[Classics]

I have searched the deepest darkest forums of the internet trying to find out how to fix my situation, I have found people with the same problem but none of the solutions that have worked for them have worked for me. I searched this forum for an hour or so and did not see anything close to this topic on here, so if this is a repost, please forgive me.

I am running a ATI TV Wonder on my Vista Ultimate System, and randomly when watching TV the signal freezes for about 10-15 seconds. After the picture and sound is restored, the sound is fine, but the video signal lags behind for about 3 minutes, and goes faster than it should in attempt to catch up to the sound. It is just slightly faster so that you know something doesn’t look right, but it’s hard to tell what it is.

Also, I get a Loss of signal screen sometimes, and I have to stop, then start Media Center

After monitoring my RAM and CPU, they do not spike over 20% (CPU) 40% (RAM)
The only thing I could think of is the HDD may be to slow, however when I first installed it, it worked perfectly (1-2 Weeks)

Now the problem I described is when watching live TV, if I try to rewind or pause the signal, its 10x worse, and is unwatchable (Choppy/Freezing signal)

The Radio Function works fairly well, although on some rare occasions it will also freeze, (about 2 seconds)

As for recorded media, some will record fine, and other times it will be choppy. It will be watchable however it is annoying to watch because the sound is choppy.

Hope someone can help me. My entire System specs are in my profile.

-Andrew

[matt_aj]

A few things to check:
1. You have plenty of HD space. The card will record as you are watching so make sure your HD is plenty big and plenty of free space.

2. Defrag your HD. If it has to write to different parts of the drive, it may take a little longer to record.

3. Check your cable signal. If you are getting loss of signal errors, then it might be your signal is really weak.

4. Upgrade your video codecs. Download and install the latest versions of your video codecs. This can cause video to freeze, chop up or add noise during playback.

Hope one or all of these help.

[Classics]

My system is running off of a SATA hard drive
I have a second 300 GB hard drive in IDE with two partitions
The first partition I rarely use
and the second is 150 GB dedicated just to the tuner

I don't use the first partion while using the TV - So space isnt an issue and I bet that the defrag isn't whats causing it, though I will defrag it.

I do get a loss of signal, but its analog cable, and I have no problems when connected straight to the TV, any ideas on what could cause this?

I will try downloading CODECS
What should I look for?

[Classics]

The defrag helped a bit, I was fragged more than I though when I did an analysis of my drive.
Now Im getting a loss of signal more often. I think this may be the root of my problem.
Im using the NVIDIA Decorders because im using a 8800 GXT and I heard that may help.

So the loss of signal must be the problem, but I dont know why its happening, the cable is connected probally, and I tried splitting the signal one into another set, and one into the computer and when I lose signal on the computer, but everything is alright on the other set.

[matt_aj]

You might also want to try and see if there is an updated driver for your tuner card. That might be causing the loss of signal. Also make sure that it is physically away from other card in your computer. These tuners get pretty hot and all of them that I have worked with didn't come with fans. It could be heat build up causing the issue too.

[Classics]

Driver is up to date, there is only one driver, and i reinstalled it yesterday.

Heat is interesting, I only have 2 PCI slots so there is no room for moving around in there, so its right up against my Sound Card. Maybe I will grab a heatsink or two and give that a try.

[Classics]

I decided to take my Temp reader on my chassis and pop it onto the card.
Here are the numbers im getting.

Idol - 43C
In Use - 52C
Crash - 52C

I don't think its heat since it runs fine, and then randomly crash's at the same temperature. Are there anything I could do that I have overlooked?

What Codecs do I need? Theres a million Codecs out there :P

[matt_aj]

I always use the "k-lite codecs pack". I normally go with the "Full" version. I haven't had any problems with that one. You can find them here: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...Codec_Pack.htm

[Classics]

I will do as you said,
Heat may have been a bit of an issue, I took out the sound cart that was cluttering it, and it seems to have helped quite a bit, turns out my onboard is better anyways.
Im still getting glitches, but its less frequent, hopefully this will get rid of them completely,
will post back tomorrow with the details.

-Andrew

[Classics]

Well, I left WMC on while I went to work for 9 hours, and when I came back...
It all works, theres an occasional glitch, and I can hear my CPU clicking, but it only freezes about 1-2 seconds so its not that big of a problem.

Thanks for the help, I will marked as solved.

[MaxDurango]

I've been using an HP Media Center with win xp for a while, and upgraded it to Vista Home Premium. Ever since then I can count on a major lock up once every couple of days. Happens most frequently when I pause TV for a while. Come back and the whole system is frozen with a weird noise coming out of the speakrs. I am in the proces of removing some of the older apps like ATI control center and installing the new stuff. Machine runs a pentium D processor. Never had any lock up issues before vista.

[Classics]

I found installing a codec pack worked well for me. I still get freezes, but they last maybe 2-3 seconds now, and dont happen often (every 3-4 hours)

However what your describing sounds like something else i read, aperantly when a file size reaches a certain point, the computer has trouble processing it.

Anyways, If your looking for help, I would sugest making a new topic, this one is marked as solved, and probably no one will read it.

:P

[matt_aj]

"It all works, theres an occasional glitch, and I can hear my CPU clicking, but it only freezes about 1-2 seconds so its not that big of a problem"

If the CPU is clicking, that's probably your hard drive going out. When some hard drives start dying, they make a clicking noise. This would cause your issues. If you haven't already, I would replace it.

[Classics]

The problem resolved itself a long time ago.
At the time the hard drive was about 4 weeks old, and I haven't had any other problems with it. I think it might have been a driver issue, but it seems like live update got it.

I did however recently upgrade to a larger hardrive dedicated to WMC so maybe that was the fix, but I think that the problem was gone befor that.

At anyrate thanks for the post.