Stability of MCE boxes ...

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newbellies

159 posts

Master Geek
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#58106 8-Mar-2010 08:03

Hi Folks,

I've experimented with 3 different systems, 3 different capture cards (all Hauppauge - external powered USB analog, 2200, Nova-S) with Vista and most recently Win7 for running MCE as my entertainment system. I've noticed that on all three systems that I frequently get BSODs when it wakes from sleep. It was happening so regularly, that i figured out that it was worthwhile to schedule the computer to wakeup at 5am so it could do its BSOD thing then, instead of during a scheduled recording. I had a gander through the event viewer to figure out what was up, but gave up.

Do i just have bad luck, or is everyone else experiencing about the same thing? Are the linux solutions rock-solid? I'd like to stick with windows solution as I actually get a decent amount of content through iTunes.

Thanks!

btw - all the boxes i tried were Dell (maybe that's my problem right there)

sbiddle

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#305302 8-Mar-2010 08:37

Have you attempted to disagnose the cause of the BSOD or what driver was causing the issues?

I still use Vista for my PVR and it probably gets rebooted maybe once a month, typically when I'm doing something that requires a reboot. It happily goes in and out of sleep up to half a dozen times a day when I'm viewing TV or recording shows and never has any stability issues.

If you're wanting Freeview|HD there still aren't any decent Linux solutions available, H.264 support is still an issue.

mattyboy2

84 posts

Master Geek

#305314 8-Mar-2010 09:24

I use Win7 Media Center and it never blue screens, like sbiddle said, mine happliy sleeps/suspends itself multiple times per day, and it only gets rebooted probably about once a week usually to install windows updates.

-Matt

Nety

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#305323 8-Mar-2010 09:44

Yip same here. I have now run Windows Vista and then Windows 7 on three different lots of hardware and have never had issues with the machine waking up. Have at times had the machines being insomniacs but that was always down to drivers or settings and never affected them waking up if I put them to sleep.

However I can say that both the 745 and 755 Dell Latitudes we have here at work will not wake up properly with Windows 7. They seem to go to sleep fine but hang on resume. Might be a similar issue to what you are seeing.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#305349 8-Mar-2010 10:30

newbellies: Do i just have bad luck, or is everyone else experiencing about the same thing?

I built my current Vista-based HTPC in April 2009. It goes to sleep, and wakes on-schedule, or on-request without any issues. The box normally gets rebooted once per month when Windows updates are applied.

One point of difference - I use GB-PVR as my PVR software rather than Windows Media Center, but I doubt that's responsible for the issue.

newbellies

159 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 4

#305376 8-Mar-2010 11:35

Thanks for the responses, guys. Glad to hear that it's working well for others. Strange that I changed everything, except for company names of computer and capture cards, but problems still seemed to occur.

Per sbiddle's point, in the future I'll try digging in more closely with the event viewer to see what's to blame for the BSODs. I unfortunately can't do that with my latest system as it now longer boots after 3 days of using it as an MCE machine. Was an older box though, so it was probably something else that caused that part. :-)

Since it's working for everyone else, I'm going to try again on Dell Studio XPS mini tower later and see how that goes. (just need to get Sat card that fits in open slots)

Thanks again

Dingbatt

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#305401 8-Mar-2010 13:03

My htpc has similar wake-up issues. They seem to disappear when the hvr2200 is removed. There are numerous posts on the hauppauge UK forums about their crapware drivers. I am still waiting for driver fixes that were supposed to be in place by Christmas (but I guess they didn't say which Christmas).

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gpnz

80 posts

Master Geek
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#305520 8-Mar-2010 20:57

I recently had a similar problem (maybe) on my HTPC that had been running XP and Media Portal for a long time with no issues (standby/resume all good, and every day). I added a Hauppage WinTV-Nova-TD-500 dual DVB-T tuner card, and immediately my HTPC wouldnt resume from standby - black screen of death on resume.

In the end I changed from standby to hibernate and now its all good - hibernation is ugly in comparison, but at least it works.

rvangelder

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

#305528 8-Mar-2010 21:20

i have two nova-s-plus cards in my windows 7 mce. stable as.
the "my movies" addin is an unstable pos, and gradually slows the whole system down until reboot. the ui is sparkles, but designed by a user interface nobody that wants you to spend more time navigating its awesomeness than watching movies.
when i can be bothered writing a replacement, it'll be canned to the curb with the shift key held for good measure.
otherwise windows mc is nice and stable

newbellies

159 posts

Master Geek
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#305761 9-Mar-2010 19:07

Thanks guys, for the additional posts. Interesting to hear that at least some others out there experienced some of the same sleep issues. I see the comments about the Movies plugin - I do make extensive use of that and the 'Videos' view.

Minutes ago, I finished setting up MCE on Win7 on a newer Dell Studio XPS. Since my previous 3 attempts were all on Hauppauge cards, i'm trying out a different company. The TBS 6980, which is a dual DVB-S tuner card, which I found out about here:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=84&TopicId=57731&page_no=1

Will let you guys know in the coming weeks if I still have the strange waking from sleep issues and if so, what the OS logs says the problem is.

Thanks!

Regs

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Snowflake

#305803 9-Mar-2010 22:51

rvangelder: i have two nova-s-plus cards in my windows 7 mce. stable as.
the "my movies" addin is an unstable pos, and gradually slows the whole system down until reboot. the ui is sparkles, but designed by a user interface nobody that wants you to spend more time navigating its awesomeness than watching movies.
when i can be bothered writing a replacement, it'll be canned to the curb with the shift key held for good measure.
otherwise windows mc is nice and stable

i also have dual nova-s-plus and am stable as. i threw away mymovies and switched to media browser instead - way better! give it a try, i'm running it on windows 7, an AMD 3500 with 1.5GB ram....

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