2.1 GUI has strange behavior

[NickSD]

A little while ago I tried Sage 2.1.9 RC6 and had nothing but problems. The service would keep running just fine and record programs, but the GUI would freeze up randomly and stop responding to the remote control. The only way to fix it was to restart the system completely. After that experience, I reverted back to 2.0 and everything was fine again. No problems whatsoever.

I decided to give Sage 2.1 final a try, and I also made sure I had the latest drivers for my PVR-250 and the Hauppauge Remote. This version/configuration seems to be a bit better overall, but I'm still having major problems. Last night while the GUI was in sleep/screensaver mode it popped up a Sage dialog saying that one of the components wasn't working and that Sage should be reinstalled. I don't understand this since this is a new install, with no STV changes or imports. Also, I'm still getting the GUI freezes, although this time if I wait long enough (sometimes 10+ minutes) the GUI will come back for a few seconds only to freeze again. To make a long story short, Sage 2.1 seems to be very unstable. I'd like to use it though since I like the idea of Sage being a service and I want to keep up to date with the latest additions.

All of these tests were performed using the default STV.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Nick

[DFA]

You might check that you have latest Sun Java RT installed.

DFA

[salsbst]

You also might try disabling 3d video acceleration (if it is enabled) and see if that helps.

[chrysek]

I had some dificulties with 2.1.x when I did try it, many were related to wiz.bin, I removed the old one (lost all the recording habits and all the other things that were in it) but it did corect a lot of my client freezings and high CPU utilizations. Then in Sage 2.1.09 finally most of that high cpu utilizationw ent away. Sage seems to use much more memory than before (at least in the 2.1.09 that I am using now, I did not upgrade to 2.1.10 yet)

If you do have such weird behavior as you are describing where after new installation it does ask you to reinstall something maybe there is something else going on with your system other than sage etc.

What I would suggest is: make backup of your configs and wiz.bin, install sage again, and then remove wiz.bin and start fresh, see if your system will act better.

At least it did work for me when I migrated to 2.1.x

Chris

[NickSD]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I have the latest Java runtime so it's not that, and I'm pretty sure I have 3D accel turned off already but I'll have to check for sure when I get home. Deleting wiz.bin is something I have not tried, I'll try that too. Does removing wiz.bin also remove all of your favorites, etc?

Thanks,
Nick

[salsbst]

Does removing wiz.bin also remove all of your favorites, etc?

Yes, so keep backups, and if it doesn't solve the problem you can revert.

[jerhall]

uninstalling and reinstalling the JRE software has cleared up all of my problems. If you do a search in the forums you will find many posts saying the same thing.

I recommend you uninstall and reinstall it. It only takes a couple of minutes.

[Cayars]

NickSD,
Curious, how has is it going on your 2.1.10 setup? Have you figured out what might be causing problems for you?

I was fine up through at least 2.1.8 and either .9 or .10 has started causing me massive problems just like your first part. I get 10 minute + pauses also and watching video on the server is all but impossible as it stut, stut, stutters

Unfortunately, my family was away for a while and I was working on my STV development and pretty much only used SageTV from my notebook which works fine as a Client. It wasn't until after release of 2.1 that I started having these issues but I'm pretty sure my problem developed on the server between 2.1.9 and 2.1.10.

Anyway, did you ever figure this out on your setup? Did you go back to 2.0.19?

Carlo

[sarudoshi2004]

I had the same problem upgraded from 2.0 to 2.1. I reinstalled Sonic Decoder, Java run-time, and SageTV many times. I still get randomly GUI hang and sometime it just rebooted my system while watching recording for less than 30 minutes for the past week. Last night, I reinstalled OS (win xp-sp1) and Sage2.0....

[Cayars]

Sarudoshi2004, how's it going so far? Any better?

[NickSD]

My setup is finally stable. I tried everything, but it didn't start working until I did a complete uninstall/reinstall of Sage (with new wiz.bin and everything) and a uninstall/reinstall of all my Hauppauge drivers and Java JRE. I also have service mode off. I've always had problems when running with Sage as a service. Another non-Sage related problem that I resolved was that my wireless keyboard and mouse were randomly "hitting" keys even when I wasn't touching the keyboard/mouse.

Nick

[Freegoo]

I've had some bad luck with 2.1 as well. The system makes it anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours, but always ends up locking up. All recordings stop, and the interface works except you can't play a new show, and if you go into the recording schedule Sage freezes. I think I have tried EVERYTHING including: Running with only the Plextor or Haupauge (one not used is uninstalled and disconnected), clearing the Haupauge drivers with hcwclear.exe and reinstalling new drivers (version 2.2.22292 for the 250 and 2.5.22300 for USB2), Formatting and reinstalling XP, deleting wiz.bin and *.properties and *.backup files, various decoders ranging from Haupauge to Sonic, VMR and 3d off, updated Plextor drivers to latest off their website, Java 1.42.05 off Sun's Java site, running as a service or without, and virtually every suggestion I can find on these boards relating to 2.1.

Finally out of frustration I uninstalled 2.1 and went back to 2.0 and it's working perfectly. Something is very very wrong with 2.1.

My setup:
Server:
AMD 2800 Barton
1 Gig Ram
160 GB SATA Raid (2x Raptors)
Plextor ConvertX
Haupauge USB2 (PVR250 tried as well)
Windows XP Home

Client:
AMD 2100
512 mb ram
40 gb Hard Drive
Onboard Video
Decoders installed: Sonic, Haupauge, Cyberlink Using Sonic w/ no overlay or 3d
Windows XP Home

The onboard video is a little weak, but without overlay I haven't noticed any problems with the playback using Sonic, Mode A, and Bob interlace. Without using ffdshow it seems to be good enough for a client.

Both have updated BIOS and are rock solid without 2.1.

What's weird is with early betas I didn't have this problem until RC9 I think, and then it happened maybe every 5-6 days. After installing 2.1 the problem kept getting worse and worse until now where I can barely get through one recording. I tried uninstalling the full version and reinstalling RC4 with fresh wiz.bin and property files and had same problems.

I think I am going to bring the Plextor over to my own PC and see how it runs in my computer with 2.1. Does Sage's license permit this for debugging purposes? Otherwise hopefully I have 30 days trial on this PC. Unfortunately I have the Plextor without the tuner so I can't hook up our roof antanae, will have to try my luck using an old VCR.

Anyone have any ideas for me to try?

Thanks,
Marc Peters

[Freegoo]

Well scratch that, now the USB2 isnt working and the PVR2 recordings dissapear from the sage recordings view once they are done.

[Cayars]

I think a lot of the core changes Narflex made are showing up in a bad way.

[cmaffia]

Originally Posted by Cayars

I think a lot of the core changes Narflex made are showing up in a bad way.

I agree!! I have experienced almost every complaint, symptom stated here and tried every and fix suggestion without luck!!
What sucks for me is I went and got a PVR150 which wont work on the very stable 2.0! Frey PLEASE FIX SAGETV as it isn't the quality product it was a month ago!

[salsbst]

It took me about 20 minutes to get from stable 2.0 to stable 2.1. I guess I should count myself as lucky.

Some hints:
a) use the windows services control panel rather than the Sage service control app
b) use a domain/computer account for the service rather than local system
c) avoid mapped drives

Hope this helps someone. I really haven't had a problem (though I did have to convert to using the built-in USB-UIRT support for changing channels on my STB rather than the EXETunerPlugin/Girder since Girder doesn't run as a service).

[Cayars]

If only it were that easy salsbst. I don't think the real problem behind a lot of these issues are "user" problems. For example on my system if I remove 2.1 and re-install 2.0 it still runs badly. It's something to do with registry changes, buffers, directshow filters etc...

That's not to say that there aren't problems caused by the properties file having things that 2.1 doesn't like, but these are easy to figure out. Some quick diagnostics are to delete all property files (including backups) and deleting wiz.* files (make a copy first).

[salsbst]

I'm not trying to say that my hints will solve all problems, just that they are generally good things to do.

[sarudoshi2004]

After re-built entire system Win XP Pro-SP1 and SageTV2.0. My system hasn't crash yet (usually crash/hang within 30 minutes of viewing)..

[cmaffia]

Originally Posted by sarudoshi2004

After re-built entire system Win XP Pro-SP1 and SageTV2.0. My system hasn't crash yet (usually crash/hang within 30 minutes of viewing)..

Exactly what I did with another computer that I upgraded to 2.1.
Out of the box 2.0 was incredibly stable.
Out of the box 2.1 is not, that is what I am pleading for.
Frey Tech please re-evaluate 2.1 and make just as stable (or even more stable if possible) 2.1