Back in Demo Mode

[Beauchamp Michel]

Hi Peter,

Today I powered up the audio system for the first time in approximately 2 months. I've been very busy on a personal project during that period. On power-up everything seemed to be ok. I started in Normal OS, switched to Min OS and then went back in Normal OS. In Normal OS I played a few tracks and everything seemed to be ok. I then tried a playback in Unattended. In the beginning the track was playing normally. However I noticed that the wallpaper was yellow instead of red as usual. Not knowing what it meant I just moved on. Then I did an Alt-S to stop and it did stop. To resume the playback I did Alt-P but it didn't work. In fact I completely lost the RDC communication. I was unable to get the RDC back.

I connected the monitor, KB and mouse to the PC to see what was going on but the monitor was black with only the mouse arrow on the screen. The arrow was responsive to the mouse but the KB had no effect at all. I had no choice but to reboot the PC. After the reboot the normal playback was working normally but an attempt in Unattended yielded the exact same result than before.

After the following reboot to my surprise I realized that the OS was in Demo Mode. How did it happen, I don't know. I have no clue.

For now I need to get rid of the Demo Mode first. Can you PM me with the procedure and code please. Then I'll try to have the Unattended mode to work again.

Note: the XXHE version is 2.11

Thanks,

Michael

[PeterSt]

Hi Michael,

Strange ...

I sent you that email but don't do what's in there, it is wrong !
Kind regards,
Peter

[Beauchamp Michel]

Hi Peter,

Following the advice in your email, the Demo Mode issue has been solved by restoring the PC name to RAM-OS. I learned that the PC and Workgroup names must absolutely be RAM-OS and WORKGROUP in order for XXHE to work correctly. Thanks.

I undertook the task of understanding the issues I have with the Unattended Mode. I did the tests in Base to start with. In summary it works ok (albeit slow) when in Normal OS but it becomes unpredictable in Min OS. I will spare you the pages of notes I took to try wrapping my head around this ‘issue’. Then I thought to look at the .vhd file and I found that the MyW10-14393.vhd (25 GB) was double the size of the fresh copy MyW10-14393 – Copy.vhd (13 GB). Why such difference in size between the two OS’s? I Understand that occasional writings are made to the OS but that wouldn't explain that much gap?

So I thought of starting with a fresh copy of the OS. Fast forward. It now works with the fresh copy of the W10-14393 OS. When booting in MinOS it now takes much less time for the OS to stabilize i.e. the turning blue circle disappears just a few seconds after the desktop screen shows up. It used to take 1 to 2 minutes. And by the way I took a copy of the OS that I removed and another copy of the fresh OS.
With the few tests that I’ve done, Unattended works in Normal OS and in Min OS when the PC is controlled by the Monitor-KB-Mouse. The screen refresh delay of the red wallpaper is 5-6 seconds for the Alt commands. It used to be 2 seconds but that's ok for now.

Now the bug is that with the fresh OS the Ethernet Network has been lost. When looking for the networks I get the message: ‘’Windows did not detect a properly NW adaptor. If you have a NW adaptor, you will need to re-install the driver’’.  I looked in the Drive_F (D:) folder, tried a few things but nothing worked. Would you have a clue? Would it be a simple matter of re-installing a driver?

Thanks,


Michael

[PeterSt]

Hi again Michael,

Well, where to begin ...

For starters ... it looks like you lost your reference of what's normal and what is not (in Unattended). I have no clear argument for that, but there are indications from all angles that you actually "don't know" and from there go from bad to worse.
Hereunder I am not trying to list as many as possible "mistakes" from your side, and instead I list all what is related to anomaly (and worse) of the first order (but you will survive).

Then I thought to look at the .vhd file and I found that the MyW10-14393.vhd (25 GB) was double the size of the fresh copy MyW10-14393 – Copy.vhd (13 GB).

Language issues aside (and blame me anyway !), what you call a fresh copy will be as old as when your Mach III was shipped, or when a later RAM-OS Disk was supplied (if so - I don't recall that). Thus, your fresh copy is very old instead.

The 25GB is the size of the OS including free space hence how large your disk will be when the OS is loaded into RAM.
That "Copy" was a copy made by me when the OS was in a smaller state over here, and it is to save space (because the SSD you have for it, is not infinitely large (with 5 or so OSes on it).
Please notice : A Small year ago I removed a few OSes from the RAM-OS Disk, so the copy of those mostly used (which for sure is 14393.0) could also have the normal "workable" size of 25GB.

When booting in MinOS it now takes much less time for the OS to stabilize i.e. the turning blue circle disappears just a few seconds after the desktop screen shows up. It used to take 1 to 2 minutes.

I know what you are referring to, but I am afraid it is all an "in your mind" thing. I mean, what you call stabilizing, is unrelated to such a thing at all. BUT
you don't seem to be using XXHighEnd there as advertised, and for example you have a monitor and mouse and keyboard attached. So you see things "we" normally don't see and need to see. This is for example the refreshing of the Desktop, which is a W10 thing and which covers for a kazillion anomalies in Windows itself (in practice Explorer (which takes care of the desktop) is restarted several times.
I can go on, but it is not related anyway. ...
... If I reboot my Mach III then I :

- put in the SSD;
- Reboot it via XXHighEnd or via hard-button if that is not possible;
- Wait until the system boots, which is 2m10sec or so for the 25GB version (count on half of that for your "fresh copy");
- I reconnect via RDC;
- Take out the SSD;
- I start playing music (after launching the XXOSK (On-Screen Keyboard)).

I'll bet that most of this is unfamiliar to you, BUT you could say "yeah, once upon a time I was using it like that".
Anyway point is : I don't see a thing of those desktop refreshes.
?

With the few tests that I’ve done, Unattended works in Normal OS and in Min OS when the PC is controlled by the Monitor-KB-Mouse.

To be honest, I don't even see a reason to try Unattended, like you seem to need for some checks ?
I mean, when I set up a new PC, I won't try Unattended for any single reason. There is one thing I do though : try the OS booted from RAM in MinOS, and from there I might play a little Unattendedly. But only there and most certainly not and never in Normal OS. It will only "destroy" you precious RAM-OS "base" OS files. IOW, it is not even really allowed to play in MinOS. Not Attendedly and not Unattendedly. Just not because it will be destructive.
Mind you please, we all do this to test a little, but I sense that your attitude regarding this could be different.
I would already not let run the OS doing nothing in any of the BASE modes ...
And see the difference with the OS loaded from RAM; it simply can not destroy anything (reorganize file locations - make them cluttered etc.). Oh, it can in RAM, but at a next boot all will be as how the BASE was ... right ?

The screen refresh delay of the red wallpaper is 5-6 seconds for the Alt commands. It used to be 2 seconds but that's ok for now.

No, it is not really OK (for me ) because you compare apples with oranges. I mean, you load completely different OSes (yes, they are after all this time !) with especially not the same settings in whatever places, especially in XXHighEnd. Want proof ?

‘’Windows did not detect a properly NW adaptor.

Haha. That. And it is really only one example.
So, ever back, your 14393.0 (the large one !) was made to suit your environment, which initially will have been in connection with your NOS1 (I could have done that, but in that case I should have shipped your Mach III together with your NOS1 - so maybe that was not the case). Thus ... it probably is something you did yourself (2.5 years ago ?) and you now have to do it again because you installed (copied) that "fresh" OS. You even might have installed a special network driver which suits your "connections" situations which I don't think I know (about).
Anyway Michael, there are soooo many reasons that an Alt-command takes 5 seconds instead of 2. It is just XXHighEnd settings doing that (make the SFS 100 for fun).

Before I forget ... you won't be able to operate at all with this 13GB OS size, because it is inconsistent with the memory allocated to play songs. You really need to go back to the 25GB version ... so ...

And by the way I took a copy of the OS that I removed

So I hope you still have that (the 25GB version you used for 2.5 years).

And so we are back to square one :

I undertook the task of understanding the issues I have with the Unattended Mode.

If you have all up and running again as implied by this post, I think it is high time to come up with those issues one by one. You can just use new Forum Topics for that.
One important hint, if I may : Try to digest that there is nothing much wrong with 2.11(a) and that I myself don't encounter "stability" issues of any sort, nor that I hear about them. Yea, yours. Haha. Therefore it should be something on your side. ... We will work that out ...

I hope you have made a copy of that 13GB file, so you still have a fresh copy of the OS for a next time.

Also, once you have all up and running satisfactory, you should make a copy of YOUR environment (read : your OS) so in case of problems you can revert to that (without running into e.g. network issues).
Backup / Restore

Best regards !
Peter

[Beauchamp Michel]

Hi Peter,

The issues I've had with the Unattended mode led me to use XXHE mostly in Attended. However I've almost always used XXHE in RAM and Min-OS. The issues with Unattended were strictly related to the loss of the RDC and when this happened I was forced to reboot the PC. In these occasions even if I connected the monitor to see the state of the PC, the monitor screen would be black and the PC wouldn't react to any keyboard key sequence, hence the reboot. This is why I did all these tests to try to get some clues about this issue but I realize that this was definitely not the right approach.   

... what you call a fresh copy will be as old as when your Mach III was shipped ...

Of course I know that. The word 'fresh' has already been used several times on this forum and the tutorial and it only means an OS copy that has never been used.

The 25GB is the size of the OS including free space ...

Thank you for the reminder. However the spare/fresh copy of the 14393.0 OS on the SSD is only 13GB. What can I do with this? Remember this is the 2nd SSD that you shipped (April 2019) because the original one got somehow corrupted.

...you don't seem to be using XXHighEnd there as advertised, and for example you have a monitor and mouse and keyboard attached.

I never use XXHE this way when listening to music. The only times there are a monitor/mouse/keyboard attached to the PC is when I do troubleshooting.

I'll bet that most of this is unfamiliar to you ...

I repeat, I'm very familiar with this procedure and this is what I do.

... you won't be able to operate at all with this 13GB OS size, because it is inconsistent with the memory allocated to play songs ...

I've been able to use this 13GB OS meaning it booted normally but I didn't play music with it. This is the MyW10-14393 - Copy.vhd file that is on the SSD #2. I took care of making a copy of this OS before I use it. Well this OS works per say but the Ethernet NW configuration was missing. And this is nothing that I did or didn't do because with the MyW10-14393.vhd OS the 4 NW ports were working correctly right when I received the SSD #2.

There is one thing I do though : try the OS booted from RAM in MinOS, and from there I might play a little Unattendedly. But only there and most certainly not and never in Normal OS. It will only "destroy" you precious RAM-OS "base" OS files. IOW, it is not even really allowed to play in MinOS. Not Attendedly and not Unattendedly. Just not because it will be destructive.

Thanks for this reminder. This is something I was not paying enough attention to. But at the end of this quote you write ''... it is not really allowed to play in MinOS.'' I believe you meant BaseOS, isn't it?

After your post of December 26th I simply put the PC back in the system and I'm enjoying listening to music (in RAM and MinOS of course) in Attended mode. I also used the Unattended mode and it  worked most of the time except that the connection got lost a few times which necessitated a reboot. Also the red wallpaper takes up to a minute to show on the RDC PC. Keep LAN Services and Persist are both On.

I'm afraid that by now the OS has been corrupted and I don't have a workable fresh 25GB .vhd copy to replace it. Would it be possible that you send me a fresh MyW10-14393 - Copy.vhd 25GB file on a USB stick? I intend to purchase a Lush^3 cable so the USB stick could be sent along with the cable. Of course I will pay for the stick. And he first thing I'll do when I receive the .vhd file will obviously be to make a back-up of it. Maybe a fresh OS will help solve the glitches I encounter with the Unattended mode. Or at least we'll be sure that the root cause of the issue doesn't stem from the OS.

Thanks again for your help ... and your patience.


Michael

[PeterSt]

Hi Michael,

It could be a good idea to wonder what you are doing "wrong". Why ? because there is nothing wrong with Unattended or anything. What surely *is* wrong, is that you always play Attended. XXHighEnd is not really made for that, and to name something, it could relate to losing a Network connection, depending on further settings (hard to work out for me).
It seems that you foremost must investigate why you lose your connection with Unattended. (I hope I understood that correctly)

We must both realize that by now you changed all the "procedures" possible, probably because somewhere one small thing is applied wrongly. What this is, is hard to tell.

I have also nice news for you :
If you play Attendedly,, you will literally "burn" your Mach III because it runs too hot in that mode when continuously At this time done. I don't recall whether you have sudden shut downs (music stops playing) but if so, you can bet the system shuts down because it runs out of juice (this can be because of the heat).

Your Network won't work out of the box with the fresh copy because it is not fresh at all (yes, I am repeating myself). That copy was not made from your OS or else it would have been as large to begin with. It is a general copy for a general OS and everybody receives that copy (counts for each of the OSes in there). But I think you understood that. Only please grasp the relation with the network settings.

I have sent you a procedure to "expand" the small OS file. I hope that is OK for you (and that it is better than sending you something). Your network still won't work - that is up to you (but set that up in Normal OS - The Troubleshooter will normally let it work). And in case you did not expect it ... your drive mappings also must be made again.

I hope this helps ?
Peter

[Beauchamp Michel]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the procedure to ''expand'' the 13GB OS file to 25GB. After this is done I'll be sure that the OS is perfect and I'll work out the loss of NW connection in Unattended from there.

... you always play Attended. XXHighEnd is not really made for that ...

Now this is new to me. I've never read anything saying that playback in Attended is not recommended other than for SQ reason. Yes the Mach III runs hotter in Unattended but not overly hot because for SQ reason I remove the cover when in playback.

Thank you for your help. I'm still in learning mode but nevertheless I already enjoy listening to music with your gears.


Michael

[PeterSt]