Absolutely cannot get MVP to work

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Bob, I've also got an ASUS K8N-E deluxe. AMD 64 nForce3 250Gb. WinXP Pro that I threw Sage on to test just now. No go.

Yes I even went so far as to create a dual boot system with WinXP Pro with service pack 1A only and only the drivers installed - no windows updates and it still wouldn't work. I'm wondering if it isn't the nForce Lan that is causing the problem. I may try an extra Linksys card I have and see if that works. The reason I wonder about that is that on the K8N-E with a VirtualPC session it works fine with Java 1.4 and most of the time with Java 1.5.

BobP.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by wheelrandolph

My new nforce 4 board will not work (Media MVP) but my old cheapo Fry's board ECS works great.
Randy

You don't have the NForce hardware ethernet firewall activated by any chance do you? That thing is a major PITA - you really want it off.

Thanks,
Mike

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

The reason I wonder about that is that on the K8N-E with a VirtualPC session it works fine with Java 1.4 and most of the time with Java 1.5.

BobP.

Man, great minds think alike I was just about ready to do that myself.

I've also got a ECS K7VTA3 that I'm building up for my mom. When I get done with it, I'll try Sage on that also.

[jlabrue]

Well I'm glad you guys have some time to look at this. I'm at work so I can't do anything but it looks like we maybe making some progress in isolating the problem systems. Am I correct in assuming that most of us that are having the critical problems/client reboots are using some derivitive of the nForce chipset with the onboard NIC card (NVidia nForce Networking Controller) or something like that? I haven't had a chance to sniff the packets to see if there is any network errors that are evident. Could there be something else on the chipset causing a problem? My thoughts on the MVP in this scenario is that Sage is basically streaming the MPG to the MVP and the MVP does all of the decoding. The Sage server should do nothing but stream a file. Has anyone tried the same thing with an Mp3 file from their music library? I did and I get the same results with an Mp3 so it would APPEAR that is not isolated just to video at least on my system.

[ke6guj]

Yup, using onboard nForce NIC. Did not install the nForce Firewall software though.

and yes, MP3's don't work either.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by jlabrue

Well I'm glad you guys have some time to look at this.

Actually I'm at work too so I won't be able to try my lastest suggestion for another couple of hours yet.

BobP.

[wheelrandolph]

Originally Posted by mikesm

You don't have the NForce hardware ethernet firewall activated by any chance do you? That thing is a major PITA - you really want it off.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike, I will have to check that--didn't really know about it. Thanks.
Randy

[jlabrue]

What about NIC drivers? I am using the drivers from the MSI website. Just found some newer ones and will install those and try. Has anyone tried the nForce drivers from the nVidia website for their board?

[BobPhoenix]

Just installed a Linksys Gigabit Lan card in my ASUS K8N-E deluxe that wasn't working.

Works great now. I'm satisified its the nForce lan.

Now I just need to find out how to disable the probable cause - the firewall. The ASUS had the firewall software installed for a while but I uninstalled it so something must have been left over. That does not however explain the MSI that I use as my current SageTV server - I never installed the software in the first place so the default settings must be causing this problem. Now to look through the manual and see if I can disable something that will fix this problem.. Tips would be welcome.

BobP.

[ke6guj]

Good job Bob!!

Hopefully we can figure out a real fix for this though. I would hate to have to lose my last open PCI slot for a NIC card. Although, bumping up to gigabit would be nice, but not at the cost of a slot.

[Narflex]

NForce chipset eh? We'll have to give that a try...

Thanks for all the feedback so far!

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Now I just need to find out how to disable the probable cause - the firewall.

Well upon further research the MSI board doesn't have a hardware firewall like the ASUS so it may just be the drivers. I believe that I have the most current for the MSI - 5.10 and I think 4.4.2 for the ASUS - latest one I could find on their sites anyway.

BobP.

[jlabrue]

You da man Bob! I had a feeling we were on to something with the nForce NIC. I agree we need to find the proper fix WITHOUT having to change the NIC. PCI slots are too valuable these days with all the cards I need to add!

[heffe2001]

I'm having the same problem with an older Gigabyte board, which is using a 3com etherlink xl card. Not sure the chipset, but it's an old socket 423 1.4ghz P4 with 1g memory. When I run the MVP, my CPU usage on this box goes through the roof (comparitively). Average is around 54%, but when trying to play video it spikes upwards of 80% (pre-4.1.3 was at most around 45%, average around 20%).

[ke6guj]

Hey guys I got it figured out on my system.

If you go into the properties for the nForce networking controller, you can change the "checksum offload" in the Advanced Tab, from enable to disable.

That'll fix the problem. Works on my main MSI K7N2 and also the ASUS K8N-E deluxe

[heffe2001]

Same thing fixed my 3com card, but I had RX & TX (disabled both). After primetime viewing is over (WAF went through the floor when I changed those settings, remember folks, always make changes after the boss is done watching TV ), I'll try each individually, and see which kills the MVP.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Hey guys I got it figured out on my system.

If you go into the properties for the nForce networking controller, you can change the "checksum offload" in the Advanced Tab, from enable to disable.

That'll fix the problem. Works on my main MSI K7N2 and also the ASUS K8N-E deluxe

Now who's the man!!! Works for me on the Asus too. Can't make the change to the MSI until tomorrow night now - darn.

Do you know if that setting will have any negitive affects?

BobP.

[jlabrue]

Cool ke6guj! Can't wait to give that a try. I was going to try enabling/disabling some of the driver options whenever my kids went to sleep so you saved me a TON of trial and error I'll let you know if it fixes me as well.

[ke6guj]

Do you know if that setting will have any negitive affects?

I dunno. After I figured it out, I did some googling on the issue and it does seem like a common problem on certain applications. They would turn it off with no major noted affects.

I'm still having to mess with it some, My ASUS that I just popped Sage on to test this stuff worked fine supplying imported files. However, my main server, the MSI, is spiking the SageTVService whenever I do anything, pause, play, ff, etc. It'll peg it for a couple seconds, then drop down to 5%, and the next time I touch the remote, it'll do it again.

Even when watching liveTV, it takes about 10 seconds to start the new file at the top of the hour. But, hey, I'm closer than I was an hour ago

edit: nevermind. It' looks like I just needed to reboot the server. Now my MVP is running ok on my production server.

[jlabrue]

The purpose for checksum offload is to let the NIC processor handle some of the layer 2/3 functions of IP traffic. It "pre-processes" IP packets so that the CPU does not have to perform the task. It can greatly improve system performance so it is a good thing to have but obviously if it doesn't work with it, it's got to go (At least until Sage can find out why this causes a problem and fixes it)