Sage suddenly very unreliable?!

[White94Cobra]

I have been running Sage for several years now, and it's always been pretty dependable. Over the past couple of months, Sage started missing the first 5 minutes of shows on occassion. Recently, Sage has started missing 15, 20, 30, and last night missed 58 minutes of a 1 hour show. It is happening about 30% of the time. I'm also encountering issues where it is suddenly tuning to the wrong channel. I haven't made a change on the Sage server in months. I am running the latest non-beta version.

Here's what I know... it is happening on all of my tuners (two PVR-500's and one USB2). When the show finally starts recording, I can see the channel banner on the USB2 tuner hooked to DirecTV, meaning it just changed the channel. It does appear that the shows starting late have a 1 or a 2 in the file (I think meaning it is a split file), but if there is a 2, there is no 0 or 1.

Thanks for any help...

[White94Cobra]

OK... it is now happing about 95% of the time. I am missing large chunks of the start of virtually every show Sage records. If I happen to be watching a show while a new recording starts, I get audio studders for about 5 seconds. If two shows start recording while I am watching something, I get audio studders for about 10 seconds. Sage crashes when three shows start at the same time. Scandisk reports nothing, drives are defragged. I can't imagine that all of my tuners went bad over the past two months. I guess I'll try a total reinstall to see if that fixes it. If not, it's finally time to mothball Sage.

[Opus4]

If it was working & then suddenly starting messing up, I would look into possible hardware issues (fan dies? dust blocking airflow? hard drives, etc) or double check any software updates that might have happened fairly recently. (Antivirus? multiple java installations that are somehow competing?)

Scandisk doesn't really do a whole lot -- try the diagnostics from the drive(s)' manufacturer. Hard drive mode got reduced to a slower type?

You could turn on debugging (property: debug_logging=TRUE) & see if tech support sees anything in the SageTV log that might point towards the problem.

- Andy

[DFA]

Almost sounds like the dreaded date/time clock fiasco that my system occassionally stumbles into: clock begins running really fast. Not just minor error but grossly fast; sometimes as fast as 45 seconds = 60 seconds (25% fast).

I have never identified the exact cause/source of the problem but shows up once in a while. A Google of the net has yielded results for this but nothing particularly definitive. One person found that a particular java app was to blame.

The clock speed is adjustable and applications can access it if written to do so.

I have found that to cure my "fast clock" symptom, I open and clear the "java applet cache" which are downloaded jave applets from the net (Not that any of the applets are necessarily to blame; just my precautionary procedure. I used to have an opening website for the browser "I know Bakersfield" that would load a popular java applet that seemed to have something to do with the problem; I no longer use them for the opening web page.). I then shut the PC down completely and remove AC power in order to remove 5 VDC standby voltage. Clock speed returns to normal thereafter.

When the clock goes fast, my first clue is when the wife complains of big missing portions of the beginning of recorded shows. Interestingly, I've never found a case where the clock is going grossly slow.

DFA

[White94Cobra]

DFA -

Do your shows show a red missing portion, or do they "appear" to start on time? I have had an issue for the past 8 months or so where on occassion some shows would start EXACTLY 5 minutes late (red bar indicating that that portion of the show was not recorded). I'm starting to wonder if it may be comskip related. Somehow comskip tries to access the file as soon as Sage opens it and creates some type of file sharing issue.

Opus -

I haven't touched anything on the PC in months. I'll check to see if it is possibly overheating, but CPU temps show OK. I do record via UNC paths to the local machine, maybe something on the network is causing an issue. Is there any way to do a full reinstall but keep my wiz.bin file?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by White94Cobra

Is there any way to do a full reinstall but keep my wiz.bin file?

wiz.bin isn't removed when you uninstall or install a new version. But, to be on the safe side, I always suggest keeping a backup copy.

This post talks about installing updates & this FAQ talks about doing a clean installation w/o keeping your properties file.

- Andy

[DFA]

White94Cobra:

I was going to edit my post because I made a BIG mistake in describing the symptoms.

Now that I thunk on it, it was the end of previous shows that were being recorded and missing the end portions of the intended recording. How much depended on the shows recording time relative to the last clock sync.

Anyway, for grins, might want to check to see if your clock is running inordinately slow.

I do not recall seeing red bar but think not. Sage was not aware of any problem or missed recording time. Just wrong time in reality.

DFA

[White94Cobra]

Opus4 -

After reading the FAQ, I think I'm going to try a complete uninstall/reinstall and just keep my wiz.bin file. Sage is currently installed in the Frey Technologies directory. From what I remember, newer versions of Sage will install to a SageTV directory. Does the wiz.bin file depend on the path to the main SageTV directory remaining the same? Thanks much!

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by White94Cobra

Does the wiz.bin file depend on the path to the main SageTV directory remaining the same?

I don't believe so. I think it only has links to your recording/media files, so it has to be able to see those files.

Just make sure to keep a complete backup of your existing install.

- Andy

[White94Cobra]

Well I backed everything up, deleted my properties file, installed the latest beta, and went through the setup wizard. Last night it recorded three shows at once and only had a brieif 1 second hiccup when the recordings started. Hopefully the problem is resolved... I'll know more after a week of recording.

On a side-note... I like some of the new features in the latest beta. Things are looking good.

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by White94Cobra

Well I backed everything up, deleted my properties file, installed the latest beta, and went through the setup wizard. Last night it recorded three shows at once and only had a brieif 1 second hiccup when the recordings started. Hopefully the problem is resolved... I'll know more after a week of recording.

On a side-note... I like some of the new features in the latest beta. Things are looking good.

White94Cobra,

I see the same thing...many of my recordings miss 5-10 mins. The areas show up Red. I'm not sure about .11 beta yet but the prior versions acted this way. Did you log it and submit a bug? I can't repeat it consistantly.

[Opus4]

I remember something from a long time ago about the first 5 minutes being consistently missed when a specific recording quality was being used... what recording quality are you using for the shows missing the first 5 minutes? Is it any different from the ones that have no missing time?

- Andy

[White94Cobra]

I didn't log it because it seemed so inconsistent. For some reason it got severely worse over the last month. Like I said, I was missing 5 to 10 minutes from the beginning of nearly every show. One show even missed the first 58 minutes (I basically caught the preview for next week's show).

Do you use comskip or showanalyzer? If so, do you have it set to process shows as they are recording?

[DFA]

White94Cobra:

I use SA BUT do not allow shows that are recording to be simultaneously processed. I saw immediate trouble with this on my rig for Live TV.

I have "Stop scanning when playing " box checked in SA (all resources available for HD playback) and have "Wait until the target file is finished" checked in DirMon.

DFA