PVR 500 MCE Rebooting PC

[jptaz]

Well I got my PVR 500 MCE last night and when ever SageTV is using it to record a short period later the PC reboots.

Here is the situation:

AGP -> ATI AIW 7500
PCI 1 - > Retail PVR 250 (15)
PCI 2 -> PVR 500 MCE
PCI 3 - > Retail PVR 250 (15)
PCI 4 - > Retail PVR 250 (15)
PCI 5 - > SIL ATA 133 PATA Controller

I previously had a fourth PVR 250(15) in the slot where the PVR 500 MCE is located, but I pulled it and put it in my client the day before I got the PVR 500 and after removing it I uninstalled all the PVR 250 Software and ran HWClear and reinstalled the PVR 250s with the 22292 Driver from the Hauppauge website. All 3 Tuners were working fine and I tested recording all 3 afterwards without a problem.

All 4 Cards have the Digital Cable Boxes connected to them Via SVideo and Stero Min Jack (Except for the PVR 500 which has RCA inputs).

Last Night I remove SageTV from startup and uninstalled the drivers and ran HWClear from the CD that came with the PVR 500 MCE. IO shutdown and installed the PVR 500 card.

When it booted up I forced it to look on the CD that came with PVR 500 MCE and it installed the PVR 500 MCE ( two Tuners seperately installed ). I repeated the process with the 3 PVR 250s since Drivers were included on the CD for them as well.

I then used SageRecorder to figure out how the cards were assigned and make sure that my USB UIRT and Actisys would be assigned properly before I set them up in SageTV. Since SageRecorder does not Support the PVR 500 I was able to figure out which ones were the PVR 500 Tuners. In this case they were assigned to 1 and 2. So the Assigments were as follows:

PCI 1 - > PVR 3
PCI 2 - > PVR 1 and PVR 2
PCI 3 -> PVR 4
PCI 4 -> PVR 5

I then went into SageTV and removed all the sources and then readded them corectly. Note I only configured PVR 1, PVR 3, PVR 4, PVR 5 since I have not connected the Coax to the PVR 500 and set them up for to use the IR blasters and SVideo.

My recordings that were scheduled last night only used PVR 4 and PVR 5 ( Both PVR 250(15)s ). Later I started doing some testing with recording 4 shows simultaneously and then the system started rebooting.

I then copied my WIZ.BIN and WIZ.BAK files out and deleted all the WIZ and properties files that forced SageTV to start clean. I used all the defaults then configured just the PVR 500 and Tried a recording and again after a few minutes it rebooted. I then switched it back to only using the 3 PVR 250s and set the default quality to MAX MPEG2 and started 3 recordings and then started 3 clients (Main Client, SageTV Server, and MediaMVP). I turned the Volume off and let them go all night and they were all working perfectly when I woke up this morning.

I am thinking about removing all the PVR 250s to try to see if the PVR 500 works by itself or in a different slot.

John

[ToxMox]

I'm not sure if the drivers are newer or not on the cd that came with the 500 for the 250s but I have a 250(15) also and installed all my tuners with the drivers that came with the 500 cd.

[jptaz]

I am hoping that changing the Order of things will help.

I think I will try cleaning out the drivers and everything and trying to see if I put the PVR 500 in a different slot if it will work correctly. I hope I didn't just get a bad card.



John

[Boolah]

jptaz - What motherboard and chipset are you using?

I've seen several people running into similar problems with 150's and some VIA chipset motherboards (myself included). I believe it's a problem with the drivers for the 150's. Since the 500 is based on the 150, I'm guessing the same thing could be happening. (Yeah, I know, I'm doing a whole lot of guessing )

[jptaz]

Well Both my friend and I have the same issue with the PVR 500 and we both have VIA Chipsets.

I will so some experimentation tonight, but maybe I will drop it into my Intel based Mainbaord system and see if it works. Too bad SageRecorder does not support the PVR 150/500.

If the VIA chipset is the problem I Would say Hauppauge has to realize that people do own PCs based on that chipset and they should test with them.

John

[ToxMox]

I also have a VIA chipset and don't have problems with my 500s. Did you try what I mentioned with the drivers?

[jptaz]

I installed all of mine from the CD as well ( My CD is labeled 2.4 ).

When it booted up I forced it to look on the CD that came with PVR 500 MCE and it installed the PVR 500 MCE ( two Tuners seperately installed ). I repeated the process with the 3 PVR 250s since Drivers were included on the CD for them as well.

[ToxMox]

Sorry jptaz, I should have read your post more carefully.

[SHS]

Jeff need update SageTV Recorder and yes it very bad idea to use VIA chipset becases if you have ever own the first PVR you know what I mean jptaz VIA don't like 3rdparty PCI-to-PCI Bridge all that well and fact that VIA don't fully support all standred PCI procall.
By the way what model number on the south bridge?.

[jptaz]

TOx,

What VIA Chipsets do you have and what Version of the Via Drivers are you using?

When I installed the PVR 250s they wanted to replace a newer file with an old one and I told them to keep the newer file. The 3 PVR 250s are wokring perfectly using the Drivers from the CD that it came with. - I recorded from all 3 Simultaneously at MAX

One thing that I thought was weird. When I was installing the PVR 500 it also came up detecting a PCI to PCI Bridge. I suspect this is a driver for bridging the two PVR 150s on the PVR 500 card.

What is the PCI slot order on your computer for the PVR 500s and the PVR 250 relative to the AGP Slot?

John

[jptaz]

SHS,

Northbridge : VIA KT400
Southbridge : VIA 8235

[ToxMox]

My board is an Abit AT7 Max. It only has 3 PCI slots and basically I have a 500 then a 250 then another 500 in the PCI slots. The motherboard is a KT333 and as for the VIA drivers I don't remember as I'm not home right now but I think they are recent. I don't recall the PCI to PCI Bridge coming up when I installed but it very well could have.

[jptaz]

Since this may be caused my VIA Chipset what Chipset is preferrable for AMD XP since I do not see replacing my processor?

Would an nForce2 Ultra400 be a good choice?
Is GigaByte Good - I have liked them for their feature set.

By the way my friend who has the same issue has:
Nothrbridge : VIA KT333
Southbridge : VIA 8233A(CE)

John

[jptaz]

ToxMox,

You may not have the issue since you only 3 PCI slots. As I recall, and I could be completely wrong on this, but in order to have more than 3 PCI slots many chipsets basically bridged two 3 Slot PCI Buses which is why the PCI to PCI bridge is required.

John

[SHS]

jptaz you may want start with just 500MCE by it self then start add the other borad in in tell something crash.

[jptaz]

SHS,

It only happens when recording with the PVR 500...but I am going to Try with just PVR 500 and no other PCI cards to see if it works any better.

I am kind of hoping moving it to a different PCI Slot will help resolve the issue.

John

[jptaz]

I checked and actually everyone should have had a "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge". If you go into the device manager and go to the view menu and select "Devjces by connection" Expand the branches and you will eventually find and under it will be the following:

Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II (23xxx) (Tuner 1)
Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II (23xxx) (Tuner 2)

Just and FYI.

John

[jptaz]

OK I tried just using the PVR 500 with no other PCI cards and still having the same problem. Tried all PCI slots with no luck.

I pulled the PVR 500 out and reinstalled my 4 PVR 250(15)s and they are working 100% as before.

I decided to try the PVR 500 in my HP Pentium III and it is even worse than my other system. I put it in and installed the driver and it installed as expected, but what was different from my other computer is that it asked to reboot after the install. After rebooting it stops part way through the boot and brings up a BSOD that says a stop condition has occurred. I am beginning to believe this card is defective.

John

[Opus4]

Didn't I see a comment either at HTPCNews' or SHS's forum about the 150 & 500 needing newer motherboards because of some different PCI slot power requirement (or something along those lines)? Could that be an issue here? I don't remember the details, so I'm just tossing this out for someone who does know.

- Andy

[SHS]

That possable Andy being I haven't got around to it any lower system like Intel P2, P3 motherboards other then my Intel 2.8GHz D865PERL and 1.6GHz D845WN.
jptaz try the card in the Kitchen system
How ever may reset this puppy back up just try 500MCE in it which is Dual 400MHz P2