My system won't stop locking up!

[ben_95sl1]

Well, for whatever reason, my system completely locks up every few days now. I think it's a hardware problem that's somehow become worse (but I'd rather it was software). It isn't really any warmer in the room that the pc is located, but the rel humidity is up in the summer. I cranked up the cpu and system fans, but no changes, the system temps, etc all seem just fine.

Could someone make suggestion for diagnosis? It has happened before randomly, but nowhere near this frequently. Previously I could never duplicate the problem using cpuburn, video encoding, etc....but I'll certainly try Prime95, cpuburn4, memtest86 and a vid card stability test again. There is no sign in any logs that sagetv is doing it. It almost always happens overnight/morning with the sagetv screensaver on (it has only happened once when I have been using it!), which makes no sense, and the time of the crash seems random...but the last two times may actually have somewhat coincided with something scheduled; like backups. atleast I hope they do.

I'll try logging cpu usage and the readings from speedfan and MAYBE I'll see what's going on....

Power supply? Motherboard? (VIA KT400!) CPU? Ram? Vid card?

Thanks for any help...
Ben

[blade]

Is this your server, client, or used for both? Via chipsets tend to give a lot of problems with capture cards. Also what version of java are you using? Many people have had to rollback to older versions 1.4.xx due to stability problems.

[ben_95sl1]

Thanks for the response...It's my server (in service mode) which is also used as my main client (amd xp 2000, see sig), so both. The front end is always running. I tried java 1.4.xx before a while ago, but same problem happened...however, that doesn't mean I'm not going to try it again. I know via is supposed to suck, but I don't know if that is the root of the problem. I will run all stability test, then probably move to reinstall of windows, etc if I get nowhere with it.

[edgley]

My random problems were cured by slow down the speed of my memory in the BIOS. Now its very stable.

[mayamaniac]

how is it locking up? freeze screen? BSOD?

Here's the rule of thumb when it comes to OS lockups, if its happening randomly, meaning there's no specific action you are doing to cause it to lock up, then the culprit is probably bad memory. If you have more than one stick of ram, try removing one or the other to find out which ones are bad.

2nd culprit, meaning after verifying that ram is good, is the motherboard. As blade said, if its VIA, then its more likely to cause stability problems. Look into replacing the motherboard if possible, find an NForce chipset one.

3rd problem might be the Power supply unit (PSU). If you have too many drives, then the power supply need to be handle it. You need at least a good 350W PSU for modern systems. Usually if its a PSU problem, then you just get random reboots, not freeze screen or BSODs.

Good luck.

[ben_95sl1]

Thanks for the responses.

It locks up usually with the sage logo in the screensaver stuck in position, and there is absolutely no activity in any way and absolutely no response....requires me to hit the reset button, there is absolutely no other way to get the system back; I've tried. After reboot, I can look at the time on the log files to see what time it locked up (usually many hours before I notice the problem).

My suspicions are same as yours, bad memory or bad motherboard. I don't think it's the power supply as I've loaded the system as much as possible but never actually triggered a lockup. I ran prime95 for 2.5 hrs as torture test on both cpu and memory and not a single problem. The power supply is an antec 350w little over a year old, so its not a piece of junk, but who knows. Also, I guessed that maybe the problems were AC power related, but even now with an APC UPS, it still happens.

I put all the settings in bios as conservative as possible a year ago, but it didn't make a difference in the end. Yes, this has been on ongoing problem for over a year, but I've gone months without a problem, and never known if somehow sage was related. I'm now running 1.4.2_06 JRE, so I'll see if that helps. I'll also rerun memtest tonight to make sure its still not memory. I tried to get microsoft's stress test in HCT to run, but for some reason I couldn't make any sense of it and gave up.

thanks again..

[rickgode]

Did you do these registry settings?

Just change these registry settings to 1 while SageTV is asleep or you're not watching video in SageRecorder, or they both are shutdown:

HKLM\Software\Intervideo\Custom\Hauppauge\VideoDec\Dxva
HKLM\Software\Intervideo\Custom\Hauppauge\VideoDec\Hwmc

For the newer decoders the location is:

HKLM\Software\IviSDK4Hauppauge\Common\VideoDec\Dxva
HKLM\Software\IviSDK4Hauppauge\Common\VideoDec\Hwmc

I did while trying to get my PVR 500 to work, and my system would freeze randomly also, it might be a different situation than yours, as I downgraded my java from 1.5 to 1.4, still froze, then I changed the 1's back to 0's, and its been up and running for 3 days now.

Mine would freeze, watching live TV, recorded TV, and seemd to freeze especially messing with the guide and menu's. the spinning logo would pop up and only a restart would fix the problem.

[mayamaniac]

ben_95sl1,

If the lockups only happens when the sageTV screensaver kicks in, then try disabling the sageTV screensaver to see if it still locks up. If you can narrow it down to the screensaver being the culprit, then we can ways to fix it, or ask for tech support to look into it.

What I said abour bad memory or motherboard only applies if the lockups are random.

[s15]

I have random crashes for a year or so but I finally fixed it about a month ago. What I found is that the motherboard is the main problem here. The 1st MB I have is a Soyo SY-P4I845PE (Intel 845PE Chipset) and the 2nd MB is ECS PT800 (VIA Chipset). The 3rd and final one which is my stable setup is Intel 865PERC (outdated Intel board but its cheap, just $45).

I have troubleshoot (video card, RAM, power supply, switching PVR150 card slot, bios setting, drivers, encoder, java, etc.) After putting in the new motherboard, install OS, drivers, the computer has not crash ever since. It will go to sleep and wake up to record without any problem.

My thoughts is that the chipset on the motherboard couldn't handle the PVR150 PCI traffic well because the 845PE and PT800 chipset are both budget chipset. The 865PE chipset is a higher end chipset compare to the 845PE. It could be the MB manufacturer or design too, I'm not sure. All the best to you.

[ben_95sl1]

I did a fresh install of winXP, Sagetv and java, with updated drivers for video card and pvr150 just for kicks. So far no crashing, but it's far too early to tell. If it does, I'm very confident it is the motherboard or the ram.

As for the hauppauge decoder settings, I don't use them; I only use the nvidia decoders.

Most of the crashes occured with nothing playing, but my best description would be it was random. However, I guess I'll find out if it crashes again.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys; sounds like I'm on the right track.

Ben

[ben_95sl1]

Update for those that care...

After fresh install, it lasted about 6 days before it crashed again. And it happened with the screen saver on, right in front of my eyes. I then ran memtest for 8 hrs with no errors. I still think hardware problem. I've now disabled the screen saver in sage completely to see if somehow it is causing/accelerating the problem. that would be funny.

[Matt-CV]

I have a similar issue where my whole PC freezes up every few days and the only fix is to re-boot. This has been going on for for several months now, I thought this was a hardware issue also and have tested, re-imaged, ect.. with same issues and this is what I have found.
I have seemed to notice that it locked up when local Sage application is running but could not validate 100% ( I use Sage in service mode)
But then over the last 2 weeks while on vacation I never started the sage application on the server, I have used placeshifting, remote desktoped into the pc, ect.. but never launched the app. It did not lock up once ( that is a big deal ), but when I got home and launched Sage it locked up within 4 hours.

I am running 5.0.4.92 with java 1.4.2_11

I have seen several comments about lockups with Java, so my question is: is java used when placeshifting, ect... this would help me home in on why it locks only when running the local version.

Any help would be really great as I gave away my replay and live on this...

Matt

ps- I have a Hauppauge 350 and 500 as the tuners

[Opus4]

One thing that the SageTV UI might be using that other apps on that system aren't is 3D Acceleration. If you have 3D Acceleration enabled in SageTV, try disabling it. If that helps, look into whether your video card drivers and/or DirectX need to be updated. Of course, it may have have nothing to do w/3D Accel issues -- what else is the UI doing that no other apps are? Using the sound card could be one. Java is also used by the service, btw.

You could also enable debug logging, especially for the UI portion via the sageclient.properties file, and see if tech support sees anything out of the ordinary.

- Andy

[Llamas]

Anything in the event log? Depending on how fast the lock-up hits, there might be events logged that point to something specific.

[Matt-CV]

Sorry it took awhile to get back.. I really though it was a harsware issue, but am now again leaning toward software.
Anyway it just locked up on me twice in the last 30 min while using the UI. this is what I got for the end of the client logs..

Thu 8/31 19:40:03.776 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1037]
Thu 8/31 19:40:08.776 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1037]
Thu 8/31 19:40:13.776 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1037]


And here from sage log:

Thu 8/31 19:38:51.146 Premultiplying alpha for BuffImage...
Thu 8/31 19:38:52.315 Premultiplying alpha for BuffImage...
Thu 8/31 19:40:13.612 Skipping video import dir that's also a recording dir:S:\Sage-raid-m


you know what, I got the same message about the import dir from the last lockup... I removed all import dir's.. we will see.
Is there any other logs, ect...I need, ?
I can seem to make this happen.

Matt

[Matt-CV]

Well, its not the import directory issue, it just happened again. But at the end of the client log I got the same thing.
If it means anything to anyone ??

Thu 8/31 20:08:14.109 DShowMediaPlayer is consuming the events...
Thu 8/31 20:08:14.110 Event: 0xe
Thu 8/31 20:08:14.110 VF processing job null nPlayin=true
Thu 8/31 20:08:14.112 isRec=false rd=6898902 base=1409979
Thu 8/31 20:08:14.113 VF thread is now waiting for 1:31:28.673
Thu 8/31 20:08:15.617 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1069]
Thu 8/31 20:08:20.618 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1069]
Thu 8/31 20:08:25.618 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1069]
Thu 8/31 20:08:30.619 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1069]
Thu 8/31 20:08:35.618 Received command of:NOOP from Socket[addr=/127.0.0.1,port=42024,localport=1069]

[Opus4]

A few lines at the end of the log probbaly won't tell a whole lot. You could send it to support to see if they see anything.

But, if you list your hardware, maybe someone will see something that could be causing problems, such as various motherboard/tuner combos.

- Andy

[Matt-CV]

I have opened a support request.
Again, it has not locked while watching over networked MVPs, only when watching via the UI.

In the meantime the system is:
asus p4c800e-d motherboard
ATI 8500DV video card (I do not use the capture piece)
Hauppauge 350
Hauppauge 500
IR blaster
IDE hard drives off the motherboard raid connectors for sage recordings

And I just changed the video rendering to overlay... lets see

Thanks
Matt

[Opus4]

I just noticed... you aren't using the 350's TV-out w/the UI shown via the 350, are you?

If not, double check your video card drivers and/or try other video renderer and decoder settings... which I see you've started doing.

- Andy

[ben_95sl1]

Well, all I did was disable the screensaver and it's been running non stop for something like 20 days ; absolutely no other changes. I have no idea if it's fixed, but so far so good.

BTW: I use overlay and have 3d accel off.