SageTV UI freezes for long periods

[timg11]

I haven't changed anything on my SageTV system for a number of months. Recently, it has started hanging up when using the UI. Usually it occurs when navigating the menu. The UI just freezes. Sometimes after a while, the spinning circle will appear and turn really slowly, moving a bit every few seconds. I have not seen hangs while playing shows, or during recording.

During the hang, the disk LED on the computer is on solid, but there is no audible disk activity. I've been keeping task manager running while using SageTV as I try to figure out what's going on. During the hang, the CPU use is near zero. The strange thing is that SageTVs memory is also very low. When the hang occurs the memory reported by Task Manager drops from the normal 100-200Mbytes down to 10-30Mbytes. While it is hung it slowly climbs back up to the normal value.

It seems to be holding the disk system because programs like Task Manager will run OK, but any other program that tries to go to disk will also hang.

The hang will last from 3 to 10 minutes. Then everything works again like nothing happened.

See below for sample from the log around the time of a hang.

I thought there was a physical problem with the disk drives, but the WDC diagnostics do not find any problem.

Does anyone have any ideas what could cause this hang?

Thanks!

Sun 4/25 18:05:56.205 [Seeker@15b9f9a] Seeker waiting for 54 mins.
Sun 4/25 18:05:57.402 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 750
Sun 4/25 18:05:58.152 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 1500
Sun 4/25 18:06:03.040 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Loading 84x84 image from file C:\DOCUME~1\TV\LOCALS~1\Temp\stv2418433389024809350.img
Sun 4/25 18:06:03.790 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 7138
Sun 4/25 18:06:04.540 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 7888
Sun 4/25 18:06:05.290 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 8638
Sun 4/25 18:06:06.040 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 9388
Sun 4/25 18:06:06.110 [Fork-OPUS4A-122188@141e072] Starting STV update availability check thread.
Sun 4/25 18:06:06.110 [Fork-OPUS4-89595@1383eb] Starting Online Video properties updater thread.
Sun 4/25 18:06:06.111 [Fork-OPUS4-89595@1383eb] Ending Online Video properties updater thread. No Update needed or it isn't time to check again.
Sun 4/25 18:06:06.111 [Fork-OPUS4A-122188@141e072] STV update will not be checked because it is not time to check again. Last check was on Apr 25, 2010 at 5:50:29 PM
Sun 4/25 18:06:06.111 [Fork-OPUS4A-122188@141e072] Ending STV update availability check thread.
Sun 4/25 18:06:07.610 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 750
Sun 4/25 18:06:08.360 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 1500
Sun 4/25 18:06:09.110 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 2250
Sun 4/25 18:06:09.860 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 3000
Sun 4/25 18:06:10.610 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 3750
Sun 4/25 18:06:11.360 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 4500
Sun 4/25 18:06:12.110 [AWTThreadWatcher-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@1a313e8] EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected - hang time = 5250
Sun 4/25 18:06:26.109 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Creating DirectX9 Texture from nio buffer w=84 h=84
Sun 4/25 18:06:26.118 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Loading RawImage of size 84x84 for images/tvicon_anim2.png
Sun 4/25 18:06:31.678 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Loading 84x84 image from file C:\DOCUME~1\TV\LOCALS~1\Temp\stv8698787174459981384.img
Sun 4/25 18:06:37.028 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Creating DirectX9 Texture from nio buffer w=84 h=84
Sun 4/25 18:06:37.029 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Loading RawImage of size 84x84 for images/tvicon_anim3.png
Sun 4/25 18:06:38.813 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Loading 84x84 image from file C:\DOCUME~1\TV\LOCALS~1\Temp\stv1990288812578169846.img
Sun 4/25 18:06:44.145 [FinalRender-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI@309a10] Creating DirectX9 Texture from nio buffer w=84 h=84

[tchapin]

Are the fans in your computer workin well? Is your computer running hot?

Does this happen when using any other programs if Sage is off /not in focus?

How old is your hard drive? Have you checked the SMART readouts? Perhaps your drive is dying?

[Islander]

The information on this thread may help you narrow it down somehow:

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=47785

[robogeek]

Originally Posted by timg11

When the hang occurs the memory reported by Task Manager drops from the normal 100-200Mbytes down to 10-30Mbytes. While it is hung it slowly climbs back up to the normal value.

I've seen this happen when another program or background process (not necessarily SageTV related) requires more RAM than is currently available and Windows will move large chunks of RAM from other processes (like the SageTV process) out to the swap file. When the other process is done doing whatever it is that is requiring so much RAM, then the SageTV process starts moving back into RAM from the swap file. During this swapping process, SageTV is pretty much dead until the right pieces are swapped back into RAM to allow SageTV to continue.

The only time I've seen this happen for me is when I run virtual machines on my SageTV server. I'd guess some other processes like Internet Explorer with multiple tabs open and possibly some virus scanners may jump the RAM usage up enough to force SageTV to get swapped out of RAM to the swap file.

[EDIT]
Forgot to mention that since the Task Manager is showing 100-200Meg usage for SageTV before it gets knocked down on you, Java might not have enough RAM available for SageTV to use. There is a JavaHeapSize registry setting to increase the RAM usage for SageTV. By default it is set to 0 which means Java only uses a maximum of 200Meg of RAM for SageTV. If you don't have any other process that are forcing SageTV to swap out of RAM to the swap file, then try increasing the JavaHeapSize to 512 or 768 (decimal value, not hex, in RegEdit).
[/EDIT]

[timg11]

I don't think that memory paging in and out to the swap file is the problem - at the time of the hangs, SageTV is usually the only program running. The system has 4G of RAM.

I ran the WDC diagnostic on the hard drives and it does not report any errors. The "SMART" status looks perfect.

I have increased the Java Heap size to 300 (768Mbytes) from its former value of 200 (512Mbytes). I read in another thread that increasing it all the way to 1024Mbytes can prevent SageTV from starting.

I'm watching to see if there is any improvement.

[GKusnick]

How big is your Wiz.bin? Have you tried defragmenting the drive where SageTV is installed?