HD-PVR Stops Responding ~Once/Day

[reggie14]

After having a couple rock-solid weeks when I first got my HD-PVR, things have sort of gone downhill. About once a day my HD-PVR decides it's going to stop responding. I don't get any errors in Sage, it's just that nothing happens when I try to start a recording (an the blue light on the HD-PVR doesn't turn on either). Power cycling the HD-PVR fixes it every time, but it's annoying to do that once a day. I don't have problems with lock-ups during recordings, so I'm guessing this isn't related to using optical scan, or problems from the STB changing resolution (It's a Motorola box so I can't lock it to a single resolution).

Is there anything I should be looking for? Any tricks I should know about? I just went into my Device Manager, and turned off power management for the two USB root hub devices. I'm not sure if that is suppose to help, but I'm guessing it can't hurt.

I'm running the 1.5.6 drivers, with optical audio, on a Windows XP 32-bit box and firewire tuning. I've taped over the IR receiver on the HD-PVR. I'd rather not move away from optical audio, unless this sounds like a problem that occurs when people use optical audio.

[jerryt]

Besides taping the IR sensor and changing to stereo audio only, the options are; 1.0.5.301 drivers, a cooling fan on the HD-PVR, and a device to cycle the power to the HD-PVR once a day.

Also some people are trying a separate NEC USB add in card, for only the HD-PVR

[dead_ferrets]

This was happening to me with such regular frequency that I ended up exchanging mine, so that's an option as well.

Have you made any changes your setup at all?

If you're desperate and you haven't already you could also:
(a) try the new beta driver (it's stickied at the top of this page), or,
(b) do a reinstallation of sage and drivers (installing the device and drivers before installing sage).

Sorry I don't have more for you!

[cat6man]

make sure you clear out all hauppauge drivers before re-reinstallation.
i had great performance for year, then it went south on me..........after 3 complete driver re-installs, all has been great again ever since.............go figure

do at the other recommended stuff also................also, i have the unit on its side and a small usb fan blowing on it

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by dead_ferrets

This was happening to me with such regular frequency that I ended up exchanging mine, so that's an option as well.

And that fixed it, or at least helped? If so, then I might try to do that. What were your symptoms? Did your HD-PVR get hot (mine doesn't)? Did it hang when doing recordings, or between them?

Have you made any changes your setup at all?

None. So hardware changes, or changes changes. I didn't even change any settings in Windows, Sage, or any other program for that matter.

If you're desperate and you haven't already you could also:
(a) try the new beta driver (it's stickied at the top of this page), or,
(b) do a reinstallation of sage and drivers (installing the device and drivers before installing sage).

Yeah, I might have to try those. I'm really hoping the power management thing is going to fix the problem I have, but if not I might have to try option b) (well, I'd try option a first). I hate to go to the trouble of doing that though. Reinstallations weren't so bad when I was using Sage with one analog tuner and one recording drive, but now that I'm using Sage with SageMC, several tuners, firewire tuning, firewire channel changing, several import and recording directories, etc., it's quite a bit more work.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by cat6man

make sure you clear out all hauppauge drivers before re-reinstallation.

I hate to admit, I didn't do this when I first got my HD-PVR. That might be the source of my problems. I have a PVR-250 and an HVR-1600 in my server, and I didn't want to have to mess with those. I was worried I'd have to reconfigure the digital tuner on the HVR-1600 if I did that (i.e., rescan and remap QAM channels). That might not even be the case though. If I shut down Sage (and tell it not to start), can I uninstall and reinstall the drivers without having to do the configuration again?

[Rico66]

Also, if you think that the power management could be part of the problem. Just let the system running for a day or so and see if the hd pvr locks up or not.

[dead_ferrets]

Originally Posted by reggie14

And that fixed it, or at least helped? If so, then I might try to do that. What were your symptoms? Did your HD-PVR get hot (mine doesn't)? Did it hang when doing recordings, or between them?

The lock-ups were mostly between recordings. It would just stop being responsive.

Exchanging certainly helped as the new unit seems much more stable though I was still getting the occasional lock-up (again between recordings). I have now greatly simplified my setup e.g., now using extenders (the PC my HD-PVR was connected to was also my mediacenter PC and I was using the IR port on the HD-PVR to control use Sage), removing a USB extension cord I had on the HD-PVR, making sure the HD-PVR is on it's own USB hub, etc.

I've now had 8 days of continuous HD-PVR operation with no hiccups...

I hope some of these suggestions work and you don't have to do a reinstall. I feel for you if you do!

[Fencepost]

I had this problem on long recordings ( football games). I change to Great from Best recording quality and that helped alot...
Roger

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by Rico66

Also, if you think that the power management could be part of the problem. Just let the system running for a day or so and see if the hd pvr locks up or not.

Well, it did lock up again. So apparently it wasn't the power management setting.

I think I'll start by trying the new drivers. I should probably run HCWclear before doing that though. Does anyone know if I can just shutdown Sage (and tell the service not to start up on boot, temporarily), uninstall the drivers using HCWclear, restart, install PVR-250, HVR-1600, and HD-PVR drivers in that order, restart, turn back on Sage? And, will everything in Sage still work without having to configure any of the tuners?

Originally Posted by Fencepost

I had this problem on long recordings ( football games). I change to Great from Best recording quality and that helped alot...
Roger

I'm guessing that wouldn't help me. I don't get lock-ups during recordings. It seems to lock-up overnight though, when it's not in use.

[gplasky]

That should work fine. And I know you don't want to miss recordings but I would just install the HD-PVR and see if it is stable. It would be nice to know if the stability issue is just HD-PVR related or if it has something to do with working with the other cards you have configured in there. If you can afford to do that then I would test and then add them in back one at a time and schedule recordings until it drops. You may need to send the HD-PVR back.

Gerry

[ewelin]

I too am having stability issues, I have two HD-PVRs are both have issues. Either during recordings or when idle they'll fail to respond and SageTV gives me a driver error. I just purchased these within the last week and have tried both the driver on the disk as well as the version 1.5.6 from the Hauppauge site and still the same results. Both units are in my basements where it's currently in the 60s with a fan blowing directly on them and they feel cool to the touch.

I have noticed that I can resolve the issue by shutting down the sagetv service, power cycling the units, then starting the service back up... but I shouldn't have to do that several times a day for stability.

Any other suggestions to try?

[White94Cobra]

I just purchased an HD-PVR almost two weeks ago. It seemed to work fine for the first week, now it locks up 1-3 times per day. This sucks because I waited over a year to get one hoping the bugs had been worked out.

Simply power-cycling the HD-PVR seems to fix the issue for a few hours. I have the IR window taped up, it runs very cool to the touch, using analog audio and it's connected directly to the on-board USB of my Asus MB. I guess my next step is to run HCWclear and hope it doesn't break my HVR-2250 setup in Sage. If that doesn't work, I'll try a dedicated USB card. I've read I want one based on an NEC chipset - any recommendations?

Severely disappointed.

[dead_ferrets]

I think there's a post around here somewhere that recommends installing the HD-PVR device and drivers BEFORE installing SageTV (and obviously running HWCLEAR before installing the HD-PVR).

Have folks with stability issues tried that?

BTW... It's quite pathetic that these stability issues haven't been sorted out yet.

[ewelin]

I think tomorrow I'm going to start over and go from scratch... I find it hard to believe I can't get this thing stable.. all of this driver and sagetv uninstall/install stuff has cause me to get a driver failure notice on startup of WHS and I don't see any drivers that are failing. So tonight I'll start moving my data off of the shares and do a fresh install of WHS and go for broke.

[gplasky]

Anyone doing a fresh install of WHS might want to look at the Windows Home Server X:\Files Edition v1.3.1 More drivers are slipstreamed into it and it will allow you to create a bigger C: partition. That comes in handy especially with EP's Hulu-Netflix Online plugin. It's just a thought. I haven't had the time to test it but other users have been happy with it. You must be a legal owner of WHS to be able to use this. This is not a hack.

Gerry

[ewelin]

interesting URL.... may be tempted to go that route...

more recent info:
http://xfiles.koryian.net/

[reggie14]

I'm sure this is going to jinx it, but for the first time in a week or so my HD-PVR stayed up for a 24 hour period. All I did was install the 1.5.6.1 drivers on top of my old ones (1.5.6). I'm hoping that's enough, but I know I might have to clear out all the Hauppauge drivers one of these days.

[toricred]

I was using the Evaluation version of WHS so I decided if I was going to get legal (which requires a re-install) I might as well install xfiles. The problem is that my storage drives weren't in the pool and during the Server Reinstallation the partitions were all destroyed. I'm doing it as a New Install now, but my wife and kids will not be happy about this development.

[ewelin]

I actually rebuilt with the normal DVD... took me less than a day to download all patches and reinstall key software. I opted for going that route as there were quite a few things in xfiles I really didn't need/want. So far, I'm knocking on serious wood right now, only one lockup of the HD-PVR in 3 days. I think it may have been heat related. I had the two PVRs stacked one on top of each other and the lower one had done 4 hours straight of recordings when the top one was suppose to record something and it failed. That happened 24 hours after the reinstall. I since moved them further apart and put a fan on them for good measure. Been almost 48 hours since that happened without issue. Still need to re-install my PVR-150 and PVR-350, but in no rush to add those right now.