Help - 100% cpu usage problem

[alanjrobertson]

Hi

I'm having some difficulties with GBPVR in respect of some weird processor usage!

I've felt my system was running slowly when first switched on in the mornings. I realised that GBPVR was trying to download the DVB EPG - given the previously mentioned problems with this on Freeview in the UK I thought this what was causing the trouble. I therefore change the EPG setting to none. However I've found that I'm still having some definite problems

I therefore did CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up task manager and found that every couple of seconds GBPVR.exe is loaded and run as a task - processor usage jumps from 2, 58, 81, 98, 100, 63 then the process gets unloaded. Memory usage runs at 2Mb, 38MB, 67MB and then it gets unloaded. The process then repeats. GBPVRRecordingService.exe runs continuously at 28MB, 0% CPU.

Both these services appear under the separate user name I have allocated for them (GB-PVR) - I had to do this so that the MediaMVP could access shared network files.

When I stop the services then both these processes disappear from task manager and CPU usage falls to 1%.

I then moved them back to running as local system (with desktop interaction allowed) - processor usage fluctuated initally but then settled at 0% for the GBPVR.exe task. It occasionally spiked to about 15%. Memory usage is about 58MB.

I changed the user back to GB-PVR and the same issue recurred (of processor usage spiking to 100% and GBPVR.exe keeping on being reloaded).

Any suggestions? I like running as Local Service because (a) the CPU usage seems more sensible and (b) the GBPVR and MVPTrayIcon display themselves OK on the taskbar. However I really need to be able to access networked files through my MediaMVP and as far as I'm aware this means I can't run as a local service and have to run it as it's own user - however if this means the CPU usage with keep fluctuating to 100% it's a bit of a problem!

Advice much appreciated!

Cheers

Alan

[sub]

I therefore did CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up task manager and found that every couple of seconds GBPVR.exe is loaded and run as a task - processor usage jumps from 2, 58, 81, 98, 100, 63 then the process gets unloaded. Memory usage runs at 2Mb, 38MB, 67MB and then it gets unloaded. The process then repeats. GBPVRRecordingService.exe runs continuously at 28MB, 0% CPU.

Next time it dies it, post the gbpvr.exe.log. Hopefully this will contain some clues as to why the process is exiting (and in turn being restarted by the recording service).

I like running as Local Service because (a) the CPU usage seems more sensible and (b) the GBPVR and MVPTrayIcon display themselves OK on the taskbar. However I really need to be able to access networked files through my MediaMVP and as far as I'm aware this means I can't run as a local service and have to run it as it's own user

I cant help you with the MVPTrayIcon thing. You'll just have to hope the author of the MVPTrayIcon plugin re-codes it in such away that it removes its dependency on the 'interact with desktop' feature of the localsystem account.

[alanjrobertson]

Will do. I had a look at the log and couldn't find anything. The only errors referred to not finding some picture directories, but these errors also appear when it's running as a local service.

I cleared all the logs, restarted the service and of course sod's law - it stopped doing it! I'm sure it will again at some point in the future though - will repost when it does!

Cheers

Alan

[AOSandman]

Any suggestions? I like running as Local Service because (a) the CPU usage seems more sensible and (b) the GBPVR and MVPTrayIcon display themselves OK on the taskbar. However I really need to be able to access networked files through my MediaMVP and as far as I'm aware this means I can't run as a local service...

You can run as Local Service & still access network shares, just do it by UNC instead of by mapped drive letter.

[alanjrobertson]

I'm already using UNC to reference the network shares but it didn't seem to work when running as a local service. Have you got it working OK as that? I'll give it another go.

Cheers

Alan

[alanjrobertson]

Hmm - I just tried running as a local service again and it still makes my MVP hang. Was there anything else you did to get it to work on yours? I've tried making the references both \\server\dir and \\192.168.0.x\dir but the MVP hangs on either if the service is running as local rather than in its own account.

Cheers

Alan

[AOSandman]

Have you got it working OK as that?

Yes. I manually edit the config.xml to enter the UNC paths, and... <see below>

Hmm - I just tried running as a local service again and it still makes my MVP hang. Was there anything else you did to get it to work on yours? I've tried making the references both \\server\dir and \\192.168.0.x\dir but the MVP hangs on either if the service is running as local rather than in its own account.

You may just need to permission the shares so that the "Machine Account" for the GBPVR box has at least "Read" access. I've never had that cause the MVP to hang, rather the files just don't show up.

[alanjrobertson]

Hmm. So does you config.xml look something like this? (this is how mine is at present - UNC paths created by the config program - I can't see how I could do anything to improve on this)...

Code:

<VideoLibraryDirectory>My Documents\GB-PVR~C:\Documents and Settings\Alan\My Documents\GB-PVR|Videos~D:\My Videos|Netserver Media 1~\\ULTIMATE\Media|Netserver Media 2~\\ULTIMATE\g|</VideoLibraryDirectory>

With regards setting permissions - where do I do this? The windows networking share on the target machine is set to read/write with no password (it's on a wired firewalled network) - is there some setting I can change for 'local system' on the GBPVR machine itself to permit it access to these shares??

Thanks

Alan

[AOSandman]

Your config.xml looks fine, as best I can tell.

As for how/where to set the permissions, that varies a lot depending on your specific set up. What OS is the server running, and are both machines members of a domain or just a workgroup?

I've never used XP Home (only Pro) but I've heard that it's networking capabilities are limited/restricted. I also don't do workgroup networking, so I'm not sure what limits that might impose (I've been running a domain here for some 7-8 years now).

[alanjrobertson]

Thanks for the replies guys. Setup - the machine running GB-PVR (my main one) has WinXP Pro. The server runs WinXP Home. They're connected via a Netgear Gigabit router (which also has the MVP on it).

Both the PCs are the member of the same workgroup - I can browse the shares of both of them in My Network Places (which is pleasing considering how flaky My Network Places seems to be!).

In the background I've got McAfee AV and ZoneAlarm. No spyware I'm aware of! (scan every so often with Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D). GBPVR + GBPVRRecordingService have full network access granted in ZA (I actually only put ZA on the machine recently, to control outgoing internet access requests, but AFAIK this problem occurred before I installed ZA).

I wonder if the difference is something to do with you (AOSandman) having a domain setup compared to my workgroup one?? Does anyone else have any experience of network share access with GB-PVR running as Local System?