Cannot select any contiguous options at all

[JonP01]

How do I select the contiguous or mixed contiguous memory options in Windows 64 bit Home Premium and Windows 32 bit Starter?

Neither OS has the group policy options I have seen mentioned and all I get is a message telling me that the privileges have been set and to reboot. But I reboot and get the same message over and over again.

I would like to compare very small cotiguous or mixed contiguous settings to larger mixed settings but I cannot set them in the first place in order to compare.

And yes, I spent a good part of the evening reading SFS threads here but di dnot find any useful information.

[PeterSt]

Hey Jon,

Look here : Mixed / Contiguous Memory - and when it does not work. This covers most of it but also too much (those Chinese characters won't be your problem).

Let me know whether you could get it going.
(indeed this is about the Home versions not supporting this officially)

Peter

[JonP01]

Hi Peter,

I had already read that thread earlier tonight but it was not any help to me. I don't have any of those options available in either of my Windows installs (HP 64 bit and 32 bit Starter).

[PeterSt]

Oops Jon, Starter ... I don't think we ran into that ever. So, if you are sure that you can proove that it isn't there, well, it isn't apparently. Sorry, but I didn't know that ...

Might you want to upgrade, don't take Home either; this is about RDC you might want to use at some stage.

Peter

[JonP01]

OK, no worries, it's just that I have found memory configurations (and even the brand of memory modules) to make quite significant differences in sound quality.

Is there going to be any difference in version 9z-7 when it comes out as regards memory configuration or is unchanged since the current version 6-1?

[PeterSt]

Yes, in that area there are some changes too, but they are minor. That memory Type is of vast importance though. I really should hunt for Straight Contiguous. It's way faster as well - quite important for your netbook.

[JonP01]

Hi Peter,

Well I have actually worked out how to enable the contiguous memory options in Windows 7 Starter 32 bit, so anyone who buys a new netbook wanting to use XXHighEnd should be able to use the Mixed Contiguous option (the Contiguous option is a no-go for Windows Starter netbooks due to the 2GB memory limitation - if you try it XXHighEnd will likely just fall over).

Anyway, here is how I did it:

1. Download the Windows Server 2003Resource Kit tools and install it as per the instructions:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657

2. From the folder in which the above resource kit was installed, you need to access the file called "ntrights.exe". In my particular case (I installed the kit on my desktop running Home Premium), it was located in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Resource Kits\Tools folder. Copy this file to another folder and you can then un-install the resource kit if you no longer need it for anything else.

3. You will need the "ntrights.exe" file in order to run a command on it using the command prompt in Windows 7 Starter, so in my case I just copied "ntrights.exe" onto a USB thumb drive and took it over to the netbook (but obviously if you have downloaded the file on the computer you need to "fix" then you just need to know where it is located so you can run the command.

4. Make sure you run the command prompt as Administrator. Run the command prompt and navigate to the folder where "ntrights.exe" is installed.

5. Input the following command, substituting "Jonathan" for whatever the Administrator username is that requires the lock page rights:

ntrights -u jonathan +r SeLockMemoryPrivilege

(note, if the username has spaces then the username needs to be enclosed in quotes).

6. Upon completion of the above command there should be a message saying that the privilege was successfully implemented.

7. Reboot.

8. Run XXHighEnd and change the memory allocation to Mixed Contiguous, selecting a conservative setting to begin with - say 10MB (in my 2GB netbook, 40MB seems to be the practical maximum, whereas 150MB worked fine with the Mixed option).

That should do it. After implementing this there should be a very noticeable improvement in the precision and clarity of the sound over the Mixed option.

[PeterSt]

Good you got that working Jon.

Although all is still a bit vague to me, in the end this was a known thing (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1879.0 and http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1642.0;all). But maybe I never saw that the subject is different from what is in that link I provided earlier on. Also, by now there are so many topics about this (me always referring to another like I did in here) that it makes me dizzy. But this is a good moment to make a better "manual" topic out of this for once and for all. Allow me to copy your text into there.

Anyway, whether Starter or Home it will be the same thing (missing) and what I referred to earlier on is just not related (or maybe partly only).
Thanks !
Peter

[PeterSt]

Okay, I tried something here now : Mixed and Contiguous Memory - Get it going.

[JonP01]

Peter, can you please clarify something about how XXhigh "grabs" this continguous memory please? I have noticed that if I play a few small tracks (i.e less than 6 minutes each per track) after a reboot, I will get the SFS memory warning message quite quickly - i.e after only playing a few tracks. And this happens to me even if I have the SFS set to a very low number like 20.

But if I play one very large track after a reboot (i.e a 30 minute track), it seems that I am immune from the SFS warning message, even after playing back a large number of files over a period of hours. And I don't need to play this large track right through - I just need to hit the play key, wait for it to start playing and then stop it.

It is almost as if I need to "grab" that full SFS amount right upfront to avoid these SFS memory errors and that the only sure way to do this is to play a sufficiently large track immediately after rebooting. Playing a small track after rebooting seems to cause problems with SFS warning messages appearing quite quickly, but thus far I have not seen them so long as I hit the play button on a track at least as large as my SFS setting after a reboot.

Doesn't XXHighEnd grab all of the SFS contiguous memory as soon as you play any sized track after a reboot, or does it only do this if the track is equal to or larger than the SFS in size?

[PeterSt]

Jon,

Are you saying that after setting the SFS to 20 after a reboot (and play somewhat) you can't increase the SFS after that ? if so, that is correct (the memory will be scattered by then).

If you are saying that in the same situation but never adjusting the SFS at some stage (playing a next track) all stops (message), then I don't recognize that. Unless, of course, you killed XXENgine3.exe in the mean time (that would deallocate the memory).

Peter