Sage being funky - PC Hardware or Software

[srothwell]

My sage server has been getting progressively worse and worse.

On an every-other-day basis either my HDPVR's disconnect from the computer and have to be power-cycled and/or my USBUIRT stops changing the channels on my cable boxes.

The latter results in me having to reboot the server as unplugging and re-plugging in the USBUIRT won't fix the issue. The part that REALLY sucks is that for the last year or so, if I restart the server for any reason, I have to reinstall the drivers for the HDPVR's every single time.

I *think* I've narrowed the issue down to either the USB portion of the motherboard is either failing or hiccupping, causing the issues -- or windows is just funky and I need to reinstall everything from scratch.

Just looking for anyone else here that have had issues similar to this before I start either buying a new USB PCI card -- or worse -- reinstalling windows and sage, which will be a two-day process to get everything working again.

Thanks!

[wayner]

Are you sure that this isn't a problem with the power supply for the HD-PVR? Eventually they will pretty much all fail.

If you do have to reinstall everything then do it on a new hard drive, preferably an SSD. That way you can always go back to the old hard drive if you want.

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by wayner

Are you sure that this isn't a problem with the power supply for the HD-PVR? Eventually they will pretty much all fail.

If you do have to reinstall everything then do it on a new hard drive, preferably an SSD. That way you can always go back to the old hard drive if you want.

My first thought, too. I have replaced both of those already. But in addition, having other issues as well. When it just stops talking, you can just power cycle them and it's fine. But when you reboot the server, you have to install all the drivers again. And there's the issue of the USBUIRT stopping working until you reboot the server.

Thanks for the reply!

[wayner]

Then I think you are right, it could be something funky in the USB drivers or hardware. USB cards are pretty cheap, you can probabl.y get them for under $20. Assuming that you are running a 32 bit OS then firewire channel changing might be an option as well. Or serial or TCP-IP tuning.

[waynedunham]

You don't say which version of Windows you are using, but have you taken a look at the Event logs in Event Viewer? There may be a hint in there as to what is failing which may point to software/driver vs hardware.

I'd also take a look at how you have things hooked up. I'd try moving the USB devices to another host, or at the very least splitting them between hosts. You'll usually have at least 2 USB Hosts if not more on your Mobo.
Sometimes one host is for the rear ports and one for the front ports, or maybe even one that isn't carried outside the case. You may have to buy/find an external USB port that will take up one of your slot holes in the case and has a cable to plug into the USB host on the Mobo.

If it were just the HD-PVR's then my money would have been on their power supplies. I had one that would wink on and off randomly and it turned out to be the the power supply. Many others have had the same issue.
However with the USB-UIRT also winking out that probably isn't the issue. Unless of course those are all plugged into the same power strip and it is going bad.(or plugged into the "switched" port of a UPS which powers off/on when one of the other plugs on the UPS detects a device is on/off)