How do I start and stop sage via a DOS script?

[perfessor101]

Hello,
I would like all SageTV software to shutdown every day at 5:45am. I find if the server (windows xp mce 2005) runs for more than a 36 hours my wiz.bin file can easily become corrupted.
After the software closes, I want to perform a daily backup of the SageTV directory at which time I set my boot drive to dirty with fsutil and then use psshutdown to restart the system. At startup the drives set dirty will be scanned via Autochk and I have Orphan.bat in my startup folder to clear out any comskip generated files left behind after I've watched and deleted the show.
So far I've tried using 'net stop SageTVService' and it's saying that SageTVService is 'not an installed service'. Next I tried using taskkill which is stating that I must use the /F or FORCE shutdown switch. I'm not sure if I want to force a shutdown of the SageTvService as I don't know whether it will shutdown gracefully with the wiz.bin updated or corrupt the files I'm trying to backup.

Thanks for your time,
Bobby

[insomniac]

err...I wont get into the reasoning, but you can schedule a task to run a batch file for each command @ the specefied commands:

net stop SageTV

net start SageTV

Tadaa!

[mdmint]

I'd be more concerned with finding and correcting the root cause of wiz.bin getting corrupted than applying a bandaide. Shouldn't be happening. I'll go months without rebooting my dedicated Sage Server no problem. (WinXP Pro sp1)

[cmaffia]

Originally Posted by insomniac

err...I wont get into the reasoning, but you can schedule a task to run a batch file for each command @ the specefied commands:

net stop SageTV

net start SageTV

Tadaa!

These commands are only starting and stopping services.
Not sure if this is what he wants

[sixdoubleo]

If you're running Sage as a service, insomniacs method is correct. If you're running an actual sage instance, then I'd look at the SendMessage utility. Use it to send the "Power" command to Sage.

[Opus4]

The "Power" command doesn't actually cause SageTV to exit -- it toggles between wake/sleep. Power ON & Power Off are discrete commands to do only those functions instead of being toggles. You could always send a Windows command to tell it to exit, though.

I thought the service exe or its control exe had parameters to tell it to start or stop from a batch file. If someone else doesn't post it, I'll try to remember to look it up when I get home to see if I know what I'm talking about.

- Andy

[perfessor101]

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Once I stopped using the 'net stop' command on SageTVService and started using it on SageTV everything went beautifully.
If I leave my Server running for more than 48 hours and then try adding a favorite by 'mistake' without rebooting first it will corrupt the wiz.bin file sometimes and I'll have to completely remove and then reinstall sage, restoring older and older backups of the wiz.bin file until it can run with a degree of stability. Quite often the restored wiz.bin will work initially but after the next reboot it will again be scrambled.
Why this is happening I am unsure, I have just done a fresh install of Windows XP 2005 MCE OEM on a 200GB Seagate drive purchased together on the Sage Server. Prior to this I was running Windows XP Professional OEM Slipstreamed with SP2 which seemingly ran without problems except for SageTV corrupting the wiz.bin file after adding a favorite if I left it running for too long.
Since I moved into my current appartment (11 months) I've had a cd-rom, DVD-rom, CD Writer, DVD Writer, two 40 GB & two 80GB Hard Drives die, in the preceding decade of PC ownership and use I never had any hardware die (except for a scanner I lent to a friend). Also my roommates microwave has taken to microwaving things at random times when no one is within twenty feet of it and the door his DVD Player will not stay open closing immediately.
It may be Gremlins, Ghosts or dirty power I know not which. I run my systems through an APC and Belkin Surge Protectors, but I think I may need to get a battery backup with power conditioning to solve the problems.

Thanks for your time and effort,
Bobby

[Opus4]

As was said above, wiz.bin should _not_ be getting corrupted like that. I would consider contacting tech support to see if they could help track down why that is happening. I don't remember if you said what verison you are using; if it is an older version, you might try updating to the latest version, even the beta one to see if you still have problems with wiz.bin.

- Andy

[JasonJoel]

I would bet $10 on either brown outs (low power) and/or power spikes.

A UPS with power conditioning will almost certainly fix that. Just make SURE it has power conditioning, a lot of the cheaper UPSes do NOT.

Jason Bottjen

Originally Posted by perfessor101

It may be Gremlins, Ghosts or dirty power I know not which. I run my systems through an APC and Belkin Surge Protectors, but I think I may need to get a battery backup with power conditioning to solve the problems.

Thanks for your time and effort,
Bobby

[Gog]

I wasn't able to find the thread I read this one but I seem to remember someone having issues with corrupting wiz.bin when there was a large number of favorites or when trying to record by categories. Something to do with too many things in the recording queue and the conflict management flipping out.

Gog

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I thought the service exe or its control exe had parameters to tell it to start or stop from a batch file. If someone else doesn't post it, I'll try to remember to look it up when I get home to see if I know what I'm talking about.

BTW -- in case anyone was waiting for a response to this... it turns out that I don't think I knew what I was talking about, since I don't see anything about it in my notes.

- Andy