I refer to EAC's tendency to restore itself and make itself on top while ripping if you try to minimize it or switch programs. I've experienced this with all EAC versions I've used (0.94b & all 0.95pb's) on both of my computers, so I assume it's not exclusive to me.

EDIT: If you are considering the "What the hell are you talking about" option, try this first:
Rip a CD in EAC, and after it has ripped a couple tracks try switching to another program. EAC will probably force itself back on top.

answer #1 is correct

#3, I fight it!

Btw: Funny poll

That's my personal preference as well. It seems to do the job.

I have a dedicated PC for ripping.

Thanks . I inevitably fight it at times, such as when I start to rip and go to the bathroom without minimizing first.

Answer #1

That's pretty hardcore. How big is your collection?

This problem is indeed VERY annoying. Especially if you're trying to write a message on a forum, chat with a friend over IRC or MSN, or some other similar activity at the same time.

I usually use #1, although it doesnt always work. So i have to fight it and fight it. If that doesnt work, i just kill the EAC process and rip later, otherwise i'd probably get a heart-attack from the frustration

Hehe, talk about fighting against the windmills!

I usually challenge EAC in the Clickety Wars, and I nearly always win because the bastard's has to stop ripping sooner or later

It might get pretty ugly with badly scratched CD's, however

I voted "What is EAC? (this could almost be a comedic answer in this forum)".
Actually I know what it is. But I have never used it, so I cant comment.

I am a faithfull CDex user!


Solaris

What the hell are you talking about?
I've never had any problems like that using EAC... Maybe I'm lucky
I really love EAC... only think that bugs me is that I can't use japanese in the tags in EAC... Too bad, since now freedb supports UTF-8 and everything... Means I have to tag again using fb2k

Rip a CD in EAC, and after it has ripped a couple tracks try switching to another program. EAC will probably force itself back on top.

I think #3 but that could be wrong as I almost never touch EAC - no good for vinyls.

edit: changed phrasing

You can use 'Windows Task Manager' (Win2k and above) on the 'Applications' tab (1st tab) right-click on the "Exact Audio Copy" listing & select Minimize. To restore EAC you may need to follow the same procedure except for selecting Maximize.
I can't remember this being unsuccessful for anyone.

There is TrayMin a free utility from PC Magazine which works on all Win32's & comes complete with source. A little bit about it here: "Minimize Apps to the Tray" Ziff-Davis no longer makes it available without subscription. Also, I noticed some companies selling similar apps which may mis-lead you so get TrayMin from the link above.
I've verified the contents, virus scanned it & compared the MD5 sums.
It should be "By: Steven E. Sipe - PC Magazine - Published 01/17/00"

There are a couple of other similar utilities out there but it's 3:15am..

On a side note, I've been bothered by this fairly minimally (thankfully).

Rarely does it seem to steal focus with me so perhaps my EAC Minimize Kung-Fu fighting style is not as thoroughly tested as the others. When I do minimize EAC (and it's behaving as you described) I try to wait until it has begun ripping the track and then click the Minimize button and immediately afterward click on another application to give it focus. This seems to work well, for me.

Perseverance. that's the spirit! lol

Hoping I wasn't too loopy, tec

I use an "other method".

This occurs only when both EAC and the compression DOS windows are running.
If the DOS windows is minimized, I restore it.
Then I minimize it (it is sometimes difficult because of EAC's stealing focus, but not impossible).
Once the DOS Windows is minimized, EAC can be minimized too, and causes no more problems.

A combination of #1 and #3.

I absolutely hate that bug.

i never had this problem. i DID have a different computer rip CDs when my baby had probs with a Ministry of Sound CD... but that's another story...

This works for me, too. It's a bit irritating, but that's my punishment for trying to watch EAC while it's doing its business.

I use TrayIt to keep it peacefully in system tray.

I have multiple desktops and always open it on its own desktop, thus I never noticed. Meah.

edit: Wow I can't believe that so many of the members of this site are superstitious enough to not use there computers while ripping or are that many of you using win9x ?

ATAPI/IDE needs the CPU to be constantly handling i/o transactions, despite ultradma and other gizmos that buffer/interleave things less annoyingly. If we were using something smarter, like scsi, i wouldn't mind using the computer. On the other hand, the encoding part also needs cpu, and then you also have to deal with the OS and its way to do things, like memory swapping, task switching, priorities, uncalled stuff running on behind your back, etc.

To deal with that I set in EAC the Compression and Extracting priority to Idle (lowest). Then when EAC starts to rip I use the task manager to change EAC priority to Normal.
Now every external (hogging) encoder process get lowest priority while EAC itself gets priority over it. This is of course not possible in Win 9x versions.

I wish EAC had separate prio settings for extracting and encoding.

Just realised that most of my CD ripping is done on my crash box where it runs while my main system is free for other work.
<mostly offtopic>
accidentally left a Nat Cole CD in my crash box so I decided to test iTunes CBR 192kbps ripping. Not too bad, but could not help but notice that 'VBR 5' in another program saved a solid 25 MB total at the 130ish range and sounded just as good to my ears. Could always try 128 or 160 but not that motivated to.
<mostly offtopic>

My #1 most-used utility, Windows PowerPro (freeware), enables me to set the EAC window(s) to "Never on top". Works great for any app that won't stay in the background where it belongs.


Jim K.