PC freezing up momentarily over and over

[Subversive]

Hi, I have Windows XP x64, Core 2 Duo 2.33ghz, 4gb of RAM. I'm clearly not underpowered in any way, yet whenever my system is recording anything via GBPVR, it keeps freezing for a half second, over and over. Like, I get about 10 seconds of 'good' on my PC, then it 'blips' then it goes back to normal. Not only is this incredibly annoying if I'm, say, trying to ask a question on a forum, but it also seems to be screwing up the recordings. THey all have blips every 10-15 seconds or so, including audio interruptions, and pixellation, making them basically unwatchable.

I've looked around for codecs, but I have had a hard time finding much that's meant for 64 bit. Right now I'm using the Nero decoder for video and ffdshow for audio.

I'd really appreciate it if anyone has suggestions, as I'm really frustrated. I had my home pvr setup working great with my old computer, but as soon as I replaced it, it's been nothing but troubles. Thanks.

[metal]

what is your capture card?

[bgowland]

Set a recording going and then bring up Task Manager to view the processes and the CPU time used. If it's the recording service that's causing the problem you'll see its usage jump periodically (at the times of PC 'freeze').

I had a problem with a faulty hard drive - it seems it dragged the system down in a way you describe, everytime it tried to flush its write buffer. Switching my recordings folder to a different HD fixed the problem.

That reminds me - I need to see if the drive is still in warranty.

Cheers,
Brian

[Deusxmachina]

THey all have blips every 10-15 seconds or so, including audio interruptions, and pixellation, making them basically unwatchable.

You didn't say if you record OTA or not, but if so it could just be bad reception. Wishful thinking on it being that easy, but it's worth a mention.

I had "blips" (stuttering) from having the anti-aliasing turned on in the video card driver software. So, it could be lots of things. If you can watch TV fine in non-timeshift mode and not recording, then it could be the hard drive just needs defragging.

If your entire computer is freezing for a moment while playing video, any video, not just video through GBPVR, it could require an entire Windows reinstall.

The main thing is to figure out exactly what and when triggers the problem to narrow down where the problem is coming from.

[ChiPPy]

My system seems to be doing the same thing now, and I have only noticed it in the last week. The only thing different on my system in the last week is, my Schedules Direct account has expired, so my EPG is emptying out. Would the EPG have anything to do with the 1/2 second freezes? I timed mine to be about every 60 seconds, and it's pretty much consistent to that time frame. I have rebooted a few times to see if it helps, but it's still there. Any ideas?

[sub]

Reproduce the problem, then zip and attach the logs and I'll take a look. If something is happening every 60 seconds, it should be pretty easy to spot in the logs.

[djmuk]

FWIW I had a similar problem - Blips or hiccups in recorded video & when watching live. It's DVB-T so the card / software isn't doing much when recording, CPU when recording & not watching is minimal. Anyway I tracked it down - timing it when watching was regular every 60secs, looking at CPU usage graph went DOWN to 0 in blips. Noticed worse when browsing web.. Turned OFF PCI wireless NIC (disabled it) - problem goes away... Hmmm Card on - hiccups, card off - OK. disconnect from wireless LAN but still card on - still problem... Connect up USB Wireless adapter - no Problem....

Theory - PCI bus conflict between Hauppage 1300 PCI card & PCI NIC possibly NIC stealing the PCI bus for too long. I am sure there will be tweaks of the PCI setup possible but for now I suggest disabling ANY NIC (for testing) then consider using USB NIC card.... Even when disconnected I suspect the NIC was having to process SSID broadcasts & a wired NIC will be processing many more broadcasts so might have a worse problem....

YMMV of course!

GBPVR on Compaq EVO SFF (2Ghz), Radeon 7550 AGP 4x, 512MB !!!!

[Subversive]

Sorry, been away on vacation. My capture cards are Hauppauge 150 MCE's, I have two of them.

For the record, I can watch prerecorded video (torrents at this point, because my own recordings are not watchable) perfectly fine.

However, as soon as I start recording something or watching live TV, it's happening every 11 seconds, consistently. The whole computer just sort of hangs for about 1-1.5 seconds (mouse movements, typing, everything). Any recordings made have a stutter or blip at the same interval.

Gonna see if I can find the logs and I'll reply and attach them. Thanks.

[Subversive]

Okay, just reproduced the problem for a minute or so. The two new log files which were created during this time span are attached. Thanks for the help.

[sub]

I cant see any regular activity in the logs that would account for what you describe.

Do you see momentary spikes in the Windows Task Manager when these occur?