Major issues! (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

MediaPortal Version: v1.2.1
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: Win7 Ult 64
CPU Type: Athlon II X4 630
HDD: 2TB Samsung F4
Memory: 4GB DDR2 1066Mhz
Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD80
Video Card: HD6950 2GB
Video Card Driver: 11.10
Sound Card: onboard Realtek AC97 (ALC662)
Sound Card AC3: no AC3
Sound Card Driver: 6.01.6410
1. TV Card: Hauppauge Nova-T 500
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver: 4.3.27240
MPEG2 Video Codec: Cyberlink PDVD11
MPEG2 Audio Codec: ffdshow
h.264 Video Codec: ffdshow
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Custom
Cooling: Scythe 120mm Bottom Intake Fan, Stock CPU HSF
Power Supply: OCZ StealthStream 400W
Remote: Nova-T 500
TV: Sony XBR800 36"
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI

Having spent ages configuring MP for someone, I then tried to run it and had major problems (I'm sure I tested it the other day and it was OK!). I thought it might be because I haven't got a TV card installed, so I uninstalled the TV Server/MySQL database but that didn't help.

I've backed up the MP folders and done a fresh install (of just the MediaPortal component) and that's fine, but I'd really like to get the previous install working after all the configuring I've done, so I'd be grateful if someone could look at the logs and see if they can help me out.

 

[mbuzina]

Hi doveman, what are the issues you are experiencing? A bit of info on what is happening would be nice - I guess no one wants to dig aroung a log without knowing what to look for.

 

[doveman]

Ah yes, sorry for not clarifying.

When I try to run MP, after the splash screen it just drops to a taskbar icon and my mouse freezes. After a while I can use the mouse again, but if I click on the MP taskbar icon or try to alt-tab to MP, the mouse freezes again. So I can't display MP's window and I have to kill it with TaskManager.

I noticed some D3D and mouse errors in the log but I don't know what they mean!

 

[mm1352000]

Hi doveman

Check the video card drivers. Either upgrade or downgrade.

mm

 

[doveman]

Hi doveman

Check the video card drivers. Either upgrade or downgrade.

mm

Hi,

I really don't think that's likely to be the problem. I've got the latest (11.11) installed and the fresh install of MP is fine, as is everything else, so I think I must have screwed up something to do with MP.

Perhaps there's a way I can copy most of my settings/plugins/configs from the backed up MP install into the fresh one to test this? This will save me installing and configuring all the plugins, etc again and if it breaks again I can just do another fresh install.

I'm not going to install TVservice/MySQL again until I've got the TV card to install, so it's just MP I need to worry about for now.

If you could advise the best approach for copying across my MP files (i.e. bit by bit so I can check as I go along that it's still working), it would help me a lot

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again

I really don't think that's likely to be the problem. I've got the latest (11.11) installed and the fresh install of MP is fine, as is everything else, so I think I must have screwed up something to do with MP.

From the previous conversations I've had with you you seem to have quite a unique setup (dual screen etc.) and do a lot of tweaking so I guess that is possible. However the latest drivers aren't always the greatest either. Maybe you've messed up the skin install - did you try running in debug mode?

Perhaps there's a way I can copy most of my settings/plugins/configs from the backed up MP install into the fresh one to test this? This will save me installing and configuring all the plugins, etc again and if it breaks again I can just do another fresh install.

All the MediaPortal configuration files are in C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\. I guess you can try copying them across folder by folder (assuming that you saved them), however I'd possibly sooner recommend just starting from scratch. Obviously testing as you go is really important...

mm

 

[doveman]

From the previous conversations I've had with you you seem to have quite a unique setup (dual screen etc.) and do a lot of tweaking so I guess that is possible. However the latest drivers aren't always the greatest either. Maybe you've messed up the skin install - did you try running in debug mode?

Good point, I really should try debug mode. I don't think there's anything that special about my setup except for dual screen (which I wouldn't really describe as unique) but I should clarify, this problem I'm having is with a single-screen PC I'm just setting up for someone else, so there's not much else installed (yet anyway!) and I haven't done much tweaking apart from installing plugins, etc.

All the MediaPortal configuration files are in C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\. I guess you can try copying them across folder by folder (assuming that you saved them), however I'd possibly sooner recommend just starting from scratch. Obviously testing as you go is really important...mm

OK, except the plugins folder is in Program Files (x86). Should I copy across the plugins before starting to copy the ProgramData folders, or vice-versa or at the same time? I'm just wondering if the plugins need the config files to work properly/not cause errors?

Obviously if I can't sort it out that way I'll have to start from scratch, but having spent several days configuring MP already, I'd rather not have to start all over again if I can help it.

 

[mm1352000]

OK, except the plugins folder is in Program Files (x86). Should I copy across the plugins before starting to copy the ProgramData folders, or vice-versa or at the same time? I'm just wondering if the plugins need the config files to work properly/not cause errors?

There is really only one configuration file (MediaPortal.xml) which contains the settings for everything (including plugins). You may find that the problems come back as soon as you put the plugins DLLs in place and copy that config file across. It won't matter what order you do it in. You can't really copy parts of the configuration file at a time.

Obviously if I can't sort it out that way I'll have to start from scratch, but having spent several days configuring MP already, I'd rather not have to start all over again if I can help it.

Obviously. I don't imagine for one second that you want to do that. If I were you, I'd just copy everything back and see if it works. If it doesn't then try debug mode. If that doesn't work then you have no choice but to start from scratch. If it does work then you know you have a plugin config problem and you can disable plugins one by one until you find the culprit.

mm

 

[doveman]

OK, it seems OK now

I just renamed the fresh install folders and renamed the backup ones back to the original names and ran in debug mode and that was fine.

Then I tried in normal mode and MP crashed after the splashscreens, but at least there was no D3D or mouse errors in the logs. I'll probably never know what that was all about!

I then tried clearing the cache, disabling HTPCInfo plugin and changing the skin from StreamedMP to DefaultWide but it still crashesd and I saw the same error in the error.log:

2011-12-08 03:00:05.257459 [ERROR][(2)]: MediaPortal: Unhandled exception occured
2011-12-08 03:00:05.258459 [ERROR][(2)]: Exception   :System.DllNotFoundException: Unable to load DLL 'xpcom': The specified procedure could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007F)
   at Skybound.Gecko.nsACString.NS_CStringContainerFinish(nsACString container)
   at Skybound.Gecko.nsACString.Finalize()
2011-12-08 03:00:05.259459 [ERROR][(2)]: Exception   :Unable to load DLL 'xpcom': The specified procedure could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007F)
2011-12-08 03:00:05.259459 [ERROR][(2)]:   site      :Int32 NS_CStringContainerFinish(Skybound.Gecko.nsACString)
2011-12-08 03:00:05.260459 [ERROR][(2)]:   source    :Skybound.Gecko
2011-12-08 03:00:05.261459 [ERROR][(2)]:   stacktrace:   at Skybound.Gecko.nsACString.NS_CStringContainerFinish(nsACString container)
   at Skybound.Gecko.nsACString.Finalize()

Checking Mediaportal.log I saw this error was associated with BrowseTheWeb so I disabled that (now uninstalled) and it's fine now.

EDIT: Ignore this next bit (probably). I just remembered I'm accessing this PC via RDP, so I'll test it again connected to it directly

EDIT2: Yeah, it's fine when not using RDP I think I'll go to bed before I make any more stupid mistakes

Having said that, I'm finding MP extremely sluggish on this PC. It's only got HD3300 IGP with 256MB assigned to it, but I thought MP would be OK with onboard graphics. It's the animations it's struggling with and DefaultWide has less of these so it's better, but is still very bad when there is any animations, such as in My Pictures using the Coverflow view, or scrolling the banners in MyTVSeries. Is there anything I can tweak to improve things?

 

[Andrew H]

Your OP says HD6950 yet you're saying HD3300 IGP? Have you read the requirements page? Your HD3300 is a UVD so it's just on the low power end of the spectrum. My mobo has an HD4200 which is UVD 2 and my video card is a HD4550 UVD 2.2 and it works great. Plug in the HD6950 or spend $20 on a HD5450 and you'll be fine!

You DO have AERO enabled, right?