Setup Freezes during source setup

[Rob]

Help please.

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to version 4 and it was working fine. Then I decided to move the sage server from the PC in the family tv room to the main server I have in my office. That was porobably my first mistake.

After installing the 2 version 16 PVR 250s the avermedia 180 in the office, II can use the Win2000 app fine to see live TV; however, during the sage setup wizard, its freezes up after I select the s-video input of either pvr 250 with a black video preview. With the Avermedia 180 I get a couple of seconds of video before it too freezes. I each case I've letft it on for 15 minutes or more before killing the sage task with task manager.

Any insight would be appreciated. I'm stuck (since I cannot even get through the setup wizard). Thanks.

[akenis]

Rob,

I've had similar problems. I think there is some kind of bug when you are running sagetv service and going through set up of video sources. Mine usually freezes where yours did or when setting up the USB UIRT to control my digital STB. Make sure the service is shut down AND disabled (or it might try to start itself again). Double check running process in task manager for all instances of anything sage....Then start Sage and your source set up should go smoother.

Sometimes my USB UIRT stops working, and the only way to get it back is to delete and add the source back, and reprogram the STB codes, and channel line up. Does anyone know where these files are stored, it's kind of a pain...

[ToxMox]

Sounds more like a video or audio decoder issue since it doesn't sound like the OP is even getting to the part where you need to configure the UIRT. It is freezing during the video preview when selecting a source. Try changing to a different video decoder or try overlay instead of VMR9 or vice versa.

[Rob]

Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate the help!

I just checked and nothing with sage in it is running inthe task manager.

I'd like to try other decoders, but I'm stuck in the setup wizard. Every time I start sage the wizard runs. Then it freezes when I get to the source setup (before I've selected any decoders).

Any other thoughts on what I'm missing?

[ToxMox]

Try clicking on the Sage logo on the top left before you do anything in the wizard. I think it will take you to the Home menu. Then you should be able to go into the detailed setup and change decoders then you can run the source setup.

[Opus4]

Delete your sage.properties file & its autobackup. If it happens after restarting, edit sage.properties (since you aren't using service mode) and set ui/accelerated_rendering=false to make sure 3D Acceleration is turned off, then see what happens.

- Andy

[Rob]

TOXMOX: Thanks, but I tried clicking the sage logo and it did not leave the setup wizard.

OPUS: Thanks for chiming in. So many times I've seen you solve a problem with a quick suggestion like the one you gave me. However, I'm sorry to report it did not work this time.

When I deleted the properties and autobackup, I got the same freeze at the same point. When I made the change to set the acceleration property to false, I still get the freeze at the same point, but the spinning sage icon comes up first (except it only spins for a second and then freezes too).

Let me explain exactly where it freezes. I selected the source and then select s-video. Sage tells be to wait while it generates the preview. The preview returns as a black window and then I select the bar at the bottom to continue configuration with s-video as the input. At this point it freezes.

Thanks again for helping me out. Any thoughts on what I should try next.

[Opus4]

Is there any video that should be playing on the preview for the 250 -- i.e.: is there currently video that is being fed to it?

There are a few things you could try:

1) I'm not entirely sure whether the problem is when trying to play the preview video or when trying to move on from there. You can set or add debug_logging=TRUE (note that TRUE is all CAPS) in the properties file, then send the resulting log to tech support.

2) Set the property to tell SageTV that the config wiz has been completed: ConfigWiz/MCFullyConfigured=true. Then, you can at least try changing decoders & so on. If you so this, I suggest you go back & complete the config wizard for real afterwards.

3) Since it is a new system & nothing to be lost, uninstall SageTV, remove the install dir, then try installing again.

- Andy

[SystemAero]

More than one processor? This is a general tip.

WinTV/2000 will lock up real soon if you have a dual processor setup. Look for imagecfg.exe and use the -u (for uniprocessor) switch for all exe files.

usage: IMAGECFG [switches] image-names...
[-?] display this message
[-s path to symbol files]
[-v MajorVersion.MinorVersion]
[-w Win32 GetVersion return value in hex]
[-a Process Affinity mask value in hex]
[-u Marks image as uniprocessor only]
[-r run with restricted working set]
[-b BuildNumber]
[-g bitsToClear bitsToSet]
[-o default critical section timeout
[-d decommit thresholds]
[-m maximum allocation size]
[-t VirtualAlloc threshold]
[-p process heap flags]

Like this

c:\>imagecfg -u filename.exe

No more problems after doing that. It alters the PE header of the EXE file so that the OS (win2000, XP Pro, 2003) runs the EXE only on the first CPU. By "lock up" I mean that its windows don't update fully, some GUI things stop working, and you have to kill it from the taskmanager, and even then, reboot to get it completely gone. Do the imagecfg and it runs great.

I haven't put SageTV on a machine with more than one processor, but unless the docs specifically say it works with more than one processor, assume it won't. Most pvr apps are multi-threaded? I know wintv is, but it won't work (for long) if you have more than one processor.

You can find imagecfg.exe on, believe it or not, your NT4 CD, under 386 somewhere. Or on the win2k devkit supplement #2. Good luck finding either. You can find it on the net. At least one guy has it on his site, and when I compared it to the one I got from my NT4 CD, it was the same.

It's also makes games run better, since the constant CPU switching between contexts slows the game down (since few games are multi-threaded).

Programmers can do this for their own apps, if they weren't tested on more than one processor, by using the SetProcessAffinityMask() API. If your app is multi-thread and not specifically tested on dual+ processors, there's a pretty good chance it won't run right on those machines. Better to run on one CPU than not at all on two.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by SystemAero

I haven't put SageTV on a machine with more than one processor, but unless the docs specifically say it works with more than one processor, assume it won't.

SageTV works fine on my multiprocessor PC & is definitely multi-threaded.

- Andy

[Rob]

Thanks for the help Opus. The uninstall and re-installed worked!

Thanks again.

[naughtyusmaximu]

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I'm having similar problems so this seems an appropriate place.

My computer is:

512M Ram
Core2Duo @1.6GHz
Hauppauge PVR500
Nvidia 5200 AGP
WinXP Pro (fresh install)

I've followed all of the suggestions in this thread to no avail. My problem is as follows:
The installation of Sage goes fine, as does the installation of Java (I've tried 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 with the same results). When I start Sage, I get the configuration menu. CPU1 gets pegged at 100%, and CPU2 at ~50%. The config menu is all greyed out for the most part (The text is supposed to be white, but most of the time it shows like it has a grey filter in front of it). If I'm fast enough, I'm able to select my country, and I'm given the language selection menu. Usually before I can choose 'English', I'm sent back to the Country selection screen. Most of the time when I select my country, the screen will flicker, and I'll just be looking at the same Country selection page again.

I've tried the most recent stable release (6.x), as well as the current RC (6.1.x) (sorry, I'm on a laptop right now so I don't have the actual numbers).

My setup is so simple I can't imagine that this is normal... I installed DirectX 9, and all the pre-reqs listed on the main website - am I missing something else maybe? Any help would be appreciated.

[Opus4]

It sort of sounds like it is receiving the Home command constantly & when it does that, it restarts the config process over & over. I've heard of that before, but can never remember the exact solution. Check to see if you've got a key stuck. If you have a wireless keyboard, try using a wired one.

- Andy

[naughtyusmaximu]

In case anyone else runs into this problem, the fix actually turned out to be removing my MS Wireless mouse.

Go figure

[UK_TB]

I know this response is sometime after the main discussion ended but I had exactly this issue recently after Sage had been working fine for about 3 months.

I had replaced a MS Wireless Desktop Elite and Intellimouse Explorer 2 with a Laser Keyboard 6000 v2 and Wireless Laser Mouse 6000. After changing these over, Sage stopped responding with the same symptons (unable to change menu, constantly getting the root menu). I did a quick reinstall, a complete reinstall (inc removing registry keys) and also tried the Beta of 6.2.5. All these efforts had the same result - an inability to move off the main menu. Sometimes the config would let me get a few steps in, and then I would be back to the start.

Both hardware sets were using Intellitype 6.1 and Intellipoint 6.1 - so I know the drivers werent likely to the issue. I even changed the Mouse and Keyboard settings back from Laser to Desktop elite and it made no difference.

I then remembered that the Laser desktop set came with a new receiver - a Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1. As I still had the original receiver from the Desktop elite set (Wireless receiver v2.0A) I swapped them over and bingo!Sage started to operate as expected. No issues with menus at all.

Therefore it would seem that something has changed in the wireless receiver between v2 and 3.1 that sends some kind of signal to Sage. Maybe someone else can verify my experience?