HTPC recently become unstable - help please (1 Viewer)

[elliottmc]

MediaPortal Version: 0.2.2
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo
Windows Version: Windows XP Pro SP2
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 3000
HDD: Seagate 160GB
Memory: 1 GB DDR2
Motherboard: MSI 480
Motherboard Chipset: ATI X200
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: ATI X300
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Onboard
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: Hauppauge Nova-T 500
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type: DVB-T
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: CoolerMaster Centurion
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: Hauppauge
TV: Philips 30" LCD
TV - HTPC Connection: VGA


Hi,

I have been having a strange problem with my HTPC recently, and would appreciate any suggestions how to start diagnosing it.

Every once in a while, the computer just restarts. I don't know if it is only when the TV module is playing, or whether this is the only way I have of actually knowing when it has happened. The nova-t 500 is a recent addition, but I can't really imagine that this could be the cause.

I have gone into "properties" for My Computer, and in the advanced tab, set it to NOT reboot automatically upon system failure. This makes no difference, which would lead me to think that this is a hardware fault rather than software.

I don't have the facility to just swap in new components to check everything, and since the crash only happens every couple of days, it is difficult to know whether a swap has fixed it.

It does seem to be getting worse, in that the last couple of times it hasn't actually restarted - just gone into some sort of half-restart. Screen goes blank but it doesn't actually start up.

Can anyone recommend ways of narrowing this sort of problem down to an individual component? I can swap the nova-t 500 for a nova-t PCI for a couple of days and see if this helps. It's the other components which I would be struggling for, and these components have all been working fine together for a good couple of years now, so it's not an inherently unstable combination.

Thanks and best wishes,

Mark

 

[andreavb]

It could be the CPU temperature protection or a Power Supply outage, just check your bios to see if CPU temperature is high and if there is overtemperature protection enabled

...or maybe your PSU is going to die...check the CPU and PSU fans maybe even the PSU is going into temperature protection due to a high load with the addition of the new TV card...what kind of PSU are you using? how many Watts?

 

[AberDino]

Well, I'm having the same random reboot issues (I also have a nova-t 500!) and am at a bit of a loss as well. It's not specifically related to MP, as I have the same random reboot issue in MCE. Also, MP doesn't log anything at the time of the crash. I've carried out a successful overnight memtest86+, temperature is definitely not an issue, and neither is the power supply.

As you might know, even though the nova-t 500 is a PCI card, it is actually a USB tuner fitted on a PCI card with a USB controller (VIA). Based on bad experiences in the past with VIA chipsets, I was very disappointed to find this out after I bought the card. Based on various recommendations, I have already replaced the VIA USB drivers with Microsoft's generic drivers.

I have also configured Windows to provide a full memory dump, which I can then analyse in Microsoft's debugging tools for Windows. I can't make too much sense of my crash dump, but it does point to the nova-t 500. It would be interesting to compare your bug check code against mine:

The bugcheck was: 0x0000008e (0xc0000005, 0x804e133d, 0xf77fe858, 0x00000000).

 

[Paul S]

Besides checking that all fans are working (video card?), check for bad capacitors. A few years ago there was a flood of bad caps on the market. Many manufacturers used them. I have two VIA boards with bad caps.

A capacitor looks like a small beer can, they should be flat on the top. When they go bad, the top bulges and sometimes the contents oozes out. This resembles a frozen beer can.

There is a web site and forum dedicated to fixing boards with bad caps. You can get pictures and other help there.
http://www.badcaps.net/
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/

 

[igalan]

Also, to rule out a software problem, you may want to try to do a system restore to a date that you know it was working fine. If the same problem exists, then it's likely to be hardware, if not, then it's definitely software.

 

[kenwonders]

Run a full burn in test using SiSoft Sandra. Memtest86 is not going to fully test your hardware. It could easily be a number of components in your system.

 

[elliottmc]

Hi,

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I was thinking power supply, but AberDino's comments make me think that it is more likely to be the Nova-t 500 drivers. I will try to make sense of a memory dump if possible.

Did replacing the standard drivers with Microsoft drivers help the situation? I did consider this, but figured that it was quite a complicated procedure and might mess with my other USB devices. If it helped you, I guess I should try it.

Hauppauge don't seem to have a great reputation for fixing things.

I have a second one of these cards in my server running TV engine 3 on and NVidia chipset motherboard. I've left the TV running on it to see if it is stable. If it is, it could be due to differences in the motherboard or the new TV engine, but at that point I could just replace the motherboard.


Best wishes,

Mark

 

[AberDino]

Replacing the VIA USB drivers with Microsoft's generic drivers did help, in the sense that I had fewer crashes and the fault was no longer pointing to the USB part of the card (usbehci.sys). But, I did still have crashes at least every 24 hours pointing to the Hauppauge driver (hcw99bda.sys). Over time I have used various Hauppauge driver versions, including the latest 3.4.

I ended up replacing the Nova-t 500 with a Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT. I installed it last night, and the system has not crashed since! I have now installed the Nova-t 500 in my server, and it seems to be quite happy in there so far. I guess it is just one of these hardware compatibility issues.