 to 4;

This doesn't change a thing to the Stop issue.

Peter

Although I have the experience of one boot only (and explicitly staying away from any volume change), in Windows 8.1 no stops ...

Peter

This can be regarded solved with Windows 8.1.

Peter

I have 1.186a up and running and came across the old move the mouse trick to get the tunes back on track after the music shuts down. Did the whole re boot Alt U/D after the first song within a min or so. Did nothing! So taking a few swipes at the "fly" I said buggar it I will wait the guy out. 2 or 3 mins. later the fly is dead and the music is ripping out of the speakers.

One dead horse fly.

Or IOW the question is :

Does anyone else still suffer from music stopping but moving the mouse brings it back ?
Please respnd when so, because I had the idea this was completely solved by 1.186a ...

Thanks !
Peter

But that should be another cause, and moving the mouse will not have helped.
Correct ?

Peter

Peter,

After i made the change (hyberfil.sys) the problem disapear in normal playback.

But when i like to lower the CPU the problem was back again. at the 3.20 GHZ there was no problem with WAV and FLAQ

Only with a MP3 cd the problem comes back. Really strange.

With W7 no problem at all and fot the first time i could lower the CPU to 1.2

That was the reason i wanted to buy your HDD with W8. As it eems to be that you dont have the problem.

EDIT: Maybe it has something to do with my W8 version.  :evil:

Sorry to drag up an old thread guys, but I am playing with w8 again after going to w7 for a while, and although I did have the 'stopping' problem earlier before I went to w7, it was easily solved by un-minimising and re-minising the o/s.  This does not work now.

I am using the same w8 installation as before but I am using a new version of XXHE (1.186d) to suit my 8-core processor.  Note that I also run 1.186d in w7 and have zero problems, so this is certainly a w8 issue.  I have gone through Coens suggestions above regarding the hibernation settings, but at no stage can I boot into w8 that does not have the stopping behaviour, so I cannot get Coens procedure to work for me. 

However, there is one observation that I have made that could be useful.  If I go into Control Panel>Power Options>Change Plan Settings and set "Turn off the display" to 1 minute, I get the stop after a few minutes of playback as usual, and I move the mouse or press a button and the music instantly starts again, but 1 minute later at exactly the time that the display is turned off the music stops again.  I have never observed this before and usually have the display set to never turn off, so this is a new behaviour for me.

Another thing that has happened a few times is that instead of the music completely stopping it gets badly distorted and sounds like good old AM radio static with a recognisable tune playing (the tune that should be playing, not something plucked from the radio waves).  This is a very weird sound but as soon as I touch the mouse or a button the sound comes good again.  Now, I do not know how to reliably duplicate this "static" because it has only happened three times, but once I do I will post back here the results.

When this stopping problem first showed up a couple of weeks ago I would just let the XXHE PC sit there and playback would automatically start again and would play for the entire day without issue even changing playlists, volumes et cetera, but as soon as I rebooted the problem would come back.  That is not the case any more.  I will change a couple of w8 power scheme settings and see if I can revert to that behaviour.

Regards,

Anthony

Ok.  I got the static to occur again.  It happens when the following things have happened:  restart the computer; playing a playlist and the music stops for the first time;  I touch nothing and wait for the music to start again; when it starts again it is all static and distortion; move the mouse and it comes good instantly.  Playback stops again after a few minutes but this time it stops with a slight blip of static.  I wait a few minutes and it comes back by itself all static again and I move the mouse and its sounds fine.  This is all with the display set to never turn off.

I will try now duplicate my actions to see if I can make it happen again.

EDIT:  I shut down the pc, started again, set the same playlist to play and sure enough a few minutes in the music stops.  I leave it and it restarts by itself and is playing without stop or static.

Yeah that is the reason why i do not like to try W8 again.  :( Hope someone come's up with a solution for this.

Hi Anthony,

I think it is by 100% guarantee that if you use Alt-d or Alt-u after a minute or so of playback and at a first playback after a reboot, the thing will never happen during that boot session. Did you try this ?

Peter

Here I am pretty confident that this is
a. caused by the similar or same phenomenon that causes the stops;
b. is the result of being over the limits on the SFS in combination with Q3,4,5 = 1 (think SFS being under 0.10).

At least this is how I recognize this.

This one I do NOT recognize. But a hint : Try Appointment Scheme 3-5 (but if you were already using that ...)

And still I never heard of the problem any more since 1.186. And otherwise I maybe recall one occasion. Re: WIN8 stops (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2706.msg30083#msg30083).

But there's also a report that it is related to the processor speed. Actually two, because in one occasion I suspected it myself. So Anthony, I am sure I ran into the thing daily when my speed was 720MHz or so. But since I run it at 430MHz never again. Back at the time I couln't make this consistent because it was always a bit waiting what would come out of the speed but since I know how to consistently do that ... maybe it is just that. So this is with the BIOS settings as described here : XXHighEnd PC BIOS Settings (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2882.0) with the notice that origins from January 17 (so earlier than that topic) and that "weeks" before that I rean with that 430MHz already (but didn't know how to deliberately do it but friggled until it did). So if you like you can set those literal BIOS settings and see.

Another quite interesting thing would be that 1.186(a) itself did not deal with the 16 cores properly. Btw not did the previous versions. However, now it does, so now it impacts the issue ? can well be. This is how Scheme 3-5 can work out differently because this scheme works with the "first" cores which are the same as with not Hyperthreaded. 1-2 works with one of these "physical" cores while the other one is the Hyperthreaded one.
And of course, you used the lot not-Hyperthreaded (with your Xeon) because it just would not work because of this 16 core omission in the software.

All IOW, quite some things changed and actually so many (including your own settings) that it can be anything and also the combination.

Anyway I never saw the problem again since say the end of 2013, and I think the same with others (while *everybody* was suffering from it).

Now what to make of this all ...
Regards,
Peter

Yes, it sounds similar just like a buffer under-run, but more like there are more gaps in the data than data making it through.  The static is prevalent and the music is just in the background.  And small pops too, not the big ones.

Yes, already using that.  At the moment I am using exactly the settings in your signature Peter and I am not game to change them for now because I think that it is still hibernation related.

I will change my processor speed tomorrow and report back.

One other thing Anthony :

My monitor is set to never switch off, and indeed it will never do that (W8). I didn't have it like that for always, but I'd say for way longer than since last December anyway. However, what I noticed is that for W7 this won't "work". I mean, whatever I set, in W7 it will always go off in ? ... an hour ?

Just thought to mention this because you feel the display setting regarding this is related ...

Peter

I have not noticed anything unusual about the monitor in w7 or even when it does turn itself off.  The monitor that I use for the XXHE PC is shared with another computer, so more often than not I start the playlist playing and then switch the monitor to the other computer and then switch back when the music stops.

But I will take some notice in w7 next time.

Anthony

I give up, I have no idea what is going on.  This morning I fired up the computer selected an album and suddenly about 40 minutes later the whole thing had played through.  What?  No stops?  I've done nothing since yesterday except shut down the computer and then restart it this morning.  I've not adjusted the BIOS or any windows settings or XXHE settings or anything else.  So what is happening? 

So, realising that I had an album play through for the first time since I came back to w8 a couple of weeks ago I took Coens recommendation to disable hibernation and played tunes all day today.  Just to make sure everything was working properly I have shut down and restarted four times and each time have struck no problems.

I'm lost and have no idea what was going on before because I did exactly zero to fix it other than the hibernation thing when I realised all was working properly.  So Peter, problem solved?? :scratching:

Anthony

But Anthony, I thought you already tried Coen's solution ? Ok, maybe not all of them - I didn't even read about this explicitly (kill hybernation).

But notice this has been described by me as any sorts of possible culprits (but not in this topic maybe) because what W8 applies there is a kind of dirty/dangerous trick. So, what actually happens is that at shut down the memory will be in the hyberfil.sys and at the next boot that is just read into memory so many things don't need to be re-initialised. And I guess that is a too dangerous thing for some parts of the OS, and it could even include SQ itself.

Notice that in the end Coen came up with this indirectly because that second boot needed (from cold). Ok, that would testify some other way around, but alas.

So not that I could reason this out in advance, but it really makes sense to me, once it has been proven that this cures the culprit.
That I missed it or forgot is something else. :scratching:

Regards,
Peter

In case people need it :


Btw, I can imagine this needs a command prompt "Run as administrator".

Peter

Hi Peter,

When I came back to w8 a couple of weeks ago hibernation was already disabled from when I was using w8 before I went to w7, but I got the stops with 1.186(d) installed.

As part of my trying to get things to work I re-enabled hibernation and tried to get music playing stop-free before I re-disabled hibernation, but in over a week of re-starting I could not get stop-free playback.  Of course I did get impatient a few times and disabled hibernation from a a situation of play stopping but like Coen said, it did not work so I re-enabled hibernation in the hope of getting to the situation of stop-free playback so I could then disable hibernation.  And what do you know, for whatever reason today I did get stop-free playback without changing a thing so I disabled hibernation again and it seems to have stuck through some restarts so hopefully it all works tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

Regards,

Anthony

Well Anthony, THEN I'd have to agree with you that you should be lost.
Like me.

haha

I could not get that way to work.  In the end I went Control Panel>Power Options>Choose What the Power Buttons Do and then cleared hibernate from everywhere on that screen.

In my w8 periode
with this setting (powercfg.exe -h off)
the stops where gone but lowering the CPU in bios make the stops come back again. With CPU at 32 in bios no stops. Just could not use the low CPU setting Peter use.

But with cpu at 32 and playing mp3 the stops apear again. As said WAV/Flac no problem at 32

 :(

My cpu is at 12 but my cpu is different to yours Gerard.  I don't have any MP3 to test for you right now to see if they work for me now that I think my problem is fixed.

Actually, I will see if I can drag some MP3 from my wifes iPod and report back to you Gerard.

Anthony

Sorry for opening an old post :).

I also suffer from stops with w8. therefore I followed Coens his advice. Unfortunately, that has not helped. I disabled hiberfil.sys. But every time @ 10;15 min the music stops. Move the mouse helps to get the music back..

I think it really has to do with the tweaks.
What I do now is start with no tweaks( cpu is @ normal speed). Start music and in the first minute I change the setting to user tweaks(cpu is @ 0.635 i7 2600)

Not very convenient, but it works.
What also works is what Peter said alt -d in the first minute. But am I unable to play music in unattend mode.Because if I play in unattended mode, alt-d does not work for me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?


Someone already has good solution to this problem?
Mayby W8.1 or back to W7  ( W 8.1 has losing activation problems,and SQ is worse!)

Kind Regards,
Michel

Hi Michel,

Why does Alt-d (or Alt-u) not work ? What happens ?

Regards,
Peter

Hi Peter

I must admit that I've tried it one time in unattend mode (I do not use it very often). It looks like the alt d or u dont work in unattend mode.

I will test it.

What alt d do anyway?
Or is that difficult to explain?

Regards,
Michel

Michel,

Alt-d is Volume Down.
Alt-u is Volume Up.

Peter

Hi Peter

I am testing atm. But...

I also have a "other" problem. No big deal.
It is useful to open a new post for it?

Regards,
Michel

Michel, every problem can/should be reported and most preferably in its own topic. So yes please !

Peter

Peter,

Yesterday and today i have done some tests, but what I have done I dont know. But no more stops. ;)

The tests were carried out after a cold boot. In attend modes and unattend modes. I did not used the alt d or u buttons.

O ja. 1 thing i changed. And thats the volume from 0 db to -9 db in XXhighend.

Ill hope it stays this way :)

Kind Regards,
Michel

:scratching:

:)

Hi Peter,
The last couple of weeks I have regulars Windows stops during playback. I have the impression that I have the most stops after a cold start of the machine. XXHE stops a couple of times in one track. Sometimes i see a message that xxhe is waiting on services to stop. Most of the time a move of the mouse or a key movement will fix the job. But very irritating. I'm now listening for tree track and I'm now 6 mouse movements further. The other solution is waiting and after 2/3 minutes it go's further. At the end of the day I have less stops.

I never had these problems in Windows 7. (I'm still thinking going back to win 7 for the other sound, but thats another discussion)

Any suggestions for these stops?

Regards johan

Hi Johan,

It should be the obvious, but for the 100th time : Use Alt-u (or alt-d) after a minute or so into playback, after a boot.
Now it will never happen again.

But as said, "the obvious" so maybe you tried that already ?

Best regards,
Peter

did that work for you Johan?

These stops are new for me. I was not expecting to have these problemes.
I have test the ALT-U or D today but it doesn't work. I'll keep these stops. I did reboots twice, Alt-U of D, a new startup, .....but it doesn't work. I think I have at least 10 stops per CD. I have my doubts about the sound of windows 8, but these stops makes it impossible to listen to music in windows 8 further.

I have red the hole topic about the WIN 8 stops twice, but I did not read a clear conclusion to fix the problem.

Please what are the right steps/procedure to get rid of these stops?

Regards Johan

Try this, it allways work.

Run as administrator, and reboot.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15140/what-is-hiberfil.sys-and-how-do-i-delete-it/

Arnt

Thanks Arnt.

I have followed Coens procedure:

Solved?!!!!!

Without having any notion of the cause, but with plain practical thinking. Time will tell if it is really solved.

Here is what I did:

1) I booted into a "stops" version of the OS.
    I disabled the hiberfil.sys
    I rebooted, played some tunes, rebooted, etc

    As I expected the stops are there now at all boots.

2) so I enabled the hiberfil.sys again
    And booted into a "non-stops" situation
    I disabled the hiberfil.sys.
    I rebooted, played some tunes, rebooted, etc

   As expected the stops are absent now at all boots (at least 3 in a row now).

Play and See, I mean Hear!

Johan

I suppose this is the situation you never have started XXHE after a fresh windows 8 start!

First experience after this procedure after two tracks : one stop. :wacko: :wacko:

Johan

Hi Johan,

If my suggested Alt-u does not help, then you didn't apply it. Haha. But I said after 1 minute and I read back a little ... must be after two minutes (not necessary to have that precise, but for 100% sure you can be too early).

So :
- Boot
- Play (Unattended !!)
- After two minutes Alt-u or Alt-d
done.

And please confirm whether moving the mouse helps when the sound has stopped. If not, then you're dealing with a complete different problem and nothing in this topic is going to help. Ok ?

Regards,
Peter

I'm pretty sure that somewhere in this topic Coen's procedure has been proven to not work for everyone.

The problem went away for almost everybody with a new version of XXHighEnd. Until later, here and there, it started to pop up again.
I, for instance, haven't seen it in 18 months at least.

Still it is no big deal at all, once you can apply that Alt-u etc. (needed only once per boot session). And I have never heard from anyone that *that* did not help.

Peter

It doesn't work. Stops again. A hit to the mouse and music plays again.

Regars Johan

Yes ... but I was only asking whether that helps to get the music going.
So it does. And so it is the same problem.

Now try to hit that Alt-u after two minutes and use a hammer when needed. And do not wait with it until the music has stopped ! (then it never helps any more). Anyway, check (and comfirm please) whether the volume changes indeed. Use 3x Alt-u if you're not sure you can hear it (yes, it is a bit difficult to check without Wallpaper).

Let me know ...
Peter

One stop only:

Indeed, Volume changed. After that two stops that evening.

Hi Johan,

Why do I have the hunch that you mix two different "stops" situations ?

Did both these other stops continue by just moving the mouse ? Please answer carefully.

Peter

:rofl:

A new day, new chances.
Power on, start batch file for RAM playback of XXHE. After two minutes three alt-u and a volume increment. And in the third track second........no wait......third stop! After a mouse movement music continues again.

Regards johan

Conclusion after one cd: first two tracks no stops. The other nine tracks each track two/three stops. Total of  20 - 27 stops!

Johan, lost case ! :swoon:
IOW, I really don't know. Never heard of it either.

All I know is that this is a bug in USB ( Windows 8 ).

What I recall that also helped me (is somewhere in this topic as well) is go to Power Management (do that in Normal OS if you can't do it in MinOS). In there click Change Plan settings (of the active Scheme) and :

Click Change advanced power settings;
Open USB settings;
In there there's one option - and its setting will be Enabled. Change that to disabled.
Now reboot (just because I think I did that myself back at the time).
Now set back to Enabled (or let it be and try now).

This makes no real sense to me, but it helped me, or at least I could not tell what helped otherwise (I too tried a million things).

I hope it helps because I have no other ideas ...

Peter

A bit stupid : But in Windows 7 I see that this thing is DISabled. And I don't recall I ever touched it.

What if this "suspend" option really does what it tells ? (well, sort of)

Just for the record, this win8 stops situation has been bothering me too in my win8 experiments. Amongst other things (sq, balance).

Iirc it did improve with a reboot with the  Hiberfil file disabled. No persisting solution in the end.   

That was long ago. :)

Regards, Coen

In my situation it was about a Power outage, after that the stops was back, I disabled the hyberfil, and rebooted. Then evrything was ok.
But there was some work on the Powerline, and there was Power outage several times. and the same happened.
This happens only when the PC is shut of by Power button or Power outage. Normally reboot, or shut off does not affect it, rhe everything Works fine after a New start.

Arnt

HUH ?!?

It is true that it would not be the first time that I see people shutting down their PC by just pressing that power button (for 5 seconds etc.). But this is illegal !

But Arnt, what a find !! Thanks ...


Johan ?

I've followed your instructions. Only the first cd gives the stops. So there is improvement. Today during the firste cd I had a stop and the mouse movement did not work. I had a message "waiting on services to stop". After three minutes music continues. The second cd no problems anymore.
Best regards johan

Johan,


You mentioned this a couple of times now, and now I start to see it as a general line which is not right.

If it were for me you can't have this message while music is playing. So you forgot to tell something. Sequence (mind you, for Unattended) :

1. Start Playback;
2. Wait for services to stop (this comes from XXHighEnd.exe);
3. Music starts (can only happen when XXHighEnd.exe has finished hence message must boe gone;
4. Now music can stop for whatever reason, but never *because* of that message (the program which presents it does not run).

Ad 3 : Unless you have set Start Playback during conversions !!!

Ad 4 : Unless you do something like Alt-u which starts XXHighEnd for a few seconds.

...
Still you mention this message regularly so let's say it is related. Or ... what about eliminating that situation of the message first, because it is "wrong" to be there all the time to begin with. And then, who knows ...

If that message stays there all the time, the most profound reason is that you have Windows Defender running. So have you ? Certain versions of W8 don't allow to stop it automatically (by XXHighEnd I mean). But I'd say that in such a situation playback exactly never begins (Unattended).

If that message staus there, it is bcause it can't stop some service (Defender being an example); You can switch on Logging and in the stituation concerned it will show it. So if you see that message (for longer than normal) grab the XX log file without doing something about the message at that moment (!).

Please respond to may Ad 3 and Ad 4.

Peter

Also :


This is not 100% following the instructions ... That is, anticipating that the problem is still there (outside of what I said in my previous post). So :

- Reboot;
- Start playback;
- After two minutes Alt-u;
Done.

And :
If you run into the "need to move the move" situation and it helps ... too late. You need to reboot first.

And :
If no mouse movement helps, it is something else.
And I already told you : it seems you mix two situations. And it looks like this "Waiting for services to stop" is just another situation. So try to see them apart from the real issue (music automatically stops and move mouse will help) because otherwise we are not going to solve it.

And :
If you nicely apply the Alt-u and later music stops *and* move mouse helps ... then it must be an entirely new situation. Same issue, but different cause or something.

My conclusion from your last post :
The real issue was not in order at all. So you may have solved it. But there's something else as well ...

Hope you have a nice Sunday !
Peter

Hi Peter,

Though this situation never occured to me, I was checking for ways to put an end to these stops.

There is something on Microsoft website about USB  stopping at times with Windows 8.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2821819

I don't know if this can be of some help. It seems to be related to USB 3...

Alain

Hey Alain, great.

What's described there is not the issue, but notice the relation to the "suspending" (my talk about the power option).

As far as I am concerned it is not really USB3 related BUT it can exhibit there for *US*. So easy try for someone who suffers from it : use USB2 and see what happens.

So the bug is in USB (I just know from the driver development (guys)) and it is in Windows 8. Nobody says that it exhibits like we can experience it, but it sure *is* about USB not responding any more (elsewhere I described it better and it is timing related).

Thank you Alain.
Peter

Could it be related to hibernate ?

Alain

Alain, yes. This was dealt with in this topic I think and in the end Coen's sort of solution.

Notice that hibernating is not 100% the same as a warm reboot (jus reboot without power down) but the means of hibernation (how the memeory data is saved to disk) is the same (or very similar) for Windows 8. So this is how Windows 8 can boot so fast (saves memort to disk first and reads it at the next (warm) boot so the real re-inits don't have to happen).

Thanks,
Peter

Ad3. I don't have set "Start Playback during conversions ".
Ad4. I only use Alt-U as you suggested after 2 minutes during playback.

Ok i have 2 situations with a different cause. For 98% of the stops I can solve it by moving the mouse. During the first CD I have stops after the Alt-U. When i play the second cd the stops are over.

I will enable the logging for situation 2.

Best Regards Johan

Johan, can you try this please :

Open a Command Prompt "as administrator";
(by heart : type cmd in the search box after clicking the Start button, rightclick on the link which appears and then "Run as administrator").

In there, type this :
powercfg -h off [enter]
exit [enter] (to leave the command prompt)

Now reboot.

This will disallow the "fast boot" and the saving of memory to disk (which Windows 8 otherwise will read back at a next boot).

Notice that with this you also eliminated the "hibernate" option from the PC, but this is no big deal (so only a normal shut down is possible now). If you want it back on then open the Command Prompt again and type
powercfg -h on [enter]

See if this changes things ...
Peter


PS: I am not sure whether I suggested this before but I don't think so.

I'm using this setting for one or two weeks. Thanks.
Regards Johan

Johan, is there a difference when you do NOT stop Remaining Services ?
(but maybe you're already doing so)

Peter

Hi Peter,
No, that makes no difference. Usual the music stops are there only in the beginning (startup pc) and without a errormessage. Mostly later in the evening no stops. But this morning every track a stop. To fix the stop two solutions:
- Do nothing, after 1 or 2 minutes music continues;
- Move the mouse.

One new situation after this services change is that when i start a music play session, sometimes xxhe first needs a mouse move or pause before starting.

Best regards johan

Try to speed up the CPU. That helped a lot in my win 8 day's.

 :)

Johan,

I have two more options, and the first one is only when you like to try it; I mean, that won't be for a definite solution I'd say : shut off Hyperthreading.

The second option I have more hope for : switch of the Garbage Collect which is in the Memory section in Settings.

I really don't know how this can behave so differently in your situation while actually it *is* the same problem. All I can see is that you use an MSI MoBo which is not the most common for us I think. Maybe the processor too is not common, but this is harder to judge for me.

Just trying ...
Peter

Hi Peter,

I have tested both options no positive effect. Stops remains.

I've also tested the suggestion of Gerard to speed up the cpu clock. I did a increment from 0,8 to 1.8 GHz. Also no effect. Today is a terrible xxhe day.

Best regards, johan :old:

I was trying to test the following suggestion see link: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/usb-devices-not-working-windows , but i could not found the following parameter: EnhancedPowerManagementEnabled

Hi Peter,
After your earlier suggestion to change the services setting, it has the following effects on the stops.
- after a play comment no music direct a stop, moving the mouse starts the music;
- i have used a stopwatch and every 4 minutes there is a stop untill the end of the cd.

After selecting stop desktop / stop remaining / stop wasapi / stop all services: music starts after a play command and no more stops during this cd.
Johan

Hi Peter,
This morning only the first two cd's had stops every 4 minutes. Without a change it looks like all next cd's are playing well now without stops.
Any suggestions?

Best regards and a happy easter
Johan

Hey Johan,

I now wonder ... do you always shut down your PC each end of the day ?

Peter

......yes.:yes:

What about : then don't ?
I mean, if you seem to proove that you can get rid of it, why give yourself the trouble of running into it each day ?

All of my PC's are never shut down ...

Peter