wierd issue, horizontal lines in menus and info

[hedly]

Ok,
So the old system specs are below in my signature. I was having some wierd issues that I thought were due to the system overheating. They started when I installed the fanless ATI video card. I would get horizontal lines of various on the screen that would make reading text in Sage unreadable. Particularly the information for shows/movies and the listing of shows, music, and DVDs/videos. In addition when we would fast forward a show or movie too much, Sage would crash or even dump memory (BSOD). Actually, how it really started when when playing some DVD's, sage would crash. I thought it was the video card as well because the problem started when I switch from a ATI 2600 to the ATI 6570. The problem persisted until I started getting the weird lines.

Anyway, so I bit the bullet and bought a new system:
CPU: ATI A6-3500
MOBO: Gigabyte A75-UDH4
RAM: 8GB Kingston DDR3 1600

I got it all running on a spare box with a new CoolerMaster Elite 460W power supply. I applied all patches, including Win7 SP1.

Today I swapped out the components, except for the Antec power supply in the HTPC box since it had a bit more power.

I replaced the wiz.bin and properties files and viola...I had everything back to normal (well, except for the sound but I think that is something I just need to figure out)

Anyway, things were fine it seemed. I played some portions of ripped movies and TV shows, skippin and rewinding to make sure the system didn't hang. Then I left on a football game to see how things went. I went to switch over to watch a movie for my boy and when i exited out of the game I noticed some of those same horizontal lines. While not as many, they were still there. As I moved from menu to menu, they would increase a bit.

I thought they were attributed to heat, but there is no way the system was hot yet. I even added an extra fan before closing everything up to make sure everything stayed cool. I just don't think it is heat any more.

This issue seems to persist outside of Sage and in to windows a bit. Mainly on the overlay area. I could try to take a screen capture or photo of the screen if that would help.

So, does anyone have any idea? Is it a Java issue? Windows Aero?

Thanks,

[BigSwifty]

Originally Posted by hedly

...fanless ATI video card. I would get horizontal lines of various on the screen that would make reading text in Sage unreadable. Particularly the information for shows/movies and the listing of shows, music, and DVDs/videos. ... Sage would crash or even dump memory (BSOD).

I've recently started seeing this as well.

Originally Posted by hedly

I thought it was the video card as well because the problem started when I switch from a ATI 2600 to the ATI 6570. The problem persisted until I started getting the weird lines.
I thought they were attributed to heat, but there is no way the system was hot yet. I even added an extra fan before closing everything up to make sure everything stayed cool. I just don't think it is heat any more.

My thoughts as well (Fanless video card.) Put fan on it with no cure. Was about to try a new videocard but will delay that decision; perhaps a windows update issue. A Few weeks ago I had to remove an update that caused grief. Don't remember which one it was.

Originally Posted by hedly

This issue seems to persist outside of Sage and in to windows a bit.

I see the the problem outside Sage as well. If I disconnect the video cable and then reconnect, It will be OK for a bit and then recur.
Weird.

[hedly]

Thanks for the reply BigSwifty. At least I know I'm not the only one. It's odd that we have two (well now three) completely different video cards [All from ATI] that appear to have the same issue.

We just got back from a week long cruise and things seemed to be working fine...until my wife watched a taped Soap Opera. So it seems to begin consistently when watching a recorded HD show (aside from a crash while my son watched a VHS that we digitized...but I think that was attributed to Java downloading an update and notifying me it was ready to install).

so I updated Java after the crash and the issue is still there.

So, new mobo, new memory, fresh install of win7x64 and all updates.
reusing power supply and hard disks from previous system.

anyone got any ideas?

- update -
So, Sage just crashed after my wife and I were almost done watching NCIS. Everything was just fine. I was fastforwarding through the last set of commercials to see the scenes for the next episode when the picture froze. Then the screen went black momentarily. then the desktop appeared. But the audio track kept playing. Sage was not in the taskbar, so I opened up the task manager and killed the process.

One more thing. The lines were all over the screen after my wife finished watching her recorded soaps. But they only appear in the menus, not during playback. Anyway, I wanted to tweak the audio driver so I took sage out of fullscreen mode and the horizontal lines dissapeared. I fiddled with the audio driver a bit and put Sage back in to full screen mode and all the lines were gone. That's when i started NCIS.

So again...any suggestions? I feel it may be something between Sage, Java, and the AMD driver/video cards.

[BigSwifty]

Same thing here; videos /imported movies play fine. Sage menus, desktop/explorer or browser (Firefox) windows are affected.

[BigSwifty]

I just realized I haven't checked my client setup I'll do that and report back.

[hedly]

OK, so I did a screen capture but it didn't turn out well. Here it is:


(please let me know if you can't see the image).
You can see it didn't get the sage menu, only what looks to be some kind of overlay.

Here is the photograph I promised:


The wife is getting really frustrated. I am about to scrap Sage and go with WMP. This really irks me because I just bought a full license upgrade and client license just before they got bought out by google.



I'm hoping some of the more seasoned folks will chime in. Be sure to check out my first post on this because this is happening on the new hardware and it started with the old hardware (old hardware listed in signature below, new hardware listed in first post of this thread).

[hedly]

someone...anyone, please help. Any ideas.

[panteragstk]

Driver issue? You said you changed components. Did you change motherboards? Bad cable from the pc to the tv? Change inputs on the tv?

[hedly]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Driver issue? You said you changed components. Did you change motherboards? Bad cable from the pc to the tv? Change inputs on the tv?

yes, I changed all components except for the power supply and storage hard drives for recorded shows; OS hard drive is new. But the issue seems to still be there.

I doubt it is a cable or TV input because then the artifacts would show up during ANY playback and all the time. It doesn't show up during playback at all. Only on the Sage menus and maybe on the computer's background if I take sage out of full screen mode.

It now only seems to start when we watch recorded TV shows. But it seems to go away after a while. I.e. we watch a show, it ends and we go to bed. In the morning it is gone. It also may go away if I take it out of full screen mode; most of the time if I minimize or kill Sage then the artifacts go away.

There are also some other issues, like random crashes when playing a DVD over the network. But I want to figure this out first.

**UPDATE**
Tried a different input on the TV. While the issue was not as pronounced, I noticed that before I unplugged the HDMI cable that the issue had not yet reared its ugly head even though my wife had just watched a 1-hour soap (in about 30 minutes). Anyway. We then watched a couple shows and I noticed some of those lines, but it followed the "cursor" and I moved around the TV guide. So it really can't be the cable in my mind.

I wish I had older versions of ATI drivers to try out. I don't want to try out an older version of Sage due to the wiz.bin issues.

What about Java? Should I uninstall it all and reinstall? Last night I increased the heap size to 1024 (400h). That seems to maybe have reduced the amount of lines. can I make it larger? What happens if I make it 2048? I've got 8GB of ram just wanting to be used and Sage usually only takes about 300MB when running?

I'll try the different input.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by hedly

yes, I changed all components except for the power supply and storage hard drives for recorded shows; OS hard drive is new. But the issue seems to still be there.

I doubt it is a cable or TV input because then the artifacts would show up during ANY playback and all the time. It doesn't show up during playback at all. Only on the Sage menus and maybe on the computer's background if I take sage out of full screen mode.

It now only seems to start when we watch recorded TV shows. But it seems to go away after a while. I.e. we watch a show, it ends and we go to bed. In the morning it is gone. It also may go away if I take it out of full screen mode; most of the time if I minimize or kill Sage then the artifacts go away.

There are also some other issues, like random crashes when playing a DVD over the network. But I want to figure this out first.

**UPDATE**
Tried a different input on the TV. While the issue was not as pronounced, I noticed that before I unplugged the HDMI cable that the issue had not yet reared its ugly head even though my wife had just watched a 1-hour soap (in about 30 minutes). Anyway. We then watched a couple shows and I noticed some of those lines, but it followed the "cursor" and I moved around the TV guide. So it really can't be the cable in my mind.

I wish I had older versions of ATI drivers to try out. I don't want to try out an older version of Sage due to the wiz.bin issues.

What about Java? Should I uninstall it all and reinstall? Last night I increased the heap size to 1024 (400h). That seems to maybe have reduced the amount of lines. can I make it larger? What happens if I make it 2048? I've got 8GB of ram just wanting to be used and Sage usually only takes about 300MB when running?

I'll try the different input.

Anything higher than 1024 caused me issues so I'd keep that the same. Driver wise you can get all of them from guru3d.com so I'd try an older version. AMD/ATI loves to screw up their drivers. I honestly think it is a driver issue. You may not think the tv or cable can cause that type of issue, but I've seen some really strange issues over the years so I don't rule anything out. I've gone through days and days of trouble shooting only to find a faulty cable was the culprit.

[BigSwifty]

Originally Posted by hedly

OK, so I did a screen capture but it didn't turn out well. Here it is:


(please let me know if you can't see the image).
You can see it didn't get the sage menu, only what looks to be some kind of overlay.

Here is the photograph I promised:


The wife is getting really frustrated. I am about to scrap Sage and go with WMP. This really irks me because I just bought a full license upgrade and client license just before they got bought out by google.



I'm hoping some of the more seasoned folks will chime in. Be sure to check out my first post on this because this is happening on the new hardware and it started with the old hardware (old hardware listed in signature below, new hardware listed in first post of this thread).

that is almost exactly what mine looks like! Haven't (that I know of) updated any drivers. Tried different TV input but no joy. I'm wondering... did recently update Java. Perhaps the culprit?
Haven't cheeked my client yet.

[hedly]

Swifty, that is quite interesting that it is the same. Hear that SageTV people. Two different guys have the same issue.

Both people have the AMD/ATI video cards but several generations apart.

I will try rolling back the driver from gruru's site.

what about rolling back Java. Anyone have an idea what version I shoudl use.

also, today sage failed when the Java updater notified me of a new update. I'm gonna just kill the java updater.

[BigSwifty]

My issue is resolved (fingers crossed).
I updated the drivers (11-9) from the AMD site and all is well!
Don't know if they're the applicable drivers for your config but see if updating to the most recent drivers helps.

[hedly]

Swifty,
You know, I didn't even thing that the the Catalyst Control Center could be old. The MOBO was so new that I just assumed that they would have included the most recent version. In addition, I looked at CCC today and it said that it had checked and updated today!

But I installed the AMD version check software and it recommended that I install 11.9. So I used the tool to download and install it.

After the install (and ANOTHER update to Java), I tried to just start up sage and finish watching the Charger/Jets game. The audio came through but there was no video. So I rebooted...and...

It worked. The over-the-air show played with no weird lines showing up (and I was fast forwarding quite a bit which usually causes some kind of failure). Then our boy watched a DVD with no problems. Then my wife watch a soap while I was bathing our boy and no lines showed up in the menu.

So this is promising. Y'all keep your fingers crossed with me.

[BigSwifty]

Good to hear; is all still well?

[hedly]

So it's been a week and all the video problems have gone away. Hooray!!!

Now there are only a couple issues.

Sound: the volume of some shows is really low and they used to not be that way. also, on some DVDs (like Cars) I dont' get surround sound. I only get the center channel. I noticed it a little on Despicable Me today. I think I remember seeing a post about it a year or so ago, so I'll look for it.

Crashes: Sage bombs every so often now, but a lot less than before. Sometimes I can get it to crash when looking at various TV shows...it'll just close. Then sometimes it will crash when watching an mpeg movie, usually one of the VHS movies I converted to digital.


But, at least the system is watchable. I'll start a new post if I can't find the answers to the above issues.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by hedly

So it's been a week and all the video problems have gone away. Hooray!!!

Now there are only a couple issues.

Sound: the volume of some shows is really low and they used to not be that way. also, on some DVDs (like Cars) I dont' get surround sound. I only get the center channel. I noticed it a little on Despicable Me today. I think I remember seeing a post about it a year or so ago, so I'll look for it.

Crashes: Sage bombs every so often now, but a lot less than before. Sometimes I can get it to crash when looking at various TV shows...it'll just close. Then sometimes it will crash when watching an mpeg movie, usually one of the VHS movies I converted to digital.


But, at least the system is watchable. I'll start a new post if I can't find the answers to the above issues.

Drivers can cause all the issues you have. It took me a long time to find a driver version that didn't make something in sage crash. ATI and NVIDIA both have that issue. It isn't just sage either. All you can do is try different driver versions until you find one that works.