Possible dying Tuner card?

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Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#63579 30-Jun-2010 13:37

Hi All
Need some help again!

In my sig is my setup.

I changed my case from a Thermaltake soprano to a nice Silverstone LC16B MR about 2 weeks ago - WAF high!
However - since doing this if I record 2 shows at once, or record one show and watch another chanel the secondary recording/watching is terrible - the video stutters and is unwatchable. If i cancel the first recording and continue to use the "secondary" tuner, the quality does not change.
1st Q - How do I tell which card MCE tries to use first when it records (aka - Primary/prefferred card) (so i can try to isolate a dud card/pci slot without pulling my av rack apart again)

I have removed and reseated the cards, making sure that they were sitting home correctly in the PCI slots. Nothing visually damaged.
I have also
Run Ramcheck
Updated Tuner drivers
Updated GPU drivers
Updated Mobo drivers & bios
Defragged and changed recorded storage from one HDD to another.
Tried system restore in case a VFIR driver was conflicting

2nd Q: Any ideas I han use to trouble shoot? I don't have a spare tuner card or PCI slot available. (Mobo only has 2)

Thanks as always
Dan

Lounge:
WIN7 HOME x64 HTPC - E6420 2.13Ghz - 4Gb 800MHZ PATRIOT RAM - ASUS HD5670 1GB
ASUS P5B-VM MOBO - LG BLU-RAY DRIVE - BG3595 TUNER - 1.5TB STORAGE
PANASONIC 42" FULL HD PLASMA - PIONEER VSX1019AHK RECEIVER - WHARFDALE DIAMOND 10 SPEAKERS

Man Cave:
XBOX 360 MODERN WARFARE 2 EDITION - PANASONIC 37" PLASMA - SONY MONSTA 5.1 SURROUND SYSTEM

graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

#346652 30-Jun-2010 13:57

Did you use the same power supply or a new one?

Niel

3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#346687 30-Jun-2010 15:51

Do you still have sufficient cooling/ventilation?

You can never have enough Volvos!

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#346752 30-Jun-2010 19:15

Same power supply, better ventilation with new GPU that I fitted a few days prior (smaller size and smaller heatsink with active fan rather than massive passive heatsink)
I thought maybe a connection has been damaged/static discharge has fried something? It does seem weird tho that MCE seems to favour the "non-faulty card" first whichever PCI slot it is in (I changed them around to see if it made a difference)

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#347722 4-Jul-2010 17:40

Have you tried checking your CPU load during dual records to make certain the unit is not maxing out? I use Process Explorer as it informs you what each process is utilising. Just a thought & more data to eliminate possible issues.

Also, have you confirmed the corruption of the 2nd record via an independent player, like Zoomplayer or GOM player?

Finally, you could try disabling various OS services. Check Black Viper's website to determine what is safe to disable for your system.

Admittingly, they probably won't help, but you never know. Do you have a friend who has an HTPC you could put your cards into to test?

Silverstone LC14 HTPC Case/Intel E4600 CPU/GA-EP35-DS3 MOBO/Asus EN9500GT graphics/2GB RAM/total 2TB HDD space/HVR-2200 & 2X 150MCE tuner cards/LG GGC-H20L BD Drive/MCE2005/Mediaportal/TVServer 1.1.0Final/LG 55"3D LED-TV/Denon AVR-1803 receiver/X1 projector

richms

28173 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#347740 4-Jul-2010 18:37

Could it be RF noise affecting the tuner card? One I tried had no metal can like an older one and was unusable in my only spare 1x PCI-E slot unless I pulled the graphic card and used on board, which was too crap to play it properly.

Richard rich.ms

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#348359 6-Jul-2010 12:06

During dual recording the cpu load runs between 20~28%, with the occasional spike to 35ish. I have disabled many unnecessary services already - something I do as soon as the OS is running from first install.
I am going to try the card I suspect (the Nova S) in a friends PC this weekend and see what happens.
I will advise how I get on.

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#348661 7-Jul-2010 10:16

Also, have you confirmed the corruption of the 2nd record via an independent player, like Zoomplayer or GOM player?

Corruption is present in the file itself - tried last night to play with several different players - most won't actually play the file due to the corruption - MC is the only one that will attempt to for more than about 10secs.

I have found that all my nVidia drivers from my old GPU are still present and I cannot remove them - driver cleaner and the likes all fail, as does the add/remove programs option. So this weekend I will also do a fresh windows install to tidy things up a bit as well as try the tuner in a friends pc.

Sharesies kids

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#350189 12-Jul-2010 11:55

Right - an update with a weird problem. (and solution)

1.Clean install of Win7 - Prob still exists.
2.Remove suspected card (nova-s plus) - problem still there.
3.Replace Nova-s (in the 2nd pci slot as before) and remove HVR3000, leaving 1st pci slot empty - problem goes.
4.Swap Nova-s to 1st pci slot, leaving hvr3000 out - problem goes.
5.Refit HVR3000 to 2nd pci slot - problem reappears.
6. Test HVR3000 in friends pc - works perfectly.
7. Try HVR3300 in PCIE 1x slot - problem goes.

Go figure...

I'll just keep the HVR3300. But, like, WTF?!?!?!

Rollux

362 posts

Ultimate Geek

#352235 16-Jul-2010 10:42

Ok, so the HVR-3000 that I gave to my mate has stopped working completely - PC no longer even picks up that there is something connected into the PCI slot. Have swapped slots and PCs to make sure - still won't show up. So it is dead.

Still, I think I may look into getting one of these
http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT3159.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3159/Products/BGT3595