If Sage 2.1 isn't working for you, read this

[NickSD]

Hey everyone,

For the last week I've been struggling to get SageTV 2.1 to work correctly on my setup. Previously with 2.0 everything was perfect but I had no end of problems after upgrading. First thing I did was reinstall the Hauppauge drivers, and uninstall and reinstall the JRE. This didn't seem to do much. Then I tried copying my Wiz.bin and Sage.properties files out, uninstalling and reinstalling Sage 2.1, and then copying those files back over. Still had problems. I was experiencing GUI freezes all the time and other bizarre behavior. Finally, after trying tons of different solutions, I found one that seems to have fixed everything. If you're frustrated and can't get it to work, do the following:

(DISCLAIMER: I'm essentially telling you to start everything from scratch. You'll lose all of your Sage Recordings info (the files will still be available to watch but they'll show up in your Imported section with no descriptions.) You'll also need to reconfigure your favorites and settings.)

1.) Make a backup of your \Program Files\Frey Technologies directory just to be safe.
2.) Write down all of your favorites and any settings that you won't be able to remember offhand.
3.) Uninstall Sage. After the uninstall, make sure that the \Program Files\Frey Technologies directory is gone. If not, manually delete it.
4.) Uninstall the Java JRE. If there are multiple JRE entries in your "Add/Remove Programs" list, uninstall all of them. Download the newest 1.4.x JRE from java.sun.com and install it.
5.) (Optional) Uninstall and reinstall your WinTV-250 (or equivalent) drivers.
6.) (Optional) Uninstall and reinstall your Hauppauge remote (or equivalent) drivers.
7.) Reinstall Sage. DO NOT RUN SAGE AS A SERVICE. This functionality seems to be the cause of over half of the problems I've had.
8.) Since this is a fresh install, you'll need to reconfigure Sage from the ground up. Now's a good time to have that favorites/config list that you made in step 2 handy.
9.) Restart your PC and hope for the best!

Obviously this is an extreme solution, but for me it was the only thing that worked. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I wrote this for you. It's simple and straightforward but it sometimes helps to have someone spell it out for you anyways.

Short version: 1) Uninstall everything and install from scratch. 2) Don't run Sage as a service.

Let me know if this helps anyone!

Nick

[edgley]

Dang it, I thought my answers to running it as a service were in this thread

[edmc]

I believe your "Short Version #2" is overkill. From the postings I've seen, there are two issues facing some folks who try the Service mode:

I1 - Directories not available. This has been explained as the way the Service logs on as being different from a user. As such, the normal "Shares" are not necessarily there.

If you don't use Shares for your SageTV folders, this may not affect you.

I2 - Firewall settings preventing SageClient connections.

It's interesting. Back when folks first fired up WinXP Service Pack 2, many posters had this same issue. Sure enough, it was the default Firewall enablement "feature" of SP2 which bit folks. Fortunately, a User is given an opportunity to enable an App which does a TCP "Listen" when it is launched. As such, most folks quickly answered "Yes" and forgot about it. Unfortunately, you are given no such opportunity when SageTVService.exe is launched - since there is no user :-).

Needless to say, going to the Control Panel Firewall Settings is how you can enable the Firewall SageTVService.exe to pass thru. Heck, maybe Frey's ServiceControl app did that - I don't know, I never ran it preferring to go into the Services WinXP applet myself and make sure the Service was set as I prefer (Automatic launch upon boot, auto restart upon crash). Anyway, just check the Firewall Settings. You'll probably see SageTV.exe there with a checkbox checked - which is why SageClient is working when you run SzgeTV.exe on your Server. Simply browse to SageTVService.exe in your SageTV directory and select it to get a similar checked box for the Service.

If there are other problems with running SageTVService.exe, let's post them and report them to Frey so we can get them resolved. That sure beats missing out on this excellent new feature :-)

[edgley]

There is a third, the one that I am suffering from.

I know that I have the directories set up with UNC correctly, and I dont have a firewall on any of my boxes.

[NickSD]

I agree that running Sage as a service is a great feature.... I'd love to use it, but for some reason my GUI locks up randomly when using it this way. To be fair, I did discover another issue today that may have been causing this. If it turns out that service mode wasn't the problem, I'll retract my statement.

Thanks,
Nick

[bhageman]

I've tried all the above and still can't get 2.1 to work which is odd because I had the beta working just fine.

At first, the GUI was freezing up whenever I tried to select a menu any deeper that than the top SageTV menu. Now the application freezes before it can even get open. Same if I try to run it as a service.

After 2-3 hours of trying to get it working, I've thrown in the towel and went back to 2.0. I just had the 2.0 CD, does anyone know if I can still download the latest 2.0 version? The download page on Sage website just has 2.1.