TSWriter deadlock potential fix. (5 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

With the BSOD... I wonder if the tuner doesn't like being tuned to the same transponder over and over again (when it is already tuned to that transponder). Long shot maybe, but I don't know the history with the 6984. What happens if you delete the now defunct U and Prime channels/tuning-details - does that only delay the BSOD?
How frequent are the BSODs?

Yeah I have been running the patches for a couple of days but it looks like the fault has occurred again for me. Logs attached. Notice at 17:56:52 when I tried to tune Nat Geo the first card failed to get reservation and it moved on to the next card. Eventually all cards end up in this state. I also tried to stop the service which failed. And can't kill process. Will need reboot.

Okay, this is good - different manifestation of a similar problem with really clean logs.
Looks like the problem runs back to 00:41 on the 13th:

[2013-10-13 00:41:28,038] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [DEBUG] - WaitForPMT: Timed out waiting for PMT after 10 seconds. Increase the PMT timeout value?
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,038] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [DEBUG] - Setting to 0 to search for new PMT.
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,039] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - FreeSubChannel MD: tried to free non existing sub channel : 0
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,040] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeSubChannel: subchannels count 1 subch#0
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,041] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - DVB subch:0 Decompose()
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,043] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - FreeSubChannel CA: freeing sub channel : 0
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,043] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeSubChannel : no subchannels present, pausing graph
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,044] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - dvbtopGraph called
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,045] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - tvcard:FreeAllSubChannels
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,045] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - mdplug: FreeAllChannels
[2013-10-13 00:41:28,045] [Log ] [DVB EPG timer] [INFO ] - dvbtopGraph

13-10-2013 00:41:28.41 debug: DeleteChannel()
13-10-2013 00:41:28.41 del m_pVideoAnalyzer
13-10-2013 00:41:28.41 analyzer: reset
13-10-2013 00:41:28.41 del m_pPmtGrabber
13-10-2013 00:41:28.41 del m_pRecorder
13-10-2013 00:41:28.42 del m_pTimeShifting
13-10-2013 00:41:28.42 del m_pTeletextGrabber
13-10-2013 00:41:28.42 del m_pCaGrabber
13-10-2013 00:41:28.42 del done...
13-10-2013 00:41:28.46 CMpTsFilter:ause()
13-10-2013 00:41:28.46 Pause filter...
13-10-2013 00:41:28.46 HRESULT = 0x0
13-10-2013 00:41:28.83 CMpTsFilter:top()
13-10-2013 00:41:28.83 Stop streaming...
13-10-2013 00:41:28.83 Stop filter...
13-10-2013 00:41:28.83 HRESULT = 0x0

Similar to the other thread I linked recently, we see that it looks like TsWriter stopped but something else prevented the graph from fully stopping. As I understand it a filter graph is stopped starting at the renderer(s) and moving back up the filter chain, so something upstream probably failed to stop.

If we look further back in that TsWriter log we see the BSOD occurred during the previous tune. I can't help but wonder if the hardware was still not happy after the reboot (presumably you didn't do a full power-off and power on?).

[edit: I note that the presence of MD filters in the graph... well it isn't ideal from a support/policy perspective. This is one situation where they really could potentially be causing issues. Any chance you can live without Sky for a few days and see if the BSODs and "no free cards" keep coming?]

 

[mcraenz]

Oh on a production system that's a tough ask. But I take your point. So I would:
Disable all md stuff but keep the epg grabbing for all sky channels enabled and would I need to move the priority of the DVB-S cards up so they get used for freeview, rather than DVB-T?

Which prime channels are dead now? I'll clean that up.

BSODs can be as far apart as 6-10days.

Last full power off I did was last weekend when I was doing some work in the server cupboard. So that was total loss of power to mobo.

 

[mm1352000]

Oh on a production system that's a tough ask.

Yeah, understood.

But I take your point. So I would:
Disable all md stuff but keep the epg grabbing for all sky channels enabled and would I need to move the priority of the DVB-S cards up so they get used for freeview, rather than DVB-T?

I think you should try to use the tuners as you would in "normal" conditions. Obviously if you watch a lot of Sky then disabling the plugin will change that radically... which is unfortunate. I'm just not sure how else we can eliminate the plugin. If you were to use only DVB-T then I don't think it would be the end of the world. You could also try stress testing with the DVB-S/S2 tuners on FTA channels.

Which prime channels are dead now? I'll clean that up.

Refer to Lyngsat:
http://www.lyngsat.com/Optus-D1.html
Regional PRIME feeds are on 12707H.
...but actually having said that, maybe if the retuning is causing the BSODs or affecting the deadlocks... maybe you should do one thing at a time. In other words, do the plugin test first then remove these defunct channels later.

BSODs can be as far apart as 6-10days.

Last full power off I did was last weekend when I was doing some work in the server cupboard. So that was total loss of power to mobo.

Hmmm, okay - thanks.
10 days makes it tricky to know if anything you've changed has made a difference.
Have you always had the BSODs?
Tried the card(s) with a different mobo?

 

[Sebastiii]

If i'm not wrong a quick way to disable MD... is to rename the MDPLUGINS from TVServer root (in Program files) not 100% but i think it does the trick

 

[mcraenz]

I've had the BSODs since I started using the DVB-S2 again card (when I got sky again in June). I don't think I had any BSODs when I was using the card about a year ago. But I've rebuilt the system since then. So many variables!
Tonight I'll disable all the md stuff but won't touch anything else and we'll see how it goes. Is it helpful if I stop the TV service and delete all the logs so we've got a clean starting point?

 

[mcraenz]

Ok, well I did that. All CAM settings disabled and md folder renamed. Created a group with just FTA channels and ran test channels with 6 users. And bang BSOD! :-(
Logs attached. Going to try again now. What I don't get is that when doing the test channels I see the 'All Cards Busy' message as a result of some of the tune attempts. But I've got more cards than I have MUXes so shouldn't that mean I never get 'All Cards Busy'? Or is a timing thing?

 

[mm1352000]

Ok, well I did that. All CAM settings disabled and md folder renamed. Created a group with just FTA channels and ran test channels with 6 users. And bang BSOD! :-(

Was that what happened at 22:53:17?
If so, are you sure the BSOD was in the TBS tuner driver, because you had just started a stream on one of the DVB-T tuners.
You had a really unusual sequence of events:
1. 22:53:11,658 - scheduler starts process to record Nightline (TV 3) on DVB-T tuner 3015 (first WinFast DTV Dongle Gold tuner) before the service has even completely started.
2. 22:53:11,984 - TV service finishes loading.
3. 22:53:13,613 - idle EPG grabber starts process to grab EPG for DVB-S TVNZ U... which it really shouldn't do, because the idle EPG grabber is only meant to run when all tuners are idle
4. 22:53:14,280 - Nightline recording successfully started
5. 22:53:14,282 - scheduler starts process to record Dangerous Roads (TV One) on DVB-T tuner 10 (second WinFast DTV Dongle Gold tuner)
6. 22:53:14,305 - EPG grabber grabbing process starts to be cancelled immediately after run graph and before checking signal as part of Dangerous Roads record start process
7. 22:53:15,231 - EPG grabber grabbing process successfully cancelled, Dangerous Roads recording process continues
8. 22:53:17,091 - Dangerous Roads recording successfully started
9. 22:53:17.212..22:55:38,038 - CRASH!?!

So the crux of what I'm saying is that TV Server doesn't even appear to have been directly interacting with any tuners at the time of the crash. Two DVB-T recordings were running... and if anything I'd have suspected that WinFast dual USB tuner would have been the cause of the crash.

Logs attached. Going to try again now. What I don't get is that when doing the test channels I see the 'All Cards Busy' message as a result of some of the tune attempts. But I've got more cards than I have MUXes so shouldn't that mean I never get 'All Cards Busy'? Or is a timing thing?

I'm not seeing any attempt to test channels... unless that section of the logs is missing due to the BSOD.

 

[mcraenz]

BSOD is deffinatly in TBS6985_64.sys.

I'm not seeing any attempt to test channels... unless that section of the logs is missing due to the BSOD.

Must be, Because it was just after firing up test channels that it BSOD'd. Wondering if I should go all the way back to 1.2 and see if all this weirdness is happening back then.

 

[mm1352000]

BSOD is deffinatly in TBS6985_64.sys.

Okay.

I'm not seeing any attempt to test channels... unless that section of the logs is missing due to the BSOD.

Must be, Because it was just after firing up test channels that it BSOD'd. Wondering if I should go all the way back to 1.2 and see if all this weirdness is happening back then.

That would be an interesting data point... but it might be less effort to try changing driver versions (if you haven't done so already).
Did you go through 1.2.3 -> 1.3.0 -> 1.4.0 -> 1.5.0 ... or did you skip one or two steps or try any of the alpha/beta/RC/PR versions?
Do you remember your update steps for the tuner drivers?

PS: I'm off to bed, don't wait up for a response. ]

 

[mcraenz]

I haven't really kept track of what version of MP I've been using and when to be honest but I think I've only been running stable releases. Upgrading within a week of releases I guess.

I'm not sure there is an older driver version for the TBS6985, it's a pretty new card. very similar to the 6984 though and exhibiting the same problem. Anyway my testing got set back a bit as we had a power cut today which gave the machine a nice cold boot! Tonight I played with test channels again. All just FTA DVB-S. (MD all disabled still). After a while test channels started returning 'Tune Canceled'. Stopped the test and tried manual control same message popup - 'Tune Canceled'. All the cards are red in manual control. What does the red mean anyway? I know, I should RTFM!

However I was able to stop and restart the service so probably not the same issue :-(

I'll let it keep running for a couple of days now and see what happens. (assuming no more power cuts!)

Logs attached.