Freezes after record

[kmoore]

I've been trying to nail down a few freezing problems. I replaced the power supply yesterday and my middle-of-the-night freezing problems persist. By freezing, I mean the clock stops and the mouse freezes. The computer does not reboot and the video signal stays (frozen) on both the PVR-350 and VGA card. This is Win2k Server.

The symptoms go like this: each time it happens, I have scheduled GBPVR to record two or more shows which run back to back on the same channel. Twice now, I've scheduled a show to record from midnight to 5am (five 1 hour episodes) and it froze at 2:59am. Just last night I scheduled it to record from midnight to 2 (two 1 hour episodes) and it froze at the end of the last recording, at 2am on the dot. Each time, the last episode it was recording does not close properly and appears to be 12 seconds long, though it will play.

I have a PVR-350 but no decoding is going on at the time. I haven't done much experimentation (like turn off comskip processing). To conserve memory, I don't run the GBPVR system tray program but that doesn't seem to hurt anything. I don't have much in the way of logs because I wasn't running debugging logs but I can post what I have if necessary.

I'd also like to point out that I don't seem to have the PVR-350 problems. Last night I watched a 1 hour show to the end of the file and it went back to the menu without drama. I know that is a common problem, and I don't have it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

[sub]

This sounds like one of the classic problems that can occur when the PVR350 decoder has been used. Try going without the decoder for a while, ie not using it after rebooting, and see if the problem still occurs. I'm guessing it wont.

[kmoore]

This sounds like one of the classic problems that can occur when the PVR350 decoder has been used. Try going without the decoder for a while, ie not using it after rebooting, and see if the problem still occurs. I'm guessing it wont.

Going without the decoder? I'm asleep while this recording is going on and the only thing the PVR-350 is decoding is the main menu. The video is not displayed during record. Are you saying to switch to software decoding then try recording two 1 hour shows back to back and see what happens?

I'll try but I don't really see how the PVR-350 is doing more than a 150 or 250 during record.

[sub]

Total machine freezes are very common when the PVR350 tv out is in use, and I've seen several different scenarios where these lockups can occur. Its often when closing playback of a video file, but can also occur when you're changing channels, or just sitting with the menu on the screen.

Its important to remember that while you're siting at the menu, the decoder is still being used. In the background its actually playing the file called black.mpg in the GB-PVR directory. There is no way to display anything on the PVR350 tv out without using the decoder.

[kmoore]

Total machine freezes are very common when the PVR350 tv out is in use, and I've seen several different scenarios where these lockups can occur. Its often when closing playback of a video file, but can also occur when you're changing channels, or just sitting with the menu on the screen.

Its important to remember that while you're siting at the menu, the decoder is still being used. In the background its actually playing the file called black.mpg in the GB-PVR directory. There is no way to display anything on the PVR350 tv out without using the decoder.

Haven't tried your advice yet but I've been watching TV for a couple hours now. That included changing channels. No problems so far. Looks like the new power supply is an improvement, except for this recording problem.

[kmoore]

Another update.

That new power supply's fan was running at WAY too slow an RPM. The box was getting way too hot so I RMA'd the unit and installed the old power supply. I also changed the motherboard with what is actually the same exact model, but the newest revision HP made (to fix some issues with the on-board video and other stuff). Plus, I've got 384MB of ram now and a Celeron 466 with a passive heatsink (from a 400 with active heatsink). Boy it's cooking now. It actually seems a bit faster. In all seriousness, it seems to be running very well. I even recorded a bunch of shows with the PVR-350 TV-out decoding and no freezing. I did notice it was changed from VMR9 to Overlay, so I'm not sure if that was the "fix," or the new motherboard.

I am going to upgrade to a full 512MB of ram, and a Celeron 533 temporarily (I like to take the box apart apparently). Then it will get an adapter and a Celeron 1.1GHz and I think I'll be happy. I looked pretty hard for system benchmarks comparing a Celeron 400 (my original config) to a Celeron 1.1GHz. I am expecting a 200% improvement at minimum (worst case) and a 400% improvement at most. I can dig that. Then, of course, the hard drives will be limiting...................