77 replies to this topic

[sammy]

Hi, yes, I compared with jplay app. Kinda good that it doesn't work anymore after a restart, otherwise I wouldn't have ended up with the version

[ts8]

Hi, yes, I compared with jplay app. Kinda good that it doesn't work anymore after a restart, otherwise I wouldn't have ended up with the version

 

Thanks for the reply! Will find time listen to the DE again, and probably try the ES49 on it.

[sammy]

 
I don't know much differences between the JPlay 6.0 and JPlay Femto. Will download the trial version when I get more time.

Hi, yes, that's a step too.

[ts8]

Hi, yes, that's a step too.

 

I've listened to the DE extensively today on the NB.

 

Strange that it sounded much better than the mini PC maybe because the PC wasn't able to go to hibernate mode during play.

 

Yes, I heard more details on the DE compared to the RAMDisks, probably more micro and micro dynamics.

 

The difference wasn't day and night. It may be due to my good RAMDisks setup. However, one can hear the beautiful tonalities of the instruments on the DE. 

 

I'll reinstall the DE and JPlay Femto for next evaluation.

[ts8]

Hi, yes, that's a step too.

 

Managed to find a small window to compare the DE/JPlay6 and DE/JPlay7. DE/JPlay7 was clearly better but I don't know whether it's due to JPlay Femto, or DE/JPlay7.

 

Anyway, the DE has only 21 processes for a ten minutes fresh installation, I'd not mind having a copy! And sure enough, I'll definitely experiencing ESXX on the DE!

[Romaniac]

There is no opportunity to install network card driver if it's internal as in my case. Device manager not active even after AO installation. In core mode.

[Romaniac]

Usually we could get a network driver to be installed successfully if that were done manually as follows
 

https://gist.github....ef9f46c0b18ca05
https://techwithjasm...adapter-driver/
https://www.foxdeplo...er-2012-r2.html
https://samjohnston....-lab-computers/
https://www.thomasma...adapter-driver/
https://jayrbarrios....server-2012-r2/
https://community.sp...ows-server-2016
https://blog.working...2016-eufi-boot/
 
 
 
There's this complete driver pack from Intel
 
https://www.intel.co...river-pack.html
 
Realtek
 
https://www.deskmodd...1-10-8-1-und-7/

except maybe doing all this via command prompt

[ts8]

Yeah boy! I was unable to install network driver in both standard and datacentre gui modes for newer generation of intel core.

Hopefully, in command line will be different story!

[ts8]

The OS now is able to stay at the RAM. Before that the OS will reboot a few seconds later after loading into the RAM.

 

This is because the "slmgr.vbs /ato" command wasn't able to activate the evaluation copy when I creating the VHD.

 

Well, I tried again today and it works!  And don't know why it works today!

[micika]

https://www.getblackbird.net/ 

Program serves to reduce unnecessary processes in Windows. I tried it on my Win 10 Pro. Laptop is HP ProBook 640 G1. Program has done a great job. Its also very simple. 

- You start it, he scans something. You press B to create a backup file. It serves if something ever happens to go back to the beginning. You only do this once. 

- When we have made a backup, by pressing A we enter the part where we enable / disable processes. 

- By selecting the number of the process, and then Enter, we shut down or restore the process. 

- A - active, B - blocked, R+Enter - refresh the list. 

- Not all processes are for shutting down. Some, when turned off, have a bad effect on the sound. My colleague and I spent a long time testing which ones should be turned off. The result is below in the picture. 

- I have no idea how stable Windows is now and if something does not work correctly. For example, the video player works for me, so... Did not find anything else wrong so far.

- Program is free.

Attached Files

•  BlackBird.jpg   219.36KB   6 downloads

[micika]

I use Process Lasso to give priorities to some processes. We found that the Application Power profile has a huge impact on the sound (right click on process). Process Lasso can assign a profile from its own predefined set of rules for how to feed a process. These are, let's say, some factory presets. (High, above normal, balanced).

These presets refer to what windows generates as High, above, balanced....

It turns out that it is best to create your own power profile in Windows. Go to power options and create your own or modify an existing power profile. It turns out that you shouldn't reduce everything here either, because the sound will be worse, but only certain options. On my HP laptop it is

Internet explorer - max power saving
Desktop power settings - paused.
Wireless adapter settings - max power saving
Processor power management - min 50%, max 100%
Intel Graphic settings - Max Battery life.

[hgtacke]

Hello,

I've never used any Windows Server version. Nevertheless I've downloaded and tried WS2012R2 on a separate SSD as a dual boot system.

So far it looks promising, understanding the differences to W7 and W10 setting up and tweaking took me about 2-3 hrs.

Now it's running with 20-25 processes.

But I always feared to make any mistake with the whole thing  getting unstable.

I'd like to backup the state I've reached for not being forced to start allover again. There is no restore point in WServer

My question: How do you backup Windows server? With W7 and W10 I've quit Windows Backup which is not reliable.

I've used restore points at all crucial moments. Ever since I use Macrium Reflect free or Aomei Backupper free.

Both do not support Windows server as free edition. The server editions are quite expensive.

Is there any Server backup software simple and free  for local backup without all the cloud and admin operated backup stuff?

Is Windows Server Backup any good and reliable?

What's your opinion, do you have an advice for me?

Many thanks beforehand.

Hans-Georg

[ts8]

https://www.getblackbird.net/ 

Program serves to reduce unnecessary processes in Windows. I tried it on my Win 10 Pro. Laptop is HP ProBook 640 G1. Program has done a great job. Its also very simple. 

- You start it, he scans something. You press B to create a backup file. It serves if something ever happens to go back to the beginning. You only do this once. 

- When we have made a backup, by pressing A we enter the part where we enable / disable processes. 

- By selecting the number of the process, and then Enter, we shut down or restore the process. 

- A - active, B - blocked, R+Enter - refresh the list. 

- Not all processes are for shutting down. Some, when turned off, have a bad effect on the sound. My colleague and I spent a long time testing which ones should be turned off. The result is below in the picture. 

- I have no idea how stable Windows is now and if something does not work correctly. For example, the video player works for me, so... Did not find anything else wrong so far.

- Program is free.

 

 

Thanks for the info!

 

1. If I'm not wrong, it didn't work on server version

 

2. Maybe because I run (default option) it on a W10 VHD. The blackbird disabled the network adapter and I was unable to reinstall it therefore I've to reload the OS from the backup VHD. Hence I suggest disabling the programs step by step.

[ts8]

I use Process Lasso to give priorities to some processes. We found that the Application Power profile has a huge impact on the sound (right click on process). Process Lasso can assign a profile from its own predefined set of rules for how to feed a process. These are, let's say, some factory presets. (High, above normal, balanced).

These presets refer to what windows generates as High, above, balanced....

It turns out that it is best to create your own power profile in Windows. Go to power options and create your own or modify an existing power profile. It turns out that you shouldn't reduce everything here either, because the sound will be worse, but only certain options. On my HP laptop it is

Internet explorer - max power saving
Desktop power settings - paused.
Wireless adapter settings - max power saving
Processor power management - min 50%, max 100%
Intel Graphic settings - Max Battery life.

 

Thanks! I did the same except for "Intel Graphic settings - Max Battery life."  Will try it.

 

However, I didn't compare the before and after. 

[ts8]

 

Hello,

I've never used any Windows Server version. Nevertheless I've downloaded and tried WS2012R2 on a separate SSD as a dual boot system.

So far it looks promising, understanding the differences to W7 and W10 setting up and tweaking took me about 2-3 hrs.

Now it's running with 20-25 processes.

But I always feared to make any mistake with the whole thing  getting unstable.

I'd like to backup the state I've reached for not being forced to start allover again. There is no restore point in WServer

My question: How do you backup Windows server? With W7 and W10 I've quit Windows Backup which is not reliable.

I've used restore points at all crucial moments. Ever since I use Macrium Reflect free or Aomei Backupper free.

Both do not support Windows server as free edition. The server editions are quite expensive.

Is there any Server backup software simple and free  for local backup without all the cloud and admin operated backup stuff?

Is Windows Server Backup any good and reliable?

What's your opinion, do you have an advice for me?

Many thanks beforehand.

Hans-Georg

 

 

you may create the 2012 RAMDisk using UEFI (SVBus), but I think a bit complicating for a starter http://jplay.eu/foru...e-6#entry61775 

 

The instruction is for W10. however, suitable for 2012 too if you understand the steps behind.

 

P/S: My HW is Intel i5-5200/8GB DDR3. Compress the 12GB 2012 to 3.9GB, and load to 8GB RAM 

[BernieK]

 

Hello,

I've never used any Windows Server version. Nevertheless I've downloaded and tried WS2012R2 on a separate SSD as a dual boot system.

So far it looks promising, understanding the differences to W7 and W10 setting up and tweaking took me about 2-3 hrs.

Now it's running with 20-25 processes.

But I always feared to make any mistake with the whole thing  getting unstable.

I'd like to backup the state I've reached for not being forced to start allover again. There is no restore point in WServer

My question: How do you backup Windows server? With W7 and W10 I've quit Windows Backup which is not reliable.

I've used restore points at all crucial moments. Ever since I use Macrium Reflect free or Aomei Backupper free.

Both do not support Windows server as free edition. The server editions are quite expensive.

Is there any Server backup software simple and free  for local backup without all the cloud and admin operated backup stuff?

Is Windows Server Backup any good and reliable?

What's your opinion, do you have an advice for me?

Many thanks beforehand.

Hans-Georg

 

 

Hi hgtacke,

 

Based on the info you provided, I assume you have Windows 10 or 11 on the other partition. If so, there are two backup options and in your case I recommend using option 1:

 

1. You can use the Windows System Image Backup feature in Windows 10/11 to make a system image of both partitions simultaneously. Control Panel -> File History -> System Image Backup which can be used to create a system image (always) on an external drive. Using the image  requires a recovery USB stick which can be created when the Backup process finishes. Then, if there is a need to restore things back to the saved System Image, you just boot from the USB stick and follow the directions. This can be done by changing the boot order in the BIOS or via Start Menu -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Advanced Startup.

 

2. I use this other program (free version) to create a system image of WS2019 on a single partition PC (ie, running only WS2019). From my reading, it should work with WS2012R2: https://www.veeam.co...ty-edition.html

 

Hope you find this helpful,

 

Bernie

[hgtacke]

Hi BernieK, Thank you very much. I‘ll try Veeam.
Cheers, Hans-Georg

[micika]

On my HP laptop I have removed CD rom and placed another ssd hd. On that hd I have installed Windows Server 2012 R2 ENG. So, my laptop has Win 10 and WS 2012.

 

I have compared music listening to Win 10 that was tweaked as I mentioned above, and WS 2012.

 

BlackBird program does not work on WS 2012, so no processes were shut down. Both OS had the same Player, Power profile settings, process lasso and ES....

 

Win Server has somethings that work better. Dynamics, body of instruments, more transparent,.....  But the sound is raw. Overall, Windows 10 is better when tweaked as i did. Its more musical.

 

I think that WS 2012 has much better predispositions, but I don't know how to tweak it. Does anybody know how to do that? Guide of shutting down process in WS 2012?

[ts8]

Hi micika,

From the feedbacks, DE sounds better than ENG. You may download Google Translate to the hp, and use the camera feature real-time to translate DE to ENG where necessary.

I've briefly listened to the DE/JPlaymini 7, without any tweaks, the SQ was promising, not RAW at least.

Blackbird only works for W10, maybe W11.

You may refer to the signature of Bern how to optimize 2019. I've tried it on W10, should not be a problem for 2012.

[hgtacke]

Hello micika,

thats's how I tweaked WS2012DE . Sorry, it's a long post.

At the moment I arrive at 20 processes running, incl. 2xES55 and both processes of APlayer and task manager but without explorer. My Audio PC does nothing else than music, is completely offline. WLAN, Bluetooth and all network adapters are disabled in BIOS. There are 10 srevices running and about 160 threads and 3500 handles. Trusted clean and the Audio players run from Ramdisk. AlbumPlayer runs on kernel streaming with adaptive usb mode output.

First I installed a backup software, Veeam which supports WS as free edition, if I make a mistake in tweaking it takes about 10-15min to restore.

As I dont use Update, backup, defrag, superfetch, printing, bluetooth, WLAN, any Apps, all services related to Windows program for participation in something useless, all these services are disabled.

Next I identified the 10 services which you cant disable or stop (settings greyed out in properties). Only these are on Automatic start. All the others are on manual start. After restart I look at the 25-30 services running and disable several things which reputable people have identified as useless and safe to disable, e.g. server, lanman and others. 

If you loook at the higher tweaking level on BlackViper for W8, which is very similar to WS2012 you find them easily.

For the remaining services I've written an batch file with NET STOP command listing all the about 10-12 services but have to look at  the properties of each service which other services depend on it. These depending services must be listed first in the batch to prevent Windows from asking several times if you want to continue during executing the batch.

For audio players requesting Wasapi I've written a batch to start Windows Audio services.

Additionally I had to look at the Windows tasks with TaskSchedulerView by Nirsoft to disable all tasks related to things that I've disabled or uninstalled.

Next I've written two batch files one to stop explorer / unneeded processes the other to restart explorer.

So after booting WS2012 I wait for about 5-10min for loading the ramdisk, TC and ES stabilised and the whole system settle down.

Then i do rewrite data for the ramdisk volume then stop the processes and explorer then start the audioplayer and last stop the services. The other way around several services would start again.

If I don't touch anything during listening session but select the flac folder to play which APlayer loads to the ram decodes and sends to the DAC the whole thing remains stable with 10 services and 20 processes, doesn't even need task manager.

That's how I did it, the SQ is a lot better than W7 which also was heavily tweaked. Hope you can use at least part of the information.

Regards

Hans-Georg