WIN8 stops

[CoenP]

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

[acg]

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

[AlainGr]

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

[acg]

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

[AlainGr]

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

[CoenP]

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

[AlainGr]

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

[juanpmar]

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

Juan

[CoenP]

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

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

[PeterSt]

Reboot ?

[AlainGr]

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

[PeterSt]

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

[PeterSt]

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

[PeterSt]

... 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

[PeterSt]

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.