[confirm] TV picture freeze, MP unresponsive, ends in BSOD (1 Viewer)

doveman

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Firstly, I should mention that I use MP on my secondary monitor/TV, with the primary monitor displaying the XP desktop and taskbar.

I'd been watching TV for an hour or so without any problems and then started watching another programme, which was fine for about 20 minutes without any major glitches, when the picture suddenly froze whilst the audio continued normally. I tried the rewind 15secs trick, but I don't think it even rewound at all but even if it did, then MP would not respond to any keys, although it was making the key-noise when I pressed them.

I eventually had to force MP close with task manager but I made the attached logs before doing so. I also loaded TV Server config before closing MP and could see that the channel I was watching was still timeshifting.

I then restarted MP and tried starting the channel again but straight away I just got audio and no picture (I think it continued showing the EPG or maybe I just got a black screen). I'm not sure if I closed MP again manually, but then I got an ATI VPU Recovery popup asking me if I wanted to send a Report, which I declined. Shortly after, my PC BSOD with a message about atitag or something like that, so I had to reboot. I probably should have gathered another set of log files after I rebooted but I didn't think to do this I'm afraid. Hopefully the set I did gather will give some clues as to why the picture froze and MP stopped responding.
 

tourettes

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    I'm not sure if I closed MP again manually, but then I got an ATI VPU Recovery popup asking me if I wanted to send a Report, which I declined. Shortly after, my PC BSOD with a message about atitag or something like that, so I had to reboot

    Broken drivers or HW itself.
     

    doveman

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    I very much doubt my HW's broken and I'm using the same drivers as many other people, so I doubt they're broken either.

    Perhaps you could focus on why the picture froze and MP became unresponsive whilst the audio continued?
     

    Paranoid Delusion

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    Hi Doveman

    tourettes is correct, if BSOD occurred then that is totally hardware\driver related, possibly video as audio continued in background, have you done any driver update recently, because I'm in the position that I still cannot use any nvidia driver newer than 190.62 without BSOD's :(
     

    MLH01

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    I have also experienced a couple of BSODs recently.

    I am using NVidia driver 197.45 WHCL (installed it in May I think), but haven't had any BSODs until after I installed RC6.

    It may be a coincidence as the HTPC hadn't been rebooted for a week or so, but if I get another BSOD I will post logs and get more information from the 'blue screen'.

    MLH01.
     

    doveman

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    Hi Doveman

    tourettes is correct, if BSOD occurred then that is totally hardware\driver related, possibly video as audio continued in background, have you done any driver update recently, because I'm in the position that I still cannot use any nvidia driver newer than 190.62 without BSOD's :(

    I can understand the point that BSOD indicates a driver fault, but my point is the problem with the picture freezing whilst audio continued was long before the BSOD, which only happened after closing MP, restarting MP, experiencing the same problem and then (I think) closing MP again, after which the VPU Recover pop-up appeared and then the BSOD happened.

    So the BSOD may not have happened if I hadn't done all those things. Something I did (or MP did) triggered a driver crash, which the VPU Recover is meant to handle nicely and avoid BSOD, although it clearly didn't work this time. I think some people find VPU Recover causes more problems than it solves and they disable it.

    I'm using ATI Catalyst 10.5, same as many people I imagine, which is why I find it hard to believe that's the problem. I guess it could be the Nvidia MPEG decoder, so I'll try switching to something else if it happens again, but it just seems a bit strange to say that a BSOD that happened maybe 5 minutes after the problem with the picture freezing absolves MP of any blame.

    I seem to see a lot of "HcwHelper has encountered a problem and needs to close" popups when I close MP nicely (IE through the GUI), which I mention in case it points to anything, although I appreciate that may be a completely unconnected and separate problem.
     

    doveman

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    This just happened again. Picture froze. I stopped it by pressing B on my keyboard and selecting Stop from the dialog, at which point MP froze. I loaded MP Config to change the codec, which as you know also force closes MP.

    I then got the VPU Recover pop-up and chose to Send A Report this time, which fired up Outlook. No BSOD so far and I've changed the codec from Nvidia to Cyberlink now, so we'll see if that helps, but I thought I might as well post the logs.
     

    doveman

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    Well the BSOD came.

    After I'd changed the codec to Cyberlink, I restarted MP and when starting LiveTV it had audio but no picture, just like before. After stopping it, the PC locked up and a few minutes later BSOD, this time mentioning watchdog.sys.

    You might notice that this is the same pattern as before actually, with the BSOD happening after restarting MP after it had already had picture freeze and locked up once.

    It may still be the Nvidia decoder's fault, as this was being used when it locked up the first time, so it may have been too late when I restarted MP using the Cyberlink decoder as the Nvidia Decoder may already have triggered the fault that led to the BSOD.

    So now I'm using the Cyberlink decoder after rebooting, so we'll soon see if it is related to the Nvidia decoder or not.
     

    elliottmc

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    Well the BSOD came.

    After I'd changed the codec to Cyberlink, I restarted MP and when starting LiveTV it had audio but no picture, just like before. After stopping it, the PC locked up and a few minutes later BSOD, this time mentioning watchdog.sys.

    You might notice that this is the same pattern as before actually, with the BSOD happening after restarting MP after it had already had picture freeze and locked up once.

    It may still be the Nvidia decoder's fault, as this was being used when it locked up the first time, so it may have been too late when I restarted MP using the Cyberlink decoder as the Nvidia Decoder may already have triggered the fault that led to the BSOD.

    So now I'm using the Cyberlink decoder after rebooting, so we'll soon see if it is related to the Nvidia decoder or not.

    Can you completely remove the nvidia decoder?

    I have mentioned previously that the Nova-T 500 is not a happy beast under XP. You indicated that you knew about the problems and had them under control with an appropriate software update. I can't comment on that since I have not followed the problems with this card since moving to Windows 7.

    However, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with MediaPortal that means it canot work with a Nova-T 500. Mine is damn near bulletproof, albeit under Windows 7.

    None of the team as far as I know are using XP any more, and maybe it is a good time to upgrade. There is little doubt that you are experiencing hardware or driver problems.

    Have you tried dropping back to the last version of MP that worked for you and seeing if the problems disappear?

    Mark
     

    jameson_uk

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    I use the NVidia MPEG2 decoder on XP and have no issues with BSOD etc.

    I was having a few issues with MP and replacing the TV card solved it. I now have
    PEAK DUAL DVB-T Digital TV PCI Card: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

    which cost me about £30 (which is fairly cheap for a dual DVB-T and I see is on now for £23 probably plus postage)

    This card resolved all the issues I was having (standby, resume, crashes etc) in one go.

    Probably not what you want to hear but this might be a solution?
     

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