Hauppauge PVR-250 driver and/or decoder freezes computer

[truittj]

I'm having troubles with my computer freezing in 30 minutes - 2 hours of running SageTV. I've got a fresh install running on Windows XP (also a fresh install) on the following hardware:

nVidia nForce 7NIF2 summit chaintech
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2200
512MB DDR
PVR-250
160GB Samsung SP1614N

After installing the hardware, but before installing SageTV, I let the computer run overnight, and had no problems.

After installing SageTV, it would freeze up the computer in anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours, whether SageTV was active or "asleep". To further test things, I tried leaving WinTV2K running, and it too froze the computer in 1 1/2 hours. So now I'm suspecting the drivers or decoder as being the problem. However, I've tried the decoder and drivers from the installation CD, the drivers from Hauppauge.com, sage.tv, snapstream.com (both versions), and shspvr.com. With testing it taking as long as 2 hours, the process is getting kind of trying.

Does anyone know of a good PVR-250 driver version and decoder for AMD/nVidia hardware?

Thanks for any help!

-Jim

[ToonGal]

Originally Posted by truittj

Does anyone know of a good PVR-250 driver version and decoder for AMD/nVidia hardware?

You mention SHS, but don't say which 250 driver you got from his site (i.e. forum or site). On the off chance you didn't get drivers from the forum, his latest drivers are at: http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6679. I have 3 PVR-250s, and it works fine for me.

Don't have an nVidia; I use ATI. However, nVidia DVD Decoder is popular, or the InterVideo ones that come with the Hauppauge CD should do the job.

Hope this is helpful, hun. Good luck.

[truittj]

ToonGal, thanks for the link! I installed driver 1.18.21.22301 from CD Release 2.2.22301 in SHS's post following the instructions. I used that setup.exe to install Hauppauge WinTV-PVR Dll Update 2.2.22292 and Hauppauge Software MPEG Decoder 5.0.22236.

SageTV ran fine for about an hour (I left it tuned in to a channel and watching) and then froze.

Has no one else had this happen? I've seached through the forum for hours, but can only find suggestions to update the drivers. Am I looking at the right thing, is there anything else that could cause this?

-Jim

[ToonGal]

Originally Posted by truittj

Am I looking at the right thing, is there anything else that could cause this?

LOTS of things can cause this. It comes down to what you are doing on your computer in addition to SageTV. For example, at times I use the HTPC as a computer (like now), since it is always on. I find that the computer freezes w/ IE running while scrolling, with various java, and other misc things.

I'd post more detailed info here to get help:
- Computer specifications (h/w)
- Active applications (s/w)
- SageTV specifics (version, STV, etc)
- Drivers / versions (although you are probably current)

In general, I don't have problems at all like you describe, so it's got to be something locally on your end. I get freezes occasionally, and even an auto reboot problem I've never figured out. I'm betting listing the stuff you have will help isolate the issue.

[truittj]

OK, here goes:

Computer:
nVidia nForce 7NIF2 summit chaintech motherboard
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2200 CPU
512MB DDR memory
Hauppauge PVR-250 card
160GB Samsung SP1614N hard drive

software (from Control Panel add/remove sofware):
Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (inactive)
C-Media 3D Audio
Hauppauge WinTV Infrared Remote
Hauppauge WinTV2000
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250 Drivers
Intervideo FilterSDK for Hauppauge
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 1
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (inactive)
NVIDIA Gart Driver
NVIDIA Windows 2000/XP Display Drivers
NVIDIA Windwos 2000/XP nForce Drivers
Quicktime (inactive)
SageTV
SSH Secure Shell (inactive)
Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 SE (inactive)
Windows XP Service Pack 2

SageTV version 2.1.10, OriginalV2 STV

Hauppauge PVR-250 driver 1.18.21.22301 (from SHS)
WinTV-PVR Dll Update 2.2.22292 (from SHS)
Hauppauge Software MPEG Decoder 5.0.22236 (from SHS)

I'll play around with things like slot in the motherboard and whether or not IE is running to see what happens.

Thanks for the input!

[truittj]

Well, I also have a PVR-350 card that I've been leaving out to not complicate matters. I tried removing the PVR-250 and putting the PVR-350 into a different slot (otherwise using the same drivers/decoder/Sage installation). SageTV seemed to run longer in sleep mode this time (5hrs+), but after an hour of watching a recording (while the tuner was recording), the computer froze up on me. So the problem is not specific to the card or the slot it's installed it. Maybe the audio drivers?

-Jim

[wrwaugh]

Also check your Java for current

[truittj]

Well, I'm using J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 1, which is the current 1.5.0 JRE. Should I maybe consider downgrading to 1.4.2, or have others used 1.5.0 without problems?

-Jim

[fventura]

>Well, I'm using J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 1, which is the current 1.5.0 JRE. Should I maybe consider downgrading to 1.4.2, or have others used 1.5.0 without problems?<

When trying to update from SAgeTV 2.0beta to 2.1.x I had lots of lockup problems and I was running 1/5/0 JRE.

The only thing that fixed it for me was to uninstall Sage and Java, reboot, install Java 1.4.2, reboot, install SageTV.

[DRM2PVR]

I recently stepped up my hardware and had the same type of problems. Something to consider is the hardware you have changed to. I found my new equipment to run fine under low processing use but to freeze under heavy use. Something that helped me track this down was Passmarks performance tests. On a fresh reboot it would run 'all tests' just fine, but the second or third pass would lock the machine or cause a spontanious reboot. After swapping just about everything on and off the motherboard and and running the testes at every phase, it turned out to be the motherboard. Once swapped out, my freezing went away. They have a trial download thats fully functional.

http://www.passmark.com/

Had a friend with similar problems. He bought a motherboard / chip combo from Fry's that ended up having a bad motherboard as well. This tool helped to single out the motherboard over all the other gear. Good luck.

[truittj]

fventura, thanks for the suggestion. I removed Java 1.5.0 and installed 1.4.2_07 instead. Things at first seemed to be better (it ran in sleep mode overnight without crashing), but it turns out that was just because there was nothing scheduled to record. With recording happening, it'll freeze up after a couple hours.

DRM2PVR, thanks for the link. I downloaded the BurnInTest V4.0 and ran it a few times - no errors found. The software is good to have to check that - thanks!

Well, I managed to get 4 weeks out of the trial version (having reinstalled WinXP once in the middle in the hopes of helping things), but the trial will soon be over. Since I have yet to have Sage run for more than a few hours without my computer freezing, and can't seem to isolate the problem, I think I may have to just acknowledge that SageTV isn't for me :-(

Thanks to everyone for their help.

-Jim