"Ghost" cards after restart. (1 Viewer)

[ChrisOfCatford]

Hi,

I have a strange issue where I have 2 identical cards (AF9015 BDA device is what they come up as in Device Manager and MP config). Whenever I restart the server I get 3 dual cards come up in the config - See screenshot. One of these is always down as Type "Unknown".

If I delete the card in config, I get a new one after re-start. If I disable it, the next time I re-boot, the disabled one now shows up as the DVB-T type, while the previously working one now comes up as "Unknown".

The main issue is that I get a slow tune as the "Ghost" card tries to tune on 2 non-existent tuners before finding the working cards. Also, I am not sure if the new instance of the card is able to tune at all because the tuning details may not match up with the card.

As my PC seems to re-boot every night for updates at the moment, this is becoming more of an issue.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Chris

Its a USB thing. The driver for your tuners is assigning them different IDs on restart. When that happens, TV Server can't recognise them and thinks that new tuners have been added and old tuners are no longer available.

mm

 

[Owlsroost]

I run dual AF9015 USB tuners (Kworld 399U) on two different PCs (one Vista 32bit, the other Win7 64bit) and they have always behaved impeccably - fit and forget devices, basically.

I think I'm running rev 9.6.3.1 drivers - you can get 'generic' drivers from the chip suppliers website - http://www.ite.com.tw/en/products_more.aspx?CategoryID=6&ID=15,62 - but I think Windows update has basically the same version available.

I notice your MB has both Intel and Via USB host controllers - have you tried the tuners on both controllers ?

Tony

 

[ChrisOfCatford]

Hi Tony,

The Via USB is the chip on these cards I think. They are dual usb tuners hard-wired into a PCI USB card.

I agree that the cards work really well. Much better then a Terratec tuner which I have finally given up on.

Do you run 2 dual tuners in one machine like I do?

I wonder if the problem is something to do with the USB nature of the tuners and that my PC is somehow re-discovering them each time and assigning a different hardware ID to one of them (hence mediaportal getting confused). Of course it could be something else entirely. (Edit: Oops just read mm's post).

So how can I stop USB devices from re-discovering themselves in Windows 7?

Chris

 

[mm1352000]

So how can I stop USB devices from re-discovering themselves in Windows 7?

The million dollar question. I don't know of any guaranteed effective way to do it.

Tony's answer gave you some tips: try using the tuner in different USB ports, and try different tuner drivers.

Sometimes specific USB controllers will be the cause of the issue - might be the driver or the way they're integrated into the motherboard. So that is why different USB ports and/or drivers may help.

 

[Owlsroost]

Do you run 2 dual tuners in one machine like I do?

No - just one per PC.

So how can I stop USB devices from re-discovering themselves in Windows 7?

As mm said, it seems to be some combination of how the bios/Windows/drivers/hardware interact at startup. You could try playing with the bios USB settings and the USB power settings in Windows.

If that fails, then you might have to try running 'devcon' commands - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272 - from a batch file either after startup (e.g. devcon restart) or before a reboot (e.g. devcon remove) to fix the problem.

Tony