HD-PVR Stops Responding ~Once/Day

[jerryt]

I would run just the 2nd (Locking up) HD-PVR by itself on the AC120 filter and see if it is stable.

If it proves to be stable, then add the stable (1st) HD-PVR on a second filter.

Do the HD-PVR's have poor power supplies? Hauppauge's website states that the HD-PVR needs 5 volts at 2 amps. I wonder if building a harness from the computer 5 volt rail to the HD-PVR would fix your power issues...

At the least having the computer and HD-PVR on the same power supply would lower any current through the USB cable ground wires (Shielding).

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ewelin

connected the 2nd hd-pvr and within 10 minutes it locked up... So I figured there was probably a driver issue. I shut down sage, ran hcwclear, unplugged the HD-PVRs, restarted the PC, plugged in the HD-PVR and ran hcwdriverinstall.exe, then turned sage back on...

it still locks up within an hour of turning on. Both units are on the same power strip which is connected to the filter. Did I not go about upgrading the drivers correctly or something? I got one stable, now to get the other one stable.

Hauppague recommends BEFORE running hwclear to remove your HD-PVRs from the PC. Running the hcwdriverinstall also flashes the HD-PVR firmware. I would install each seperately running the driver install each time. You should see in the driver program it actually saying something like "flashing device ID" or something. Once both units are installed and with drivers reboot the entire server. Double-check in Device Manager they are OK. Then create them as video sources in SageTV. Also make sure you are patched up to date and have the latest DirectX installed. Once they are created as video resources reboot one more time to make sure everything comes up clean before testing.

Gerry

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by gplasky

... "flashing device ID" or something. ....
Gerry

Any way to see if the flash took after the fact?

[gplasky]

Not that I'm aware of. I don't know if it creates a log somewhere or not. And I'm not aware of any software (unless the WinTV software can somehow indicate it.)

gerry

[ewelin]

Redid the drivers as suggested with making sure the HD-PVR was unplugged prior to removing them. Made sure both units were up to date. I then added both into SageTV And let it run. Lasted about 6 hours then the unit that wasn't on the system initially locked up. I'm going to remove that unit for now as there are two recordings I want to trigger tonight, then mess with it some more tomorrow.

I can't wait til the whole system is stable and I can stop running up and down the stairs into the basement several times a day!

[ewelin]

Once I add the 2nd into the picture I'm lucky if I can go 5 hours without a lockup. With one unit I was stable for just over 24 hours and it didn't matter which unit.

This morning I adjusted the magic property as mentioned in this post:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...failure+hd-pvr

And with the two units attached it locked up. I've gone back to 1 unit for now, but what am I missing on getting both units to work together. Each one on it's own is stable, but together they crash the system.

The PC specs are:

Intel Pentium Dual core 2.2GHz
4GB ram
WHS fully updated
Java build 1.6.0_17
SageTV WHS Plugin v6.6.2.218
Sage MC Version 6.3.9a
Jave Heap Size adjusted to 300
DirectX 9.0c
Over 6TB in the drive pool in 64k clusters with 4TB currently free
two NEC USB PCI expasion cards with one HD-PVR and serial control on each.
Lastest release of TME
HD-PVR driver 1.5.6.1

[Skirge01]

First, try the older drivers (run HCWclear.exe to clean out the old ones). I'm still using 1.0.5.301 on my units.

Second, do you have an onboard USB port you can try one of them on?

Third, are you using the integrated IR receivers? If not, are they covered with tape?

[ewelin]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

First, try the older drivers (run HCWclear.exe to clean out the old ones). I'm still using 1.0.5.301 on my units.

I tried 1.0.5.301, but I was unable to get a working version of TME so it made local debugging impossible. My CD came with HD-PVR driver version 1.5.6 and the version of TME requires that driver version.

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Second, do you have an onboard USB port you can try one of them on?

I have only 4 onboard USB ports, typically I have 4 things plugged in there. Home Automation PLC controller and USB keyboards/mouse are currently plugged in right now, eventually I will add in a MagicJack and my UPS USB connection, but I want SageTV stable with the HD-PVRs first. I could do some swapping of the USB connections, but I thought the the NEC PCI cards were the best option.

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Third, are you using the integrated IR receivers? If not, are they covered with tape?

Those IR receivers on the HD-PVR are covered with elec. tape. That was one of the first things I did.

[Skirge01]

Are you actually using TME for playback or just for the drivers? I only use Sage for playback.

To help with troubleshooting, I would disconnect all other USB peripherals and focus on the HD-PVRs alone.

[tomfisk]

Given what you had previous said about being in the basement with older wiring and on a circuit with a washing machine, I would highly suggest that you put in a UPS for all your equipment. Line voltage variations from starting the washing machine (AC motors draw a lot of current on starting) could be significant. The noise filter you have in place isn't going to provide you with stable line voltage. A reliable UPS will do that for you. I have an APS 1300Kwh system even though I'm in a relatively new condo. All equipment, except my laser printer, goes through this UPS. Never have had a problem with my HD-PVR from day 1.

[ewelin]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Are you actually using TME for playback or just for the drivers? I only use Sage for playback.

To help with troubleshooting, I would disconnect all other USB peripherals and focus on the HD-PVRs alone.

I use TME for local debugging, like making sure the serial control works and that I have the correct com port for each HD-PVR. I've never been able to get Sage to display recorded content on this machine... never had much luck with the encoders. We have one HD200 in our living room and once the system is stable, we'll add a second HD200 in our bedroom so all watching will be done on the extenders.

As for the USB devices, I've disconnected the UPS and the magicjack converter. I need to leave the USB keyboard/mouse so I can have local control and there is way too much automation home automation to go without that device.

Originally Posted by tomfisk

Given what you had previous said about being in the basement with older wiring and on a circuit with a washing machine, I would highly suggest that you put in a UPS for all your equipment. Line voltage variations from starting the washing machine (AC motors draw a lot of current on starting) could be significant. The noise filter you have in place isn't going to provide you with stable line voltage. A reliable UPS will do that for you. I have an APS 1300Kwh system even though I'm in a relatively new condo. All equipment, except my laser printer, goes through this UPS. Never have had a problem with my HD-PVR from day 1.

Actually the wiring in the basement is all new, but the washer is quite old. The washer has actually been unplugged since tuesday and hasn't been used.

Right now I have the two HD-PVRs, the two STB and my server attached to the UPS. The server is connected directly to the UPS and the rest of the units are connected to a power strip which goes into the filter which connects to the UPS.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by ewelin

I tried 1.0.5.301, but I was unable to get a working version of TME so it made local debugging impossible. My CD came with HD-PVR driver version 1.5.6 and the version of TME requires that driver version.

Try this install CD
http://www.shspvr.com/ftp/download/w...d-pvr-v22f.zip

[ewelin]

Any idea what HD-PVR drivers are included? I installled TME from there but it wouldn't load with the 1.0.5.301. I didn't think to try the drivers included as I thought they would be older than that.

[ewelin]

Making Progress :-D

Friday afternoon I enabled both units with the 1.5.6.1 drivers and it lasted 14 hours. At 12:01am eastern time there was a Halt Detected in a recording message as well as a Capture Device Failure... message for unit number 2. I didn't see this until 7am when I got up on Saturday morning. All other recordings on unit 2 failed until I power cycled it.

So I power cycles the units, and left them on. Both within sage. It was solid all day.... until 12:01am eastern time again! Exact same messages as the night before, but this time it was on unit 1!!! Looks like I'm getting a pattern, but I won't know for sure until a few more trials. I'm not usually up that late, but may try and stay up tomorrow night if it happens again tonight.

Any suggestions on things I should look for? I already verified that there are no scheduled tasks for that hour.

[gplasky]

You may want to actually be watching what is on the cable box thru the paas thru of the HD-PVR. There may be some kind of maintenance os some change occurring at the cable station. HD-PVR will sometimes be sensitive to audio track changes. I saw on mine at one time the recording kept changing from dd5.1 to dd2.0 and also toPCM stereo. Played havoc with the video of the recording and the sound. Seen it happen twice over a 3 day period. Haven't seen it since.

Gerry

[ewelin]

Wasn't able to make it to midnight last night... but this time both units locked up, both at 12:01am again... this is definitely interesting.

Question, those of you with DTV, do you have your DTV STB connected to your network? The installer said I didn't have to connect it if I didn't want to order PPVs or anything, so I didn't bother. But I'm wondering if maybe the STB is updating the guide at midnight or something and that's causing this lockup....

[Skirge01]

Is your STB locked to a single resolution? The guide data may be at a different res than everything else you watch. Also, as Gerry said, check your Windows event log to see what's running at midnight.

While disk I/O or audio changes could be causing issues, they shouldn't lock the unit up. The HD-PVR isn't just able to handle audio changes, it's actually required by the chip in the unit. So, the chip will stop and restart when the audio changes, but it should not lock up. I don't know if the same can be said for video resolution changes. I've had instances where SageTV ran out of diskspace and needed to make some room, but even with a system message that recording had stopped, I never even noticed it during playback.

[ewelin]

Windows event log didn't show anything that looked out of place. The STB is locked to 1080i... I did notice that after redoing whs my disk usage wasn't balanced. One disk was 90% full and the others were all less than 5. I just finished balancing them so hopefully that'll help a bit.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by ewelin

Wasn't able to make it to midnight last night... but this time both units locked up, both at 12:01am again... this is definitely interesting.

Question, those of you with DTV, do you have your DTV STB connected to your network? The installer said I didn't have to connect it if I didn't want to order PPVs or anything, so I didn't bother. But I'm wondering if maybe the STB is updating the guide at midnight or something and that's causing this lockup....

As a work arround? How about a Devcon batch file which disables your two HD-PVR's in the device manager at 11:58 and then enables them again at 12:05

Or the other work arround posted on the net, is an IR controled 120 volt outlet that you have the USB UIRT toggle at midnight. See bottom of page;
http://blog.arogan.com/2008/06/haupp...odel-1212.html

[ewelin]

I've been toying with that idea... I just hate to see my HD-PVRs go down at that hour. All of our TV watching is done over the HD-PVRs and if they go down at midnight, we may miss a few minutes of a sports game if it's going long. If that happen, it definitely would not go over well with the wife. LMAO. I wouldn't mind so much if the reset was at 4am as the odds of us watching TV at that hour is basically 0.