System hang every Thursday without fail...

[jaminben]

Hi,

I have a strange problem which will occur every Thursday. The rest of the week Sage is fine and doesnt crash or hang, but on a Thursday without fail the whole system will lockup.
It doesnt matter what key combinations I press nothing will work until I press the reset button on the front of the pc then everything will be fine for another week.

The pc / server is also used to watch Tv, media etc in the bedroom. The lockup will happen as soon as I try and watch Tv, all other media works ok.

It dosent effect the client pc which will work for Tv, media etc.

I've tried running it in service mode but it does the same thing.

I've disabled all the automatic updates I can find within Windows and other programmes.

Reinstalling windows and the Sage software doesnt cure the problem.

Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

I've also attached my log for the time the system locked up (15:49) and I'm hoping someone may see an obvious error which I cannot spot.

Many Thanks

Ben

[waynedunham]

I get a message saying your zip is invalid or corrupted when I try to read it.

Just a thought. Have you checked to see if windows or another program is scheduled to do any maintenance weekly? (i.e. disk cleanup, defrag, virus scan etc)

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I get a message saying your zip is invalid or corrupted when I try to read it.

Sorry about that, I've uploaded another copy.

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Just a thought. Have you checked to see if windows or another program is scheduled to do any maintenance weekly? (i.e. disk cleanup, defrag, virus scan etc)

As far as I can tell there is nothing scheduled.

[ke6guj]

Haye you looked at your windows logs to see if any happens around that time?

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Haye you looked at your windows logs to see if any happens around that time?

As far as I can tell everything looks good.

[Conejo]

This has been asked, but some users are unaware, so I'll ask specifically: Do you have any AntiVirus software installed on your SageTV system?

A Windows OS schedules the following tasks:
-Update it's Date/Time clock
-Check for OS and Security updates
Some applications running in the background schedule update seeks:
-OEM software (Like HP/Compaq) have updaters
-Adobe
-Sun Java
-iPod/iTunes services
-AntiVirus

AntiVirus software is more likely to have multiple scheduled tasks on a weekly basis.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by Conejo

A Windows OS schedules the following tasks:
-Update it's Date/Time clock
-Check for OS and Security updates
Some applications running in the background schedule update seeks:
-OEM software (Like HP/Compaq) have updaters
-Adobe
-Sun Java
-iPod/iTunes services
-AntiVirus

Date / Time is updated on a Friday
Only Nvidia & Acronis software installed and I cannot see if they have any schedules
No Adobe Software installed
Java updates disabled
No ipod/itunes installed
No AntiVirus installed

Any other ideas?

[doc]

Trying to think what could be left...

What version of Java are your on. If its 1.4 you could upgrade to 1.6.0_03.

What about EPG updates. Are you using an old version of the radio times grabber? How often do you do them, and at what times?

[doc]

After reading your log file a bit more, you're using SageMC (I think). Have you got the latest version? and have you tried using the stock STV.

Are you running any auto-compress utilities? or autoarchive stuff?

Grabbing at straws... are your recording drives local or mapped network ones. You record direct to F:\ You could try creating a folder underneath it to store them in rather than the root itself. This will probably make no difference whatsoever, but I dont like putting files directly in the root of a drive.

After that, I'm afraid I'm out of ideas

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by doc

Trying to think what could be left...

Thats the problem I have, as far as I know there is nothing left to try.

Originally Posted by doc

What version of Java are your on. If its 1.4 you could upgrade to 1.6.0_03.

Using Java 1.6.0_03

Originally Posted by doc

What about EPG updates. Are you using an old version of the radio times grabber? How often do you do them, and at what times?

XMLTV version is 3.09.00W released 06/10/07 and it updates every Saturday @ 4.00am.

I dont think its a Sage problem but more of a Windows error as when Sage used to crash or lockup you could always end task or processes and restart Sage from within Windows. Having said that the only error that I can see in the latest log is "EventThread-SAGETV_PROCESS_LOCAL_UI Hang Detected" but not being an expert in these things I'm proberly reading the log incorrectly anyway.

Does Windows contain a log which will list all updates to the system and at what time these updates occur? (not windows scheduler)

Next Wednesday I'll close Sage down for the night and see if Windows still locksup on Thursday afternoon. Then if it does I know its a Windows problem and not Sage.

The biggest pain is waiting a week to see if any changes I make cure the problem.

Overall I'm still impressed with the stability of Sage and its user functions and after 4 months of setting up Sage and sorting out problem after problem its almost 100% stable/complete.

Cheers

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by doc

After reading your log file a bit more, you're using SageMC (I think). Have you got the latest version? and have you tried using the stock STV.

Yes, I think I tried the stock UI way back. Yes its all updated to the latest versions.

Originally Posted by doc

Are you running any auto-compress utilities? or autoarchive stuff?

Not as far as I know I'm not. I use Acronis to make backups of my c drive once a week but thats sceduled for Saturday mornings.

Originally Posted by doc

Grabbing at straws... are your recording drives local or mapped network ones. You record direct to F:\ You could try creating a folder underneath it to store them in rather than the root itself. This will probably make no difference whatsoever, but I dont like putting files directly in the root of a drive.

Its a local drive and my first install did have a folder which all the recordings got placed into. So I dont think its that.

Originally Posted by doc

After that, I'm afraid I'm out of ideas

Ok, Thankyou for taking the time to try and help me.

I'll figure it out eventually and even if I dont its not a major hassle to press the reset button once a week. I just have to convince the missus that its not all that bad and teach her how to reset the PC

[doc]

Originally Posted by jaminben

Does Windows contain a log which will list all updates to the system and at what time these updates occur? (not windows scheduler)

Thats one of the main things that bugs me about windows. I'm used to mainframes where they have log files that say every single thing thats going on, and in windows you get an event viewer that only puts stuff in when a program is intelligent enough to write to it when it knows something has gone wrong.

The only other time I've seen something go wrong on after a predetermined number of days was on some older fibre network cards, which would lock the server up after 49 days.

Have you checked if you have the latest bios/drivers for your motherboard/cards etc? if your sage box gets rebooted every thursday and a register in a driver somewhere fills after 7 days, it will always end up failing on the same day.

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by doc

Have you checked if you have the latest bios/drivers for your motherboard/cards etc? if your sage box gets rebooted every thursday and a register in a driver somewhere fills after 7 days, it will always end up failing on the same day.

Bios is latest version (22/08/07)
All Drivers are updated

Do you know if Nvidia have an auto update for their SLi Mobo's (drivers not Bios) including Network and Video cards. I've tried to find an auto update for Nvidia components but havent found it yet.

[PGPfan]

I've seen some of the newer m/b manufacturers using auto-update software (some at the bios level) that look for updates automatically and regularly. Granted it's a longshot, but might be worth looking at.

-PGPfan

[jaminben]

If I remember rightly I have an Asus P5N32-E PLUS SLi nForce (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (need to check later). Being very lazy here but does anyone know off hand if this board updates itself automatically? I will chweck myself later but other members of the house are using the system right now so I cant check it out manually.

[doc]

The latest bios for your motherboard is 0805.

I don't think ASUS have an auto-update facility. I have one ASUS mobo and I've never seen anything.

Do you use your sage box a dedicated sage box? the reason I ask is that once you get it working and working well, I find it best to then disable all auto-updating. I haven't done a driver or windows update on mine for about 6 months now.

My main desktop though autoupdates as much as it likes, I don't mind if something messes it up too much.

[jaminben]

I do have the 0805 bios installed.

The box is a dedicated unit and is only used to watch Tv etc in the bedroom. Like you I have disabled all the auto updates I can find including system restore, my main desktop updates as much as it likes.
I do remember installing the Asus tools when I first built the pc a couple of months ago to keep an eye on the temp / voltages etc, once I was happy that it was running ok I uninstalled it and am now wondering if that maybe causing the problem.

Edit : I've been thinking about my problem whilst in the bath and I'm not sure if this is coincidence or paranoia but I'm 100% sure I built the pc on a Thursday. The reason I'm sure it was a Thursday is I dont work Fridays and I remember ordering the parts to arrive on a Thursday so I had all evening to build it and Friday to sort out the software side of it.

Coincidence or Paranoia ???

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by jaminben

...

Coincidence or Paranoia ???

Both

[jaminben]

I seem to have solved the issue which is lucky as I've only changed two settings. (still early but I'm hopefull)

For those that are intrested the settings I've changed are disabling the auto update of the clock and plug and play in the bios from OS to system.

I will re-enable the update of the clock next week and see if it dies again. Until then thanks for everyones help