Problem with 'Minimize OS'

[manisandher]

This is weird. I've been using 0.9z-6-1 (with 0.9z-6-1c) since it came out. It's been working fine... absolutely no problems whatsoever. I tend to switch between 'Minimize OS' and 'normal' a lot for file management tasks. Again, no problems.

However yesterday I had an issue getting back into 'Minimize OS'. It just wouldn't work. Everything looked as if it were working fine - the PC restarted and the Minimize OS button in XX was red. But the PC clearly wasn't minimized - the LAN was still working, etc. So I tried a little hack that Peter showed me a while ago (rechecking BitLocker in MSConfig) and low and behold, Minimize OS worked. The music PC is now in Minimize OS... but now it won't come out of it (i.e. back to 'normal')! And I can't try the little hack because I'm in minimized mode.

It's weird because I haven't applied any updates on the PC (all updates switched off). Literally the only thing I've done is install the latest version of HQPlayer (for DSD replay with a Mytek DAC) in 'normal' mode. Could this have caused this issue???

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Hi Mani - At least you can play.

Ok. To be honest, it happened to me too, two times in the life of Minimized OS (sorry for the z there). Of course, instantly I tried to figure out what was going on, but in both instances I couldn't. Could be (!) something like the OS actually "reserves" a reboot after some install (which is actually pre-Vista days), which mixes up things (it creates a "reboot set" for itself and that conflicts with XX's).

In both of my cases I rebooted many times, and in the first case I tried to do that "intelligently". Like, okay, I'm now in Normal while it should be Minimized, so let's reset that button, etc.
The second time (I wrote all down), I eventually rebooted in normal fashion. I mean, have the Minimized button in the Normal state (like it should have been in that occasion - yours too as it seems (but as it was !)), and now normally reboot three times. So, not via XXHighEnd, but via the start button. Then it worked again (and no problem since - I change boots each day at least one time).

Your case of now, is merely my first case (wouldn't get out of Minimized) and that one I have no rule for. But that one eventually worked too. So, maybe cause the Minimized button to be in the Minimized state (red, and by means of rightclick on the "Minimized OS" text), reboot three times in normal fashion, and then use the button again (reboot into normal).

I will send you an email as well.
Peter

[CoenP]

I keep being hunted with min OS troubles, hopefully they are now over...

I upgraded my system to sp1 from plain vanilla (all 1k updates) and made a restore point. I booted several times into 'max OS' and decided to go to min OS.

Problems arose: it wouldn't go into min OS. After the automatic reboot all services and procesess are still there. A restore to the sp1 situation did not make a difference.

Just gave the 3 normal reboots a shot and.... It worked as intended!

Time for a new restorepoint!

Thanks,
Regards,
Coen

[mowa]

I guess when u have a dedicated xxhighend pc these problems occur much less.
The problems especially occurring when u have a pc busy with all day tasks like mine.
Doing Photoshop, making pdf with Acrobat Pro and printing them with your HP printer, etc.
The problem with all these programs is that they leave all kind of cr*p behind polluting your system.
I was fed up reinstalling windows all this many times. Now i only have to reinstall or restore a back up when i have a virus.

My "recipe" when refusing to minimize;

• Open Task Manager; CTRL+Shift+Esc
• In the process tab kill everything wich begins with like acrobat, hp, etc. In any case processes related to installed software.
  When you´re new to this it´s a little bit of trial & error. But don't be afraid.
• Kill xxHighEnd as well.
• Retart xxHighEnd.
• Click the "minimize Os" button

I hope it helps.
When it doesn't;
Start Services; services.msc
I've alway a shortcut in my startmenu.
Just shut down all possible services manually. It won't hurt.
Listen to some music with xxHighEnd while doing this you'll hear the music become better all the way shutting services down.


My observation to the minimized os;
There is some more to minimize. There still some Services to shut down. Though they don't effect the sound quality that much.

Maybe not the right place but I have just 2 requests for version 09z-7 when in Unattended playback;

• Can u add Alt-V for Unattended.
• Scrolling within music while playing with some kind of slider.

[PeterSt]

Maybe not the right place but I have just 2 requests for version 09z-7 when in Unattended playback;

Certainly not the right place.

Can u add Alt-V for Unattended.

Is to be considered impossible.

Scrolling within music while playing with some kind of slider.

Don't know what you mean !
But please open a new topic for it.

Regards,
Peter

[CoenP]

Hi Mowa,

Just for the record, only two programs have been 'installed' on my maiden sound only pc: the phasure nos1 driver and xxhigh end.

I think the problem occurred just like Peter explained: something like an  unfinished rebootsequence for the sp1 update.

I am not bothered by too much services. Minimise os killed most services, unattended does the rest.

Regards, Coen

[vrao]

Hi All,
This is my first post here at Phasure 

Here you go I've been using XXHE for about 6 months now with the NOS1 with identical setting as Peter.

I have the following issue:
I cannot get XXHE out of minimize OS. Previously I thought I had, but noticed someone here mentioned about the difference of the screen if on minimize OS, which persists. Also one of the "big" issues I had was the WiFi dongle I had connected to the PC which was not working, till last weekend, when I noticed the difference in the interface (normal W7 premium desktop), and wifi works like a charm ( I get to listen mostly on the weekends ). Put it back into mOS and cannot get it back. I use the wifi only to RIP Cds with dB PA. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
VJ

[SeVeReD]

Throwing this out; maybe not related but...
I had a weird reboot problem once (I'm constantly going back/forth with minOS/maxOS?) and I know that I tried pushing the "Off" toggle in XXHE and... it did something to help? poor memory, but that's my half cents.

[PeterSt]

Hi there VJ !

Any suggestions?

Any Restore Points ?
haha
I guess not. But you should have. Or maybe you didn't think about it because all looks normal ? It will still help !

But otherwise try this sequence :

So, your OS looks normal. Okay, then make that MinOS button show normal (blue). You can do this by rightclicking the MinOS text under it, and choose to swap its state.

Done ? then now reboot via the button.
All still looks like the normal OS ? Reboot via the button again.

[Now both button and OS are in a consistent state (the normal one).]

Now reboot 3 times via the *normal procedure*. Thus NOT via the MinOS button !

Done ? now reboot via the button (thus into Minimized OS).

[not sure how long a reboot takes, but pray a little during the one going on now]


I'm not stating it will now work again. But something like this helped me myself one time.

It shouldn't go wrong in the first place, but sometimes it does. Probably because you installed something which needs finishing by a reboot (without you knowing that). Not sure at all about it because with me it happened maybe 3 times only (with close to a change of OS state each day).

Let me know whether you got it working by this means.
Regards,
Peter


PS: And have a Restore Point near by for a next time ...

[andreitour]

My own issues with minimize os:

when in normal (os) mode unattended works perfectly and quickly

when I use the minimize OS button to reboot, unattended gets hung up waiting for services to stop

i've let it sit for over 4 hours and then window never closes, music doesnt start

sometimes alt-x will get me out but other times I can access the task mgr but cannot shutdown the system or reboot without a hard reset

[PeterSt]

And Cancel on that "Wait" message doesn't help quitting the process ? (probably not, bu just to be sure)

Also, has this been always like this for you ? or did it start at some stage ?

[andreitour]

usually cancel only closes the dialog box, then im stuck in winblows limbo

it hasn't always been this way, I probably updated my soundcard driver most recently but I don't normally run in minimized os because I work/study when i listen to music

I'm going to try to uninstall a few things nd see if I can get the problem to go away

[PeterSt]

The Cancel button should cancel the whole process and bring up XXHighEnd again. So if that doesn't happen, well, I am not sure what can be wrong.

What you can do is cause the situation again, and after a sufficient wait knowing that nothing will happen anymore, reboot (only because you say you won't be able to do a thing anymore), grab the latest XX log file (not X3PB or X3) and email that to sales at etc. Don't start XXHighEnd first after the reboot so all remains clean for me. Of course switch on Logging (bottom in Settings) on first.

When you have grabbed this log file, I kindly ask you to attempt it another time, but this time (after a sufficient wait again) click Cancel on that message, and when indeed  nothing happened, do the same as before and send me *that* log file. Please indicate to me which log file is of which situation, so there can't be a misunderstanding.

Either situation may tell me nothing, but the combination of the both (log files) hopefully does.


One more notice :
What I have recognized myself is that something in the PC can start to cause the shutting down of services process take a relatively long time. I have this too since a couple of months, and it can easily take up to 5 minutes before it's done. After this first time (per boot into Minimized) all stays okay for that boot sesssion. What I have learned is that first play a track for 2 minutes or so in Attended, speeds up this first attempt for Unattended; doing nothing also helps and the conclusion of it is that when you start Unattended too soon, it encourages for things "blowing up". But 4 hours ? that looks like something different.

Additionally, I saw that there's a relation with again something in the PC finishing its job after a boot, and I am pretty sure this can be seen at the sudden decrease of a fair amount of memory in use. So, when that happened, it's good to go. This looks to be that same 2 minutes I talked about for playing Attended at first. Although during that period of time I see some services being started and stopped, I could not put my finger behind which service or process is consuming this memory, hence which service/process could be causing it. All I know is that when this happens, it is a total hang in something which should not hang at al, but does anyway.


Having said this all, it looks way more logic to me that you are dealing with a Virus Scanner which can't be killed (by me). So maybe concentrate on that first. If you don't have one running, it's not that obviously. But if you have, chances are close to 100% that is the cuprit. And on that matter, your suggestion of it being Minimized Mode could be off, because you should be having it just the same in Normal Mode, althougbh it won't be obvious anymore to ever try that. But regarding this culprit, and for sure when it's a virus scanner, the result should be the same. Notice though that in Normal Mode the first attempt of Shutdown Services may take 3-4 minutes to begin with, so take that into account.


Peter

[SeVeReD]

Well I am having this Minimize OS problem ... but for a couple of days.  I've been rebooting and rebooting  but nothing brings it into minimize.  :/

[PeterSt]

Of course something does, your Restore Point !
Oops.

It maybe won't help (because I never saw the real lines of it myself), but I tried to write down something like a procedure here : Minimized OS and Restore Points W7. It's unfinished, but what it is about is in there (but probably you will have seen it already).

Btw, I am starting to be quite sure that this is about installing stuff without a reboot right after that, no matter the install doesn't require it. It's even dangerous to install things while in Minimized (if that works at all, but depending on the installer it can), because at a reboot then (to finish the under the hood installer) nothing may happen because of lacking services for it.
What it will come down to (if I am right anyway) is that no installs should be done while in Minimized. So, do them in Normal Mode, and make sure to reboot after that before a boot into Minimized is (ever) performed.

I can just feel that when I don't install things, it goes all right forever. So, by heart that must be 6 months ago for me, and I really swap boots 2 times each and every day. What is that ? something like 365 boots at least and alone for swapping (which I may do more than once par day as well). No single hickup to be found.
But during a period I was experimenting which things on the audio PC, hence installed stuff, it went wrong for me too. Maybe 6 or 7 or 8 times.

It would be good if people having this issue (of the OS Mode not wanting to change anymore) could think back whether they indeed installed something, and how the further sequence went. And let know about it here.

Thanks,
Peter
(and good luck Dave !)