tuners missing after server resumes from sleep

[haverer2]

Hi!
As the title suggests really... I run the nPVR service on one machine and XBMC on clients. All's perfect, until the machine running the service goes to sleep and resumes. It's set to sleep if there's no activity for a couple of hours in the attempt to save a bit of power.... however, once the machine resumes the tuners aren't available to the clients... It also doesn't make a difference if I restart the nrecord service...

Anyone else had experience of this / found a solution?

I use USB tuners - PCTV 460e

Cheers,
John

[Reddwarf]

It would probably help us diagnose if you posted logs....

[haverer2]

It would probably help us diagnose if you posted logs....

the next time it sleeps and resumes, I'll capture and upload the logs :-)
Thanks,

[gEd]

I suspect it's to do with the USB device not waking up properly from standby. I used to to have this problem a lot with an old hauppague USB tuner on an older motherboard (and I don't think I was alone).
you can try editing the power management setting in the device properties to disable "allow the computer to turn of this device to save power" to see if that helps.

[martint123]

I used to get this a lot with Hauppague nova-t-500's (PCI card, but USB tuners). I fiddled with the power management settings in device manager but it was never 100%. I had an EPG update script that rebooted the PC if it wasn't recording and that helped some.

I have migrated to a newer server and the problem hasn't returned. Old system was VIA chipset, newer one Intel and much googling suggests that the VIA chipset may have been my problem.

You could also checkout Microsofts devcon utility which gives device status and use the result to maybe reboot (I ran it in a startup script).

[gEd]

I think my mobo that had this issue was an AMD socket A which may also have had the VIA southbridge chipset. It was 6 years ago now.

haverer2, is this an old PC? If so, you will likely need to :-

a) spend a lot of time hacking around with .bat files (and the MS devcon utility) to see if the tuner is responding and if not to reboot pc. (A quick and dirty hack is to set the PC to wake 5 mins before recording starts and set wake.bat to reboot pc every time it wakes up)

Alternatively...
b) leave you PC running 24x7
c) buy a more recent mobo

[jcjefferies]

Part of the problem can be that some motherboards power the USB sockets as long as the computer is plugged into a live mains socket as you will see if you have a USB mouse. I used Power Triggers to try and solve some wake problems and although it solved a network card problem it didn't solve my USB tuner problem. Rebooting didn't solve the problem so the only cure was to unplug the tuner for about 10 seconds or remove mains power. The tuner would be ok for 4-6 weeks then would disappear. My HP Microserver doesn't have the problem as power goes off when it hibernates.

[haverer2]

thanks for the replies... it hasn't done it for a couple of days now, which is why I haven't upped any logs...
I'm guessing you are right about the USB power thing though.
Motherboard is about 3 years old now... so not ancient... Think I might just leave it on 24/7 - it's less agro!!!! When I get more time I might look into the devcon option... like the hint about setting to restart on a wake up! ;-)

Thanks,
John