Can't tune clear QAM or OTA with various tuners

[gdippel]

After using a PVR 1850 for a few years to tune clear QAM channels (and OTA when Time Warner took CBS off the air in August) I suddenly received an error message similar to the one attached to this post (this message is actually from an attempted instaltion of a HVR 1950.) I replaced the 1850 with a PVR 2250 which also was a no go. It installed but won't pick up any channels, either clear QAM or OTA. I know clear QAM is still available as I can receive it on a direct cable connection to my TV. Thinking it may be a problem with my mother board's PCIE slots, I exchanged the PVR 22250 for a HVR 1950 which connects via USB. Still no luck. I tried wiping the system clean of old drivers using the Hauppauge HWC utility. Strange thing is the 1950 does pick up channels on my laptop. Both my sage server and laptop are running windows 7. Any ideas?

[BobPhoenix]

I once had my cable attached to the FM input and wondered why nothing worked. You didn't by chance do the same thing did you? I'm not at home currently so I can't look at my HVR-2250 and tell you which is correct.

[gdippel]

I re-installed my Happauge 1850 card and believing this is a software/windows registry problem, booted up windows XP. I did a scan using WIN TV and it did acquire OTA channels. Anyone know what registry entries may haver been corrupted under windows 7? Since I re-installed the Hauppauge drivers after deleting old drivers (using Hauppauge's driver clean utility) I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to a registry corruption problem. Of course I don't have a backup of windows 7 with a working 1850. As a last resort, I guess I can re-install Windows 7 but that would be a royal PITA!

[gdippel]

After exhausting all other options (including speaking with a support rep at Hauppauge who seemed as puzzled as I was as to why I couldn't scan OTA or Clear QAM with the 1850 card) I spent the weekend re-installing windows 7 and Sage TV. One benefit of re-installing Windows and Sage was that in addition to getting back clear QAM channels, I got rid of a lot of crap in my Sage directory which had accumulated since 2003 as I've always upgraded over an existing installation. The fresh install also drastically reduced Sage start-up time. I guess it will remain a Microsoft Windows mystery as to why this problem popped up after several years of use of the 1850.

BTW, I learned my lesson and I'm making sure to back up an image of my windows partition with a working Sage installation.