Recordings failing - can't tell why

[wscrivens]

I'm sorry if the answer to this is obvious. I have worked on it for several hours and am stumped.

I recently went on a week-ling business trip, and set up the schedule to record several shows while I was away. Each was set up as an individual recording using the EPG. I left the PC on standby and went on my trip. When I came back, all but one of the recordings failed, and I cannot figure out why. (I have done this before on trips and it worked fine.)

I 've gone through the system logs and the gbpvr logs (attached). The only error I found in the system log was a "Database Locked" error at 9:48 PM on 1/28 - and the only recording that was successful was the one at 10:00 PM that day. I have the beginning padding set ot 2 minutes, so no clue why the system was awake at 9:48.

In the GBPVR logs, the only thing I can find labeled "ERROR" is a succession of "Unable to find node: /Settings/SpecialElements/Special Element [@name= "..."] where the name is mostly "Foreground Transparency" and once, "MenuType".

I'm happy to try to troubleshoot this myself, but at this point I am out of ideas. Please help.

Walt

[HtV]

Did you check through explorer if the recordings are there or not?

[sub]

I 've gone through the system logs and the gbpvr logs (attached). The only error I found in the system log was a "Database Locked" error at 9:48 PM on 1/28 - and the only recording that was successful was the one at 10:00 PM that day. I have the beginning padding set ot 2 minutes, so no clue why the system was awake at 9:48.

I couldnt see that error in your log files. Which file was it in?

What time do your EPG updates occur?

In the GBPVR logs, the only thing I can find labeled "ERROR" is a succession of "Unable to find node: /Settings/SpecialElements/Special Element [@name= "..."] where the name is mostly "Foreground Transparency" and once, "MenuType".

You can ignore those.

[wscrivens]

Thanks , Sub.

I couldnt see that error in your log files. Which file was it in?

What time do your EPG updates occur?

The error was in the Windows event log (application log)

I have EPG set to manual since I could never get it to work correctly. I do updates about twice a week, for 14 days, so the EPG was up to date during the week in question.

Walt

[sub]

The error was in the Windows event log (application log)

What exactly did it say?

[wscrivens]

I'm sorry. When I went back to the system error logs, I could not find it. It must have been in one of the GBPVR log files, which of course have been written over, apart from the ones I sent you which were zipped.

From my handwritten notes, I recall that it was trying to open the gbpve database file and couldn't because it was locked. I know that's no help at all. I will be more careful about saving the gbpvr log files the next time.

That said, my simpler question, is there any place that the reason a recording failed is kept? I am trying to get to the bottom of a "bigger" problem, in the sense that I don't think gbpvr is at fault, in which the PC wakes from standby in a kind of crippled state. There is no video, and it won't respond to the keyboard, but it will record a show. Also, based on the disk activitiy light, it appears to be responding to commands from the remote. I was hoping that the reasons for failure might shed some additional light on what has become a particulsrly vexing problem

Again, thanks for your help, sub.

Walt

[sub]

From my handwritten notes, I recall that it was trying to open the gbpve database file and couldn't because it was locked. I know that's no help at all. I will be more careful about saving the gbpvr log files the next time.

Yep, do that.

That said, my simpler question, is there any place that the reason a recording failed is kept?

Usually only the logs would tell you this.

[dpeterk]

I am trying to diagnose the identical problem.

Yesterday, I set up three scheduled recordings for today:
2:00AM via EPG
10:00AM via EPG
5:20PM via Manual Record

The first 2 were successful, the 3rd failed. For the failed recording, it is marked as Failed in the recordings window, and no file exists on the fielsystem.

I have previously been having a problem where recordings would fail, and the PC would also lock-up, unable to go back into Standby. I made a couple of changes (installed the Microsoft Standby Tool), and this time at least the PC was able to go into and out of Standby successfully, although the one recording did fail.

Sub, you asked about the EPG update time, and interestingly I have the update set for 5:00PM -- 20 minutes before the start of the failed recording. However, it does not look like the update actually took place, because my EPG data looks the same as yesterday. I have it set for 14 days, but I only see data for 13 days from today.

Also, in the event viewer for System events, there is a Warning event at 4:58PM --

-----------
Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 001195DADE2A. The following error occurred:
The operation was canceled by the user. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
----------

So, the only difference with the 3rd recording was Manual Record and scheduled shortly after the EPG Update.

I will attach the logs, but the only error I could find was the same one mentioned above, about ForegroundTransparency.

Any help/suggestions/advice would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Don

[sub]

I am trying to diagnose the identical problem.

Yesterday, I set up three scheduled recordings for today:
2:00AM via EPG
10:00AM via EPG
5:10PM via Manual Record

The first 2 were successful, the 3rd failed.

I have previously been having a problem where recordings would fail, and the PC would also lock-up, unable to go back into Standby. I made a couple of changes (installed the Microsoft Standby Tool), and this time at least the PC was able to go into and out of Standby successfully, although the one recording did fail.

Sub, you asked about the EPG update time, and interestingly I have the update set for 5:00PM -- 10 minutes before the start of the failed recording. However, it does not look like the update actually took place, because my EPG data looks the same as yesterday. I have it set for 14 days, but I only see data for 13 days from today.

Also, in the event viewer for System events, there is a Warning event at 4:58PM --

-----------
Your computer was not able to renew its address from the network (from the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 001195DADE2A. The following error occurred:
The operation was canceled by the user. . Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
----------

So, the only difference with the 3rd recording was Manual Record and scheduled after the EPG Update.

I will attach the logs, but the only error I could find was the same one mentioned above, about ForegroundTransparency.

Any help/suggestions/advice would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Don

There are no signs in your logs that GB-PVR thought there was a recording to occur at 5:10, and no attempt to start it at that time.

It maybe some how related to the EPG, but I'm not sure at this stage.

[dpeterk]

Sorry, I just updated my post, to indicate that the recording was scheduled for 5:20PM, not 5:10PM.

In GBPVRRecordingService.exe log I do see this entry:

2/5/2007 5:05:56 PM.796 VERBOSE [5] pending: 8 KGW 2/5/2007 5:20 PM


Again, any help is appreciated.