Sage recording on WHS crashes server

[vhurst]

So, I'm a long time Sage user, since v2.2.7. No noob by any means, but I've run into a problem that's got me stumped.

I've rebuilt my parent's Sage server. This time on WHS (Windows Home Server) with an Abit VP6 mobo, with dual 1Ghz P3's and 2Gb RAM. The WHS setup went smoothly, and the promise of a server that'll help me recover their home PC and laptop when they hose them up... Well lets say I look forward to the recovery WHS offers.

For the Sage side of life in this WHS box, I added two PVR-500's and a 750Gb drive (64K clusters, not a WHS storage member). I installed the v6.4.8 WHS msi, and setup went smoothly. MVP, and Placeshifter connect fine.

Now the problem.

Whenever I record, or watch live TV (as that's obviously recording too), the server will suffer a hard reset. I may play for 5 to 20 minutes, then night-night. No blue screen. Just like I poked the server's reset button.

My first thought was the power supply must have issues. Voltages look good. Server runs non-stop for days if Sage isn't recording. A replacement supply has the same problem. The server's previous duty, as my Win2K domain controller/web server/file server/ftp server/exchange server/dns server, never had problems until it's hard drive finally failed, and I built a new system earlier this year.

I enabled the dubug log, but I don't see anything juicy there, but perhaps a clue to someone more brilliant than my 40 Watt brain. Currently I've made 4 debug log files, 3 of which end with "Ministry is waiting for 180 sec" as their last entry, but that appears a two other times throughout those logs as well. The log file that didn't end in the same manner didn't run long enough for me to start watching a show. It just crashed early because it's resuming recording of the 4 shows I had set to record for testing.

I tried removing the 750Gb drive, and set Sage to record to the WHS Data drive, but still had the same failure. I've run the recording drive on 3 different controllers, with the same failure.

Simultaneously recording 4 shows, while delay watching one maintains less than 10% CPU usage, about 2-3% for SageTVService.exe. I don't see a memory leak. SageTVService.exe runs about 111Mb usage.

Thanks in advance for any tips you guys might have to offer!

[pukka]

does the PVR500 run as a usb tuner?

i had a problem with this on WHS random blue screens here is a link to the thread about it
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33263

Paul

[gplasky]

Couple of things. ABit VP6 is old technology. May not be the best board to use WHS on which is based on Windows server 2003. Second, and more important it uses a VIA chipset. Search the fourms and you will find many problems with people running Sage with a board that has a VIA chipset. My recomendation would be replace the board. I know you don't want to hear that because you would also need a different processor and memory.

Look at this: ECS A780GM-A AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

$70 plus a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model for $60 and G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) for $35. (All on the same page. Look under customers also bought.)

Gerry

[vhurst]

Originally Posted by pukka

does the PVR500 run as a usb tuner?

i had a problem with this on WHS random blue screens here is a link to the thread about it
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33263

Paul

No USB tuners. The PVR-500 is a PCI dual SD tuner card.

Originally Posted by gplasky

Couple of things. ABit VP6 is old technology... uses a VIA chipset... replace the board... I know you don't want to hear that...

Gerry

Argh... Yea, I hoped to make use of the old hardware, which is still powerfull enough to handle the task. But for the cost of some new parts vs. the 12 or so hours I've spent troubleshooting, it may be worth my while.

Thanks guys... Bloody VIA anyway...

[vhurst]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Couple of things. ABit VP6 is old technology. May not be the best board to use WHS on which is based on Windows server 2003. Second, and more important it uses a VIA chipset. Search the fourms and you will find many problems with people running Sage with a board that has a VIA chipset. My recomendation would be replace the board. I know you don't want to hear that because you would also need a different processor and memory.

Look at this: ECS A780GM-A AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

$70 plus a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model for $60 and G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) for $35. (All on the same page. Look under customers also bought.)

Gerry

I took your advice, did a bit of research, and ordered the ASUS M3A-H/HDMI, AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, and Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR2 800. Only $170 after taxes and shipping.

The Asus board uses the same chipset as the ECS board, with virtually the same options, yet currently has a little better combo deal with the CPU, plus the manual says it supports ECC RAM. Since I want a stable server, I figured that was cheap insurance.

I'll let you know how that package pans out. Thanks again for the advice Gerry!

[gplasky]

No problem. I'm glad you did the research. I chose the ECS mostly on price point and the 780G chipset. ASUS is a great choice.

Gerry