Long Hourglasses After Moving From WHS?

[PeteCress]

I moved SageTV 6.5.9 from a Windows Home Server machine to a Windows XP computer - but the media files on a NAS box.

On the XP computer, I've got Sage (and wiz.bin) installed on the "D: Data" drive instead of in C:\Program Files - but C: and D: are just partitions on the same SSD drive.

Sage running as a service on both machines, "Refresh Media" set to manual on the new build.

Coincident with the move, I started getting long (30-40 seconds...) instances of the rotating hourglass.

"Ok, something to do with the media files being on the NAS box instead of right there on the same PC, right?"...

But I'm starting to wonder. Sometimes, when I select a recording or ripped DVD, it starts up instantly. But if i start one, end it, and then start another I might get the long hourglass. Other times, first time takes too long.

Also, sometimes I get the long hourglass just moving from one list entry to another or some other action where, seemingly, with no LAN activity involved (?). Other times, response is instant.

FWIW, there is virtually no explicit LAN activity besides SageTV. I ran WireShark for awhile and saw a lot of activity from automatic refreshing of media files - so I turned that off.

Anybody been here?

Possible explainations?

[gplasky]

Are you having the drives to power down after inactivity on the NAS box? Does the NAS or the NIC on the NAS set to sleep? If yes in either case turn that setting off and try it. Those may be the default settings.

Gerry

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Are you having the drives to power down after inactivity on the NAS box? Does the NAS or the NIC on the NAS set to sleep? If yes in either case turn that setting off and try it. Those may be the default settings.

Thanks.

I just turned "SpinDown" off on the NAS box.

Will report back...

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

I just turned off "SpinDown" off on the NAS box. Will report back...

No joy. Did not seem to have any effect. I was hoping that drives spun down independently of each other and maybe the drive that had the most RecordedTV on it was the problem.

But this morning I tried to view a recorded show and it came up slow and jerky with no sound. "OK, lets re-open it".... then I got an endless hourglass.

"OK, lets re-boot the HD200...." no go...

Went down to the PC that was running SageTV, tried to open the "RecordedTV" folder on the share containing media and guess what? Yep, Windows could not open it. "Not responding...." Funny, bc Windows could open other directories on the same share.

Rebooted the NAS box, and the problem went away.

Seems to implicate the NAS box - unless the SageTV machine is doing something cruel and unusual to that particular directory.... like creating a situation where a bazillion file handles are open... but that's a stretch by somebody who really doesn't have a clue....

When I get some time and the masochistic impulse takes over, maybe I will try setting up a dedicated share for RecordedTV and migrating to it.

Right now, I only have four shares: "A", which gets backed up daily, plus "B", "SysImages", and "Temp" which I only mirror to an old Windows Home Server.

[doncote0]

Try restarting everything.

1st exit Sage and end task Shutdown SageTVService(s)
Restart NAS.
Restart computer (and SageTV)
Unplug HD300 power and then plug it back in

Sometimes settings, like spindown, do not get fully established until restart. I am not saying that's the problem, but this couldn't hurt.

While you have Sage down, you might want to check all of the properties files to make sure that nothing is incorrectly mapped (e.g. looking for files on C that are on D).

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by doncote0

...spindown...

Doesn't seem tb a player in this case. Have had it turned off for several days and several reboots of the NAS now, and no change.

Put up a post on the ReadyNAS forum some days ago, but no nibbles: http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=51105

FWIW, if anybody is thinking of buying a NAS box, look closely at the fora for said box. I sprang for NetGear's ReadyNAS bc the superficialities seemed pretty slick - but now I'm having second thoughts.

Here's my little rant.

I don't know enough to compare mine with other makes/models, but my experience so far suggests:

• ReadyNAS software is still evolving... maybe a little dicey, even

• ReadyNAS telephone support is worse than useless. Worse bc one wastes manhours but gets nothing. One of their Level-3 guys spelled out for me how their telephone support was supposed to work. Sounded perfectly logical. But after wasting several hours of my life on it, I would say that the reality of the implementation bears no relationship to the theory of the design.

• Going online through their fora, I was able to get some help - and get a "down" box back up - but that help came from a kind soul at NetGear who went above and beyond the call of duty and worked the problem on his own time. If you just go with the NetGear support system and hope, I'd say you're hosed....

The light at the end of the tunnel is that NetGear is a beeeeeg company and I'm guessing their software will slowly evolve over time and maybe, just maybe they'll clean up their support system.

OTOH, they might be running the best game in town - and everybody else is *really* bad.... who am I to know?

But for now.... look before you leap.