HD-200 locks up

[bdonald]

Hi. I tried doing some searches but couldnt find the same problem, so I thought I'd throw it out there to be nudged in the right direction. I have a an hd-200 hooked up as an extender to SageTV 6.6.2.218, running SageMC STV. All is running through cat5e. 3 or 4 times a day, it locks up while watching it, either the circle of death or just a freeze, and I have to unplug it to get it to work again. On the same TV I have my old HTPC with Sage Client <cant take it down until I know that the hd-200 works or else the WAF will go way down>, and that works fine. I'm not in front of it right now, but I updated the firmware when I first got it in Jan. Anyone else experiencing this, or have any idea what's going on? I've rebooted the server a couple of times as well, but that didnt seem to have any effect. Thanks in advance!

Bob

[paulbeers]

How is it connected?

Try using one of the beta firmwares. Go to the update screen and type BETA using the 10 key on the remote.

[bdonald]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

How is it connected?

Try using one of the beta firmwares. Go to the update screen and type BETA using the 10 key on the remote.

Hi Paul
Not sure what you mean connected, network? As I stated, I'm running it all over Cat5e. I played with wireless N, but too many little problems, so I decided just to hardwire it. I have it going into a gigabit switch <along with the core 2 duo that is running sage client, the dvr and xbox>, tried unplugging all of those to no avail. As far as video, I have tried it on both component and hdmi with the same results. Thanks for the advice on the firmware, George sent me an email stating the same thing, as well as removing SageMC out of the picture to make sure that isnt an offender as well. The funny thing is, that since I posted this question I havent had it happen again!

I'm building a new Sage server as we type, so unfortunately I'm changing too many components of the environment to try to recreate it for future reference. The prescott is getting taxed way too much with 4 or 5 tuners working at the same time as comskip, so I'm replacing it with a quad 9300. The prescott was mainly a quick frankenbuild to get Sage to replace Beyond TV before the new seasons started anyways, so it was never meant as a long term solution. Plus I was running Vista as it was the only op sys I had laying around without a license in use, and I dont think I need to type a 3 page breakdown of all the problems I had with it. The new one will get w7, so almost every aspect of the server is changing. This will give me a chance to start fresh and keep an eye out for problems one at a time. Again, thanks for chiming in!

[bdonald]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

How is it connected?

Try using one of the beta firmwares. Go to the update screen and type BETA using the 10 key on the remote.

Well, I dont know which one did it, but havent had a lockup since the new build and removing SageMC. It's been running since Monday and we stopped using the HTPC with the client installed in favor of exclusively running the hd200.

Bob

[Slack]

Originally Posted by bdonald

Well, I dont know which one did it, but havent had a lockup since the new build and removing SageMC. It's been running since Monday and we stopped using the HTPC with the client installed in favor of exclusively running the hd200.

Bob

FWIW it is not the SageMC STV. My server is running that with the 'Serenity' theme / skin what ever you wanna call it.

And 2 HS200's never have an issue.

Sorry but I am not sure what version of SageMC I am using.

[bdonald]

Originally Posted by Slack

FWIW it is not the SageMC STV. My server is running that with the 'Serenity' theme / skin what ever you wanna call it.

And 2 HS200's never have an issue.

Sorry but I am not sure what version of SageMC I am using.

I was using the latest, but I wasnt quick to blame any one component. I wish I had more time to troubleshoot it, but since a new build was in order anyways, it was the quickest route. I really like the SageMC STV, so I will probably re-introduce it at some point; It's just nice to know that I have a good working model as a point of reference. As a kudo's to the folks at Sage and the forums, it's really nice to have good informational sources to turn to as opposed to the crap I went through with BTV. I definitely see a 2nd HD-200 in my hear future.

[Clift]

As far as I can tell the HD200 is pretty sensitive to the server and what it's doing. For example, I had the HD200 reboot on me several times because one of my drives on the server was going bad. Also, I have seen ti act really flaky if the CPU is too stressed or memory gets low, but never reboot because of it, in my case. If I had to guess, I would say it was the previous server not being 100% up to the task. And that could be either cause the CPu was too slow, or maybe another quirky hardware problem caused by running incompatible (too old?) hardware with Vista. But glad it's working for you now.

[bdonald]

Originally Posted by Clift

As far as I can tell the HD200 is pretty sensitive to the server and what it's doing. For example, I had the HD200 reboot on me several times because one of my drives on the server was going bad. Also, I have seen ti act really flaky if the CPU is too stressed or memory gets low, but never reboot because of it, in my case. If I had to guess, I would say it was the previous server not being 100% up to the task. And that could be either cause the CPu was too slow, or maybe another quirky hardware problem caused by running incompatible (too old?) hardware with Vista. But glad it's working for you now.

Thanks Clift. I never ruled out the hardware, especially when Vista was concerned. It was fairly up to date, p4 3.4 HT with 4 gigs of DDR2, sata drives and newer tuner cards with a good vid card. But, I believe you know how flaky Vista can be, and the cpu was getting hit pretty hard with comskip and recording 3 or 4 shows at a time. This new core 2 quad is really smoking though! I was recording 3 shows, watching another on the hd200 and processing comskip on 2 others and the thing barely went over 35%. The WAF definitely went up quite a few points this week!