Spinup the disks (09x-7)

[JohanZ]

Hi Peter,

All external drives contains the music. So I can't leave them switched off.

I hear in the latest version of XX during music playback sometimes again this switching sound of the external drives.

I only did a test by switching them off to check the "copy to xx" functionality. Indeed music keeps playing. I did this test two tracks!

Music keeps playing. So it don't need these external drives during playback. Question what caused that diskacivity????

So in normal operation i need those external drives. 

[PeterSt]

Yes, but, uhm, there is nothing that says "If the disk is there, let's get it from there, otherwise do nothing". So ...

So if you have them switched off (and you can easily try that for a whole album), it is 100% sure not me doing that. But remember, per your own seeing that playback can indeed do without them. And that seems to be the case (at last ).

So it must be Vista ...

Did you switch off the Indexing for each of them ? No page files appointed for them ? and generally, if you applied everything from my "Tweaked Vista to death" topic ... it should be sufficient per my own findings (which were without service pack btw).

You could try to look at the Resource Monitor (button in Task Manager) and maybe you can find something from there ? If you see more than the (IIRC) 4 resources having disk activity I showed myself in that "tweaked" thread, that will be suspicious. Keep in mind always to wait a little until things died out, and maybe test this with a high "Split file at size" setting (and thus better no Upsampling for now) or otherwise you will see XX's activities for the "XX drive".

[JohanZ]

  ......this is because of your ever, well, processor-thing (whatever it is),.......... 

I'm using a AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Processor 2.00 Ghz. Internal 2942 MB internal memory
 

you switch off the Indexing for each of them ? No page files appointed for them ? and generally, if you applied everything from my "Tweaked Vista to death" topic ... it should be sufficient per my own findings (which were without service pack btw).

Yes Yes......

I have new OCZ vertex 60GB Solid State Disk. Time I think to switch to Windows 7 and SSD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! New changes.

[JohanZ]

After some external disk activities during playback I have switched the drive off . After one ore two tracks XX stops playing with a message I missed. See attachments for the log files.

[PeterSt]

with a message I missed.

which was ?

[JohanZ]

Playing unattended, switch external drive off, message, XX stopped, message gone. I will test it tomorrow again. What happens on your system when switching off the external disk during playback?

[PeterSt]

When they are not used, nothing ! But chances are high that something else happens, and this is a message like "Device invalidated" (meaning the DAC) and a few more in this direction. They can already happen when you plug out the main amp !

Just switch the drive(s) off after the Wallpaper and OSD and everything shows ok. Not sooner, and not much (than some 20 secs) later. If that is not causing a serious (PSU) interrupt, sound will continue. When sound keeps on playing, you can start to investigate. And really, one album long (at "Copy to XX Drive" of course).

[JohanZ]

Just switch the drive(s) off after the Wallpaper and OSD and everything shows ok. Not sooner, and not much (than some 20 secs) later.

I have done this test several times and indeed music keeps playing and no strange tilde signs.

But in this last version (09y-4) I have on a regular base stuttering sound (fraction of a second). I have the impression that it always starts with external disk activity.

Today after the first cd i did hear again external disk activity. At a certain moment every minute. I decided to switch off the external disks. Music keeps playing untill I got a message in XX that the music could not find on H:.....the external drive!!!! This message disappeared automatically after 1 minute and xx stopped. But this prove for me that XX needs something from the external disk or....

In the last day's I have monitored all disk activities, system IO, active tasks, Services,....I thought I found the course a troijan hors responsable for the disk activities.....unfortunately that wasn't the cause. Problem still exists. Please help.....how to stop this irritation's
See attachment for settings.

[Eric]

Johan,
I am afraid I have been suffering from the same behaviour in my setup. For some reason the interruptions mostly occur when I am having visitors  . For the time being, I keep my disks running all the time. I know that this is not a real solution, but it gives me peace of mind when I am enjoying the excellent sound of 0.9y-4.
Cheers,
Eric

[JohanZ]

...I have been suffering from the same behaviour in my setup

I'm not the only one!  At least some problems with the disc's has been solved in XX by this Topic.

The computer is standing in the listeningroom so I hate computer noise or the spinup sound of the external drives inclusive the stuttering sound in this version. I'm using a fanless CPU cooling, so why keep the disc's running.

And when "copy files to XX-drive" is marked I'm expecting no disk activities from XX.

Last but not least, music is very important for me and XX is the best way to reproduce the music!

Regards

[JohanZ]

Today after the first cd i did hear again external disk activity. At a certain moment every minute. 

This evening again! After Four or five times every minute when this happens (music stutters for one second) I switched the external drive off resulting in an application crash. I'm not certain but i have the impression that this sometimes happens after 3 or 4 tracks.... It make's no difference when quad, arc prediction option is deselected.

Is it possible to create an option to switch off the extarnal drive(s) when "copy to drive" is selected and after a play command  and all was copied to the internal drive? Did I make an error by copying to the gallery or ....

[PeterSt]

Hi Johan,

Thus far I always found a "bug" regarding this, so I guess there's just one other hiding somewhere. But the problem is, I have nothing to hunt for. I mean, if you switch off the disks (like you told in an earlier post) and all keeps on running, what to do or what to think. I sure won't say you're on your own, but I am afraid it is you who can find out in this case ... not me !

It can *very well* be that Vista is doing this to help you out so to say. For sure if you didn't apply all those "Vista to dead" things. Hard to explain, but it (otherwise) wants to keep notice of what you used, prepares for when you may use it again, copy it to a "fast" place etc. ... this really is so.

If this is happening and XX crashes, maybe we can do something with that. I guess not, but maybe. Does that happen always ? screencopy of the error maybe ?


One very different thing I wanted to ask you for a long time : How can it be you hear your disks spin up ? I am buying random brands for the last 3 years (say each 3-4 monts a new disk), and none of my disks are audible. Not for spinning, and not for spinning up. And most certainly no clicks. These clicks, to me, seem from the past, where the head was locked at spin off for transportation. And I mean the past like 25 years ago. So maybe something is wrong with that itself ?

Is it possible to create an option to switch off the extarnal drive(s) when "copy to drive" is selected and after a play command  and all was copied to the internal drive?

Yes, I think so. Last week I downloaded the latest DDK (Driver Development Kit) just for this. I didn't get around to it yet, but it was my plan already. This is sneaky stuff because officially it can't be done.

You may post the log files from such a situation (XX and X3) ... but I'm sure by now you know how to read them and saw nothing yourself ...
If that crash can easily be re-done, and you'd have log file of that, this would be the best (if it is XX crashing you meant).

[JohanZ]

Hi Peter,

A lot of frustrations here...great sound.....disks spin-up....stuttering sound...spin-down..great sound........

.....How can it be you hear your disks spin up ? I am buying random brands for the last 3 years (say each 3-4 monts a new disk), and none of my disks are audible. Not for spinning, and not for spinning up. And most certainly no clicks.

Samsung Spinpoint drives got good testresults, special energyconsuming and 'soundlevel' So I only have samsung drives 500GB and 750GB. On another PC I hear the same sound Spinup, clicking sound, From the side of Samsung " All hard disk drives make some noise, usually during spin-up or spin-down cycle; this is normal " Other remark on Internet about the clicking sound: " ...it is the drive heads retracting into their parked position."

 

....But the problem is, I have nothing to hunt for. I mean, if you switch off the disks (like you told in an earlier post) and all keeps on running,

I have noticed 2 situations after the play command when all music is copied to the internal drive:
1 I switched the drives off during the first track, the music keeps playing;
2 After some tracks I hear the sound of the external drives. Switching the drives of results in a couple of times in "Music file does not  exist......" and once in an XXapplication crash.

See attachment for "Music file does not exist" message, inclusive the log files (I: is the external drive)

Is XX responsable for the external diskactivity during playback or Vista?
 

[PeterSt]

Johan, where is your XX Log file ?

I only need it to proove to you that you didn't apply "Copy to XX drive". Or at list it looks like it;
Your file comes from the I: drive. Here is works okay ...

Keep in mind to test with the same (kind of) .wav files as you did with the test from the log files, or otherwise things workout differently to start with.

At the 8th line of your X3 log file is says :

10:53:17.9255635 Track Name : I:\Music\Jazz\ERICVL~3\2009-L~1\01-COR~1.WAV

this should be something like

13:04:29.9065429 Track Name : 01-RIV~1.WAV

which I just got from my own log file.
Keep in mind : use normal .wav to test this.

[ed linssen]

Hi Johan,

I work with WD caviar blue, 5400 speed, 8MBcash. Higher is more noise in starting, stopping, running, parking and seek. The caviars don,t park on zero( I think) so there is less movement of the head mechanisme. And if you want realy dead quiet discs, than choose for the 2.5 inches, the laptop ones. You will not be aware the is a disc(discs) in your computer! Negative thing is, the smaller ones are more expensive than their bigger brothers. But if you can live with 320gig ones, they are quite affordable.

Ed