Query to all Hauppauge PVR-350 users

[zz5]

Hector, so do you still get the FF/REW lockup? How often do you get it? Or are your only lockups due to the end-of-file bug?

[Hector]

To be honest I don't think it ever happens any more on transport. 2.0 was very solid after cooling the card. Once I learned that FF/REW stressed the CPU as much as it did initially I started being cognizant of this and just pausing briefly between FF/REW presses. The difference is noticeable if you watch the task manager. Since then tho I've gotten more confident and to prove the point I can easily FF all the way though a high quality recording of a football game (3-3.5 hours) reach the end and REW all the way back as fast as I can press the remote keys without a problem. Before cooling, if I hit FF/REW more than a few times in a row the OSD would lock up.

I do lose the OSD on occasion in the latest beta versions but it usually is restored on it's own if you force sage to draw another screen i.e. navigate to the main menu etc. In 2.0 it was not a problem at all. I think this is more that Sage is getting stressed on another bug and the intensive OSD buggers up while it sorts it self out. It is beta after all.

End of file bug still happens all the time. What's interesting about this is that two other apps that I have tried that use the 350's tvout (including WinTV that comes with it) skip the end of file altogether so that might mean there is something going on here that is problematic before Frey gets to it. By this I mean the player stops playing before the file ends avoiding the issue altogether. With WinTV I never actually see the absolute end of a file, it always stops a few seconds before its completed.

Just a little more anecdotal evidence on heat. My first attempt was just to put a small desk fan on the floor next to the open case to cool the chip and prove the point. No lockups for a few days then suddenly they are back. Defeated and figuring I had just been lucky I check the case to find that my gf turned off the fan because it was making her feet cold.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by zz5

Hector, so do you still get the FF/REW lockup? How often do you get it? Or are your only lockups due to the end-of-file bug?

[Scott5]

Anybody else tried the extra cooling? A few more data points would be great on success with the 350...

[ckron]

Scott5, did you get the Soyo MB from Newegg that was free after rebates?

[Scott5]

Yes - They offered two reciently, I got the later one with the on-board S-video out. The mobo worked great - however, the on-board video (ati 9100) isn't so hot... I just sent the board back in to soyo becasue I can't get a good S-video signal - it was "strobing" with vibrant, false colors. Hopefully, the replacement will work better but I'm not sure it the on board video will be up to the task required by sage...

How have you been fairing?

[bhageman]

Highly unscientific, but I took the side panel off my tower, I was able to reduce lockups to only EOF issues. Not aesthetically pleasing and it increases fan noise, but it works.

Originally Posted by Scott5

Anybody else tried the extra cooling? A few more data points would be great on success with the 350...

[zz5]

Thanks for the great post, Hector.

Here's my history with the 350. It has the transport (ffw/rew) lockup about once a week. It's completely dependent on how much ffw/rew I do. If I do about an hour of constant ffw/rew it will usually lockup. By that I mean just holding down the buttons and jumping back and forth through the file continuously the whole time. Other people's system would lock up a lot sooner, so my problem has never been as bad. I now have the card cooler in my system. It's been in there for 6 months or so. I had been running it without a card cooler for 6 months before that. The card cooler is blowing air directly on the 350, but it hasn't really made any difference in the number of lockups. So I had kind of written off the idea that heat was the problem.

But with the thread you started on the 350 awhile back, now I'm back to thinking my problem is heat. Since I've never been convinced the problem was heat, I've never done any really good testing to find out. I've used the house fan method like you did before when testing other heating problems in the past, and I'm going to be taking my system down soon and try it out. It may just need a little more cooling. If I find out that for sure my problem is just cooling, I might try to take the heat sink off and use a chipset heatsink with fan that I have. That would be the ultimate cooling solution.

[pcuoco]

I add a slot cooler and no longer get lockups on FF/REW, but still hav the EOF bug to contend with.

I believe laurenglenn's old STV stopped Sage from reaching the EOF as well, and I read that it worked. I never got around to trying it out. Hoepfully Frey will see this thread and implement something similar for the next release.

[cummings66]

I added a slot cooler and no longer have lockups or audio sync problems either, at least in 2 days it's been perfect. I also added another case fan to the front to suck in more air.

It seems to help.

[krutaw]

Originally Posted by Scott5

Anybody else tried the extra cooling? A few more data points would be great on success with the 350...

Scott ~

I had to put a PCI blower in my system pulling the hot air directly off of the PVR-350 in order to resolve lock ups. Me thinks they have a heat problem.

[Hector]

I sure agree with that. Thanks to everyone for posting their results, it looks like we've built a pretty good case here.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by krutaw

Scott ~

I had to put a PCI blower in my system pulling the hot air directly off of the PVR-350 in order to resolve lock ups. Me thinks they have a heat problem.

[Menehune]

I ran some tests on my 350 and using an infrared thermometer (non-contact, held 2" away from surfaces tested) I got between 140-150F (60-63C) on the heatsink and the back of the board. The back side of the circuit board was running at 120F (53C) and the PCI connector was running 105F (43C). Room ambient 71F (23C).

Just idling, playing a DVD on the VGA output of my Via Eden, not using video out. I didn't have a monitor connected to the video out to see if the output was active.

[nickp]

I have to say I had lock up problems with the 350. Since adding a fan that blows directly over it. I get almost no problems at all. Occasionally the end of program lockup but if you wait it seems to fix itself.