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For some reason Xonarswitch is sluggish when there's disk i/o activity going on. It's kind of boggling since it doesn't seem to take a lot of memory by itself, is it swapped to the page file too aggressively?
It's weird. XonarSwitch has a very small memory footprint, so it shouldn't get swapped to the page file at all, unless the machine is running out of RAM. At that point everything should be sluggish though.
Make sure the behavior you observe isn't antivirus-related.
It's been happening on clean installations of both Windows 7 and 8.1 without any antivirus programs. I also didn't exceed the physical nor virtual memory usage when the freezing occurred.
I've recently encountered a crash while there was a longer disk usage spike, I've saved the events from Event Viewer plus copied the Windows Error Reporting files:
https://mega.co.nz/#F!c4ZmmJaI!Ak8jpQSz3g0wMln47Fv8rw
Hope it can be useful somehow.
I tried simulating your heavy disk usage scenario by using XonarSwitch while a 40GB folder copy was happening in the background. To be on the safe side, the copy involved the same drive where XonarSwitch's executable is stored.
Unfortunately it behaved normally: it was responsive and no crash happened.
There has to be something specific to your situation triggering the weird behavior you observe, but until I have a reliable way of reproducing it here there's no way I can even try to find a solution.
Someone else experiencing the same and providing details could make a difference.
On my system it won't respond when clicking the tray icon when there is a lot of CPU activity. But I found that by increasing the CPU priority of the process to 'Above Normal', it would work as expected. Maybe you could increase the CPU priority at launch by default, or add an option to do so?
Thanks for your feedback.
There shouldn't be a need for XonarSwitch to have above normal priority to be responsive, even when the CPU is under load, since it doesn't do anything particularly demanding. I'd rather find and fix the cause of that weird behavior (that I don't observe on my system).
Ok, I finally got to put XonarSwitch to test. I'm using version 0.9.557 on a Xonar Essence STX II (8.1.11.5 driver) with Windows 8.1 x64 and while the software is clearly very lightweight (amazingly so), I have a bug to report.
First of all, here are my system specs are per feedback guidelines:
Sound Card Model : Xonar Essence STX II
Xonar Driver Version : 8.1.11.5
Xonar Driver Registry Key : SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}009
Xonar Card Instance ID : PCI\VEN_13F6&DEV_8788&SUBSYS_85F41043&REV_00\5&FDB44A&0&200008
Operating System Version : Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64
Operating System Locale ID : 2070
The main tray menu (left click) volume slider (http://i.imgur.com/92QeA4k.png) doesn't sync volume change displayed when using a keyboard hotkey (that shows the default Windows volume control - http://i.imgur.com/PO7Fen9.png), however volume changes do happen as I imagine XonarSwitch isn't using any sort of hook regarding volume.
Also, when Real Time Settings window is open, the tray icon (right click) menu (http://i.imgur.com/WQUd5VK.png) doesn't open.
Aside from that, I would suggest a small tutorial would be made available alongside the software in order for Windows 8.x users to know how to set XonarSwitch to run at boot/logon, something that can be achieved through Task Scheduler.
I understand these are minor complaints but just want to give constructive feedback and try to help improve the software from a user's perspective 🙂
All in all, XonarSwitch is an impressive piece of software and you deserve definitive congrats on providing the community with a far more efficient way to work with Asus soundcards.
I'd like to add another small bug I found, namely the FlexBass speaker size setting not remembering my previously selected Large setting when I toggle FlexBass off, then on again, as it resets to Small.
Apparently I couldn't read and missed the Options menu with autostart options. Can't test how autostart performs yet but will report back on results.
Also, while I know feature suggestions are of low priority, it would be nice if (further down the line) there was support for Environment presets, akin to what's present on the Effect tab of the stock control panel.
Being able to customize which features are present on the main tray menu (left click, volume popup) would be nice as well, as there could be many different quick configurations available from that menu. For instance, some people might not need/want SVN settings but rather replace it with bit depth/sample rate/FlexBass/Environment/Equalizer/etc, which some of those settings would enlarge the popup menu, but still would give a lot of flexibility to users.
Thanks for your feedback. Requests and ideas noted.
Most of those bugs aren't bugs but rather (maybe questionable) design decisions or things I didn't think about. For instance the lack of a volume callback in the volume popup window was a choice based on the premise that said window disappears when something else gets focus, and therefore wasn't visible when changing the volume outside of it. Of course volume keys on keyboards make my assumption incorrect and reveal my being a little cheap there. This is why for a developer it's a lot easier to produce slick software with the help of the swarm intelligence of his beta testers.
I have thought whether some were design choices. I particularly like the dB reading of the volume popup, which reinforce my desire of seeing both volumes in sync (although even without dB reads, I would find it welcome).
Also, I've noticed there is an AEC option on XonarSwitch but since there is no such option on the stock control panel of the STX II (I believe it isn't present on either STX and ST as well), is the option functional? If not, do you believe available settings could be made available/unavailable depending on the installed card, or at least having something like an "i" information button that indicates supported cards for a given feature(s)?
I'll add volume sync to the volume slider in the tray icon popup window. That was clearly an oversight on my side and is easily fixed.
About AEC, XonarSwitch already has the ability to show or hide interface components depending on the card's abilities. Initially, XonarSwitch would closely mimic the stock control panel, and AEC was thus disabled on the Xonar ST, STX and Xense (the STX II wasn't yet available at the time).
Then user feedback pointed to the fact AEC could be enabled on those cards via a registry hack, and seemingly worked. At that point I decided to enable AEC on those models in spite of the stock panel not supporting it, and I never got negative feedback about that.
When I have added STXII support to XonarSwitch, the STXII inherited AEC from the ST(X) models. Its purpose is to avoid audio feedback when you do voice chat while using speakers instead of headphones. If you could try it out and see whether it works or not, I can use your findings to determine if it makes sense to have it available.
I'm sorry for the late reply.
I very much appreciate you taking into account the feedback provided.
So, about AEC, my question is if XonarSwitch has that registry tweak integrated into the software or if it depends on being manually activated through registry. Additionally, can AEC only be used with speakers and not with headphones and microphone (that can still pick up echoes and external noise)?
About AEC: XonarSwitch doesn't use registry hacks, nor it depends on external manual activation through the registry. Changing the registry keys where the driver stores its setting and then forcing the card driver to reinitialize (which is what the registry hacks do) isn't optimal as it doesn't work if the card is in use. XonarSwitch sends direct commands to the card driver to activate AEC the same way the official control panel does.
About speakers vs. headphones: the official control panel forces speakers as the transducer type and since I don't have access to any white paper I decided to do the same, thinking they had good technical reasons to design the application like that. It probably has to do with a specific dolby codec that is activated when AEC is on and I guess is designed to work best for speakers. That said, I don't see why you couldn't still plug your headphones and use them while AEC is on.
Ok, apparently I had a major facepalm moment of having a reply ready to send, didn't click and shut down everything, then wondered why there were no news.
AEC seems to be activating, automatically switching output to the card's stereo speaker config (not frontal panel stereo), which automatically disables the Output and Equalizer/FlexBass tabs, therefore preventing me from switching to headphones through XonarSwitch, but when using the stock control panel to set headphone mode, AEC gets disabled automatically.
I'll look into it, thanks for your feedback.
Additionally, I do indeed report that there is volume sync happening between OS volume UI and XonarSwitch tray menu UI, but when left clicking the tray icon, the menu displays and clicking anywhere outside hides it, whereas when opening the tray menu and changing the volume with hotkeys (such as dedicated volume keys on a keyboard) makes the menu stick and requiring to click on the tray icon again to hide it.
For be a bit more precise, after opening the tray menu, the first volume change through keyboard volume controls doesn't sync with the tray menu, therefore clicking elsewhere hides it, only after changing the volume a second time does sync comes into play and the menu sticking by proxy.
Can you please check if it does the same when waiting at least a couple seconds between the window appearing and the change in volume via keyboard?
Seems waiting 1 second onwards (tested 1, 2, 5 and 10 seconds) makes sync working, so apparently it's just when changing volume right after opening the menu.
Ok, thanks, then I know what it is, I'll fix it as soon as I get some more spare time.
Take your time, I know everyone appreciates the work you've been doing.
Also, it was the first time the updater kicked in and everything went smoothly, so that's another successful experience on my end.
I've sent you an email with a test version that should fix the volume popup problems.
Re: AEC, when you activate the option, the rear/front output settings should remain untouched and only the speaker type should be set to speakers. If you use your headphones even if the speaker type is set to speakers, AEC should still work.
Of course in that case you lose headphones-specific codecs, but that's exactly why the speaker type is set to speakers: one of the changes that happen when you activate AEC is that a specific dolby setting is activated, and that's incompatible with headphones codecs. I'm afraid there isn't a lot I can do about that, since that's how AEC has been designed at the source.
Hello again. Been away for quite some time again but I have to say I didn't get any mail in my inbox nor was it filtered as spam. In any case, the updated version does have fully synced volume with hardware volume changes, so congrats 🙂
Additionally, do you plan on having environmental presets and settings available? That is the single feature that for my personal usage I find XonarSwitch lacking and if it did have that, I would never have to use the stock control panel at all.
Hi. The mail was sent on June 12 at 12:05 CEST to the address you used to register here. Basically it contained a pre-release version for you to test, so no big deal.
Support of environmental presets and settings depends on whether they are implemented at the driver/hardware level or purely in software. In the first case I'll support them, otherwise it's very unlikely. My next feature addition will be support of DTS:NEO effect width and depth similarly to what I have done with ProLogic IIx, and then I'll take a look at environmental effects to see how they are done.
The volume overlay in the taskbar icon is not optimal. It is really hard to see it.
How can I download the version 0.9.555 of xonar switch?
This new version is bad for my HT, I have lost surround effect, big BASS lost. I want to back to 0.9.555 version, how can I do it?
Nothing has changed in the last version regarding surround or bass compared to the previous one. The FlexBass frequency change is purely a reduction of the minimum allowed value and has no effect on previously saved profiles or current card settings.
While XonarSwitch is still in beta I've decided not to make previous versions available, otherwise people will start downloading what they perceive as the "last stable version" instead of reporting bugs, which is the point of a beta test.
So, if what you experience is indeed a bug, please contact me following the instructions above ("How to contact the author") and I'll make sure it's fixed so you won't need revision 557.
Hi there,
Great job on this app man, it works great 😀
However, I noticed the same thing where my bass has been reduced as well as a loss of surround when playing videos etc... I really think somewhere along the line the change in the last 2 revisions has upset these settings somewhere..
I have no clue how to rememdy it, i have tried everything and it just seems like the sound is presenting itself with more treble/mid and it's become quite a problem for me as I do alot of sound production which requires a constant stable studio balanced sound which I am not getting anymore, making all my projects have insanely strong bass that clips on other systems..
I really need some kind of fix here, is it possible you could back track to see if there is anyway of determining what is doing this?
I'm currently on Uni Driver 1.75a with a Asus D2X card installed. With the latest XonarSwitch (as of 26th June)...
I would be so grateful if you could look into this or possibly give me guidelines on how to solve the problem...
Thanks alot my friend and keep the amazing work 😀
Thanks for your feedback. I've replied to your email.
Hi! I'm one of those weirdos who insist having his taskbar at the top of the screen and the latest xonarswitch version broke my volume slider thing (what happens when you left click on the icon). It seems to extend upward off the screen instead of downward. Cheers for your work!
Thanks for your feedback. I've sent you an email with a fix, while I work on the next version.
Also, i used to click the icon and just scroll to adjust the volume. Since last update, you have to drag the slider before you are able to scroll with the mouse wheel.
I'll check that too, thanks.
I lost a considerable amount of bass impact compared to previous version, musics and sounds now feels like empty. That's my actually experience with version 0.9.574, anyway you have been doing a great job over that development time. Thank you at all!
Have you rechecked your settings? Maybe something is ticked or unticked that shouldn't be thus the lack of bass. There's no way xonarswitch has "degraded" the sound per se, it must be some option change somewhere.
I'm testing/listening to some Bach organ music with plenty of bass frequencies and I cannot detect any loss of low frequencies with a D2X. Bill's idea of a setting change somewhere sounds like a plausible reason. Unless it's an issue on certain cards/setups.
Can you change when single left-clicking on the tray icon, the volume popup window is now vertically aligned with the mouse cursor and not the taskbar. How can I make it so it aligns with the taskbar instead? It looks out of place and I'd rather have it look like the default windows volume.
Also, I have to click the volume bar to scroll with the mouse wheel to change the volume. Before I just clicked on the xonarswitch and scroll to change volume.
Thanks for your feedback.
The change was done because when XonarSwitch's icon is kept in the hidden group, if the the volume popup was aligned with the taskbar it would appear with the mute button under the cursor, and an attempt to double-click in order to display the real time settings window would end up in a muted volume instead.
I'll see if I can align the popup window with the icon instead of the cursor, so that I get the best in both situations.
About the mouse wheel thing, it's fixed in my internal build which I aim to release soon. If you want to test it in advance, please contact me following the instructions in the post above.
Follow-up: I checked, and I can have XonarSwitch vertically align the volume popup window to the taskbar when the icon is always visible, and align it to the icon when it's in the hidden group. It will be in the next revision.
Excellent! Looking forward to the next release.
Hi the new version 0.9.593 is great but just a suggestion: is it possible to still scroll to change the volume when clicking the taskbar icon but without the selection outline being shown? For example from the first image to the second image: http://imgur.com/Ruuwofi,QZ0icFQ#0
It would look more clean. Thanks
Yeah, it's possible and something I've been wanting to do for some time, but there were always other things that won the race for my limited spare time. Next revision I'll remove the focus rectangle from the popup volume window, promised.
Nice one. Keep up the great work.
Hello.
I'm using the newest beta version of xonar switch and the newest xonar drivers but when i click with left mouse button i'm getting insta-bluescreen.
Here is the report made with BlueScreenViewer (paste it into text file, rename into .html and open with browser): http://pastebin.com/GZMfBYPA
I'm using fully updated Windows 7 N 64bit and Xonar Essence STX.
From the data you provided, it would seem you have driver verifier active and it found a minor bug in the ASUS xonar driver, cmudaxp.sys.
Driver verifier issues stops (the so-called blue screens or BSODs) when it finds something suboptimal in the way a driver is written. That happens even when it finds problems that are considered non-fatal, like in your case. From your data is seems this is the problem driver verifier found:
0x300: A driver has returned a suspicious status. This is probably due to an uninitialized variable bug in the driver.
This bug is triggered by a query XonarSwitch submits to the driver itself and the driver responds incorrectly to, but it wouldn't cause a blue-screen if driver verifier wasn't active.
It's not advised to keep driver verifier active during normal PC use, since it's intended as a debug tool and its normal behavior is to cause the system to crash a lot more frequently than normal.
Disable driver verifier and your blue screens should go away.
On a more general note, applications like XonarSwitch, which run in user space, can't cause blue screens. Only software that runs in kernel space, like drivers, can. At most an application can indirectly cause a blue-screen by exposing an underlying driver bug, which isn't even this case since the bug in the Xonar driver basically doesn't have any practical implication unless driver verifier is running.
It doesn't work with my Xonar Phoebus Solo.It doesnt detect any card.
XonarSwitch supports the cards based on the CM8788 chipset. The Phoebus Solo uses the 8888.
Thanks for the feedback.
Could you please add the release dates to the Version History page.
+1
Thanks for your feedback. I will, but I haven't kept track of previous release dates, so they are only going to be available from now on.
You are more than welcome. No problem but its great that do it from now on. Greetz
Hey Giulio, great job with the new update. Dolby ProLogic IIx effect width and depth settings are great. Hope this is coming for DTS aswell. Thanks for your work!
DTS is coming as well, although for that one I will need help from someone with a card supporting the feature, since my DX doesn't have it.
Great to hear dude! Thats are great news! I am more as willing and would be proud to help you. As you should know i have the Xonar D2X. Contact me under my e-mail please or if not have it anymore let me know and i contact u. Great work Giulio. I love this program!
I have one feature request / advice. Would be great to see a possibility to set the profiles on application basis / start. Thats when you start a application like a game or a program, XonarSwitch switches to the profile associated with the applications exe.
Keep up the good work.Thanks
Process creation/termination switching is planned, but first I want to implement support for what I consider at least basic functionality. Complete PL2x and DTS:NEO support are part of that.
Hello!
I am facing a minor issue with XonarSwitch.
Everytime I enable a profile on XonarSwitch, it resets the "Swap center/bass output" in Xonar DX Audio Center.
Is there a way to save the function to on/off and save it into the profile so I don't have to manually uncheck in the Xonar DX Audio Center everytime I switch the profile ?
Thanks!
Edit that profile and click on the "Set" button on the left of the Analog output combo box. Among the options you should have "Exchange Center / Bass Channels". Leave it to "don't set" and then save.
Also, to enable or disable center / bass exchange in real time you don't need the ASUS audio center, you can follow the same instructions in the Real Time Settings window.
Hi not sure if it's only me experiencing it but sometimes the volume control does not show up even if I click on it. I have to force close it and reload it again.
Might be due to IDM rebuilding files or heavy I/O activity not sure.
Amazing, now I can blow up my head by setting up VSS to gain maximum bass. Good job mate!