HD PVR just turns itself off - quite often

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

anyone have any experience with Hauppauge RMA process, aka how long it takes to turn around? They received my HD PVR just over two weeks ago and I haven't heard a thing . . . normal for Hauppauge?

I think mine took about 2 weeks, but I also overnighted it to them. I also wouldn't expect a "normal" turnaround in December. Personally, I'd give them until the end of next week and then contact them. But, at times, I'm more tolerant than I should be (and vice versa), so it's obviously your call.

[tvmaster2]

ok, thanks. I thought the Xmas factor may delay it a bit as well, so I guess no worries yet.

[tvmaster2]

I'm out of ideas . . .

How many things could cause the HD PVR to just shut itself off?

Power supply
software
unit itself

any more I haven't thought of, like the HTPC itself, a USB anomoly or a hard drive read / write error possibly?

how many things could be reasons for the HD PVR to just drop-trow and shut down?

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I'm out of ideas . . .

How many things could cause the HD PVR to just shut itself off?

Power supply
software
unit itself

any more I haven't thought of, like the HTPC itself, a USB anomoly or a hard drive read / write error possibly?

how many things could be reasons for the HD PVR to just drop-trow and shut down?

TVmaster2

In summary; You now have a different HDPVR, but your original problem of the the HDPVR shutting off persists. Correct?

If that is the case we can assume you have not changed the source of the problem. My first guess would be USB controller, but you might be surprise by the actual source of the problem. I had a server which had many intermittent problems which I could not track down, then I installed a UPS and noted that I averaged two power outages a month. Each power outage was less then two seconds. The clocks in the house were not even resetting with a two second power outage, but the computer was having issues.

I suggest you attach the HDPVR to another computer, and try to get the HDPVR working solid.

[thopkin1]

tvmaster2:
I have had similar issues trying to figure out the HD-PVR, mine were more in the fashion of rebooting itself when recording or even when using as a "pass-through". I was struggling so much so I called Hauppauge and received a RMA number but have not yet sent is in. Here is what has helped to resolve my issues (running for a week now with no problems [knock on wood]):
1.) Uncheck the box in Device Manager for each USB Hub "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
2.) Cover the IR port on the HD-PVR with electrical tape
3.) Delete the current sage .Properties file and the backup

My problems continued until I deleted the .properties file. I deleted both the sage .properties files as well as the extender .properties files. This seems to be the solution. If I were you I would take the time to delete these and rebuild them by going back through the setup the first time you start sage back up. Just my 2 cents!

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by thopkin1

tvmaster2:
I have had similar issues trying to figure out the HD-PVR, mine were more in the fashion of rebooting itself when recording or even when using as a "pass-through". I was struggling so much so I called Hauppauge and received a RMA number but have not yet sent is in. Here is what has helped to resolve my issues (running for a week now with no problems [knock on wood]):
1.) Uncheck the box in Device Manager for each USB Hub "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"
2.) Cover the IR port on the HD-PVR with electrical tape
3.) Delete the current sage .Properties file and the backup

My problems continued until I deleted the .properties file. I deleted both the sage .properties files as well as the extender .properties files. This seems to be the solution. If I were you I would take the time to delete these and rebuild them by going back through the setup the first time you start sage back up. Just my 2 cents!

OK, I'll try the "allow the computer to turn off" thing next.
What purpose does covering the IR port achieve, especially since I use the Hauppauge remote to control the unit (which seems to work fine).
I have reinstalled Sage 7 completely, whcih I assume deletes the properties file?
I also run my entire equipment room through a Furman line conditioner, so a steady electrical current is usually supplied. I've never noticed a problem with any equipment in 12 years having power-related problems.
I've also tried installing a PCI USB card, in case the on-board USB circuit is bad somehow.
Even though Hauppauge sent a new unit under RMA, the S/PDIF connectors are so badly made that the cable BARELY stays connected - the slightest tug on the cable and it's out. Seriously BAD quality control from Hauppauge.
It's just too bad there isn't another company making a unit to do what this one does, since their quality control is so suspect.
sigh

[gplasky]

Depends what you mean by uninstalled completely. If you just uninstalled Sage your .properties file is still there along with other files like wiz.bin. If you uninstalled and blew away the directory then you started with a new .properties file. Did you also run hwclear to completely remove the hd-pvr drivers and reinstall before you installed Sage?

Gerry

[thopkin1]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I have reinstalled Sage 7 completely, whcih I assume deletes the properties file?

Before deleting the .properties files, I had reinstalled Sage, Updated Sage, moved Sage to a new PC and then reinstalled, but the .properties files remain. If you uninstall you must wipe out the Sage directory and then reinstall or many of your original setting will remain.

My Best advice is to delete the .properties files, it worked for me when all else failed.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Depends what you mean by uninstalled completely. If you just uninstalled Sage your .properties file is still there along with other files like wiz.bin. If you uninstalled and blew away the directory then you started with a new .properties file. Did you also run hwclear to completely remove the hd-pvr drivers and reinstall before you installed Sage?

Gerry

I ran the control panel uninstaller, but it's possible the dir remained? And yes, ran hwclear, re-intalled HD-PVR and TME, updated both, then re-installed Sage 7.
Also, I've been running off a Radio Shack AC adapter the last 12 hours, and no crashes yet...

[gplasky]

If all you did was run the uninstall then the directory and your .properties was still there. So it wan't a "clean" install.

Gerry

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Even though Hauppauge sent a new unit under RMA, the S/PDIF connectors are so badly made that the cable BARELY stays connected - the slightest tug on the cable and it's out. Seriously BAD quality control from Hauppauge.
It's just too bad there isn't another company making a unit to do what this one does, since their quality control is so suspect.
sigh

Have you considered that the S/PDIF conection may be the problem? If you are out of ideas, I would suggest at least testing with the analog stereo connection instead for a while and see what happens.

Personally, I have never had a single problem with the HD-PVR, but I don't use the S/PDIF connnector or the IR Blaster/Receiver. I have the USBUIRT tune the wrong channel, and I had some codec issues with playback at first, but none of those were not the HD-PVR's fault. I've even changed the video format between 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i in the middle of the recording without corrupting the files. My theory is that the real problem with the HD-PVR is the digital audio (sure there were probably other problems with early models including overheating, but I think most of those problems have already been fixed).

A large number of the people reporting problems use the digital audio connection and from the other threads it appears that if there is a glitch in the digital signal, it can cause the HD-PVR to choke on the whole recording.

With an analog signal, if you unplugged the audio cable, the signal would basically be the same as if the tv show just had a silent section. But with a digital signal, there is constant signaling going on (Even when the sound is supposed to be silent) to keep the audio and video synched, so if it looses the signal it could screw up the synchronization and if the driver isn't very robust, I'm guessing it could cause the whole encoding process to fail.

Ideally, the programmers of the HD-PVR could figure out a way to detect this condition and recover gracefully (automatically re-synching the audio and video when the sound comes back and repairing any corruption in the recording file so that it will be playable even if sound is missing from part of it). Unfortunately, I think that right now it recovers by halting the recording and re-setting the HD-PVR.

I suspect that many of these problems are caused just by an occasional bad signal from the cable company, but if you have a flaky connector, it seems even more likely that you could get some audio glitches or drop-outs.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Have you considered that the S/PDIF conection may be the problem? If you are out of ideas, I would suggest at least testing with the analog stereo connection instead for a while and see what happens.

Personally, I have never had a single problem with the HD-PVR, but I don't use the S/PDIF connnector or the IR Blaster/Receiver. I have the USBUIRT tune the wrong channel, and I had some codec issues with playback at first, but none of those were not the HD-PVR's fault. I've even changed the video format between 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i in the middle of the recording without corrupting the files. My theory is that the real problem with the HD-PVR is the digital audio (sure there were probably other problems with early models including overheating, but I think most of those problems have already been fixed).

A large number of the people reporting problems use the digital audio connection and from the other threads it appears that if there is a glitch in the digital signal, it can cause the HD-PVR to choke on the whole recording.

With an analog signal, if you unplugged the audio cable, the signal would basically be the same as if the tv show just had a silent section. But with a digital signal, there is constant signaling going on (Even when the sound is supposed to be silent) to keep the audio and video synched, so if it looses the signal it could screw up the synchronization and if the driver isn't very robust, I'm guessing it could cause the whole encoding process to fail.

Ideally, the programmers of the HD-PVR could figure out a way to detect this condition and recover gracefully (automatically re-synching the audio and video when the sound comes back and repairing any corruption in the recording file so that it will be playable even if sound is missing from part of it). Unfortunately, I think that right now it recovers by halting the recording and re-setting the HD-PVR.

I suspect that many of these problems are caused just by an occasional bad signal from the cable company, but if you have a flaky connector, it seems even more likely that you could get some audio glitches or drop-outs.

yeah, it makes sense it could cause problems.
and if I was forced to NOT use 5.1 audio with HD video, well, then it's time to sell

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

yeah, it makes sense it could cause problems.
and if I was forced to NOT use 5.1 audio with HD video, well, then it's time to sell

I know there are many who agree with you and consider the sound difference between 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround to be just as big and just as important as the difference between SD video and HD video.

However, if all else fails, I think it would be a worthwhile troubleshooting step. If you have the problems on a regular basis right now, you might try switching to analog stereo for a week and if the problem goes away you will have some pretty strong evidence of the cause of the problems that you can report back to Sage and Hauppague.

[tvmaster2]

OK, day 2 1/2 of using a Radio Shack power supply - knocking on wood as I say it has not turned itself of yet.
Replacement power supply just arrived in the mail from Hauppauge - now the fun begins

[stevech]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

OK, day 2 1/2 of using a Radio Shack power supply - knocking on wood as I say it has not turned itself of yet.
Replacement power supply just arrived in the mail from Hauppauge - now the fun begins

and, the answer is?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stevech

and, the answer is?

never a drop with the Radio Shack power supply, and after 12 hours continuous with the new one shipped from Hauppauge (which has different labelling on it than the one that came with the 1212), no shut-downs yet....

[Steve20A]

I have also been having some recording problems with the HD-PVR (Halt Detected in Recording) and thought I'd replace the power supply, just in case it was contributing to the issue. I had an unused DLink power supply that had been mentioned previously in this thread. But to my surprise, the power supply that came with the HD-PVR said it was a 3A unit. [HD-PVD Rev E1, Power supply NetBit, FSAFD0500300W1US, 5V 3A]

I replaced it with the 2A to test for a while, but does anyone else have a 3A original power supply?

[Beefcake550]

No, but I'm in the same boat.....had a Netbit 3A, 5V supply die and a spare Dlink 2A 5V supply hangin' around. I have been using the Dlink 2A for 3 days no hiccups.

[larryf]

Originally Posted by Steve20A

I have also been having some recording problems with the HD-PVR (Halt Detected in Recording) and thought I'd replace the power supply, just in case it was contributing to the issue. I had an unused DLink power supply that had been mentioned previously in this thread. But to my surprise, the power supply that came with the HD-PVR said it was a 3A unit. [HD-PVD Rev E1, Power supply NetBit, FSAFD0500300W1US, 5V 3A]

I replaced it with the 2A to test for a while, but does anyone else have a 3A original power supply?

Lots of people are using the D-link supply, you can find them on Ebay for fairly cheap... My rev C2 had a 3A, I replaced it with a D-link. My newer rev F2 came with a 2A.

I'm fairly certain the AF-1805A D-link supply is a 2.5A, I'll have to drag mine out from under the cabinet to look.

Larry

Edited to say.... Yup, it's 2.5 Amps.

[wayner]

There are now a couple of threads about bad power supplies on the HD-PVR. There is an interesting blog posting about this and it turns out that the power supple manufacturer used cheap capacitors as can be seen in this photo.