MP Freezes after resume & doesn't record :-( (1 Viewer)

[Knobby]

MediaPortal Version: 1.2.3.0
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: Win7 SP1 32 bit
CPU Type: AMD Athlon X2 2000+
HDD: WD 2Tb
Memory: 2x1Gb running Dual Channel Mode
Motherboard: Asrock
Video Card: PNY Nvidia Geforce 8400GS with 512Mb
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Onboard sound
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: 2xCompro S350
1. TV Card Type:
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
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:
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Freesat
HTPC Case: Ensign
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: MCE Remote
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI to HDMI

A couple of weeks ago my hard drive failed so I bought a new 2Tb one, and after installing it decided to upgrade to Windows 7 as I had a spare licence. Since them MP has been a pain in the butt!

The PC now regularly freezes when resuming from s3 standby to record a tv program, and doesn't do the recording. I have to ctr-alt-del and close MP via the Windows task manager. This seems to happen more if the recorded program is quite a while after the PC has been sent into standby mode - If I time in a program say in 20 minutes time then it will usually wake up and perform the recording fine.

I've tried selecting the "workaround" option in the MP configuration, and have also tried having MP restart the tv service on resume but neither of these have helped. I have the Powersceduler++ plugin set up using plug and play mode.

I have attached some logs - I set up some recordings and sent the PC to standby around 18:35 on Nov 15th, and closed it down via task manager around 6:00 on Nov 16th.

I hope someone can help as the WAF for this system at the moment is unbelievably low!!!

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Your System is quite "Low End" for MP and for Win7 also... Such old systems often did not do proper Standby at all...
Pleas use PowerSheduler++ in Expert Mode and perform a reboot after wakeup from Standby. Most of the time this solves all issues related to standby/hibernate. You need a simple script (batch) to be running. Put the attached .bat somewhere on your c: drive and add this to "advanced" -> run program before/after standby (I think it's last tab, but I'm not at this machine now). The attached .bat file simply performs a reboot right after awakening from Standby. All drivers, Memory,... are fresh initialized after a reboot so all works as good as possible. Only Thing is you need a little time to wake up from standby (about 1- 1.5 minutes then) So you have to schedule your recordings with an appropriate mount of pre- recording time.... 3 Minutes at last, better 5 or 7 Minutes...

 

[Knobby]

Thanks for your quick reply.

I'd rather not have to reboot the PC everytime I want to wake it up. As I didn't have any issues with standby/MP when using XP, maybe I would be better going back to that?

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

maybe I would be better going back to that?

Possible, but I don't think this will be (stay long). Old Hardware did never perform as new hardware did. And hardware more often is dying slowly a one can imagine...
I'm using my recent HTPC hardware since 6 years now. At the beginning it performs really well. Now it has a lot of issues. One of them is every now and then a BlueScreen after resuming... Hibernate (S4) isn't possible at all, also I've used S4 until this summer without any issues (same OS, same CPU, same GPU, same Disk, same RAM,...) Since I'm using S3 and this bat, I did never had a single issue any more. Hope this will last until I can get the money to buy new hardware...

 

[Knobby]

It's only the CPU that is quite old on my system. The motherboard & memory are less than a year old and I only bought the HDD a couple of weeks ago.

I tried to record something through the night last night and when I got up this morning the PC was still on but frozen, and the program hadn't recorded. I then had a look at a couple of the log files (although I don't really know what I'm looking for) and found these:-

From the TV log file:
2012-11-17 03:16:47.740600 [scheduler thread(24)]: scheduler: SchedulerWorker inner exception Error: DatabaseUnavailableUnclassified
Gentle.Common.GentleException: The database backend (provider MySQL) could not be reached.
Check the connection string: Server=Media-PC;Database=MpTvDb;User ID=root;Password=MediaPortal;charset=utf8;Connection Timeout=30; ---> MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlException: Unable to connect to any of the specified MySQL hosts. ---> System.Exception: Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.Driver.Create(MySqlConnectionStringBuilder settings)
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.CheckoutConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetPooledConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection.Open()
at Gentle.Provider.MySQL.MySQLProvider.GetConnection()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Gentle.Common.Check.FailWith(Severity severity, Error error, Exception e, String msg)
at Gentle.Common.Check.Fail(Exception e, Error error, Object[] args)
at Gentle.Provider.MySQL.MySQLProvider.GetConnection()
at Gentle.Framework.PersistenceBroker.Execute(SqlStatement stmt, IDbConnection dbConnection, IDbTransaction dbTransaction)
at Gentle.Framework.SqlStatement.Execute()
at TvDatabase.Schedule.FindOrphanedOnceSchedules()
at TvService.Scheduler.CheckAndDeleteOrphanedOnceSchedules()
at TvService.Scheduler.DoScheduleWork()
at TvService.Scheduler.SchedulerWorker()MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlException: Unable to connect to any of the specified MySQL hosts. ---> System.Exception: Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.Driver.Create(MySqlConnectionStringBuilder settings)
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.CheckoutConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetPooledConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlPool.GetConnection()
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection.Open()
at Gentle.Provider.MySQL.MySQLProvider.GetConnection()System.Exception: Exception of type 'System.Exception' was thrown.
at MySql.Data.MySqlClient.NativeDriver.Open()
2012-11-17 03:16:51.859000 [PS StandbyWakeup(14)]: LocalClientStandbyHandler: Unable to connect to the remote server
2012-11-17 03:16:51.859000 [PS StandbyWakeup(14)]: PS: Inspecting <dead#4>:

From the Error log file:

2012-11-17 01:27:38.346000 [scheduler thread(24)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:27:43.786000 [PS StandbyWakeup(14)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:29:46.371000 [scheduler thread(24)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:29:51.791000 [PS StandbyWakeup(14)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:31:54.390000 [scheduler thread(24)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:32:15.867000 [PS StandbyWakeup(14)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:34:23.868000 [PS StandbyWakeup(14)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:36:31.875000 [scheduler thread(24)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC
2012-11-17 01:36:47.944000 [PS StandbyWakeup(14)]: card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC

The above message runs on until 03:16:51 then stops.

So it appears that for some reason a connection to the MySql database cannot be made - is this the cause of my problems? Can I use different database software?

 

[SciDoctor]

MS SQL 2008 is an alternative, the wiki gives good info how to instal.

 

[Knobby]

Thanks - I've now installed MS SQL 2008 and set up a recording for a few hours time, so will see what happens.

 

[Knobby]

It didn't solve the problem. The 1st program I tried to record worked fine and the PC went back to sleep afterwards. When the PC woke up for the 2nd program it didn't record it and I get the same errors as posted above

Any idea how to sort this out - I really don't want to have to reboot the PC everytime it returns from standby.

 

[SciDoctor]

If you have the same error then MySQL is still in use, you need to uninstal the TVSERVICE and reinstal ensuring you choose MS SQL as the database of choice.
Prior to this you can/should export your TVSERVER settings (channels etc ) and import when running under MS SQL but all other TVSERVER settings will have to be set from fresh.

Alternative You can choose to try an edit of the Gentle.config file 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server' and 'C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal' if you know what you are doing, make backups to regress easily. Use the positon of the --> <!-- and change for you source

I prefer the full uninstall as it should work

 

[Knobby]

Sorry I forgot to check the tv log, but the error log contained the same "card: unable to connect to slave controller at:Media-PC"

I did a complete reinstall of MP (including uninstalling MySQL).

Tonight I came home and hit the button on the remote to bring the PC out of standby, which it did. I selected "Watch TV" and the computer hung. I waited for 2 minutes then had to do ctr-alt-del to close down MP. This was at 18:32 - logs attached.