I'm stumped

[gplasky]

My Sage server has been running great for the past 3+ years. I had some corruption on the D drive and decided it was time to clean it all up. The only hardware change was swapping a FX5700 with a 6600GT. The only other fundamental change was setting up one tuner card for a cabel box instead of just the cable from the wall. I already had the USB-UIRT for receiving and now would use it for blasting. Loaded Win XP Pro, SP2, all the latest updates, first java 1.0.5_6, the went back to java 1.0.4_6 or whatever it is that comes with Sage. Here is the issue:

I can run Sage Service no problem. Loads with a admin user and password. All paths UNC. CPU 3-7% bursts up to 30-40%%.

Or I can run the Sage UI for the server. Loads with no issue. CPU 3-7% bursts up to 30-40%

BUT-If I run the Sage service and THEN start the Sage UI on the server I get various scenarios of 100% CPU utilization. And it goes back and forth to what is the cause. It seems that either the Sage service or Sage.exe will shoot up to 100% when I start the UI. I have seen the servce hit 100%. Then the next or subsequent start it is the sage.exe that is at 100%.

Keep in mind I had the latest Sage running perfect just prior to the reload. 4.1.4 beta and a MVP and 2 PC clients.

In the above scenario as long as I have only one or the other running on the server everything is fine including ALL the clients. But as soon as I have both service and the UI run-BAM-100%. Sometimes it won't hit 100% until I enter the Program Guide. I can be all over in Sage and not an issue until the Program Guide. Screen will freeze but if you wait long enough it will eventually transition to the Program Guide but dead slow. Have also started the UI and since it is 100% CPU the UI will come up black and stay back. You know it is working because I can arrow up/down and get the beeps from the STV. (I've tried different but have always worked with the default .xml in troubleshooting this.)

Sorry for the long post but 2 days of hitting the wall sucks. I have also emailed support last night and waiting for response.

Any thoughts or ideas. Except for the changes noted above this was all working before the clean load.

Gerry

[Opus4]

Just a wild guess... since it only seems to occur when using the service + UI, could there be some sort of network issue that causes a probem when they try to talk to each other? Even though they are still on the same PC, every time I load a new version, ZoneAlarm wants to know if they should be allowed through. A long time ago, I had to kill ZoneAlarm for a while because the server cpu would go to 100% any time a client tried to talk to it. So: any firewall or antivirus settings you could check?

- Andy

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Just a wild guess... since it only seems to occur when using the service + UI, could there be some sort of network issue that causes a probem when they try to talk to each other? Even though they are still on the same PC, every time I load a new version, ZoneAlarm wants to know if they should be allowed through. A long time ago, I had to kill ZoneAlarm for a while because the server cpu would go to 100% any time a client tried to talk to it. So: any firewall or antivirus settings you could check?

- Andy

Good thought. I keep antivirus off the HTPC. I use the firewall in the router. Not only did I turn off the Windows firewall on the HTPC I actually disabled the service and thought that might be it. The other change I didn't mention is I did disable the NICs on the motherboard and put in a Gigabit NIC. With everything being local I didn't try troubleshooting anything there. Maybe I'll pull the Gig NIC and go back to the mb NIC and see if it makes a difference. Thanks-gives me something to try.

Gerry

[gplasky]

Just an update.

I have made some changes. I removed the Gigabit NIC and enabled the on board 10/100. I have removed 2 of the older PVR250 and put in a new PVR250MCE. So I have that and a PVR500. No IRQ conflicts-all seperate, nothing sharing. Nothing I do fixed the problem....
EXCEPT!!!!
I changed the login on the service from the Administrator account to a local service. Now everything runs sweet. CPU with 2 recordings going is 25-30%. This just doesn't make sense. Does it to anyone out there? I have another PVR500 coming in so I'll pull the PVR250MCE when it does and replace it. I'll probably add the Gig ethernet card back in. The repeatable symptoms are run the SageTV service, run the Sage UI, go into the Program Guide and get 100% CPU and basically freeze (it gets really, really slow) the UI.

Does this make sense to anyone? And if it does how can I fix it so I can get a user logged in as the service?

Gerry

[gplasky]

For some reason it appears that the Administrator ID that I was using for the SageTV service was giving me the issue. I used the Sage TV ID I created for the machine and added a password to it. I put in in the Administrator group and also the Power User group. I used that for the SageTV Service ID and now all is well. I also put the Gig Ethernet card back in so that was definitely not the issue.

Gerry