Another spinning circle of death

[t4runnr]

I tried searching the forum for this but my search skills are not that great or I'm not searching for the right issue.

Anyway, I have a sage server running on a core i5 750. I also have a couple client pc's running on some amd itx systems. I believe they're e350 processors. All systems are using v7 and using Gemstone.

Everything was working great for the past 2 years with no issues. But all of a sudden, the server and the 2 clients are taking forever to load mkv movies when play is started. And once they start, hitting fast forward or rewind or stopping causes another long spinning circle. Its happening on all 3 systems.

I didn't change any settings. The one thing I noticed though is that some of the old DVD formats play just fine. The issues are only with mkv movies. I copying some of the mkvs to the same hard drive that I store my DVD movies to see if its my hard drive, but the issue occurs regardless of what drive the mkv is on.

I turned on logging in the settings. At least I think I did. But I don't know where to find the log files so that I can post them.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[gdippel]

Check your server's hard drives. I had a similar "circle of death" issue. Turned to be a hard drive acting up. Once I replaced it, problem solved. Also check your network connections, there are instructions on the forum on using iperf to check your network throughput.

[t4runnr]

Thank you. I'll do that tonight.

I actually have a new 3TB hard drive that needs to be installed. I'll migrate the movies to that and see what happens. Although, the movies start up pretty quick when I test them with VLC.

I don't think its the network. Because when I try to play movies locally on the server, the same thing happens.

[wayner]

I would say it is likely the server system drive. Replace it with an SSD and you should see things work much better.

[t4runnr]

The system drive is using a ssd. The client uses a ssd. I wish this was the problem but unfortunately it is not.

All programs start up just fine, even sagetv starts up just fine. DVD ts videos start up just fine. Up until a few days ago, mkv movies started up just fine. But now mkv movies get the spinning circle. DVDs still start up just fine. I even moved some ts videos to the drive that the mkvs are on and the ts videos start up just fine. Still no luck with mkv. I even tried a system restore to an update from a month ago on server and client and I'm still getting the mkv issue.

The server has 16gb ram. The client had 8gb. Both running win 7 and connected via gigabit network. Both using sage v7 and gemstone.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by t4runnr

The system drive is using a ssd. The client uses a ssd. I wish this was the problem but unfortunately it is not.

All programs start up just fine, even sagetv starts up just fine. DVD ts videos start up just fine. Up until a few days ago, mkv movies started up just fine. But now mkv movies get the spinning circle. DVDs still start up just fine. I even moved some ts videos to the drive that the mkvs are on and the ts videos start up just fine. Still no luck with mkv. I even tried a system restore to an update from a month ago on server and client and I'm still getting the mkv issue.

The server has 16gb ram. The client had 8gb. Both running win 7 and connected via gigabit network. Both using sage v7 and gemstone.

If "nothing" has really changed on your clients and your severs... then I would seriously look at the network, even though, you've more or less ruled it out.

I had a system, very similar to yours, working well for 2+ years, no issues, and then suddenly, mkv files would be slow to load, and skipping was painfully slow. I spent weeks troubleshooting the server, client, etc, and in the end... is was bad port on my router. The port wasn't dead... it was "bad"...ie, way too many packets we being dropped for whatever reason. I moved the cable to another open spot on the router, and like magic, everything turned back to normal. Anyways, I wouldn't be so quick to rule out a network issue. Keep in mind as well, that even when you run your client on the server, it may still be using a tcpip connection to communicate... which may be going through your network card on the server.... I guess I'd start there, and make sure the nic on the server is not dropping packets.

[t4runnr]

Thanks. I will try that.

But how would that explain the issue with playback on the server itself?

[t4runnr]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

When I mentioned that I did a system restore from a month ago, I accidently selected a system restore point from the day the issue happened. Found that out when I checked the system restore history. I had meant to pick a restore point a month before that.

Anyway, I decided to try a restore point from a previous windows update before the issue occurred. Everything works great now. So the update from 2/19/14 which was a malicious code check tool was really bogging down mkv playback on SageTV. Interesting that it didn't affect VLC playback.

So now I've changed windows update from automatic to notification only so that I can run the update and see if it bogs down playback. If it does I can restore to just before it.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I will definitely keep those in mind if similar issues occur that windows update didn't cause.

[rickgillyon]

I've had the same sort of problem the last couple of weeks, but only on two of my clients, both Intel Atom D525B systems (Acer Revo). All of a sudden HD videos wouldn't play, just the spinning circle, most of mine are mp4s.

Just spent hours diagnosing unsuccessfully, what worked in the end was restoring to end of December and disabling Windows updates immediately (at one point one update got on between restore and disabling WU, and the failure came back). So might be worth a try.

EDIT: Too slow!

[t4runnr]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

I've had the same sort of problem the last couple of weeks, but only on two of my clients, both Intel Atom D525B systems (Acer Revo). All of a sudden HD videos wouldn't play, just the spinning circle, most of mine are mp4s.

Just spent hours diagnosing unsuccessfully, what worked in the end was restoring to end of December and disabling Windows updates immediately (at one point one update got on between restore and disabling WU, and the failure came back). So might be worth a try.

EDIT: Too slow!

It's all good. After digging deeper into what update actually caused it was an update to my antivirus software (MS Security Essentials). When I disabled the real-time protection, everything worked without restoring. So whatever was in the new updated definitions is causing my mkv issues.

Unfortunately the server is also my main home pc so I do a lot of other stuff other than as a media server so I'd like to have the security software running. I'll dig into it more. Maybe get a different security suite.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by t4runnr

It's all good. After digging deeper into what update actually caused it was an update to my antivirus software (MS Security Essentials). When I disabled the real-time protection, everything worked without restoring. So whatever was in the new updated definitions is causing my mkv issues.

Unfortunately the server is also my main home pc so I do a lot of other stuff other than as a media server so I'd like to have the security software running. I'll dig into it more. Maybe get a different security suite.

Why don't you exclude the Sagetv recording directories in essentials. No programs should be running from these folders.

To exclude files and folders:

Open Microsoft Security Essentials, click the Settings tab and select Excluded files & locations, and then use the Add button to select files, folders, or drives.

[t4runnr]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Why don't you exclude the Sagetv recording directories in essentials. No programs should be running from these folders.

To exclude files and folders:

Open Microsoft Security Essentials, click the Settings tab and select Excluded files & locations, and then use the Add button to select files, folders, or drives.

You're awesome! That did the trick.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[arialmt]

Had the same issue, had. Just want to extend a grateful Thank You!. Excluded the SageTV folder at the root of C and Normality was restored. As PlayOn user I should have known to do this already .

[SHS]

Cool Beans awesome! that did the trick

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by SHS

Cool Beans awesome! that did the trick

Another tip is to make sure Indexing is disabled.

Goto Control Panel in the search box Type in Index you will see indexing options... exclude your recording drives and SageTV install directory.

PS on Windows 8 and 8.1 make sure to exclude the folders in Defender.

[mtncrux]

Just logged into the forum to search on this exact topic. I have the same symptoms and they started about the same time. Will try adjusting the MSE settings tonight.

You guys are awesome. Thanks for the help!!!!!!! I would have given up on Sage by now without this forum to help me out.

[patja]

I will add one more nuance to this problem that I've learned over the years. I run comskip and have never bothered to automate the cleanup of the comskip files (I know, shame shame shame). Over time they accumulate and once I get over a few thousand files in my recording folder I start getting the circle of death or inability to FF/REW reliably until I clean them up.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by patja

I will add one more nuance to this problem that I've learned over the years. I run comskip and have never bothered to automate the cleanup of the comskip files (I know, shame shame shame). Over time they accumulate and once I get over a few thousand files in my recording folder I start getting the circle of death or inability to FF/REW reliably until I clean them up.

I use Dirmon2 to cleanup the files.

[KryptoNyte]

Are there any other files, besides the comskip files, that need periodic cleanup to keep the system running smooth?

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Are there any other files, besides the comskip files, that need periodic cleanup to keep the system running smooth?

properties xml if you create them