Re: Live TV Freezes Media Center

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

Just suffered another failure while channel surffing

Dennis

"Dennis" wrote:

> Hello JW and everyone else
>
> Thanks for the suggestions
> Here is another progress update. I hope this is helpful to someone.
>
> I tried the 81.95 shortly after JW suggestion but did not notice any
> improvement on my system so soon moved back to the 77.79 NVIDIA video driver,
> just to keep things possibly simpler. I also later spoke with the PNY
> support and they suggested the later drivers basically (I am not sure which
> drivers) only have improvement that support mother boards with the new dual
> monitor card abilities. Mine does not. My system at the time seemed to be
> fairly stable, usable but did lock up at times. I was not sure what actions
> caused the failure as it would run for several hours. The system was now
> running much differently than before I changed out the mother board and
> associated parts when it was totally unusable and would not respond to any
> commands, requiring a hard power down by holding down the start up button
> until the system power was cut off. Now the Microsoft Flag key on the board
> would pop up the Start menu, it would respond to a “u + u” key input and
> begin the shut down process. When the system was working anytime before it
> responded slowly to the Microsoft Media Center Remote Control but well enough
> to use. I updated all the ECS mother board drivers, noticed no real changes
> and updated the last three Windows XP updates with no improvement. When the
> system would fail, I got a black screen with the message “No TV Signal There
> is Currently no TV signal detected for this channel” + some more error
> message verbiage. The remote control or mouse was unable to select another
> channel, as if the Media Center software had failed to function and crashed
> on both of the installed TV tuners. Eventually I noticed if I turned on the
> system and allowed it to run on a single channel, all worked but things
> deteriorated and now if you changed the channel with the remote several times
> the system would fail and the No TV Signal error message would occur. Using
> the mouse only to change channels would also cause the same “No TV Signal”
> error message. Using the Microsoft Flag key followed by u+u started the shut
> down procedure which would not complete successfully ending with an error
> message box saying something about “MSVidCtl” not functioning. Interesting,
> the mouse and keyboard was still working but all other functions in Windows
> XP were not, requiring a power down and restart. I then changed the NVIDA
> video driver from 77.79 to version 66.93 and everything started to work
> again. The Microsoft Media Center remote control works much faster than
> before but still some what slower than a regular TV set. For a test I then
> told Windows to restore the working video driver back to its previous drive
> and Media Center failed after changing a couple channels. The 66.93 driver
> is back and everything seems to be working better than ever before, at least
> for the 2 ½ hours since I went to the 66.93 driver.
>
> I will now continue my testing
>
> Dennis
>
>
> "JW" wrote:
>
> > You might also try the 81.95 NVIDIA drivers since they support both XP and
> > MCE and have MCE fixes that are not contained in the 77.79 drivers. Some
> > MCE users of these drivers, however, have reported some flickering and gone
> > back to the 77.79 drivers.
> > I also had trouble with a 5700LE card hard frezzing and solved it by
> > replacing the power supply with a 450 model.
> > "Dennis" <Dennis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > news:61014FFB-45C1-4288-A1A3-F052DEF821CA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >I am back --- I have some success to report but first thanks are in order
> > >
> > > I have been working with PNY and Hauppauge technical support, both
> > > separately, off and on for the last few weeks in my spare moments. I
> > > contacted PNY first because the combined news group opinion appeared to be
> > > more toward video cards and drivers and then I contacted Hauppauge the
> > > tuner
> > > card manifacture. The problem does not seem to be with either company at
> > > the
> > > moment (the probable fix is coming) and I would like to thank both for
> > > their
> > > quality easy to work with support. Never once did either company try to
> > > dodge the question with the old saying "it's not my problem - look over
> > > there" as many other companies might have tried or attempted to give you
> > > an
> > > almost impossible task to do, just to get rid of you for a while. Each
> > > manufacture worked diligently with me to clear their product, both
> > > offering
> > > to send me RMA replacement products and a Hauppauge card is on it way
> > > right
> > > now but it appears not to be the problem either. I did purchase and try a
> > > second different video card, a PNY Verto GeFORCE 6200 128 MB before
> > > re-contacting Hauppauge as PNY offered to RMA the first video card just to
> > > make sure it was not their card. Again both companies support was just a
> > > phone call away, no delayed e-mail messaging like ATI does nor out of the
> > > country foreign type support. Just real live, quality, USA support.
> > > Support
> > > of this quality will definitely guide my next purchase and maybe yours to
> > > one
> > > of their well supported products.
> > >
> > > I just purchased a new mother board (ECS ELITEGROUP nFORCE3-A K8HT1600
> > > nForce 250), processor (AMD Sempron 2800+ Socket 754), new ram too because
> > > the old is not compatible with the new mother board, a new SATA Hard Drive
> > > and unpacked a new ($15 after rebate) cheap tower case with 450 watt power
> > > supply. One of those tower case deals you can't afford to pass by but
> > > probably should have. :) :) I know it's probably not a high quality
> > > power
> > > supply, I won't forget to try and reuse the original higher quality
> > > Enermax
> > > power supply if there are problems. I reused the original Hauppauge
> > > WinTV-PVR-500 dual tuner card and the origonal PNY Vetro GeFORCE FX 5700
> > > VE
> > > video card. Loaded Windows XP Media Center software and the ECS set up
> > > disk.
> > > I updated the PNY video card to Nvidia's version 77.79 driver for Windows
> > > XP
> > > Media Center. (Note many seem to think the 66.93 version driver is the
> > > most
> > > stable and I will try it later if there are problems) I then installed
> > > the
> > > most current Hauppauge tuner driver version 2.0.35.23258 dated 9-15-2005
> > > found on their site as file name "mce_cd_29.zip". I installed Nvidia's
> > > video
> > > encoder "NVIDIA_PureVideo_Decoder_Trial_1.02-185.exe" I did not allow
> > > Windows XP Media Center to update at all, thinking I will allow it to
> > > update
> > > later.
> > >
> > > Guess what --- it's working OK, well in at about 4 hour segments before
> > > failing so far. Live TV has run about 12 hours so far, noting three
> > > freezes
> > > at about 4 hour intervals but this time their not absolutely hard freezes,
> > > a
> > > Ctrl-Alt-Del will bring up Windows Task Manager. I am going to start
> > > adding
> > > the Windows updates and see what happens but at the moment it looks like
> > > the
> > > ABIT KV7 mother board with its AMD 2600 Athlon XP processor may have been
> > > the problem. Even though I did not reuse the old memory I don't think it
> > > was
> > > the problem because I used two 512 MB chips, one each at a time and both
> > > together, all resulting in the same type failure. More testing with the
> > > new
> > > setup should tell more but I thought if anyone is still monitoring this
> > > newsgroup trouble they might like to know what's happening.
> > >
> > > Thanks for everyone's input and I will publish more as I test further,
> > > suggestions are always appreciated.
> > >
> > > Dennis
> > >
> > >
> > > "Dennis" wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hello Moose
> > >>
> > >> Thanks for the input, I have been asleep at the wheel after a few days of
> > >> no
> > >> additional posts and had not noticed all the activity.
> > >>
> > >> I just noticed when I went to find your suggested driver, NVIDIA has a
> > >> new
> > >> Windows Media Center driver dated November 14 2005 (version 81.94) and I
> > >> decided to test it first - It worked for over 20 minutes, I was impress
> > >> while
> > >> I watched but I found the system frozen about 2 hours later when I
> > >> returned
> > >> to check on its progress. Easily found a 66.81 driver (not the one you
> > >> suggested) on the NVIDIA site, tested it and it fails too. Just loaded
> > >> your
> > >> suggested driver 66.93 as I had a little trouble finding it. Finally had
> > >> to
> > >> do a search on the NVIDIA site for "66.93 driver" and there it was, I am
> > >> not
> > >> sure how you find it with out doing a search --- noted for anyone else
> > >> looking. The system has frozen once after just a few minutes, restarted
> > >> the
> > >> system a second time and it froze in about 15 minutes.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Again when I find the fix I will post it, even if it's as simple as check
> > >> the power cord. :) :)
> > >>
> > >> Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, they are all appreciated
> > >>
> > >> Dennis
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> "}Moose" wrote:
> > >>
> > >> > Hi Dennis,
> > >> >
> > >> > I have had the same problem with FX5xxx cards and it is the driver. The
> > >> > latest Forceware drivers are broken with MCE2005 on these cards. You
> > >> > need to
> > >> > download the 66.93 drivers which work a treat. You can get them from
> > >> > Nvidia's
> > >> > driver archive.
> > >> >
> > >> > Once I installed these drivers I have never had any problems withe
> > >> > either a
> > >> > 5200 or a 5700 ultra. Hope this works for you.
> > >> >
> > >> > Rory
> > >> >
> > >> > PS - sorry about the empty post before!
> > >> >
> > >> > "Dennis" wrote:
> > >> >
> > >> > > Windows XP Media Center 2005
> > >> > > NVIDA DVD Decoder
> > >> > >
> > >> > > Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 500 dual tuner
> > >> > > PNY NVIDA Vetro Geforce FX 5700 VE video card
> > >> > > ABIT KV7 mother board with onboard sound
> > >> > > 1 GB of memory
> > >> > > AMD 2600 Athlon Processor
> > >> > >
> > >> > > When I start Live TV it will run from a few seconds to a few minutes
> > >> > > with a
> > >> > > one time maximum run of about 30 minutes and then everything freezes.
> > >> > > Nothing responds on the computer and it must be powered down and
> > >> > > restarted.
> > >> > > The FM radio function will run for less than 30 minutes too and then
> > >> > > the
> > >> > > system freezes. Using the DVD movie play back function played back an
> > >> > > entire
> > >> > > movie OK. I have all the latest drivers and software updates
> > >> > > installed as of
> > >> > > November 4, 2005 including NVIDA DVD Decoder, TV tuner driver, video
> > >> > > card
> > >> > > driver, mother board BIOS, Windows XP and Media Center updates.
> > >> > >
> > >> > > Any help on which way to look would be appreciated.
> > >> > >
> > >> > > Thanks
> > >> > > Dennis
> > >> > >
> >
> >
> >
.

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