Fresh Install Advice

[AWS]

Been having a lot of lock-ups in Sage of late (both the "real" version and the 2.2.2 beta) so tonight when I get home I'm going to start from scratch again. The PC will lockup after sitting there doing nothing (Sage loaded and just sitting at the menu screen) or with it being busy (watching/recording/playback) after about three hours. I own Sage 2.1 and TheaterTek 2.0.6 therefore I'll be using the NVIDIA decoders.

Anyone want to chime in and give some "Installation Advice"? I've been installing Windows, then all updates including SP2, installing all device drivers, installing Java 1.4.2_06, installing TT and it's update 2.0.6, lastly installing SageTV 2.1. Nothing else gets installed on the machine - no anti-virus, no anti-spyware, no ffdshow (I'm connecting to a SDTV), notta. This last time I DID install the Asus Probe to check out voltages and temps. All seemed to be within "normal parameters" - to quote the computer on ST: TNG I've read a lot about the PVR-350 cards getting too hot and causing system instability so I've removed the case cover and had a fan blowing them (two 350's). Same problem.

The major problem with this install, besides the lock ups, seemed to be the Sage service. When I let it do it's own thing, start at PC startup and then launch Sage UI, it would not load my STV (Cayars16). Thankfully Cayars gave me a simple *.bat file that would launch the service and when it was fully loaded, would then launch the UI. Another strange thing I was experiencing was that the Sage splash screen mostly disappeared. Maybe that's what it was supposed to do, but I'm not sure. The splash screen is now just a 3/4" rectangle split in two - top is a white bar, bottom is blue with activity text being displayed.

Last night was the frustration level hit an all time high when "Lost" was indeed, lost. It recorded 2.7GB (or something close to that - all but the last 6 minutes out of a 60) of the show (I was at a friends' house) and when I got home the HDD LED was lit and the machine was stuck. Temps were all ok. I rebooted it and tried to access the Lost episode but windows said it was locked...Tried to launch in TT but nothing happened. Did a reboot and then it was deleted. Guess Sage cleaned house? Later I found it at a .torrent site. But still. I feel the need for a rebuild. Something is fundamentally wrong with my setup. I tried to uninstall Java but I'm getting some error that it couldn't find "Dll_.ini in the binary table" so it won't uninstall. Ugh.

[mdmint]

Sounds like you could well have a hardware problem, failing memory or mobo or cpu or hd or ?. Do you have another PC to try Sage on? Was Sage running stable any length of time and then system started locking up? Did you make ANY hardware or software (inc. driver) changes before lockups started? When you say fresh install did you reformat HD first? Just rambling basic troubleshooting thoughts...

[AWS]

(Small world, I'm in Vancouver, WA, too.)

Well I just RMA'd the mobo (Asus A7V600) so that is brand new. The CPU and memory are about 4 months old and both tested fine in another computer. I KNOW that Sage runs well; I had this same system up and running for a few months. When I said "fresh install", I did mean that I fdisk'd and formatted the HDD. The two changes I've made to the system is replaced a Radeon 9800 PRO with an NVIDIA 6800. I got Arctic Coolers for both (AT3 ? and an NV5). At that time I also upgraded my HDDs. I put the OS on a new SATA drive, replaced the IDE Sage storage drive with a SATA and made the old Sage storage drive into a DVD storage drive. Something has me thinking about power. . . I'll explore that possibility tonight. That's a whole other issue and can be found here if anyone is interested.

I'm 90% sure this ISN'T a Sage or STV problem but something else and as such, this probably isn't the appropriate forum for PC problems. Guess I got a little carried away with my frustration.

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by AWS

(Small world, I'm in Vancouver, WA, too.)

Well I just RMA'd the mobo (Asus A7V600) so that is brand new. The CPU and memory are about 4 months old and both tested fine in another computer. I KNOW that Sage runs well; I had this same system up and running for a few months. When I said "fresh install", I did mean that I fdisk'd and formatted the HDD. The two changes I've made to the system is replaced a Radeon 9800 PRO with an NVIDIA 6800. I got Arctic Coolers for both (AT3 ? and an NV5). At that time I also upgraded my HDDs. I put the OS on a new SATA drive, replaced the IDE Sage storage drive with a SATA and made the old Sage storage drive into a DVD storage drive. Something has me thinking about power. . . I'll explore that possibility tonight. That's a whole other issue and can be found here if anyone is interested.

I'm 90% sure this ISN'T a Sage or STV problem but something else and as such, this probably isn't the appropriate forum for PC problems. Guess I got a little carried away with my frustration.

Could be power causing lockups, if spontaneously rebooting I'd definitely say very likely power. BTW, I have a couple spare 400w power supplies. One brand new never used (doesn't mean it's good!) the other known to be good I pulled from my main workstation to replace with a differently fan configured ps) You're welcome to borrow one for troubleshooting. Contact me PM (private message) if interested for phone number. (Though heck, my real name is in my profile and I'm listed in the phone book so it's 360 254-0179)

[AWS]

Thanks for the info and offer that's very generous and trusting! I have a few power supplies at my disposal here at work that I'll use for testing tonight.