CRAP CRAP CRAP!

I'm getting frustrated now...

I've spent the last couple hours or so trying to figure out how to get all
my different boxes (VCR, CDplayer, Cable boxes, MCE PC, etc...) all wired up
for the best, non wife confusing setup that I can, dealing with a major
design flaw in the Hauppauge PVR-500 card. During this time I was enjoying
the MCE PC - skipping commercials, letting the music files load up in the
background... It was all going sooooo sweet.

....and then...

One of my recordings started. I got the little popup asking to change
channels and I clicked OK. It switched as it should and all was well. I
hopped into the guide to see what else was on later and I noticed that the
guide is very slow to page up or down a few hours into the future.Oh well, I
can live with this for the time being. I jump back to the TV to try and
watch the channel as it's being recorded... Hrm... Can't play the show from
the "recorded programs". I guess that makes sense since it's still being
recorded. I try to go to Live TV and it looks like it's starting, but the
screen is just black? WTF??? What is being recorded? Now I don't know if my
show is recording fine and I can't see it, or if my show is being recorded
as a black screen. I decide to stop the recording and then try and play it
to see just what it was doing. It stops... I go to the recorded programs and
try to play - Nope! "Decoder Error - Either the decoder is malfunctioning or
not installed" ...CRAP... So I exit MC and restart it - same error... I
restart the PC... same error... I shut down completely for 5 minute and
power up... CRAP... SAME ERROR?!?

So, what just happened here??? It was working so perfectly before my
scheduled show started to record. I had nothing else running except MCE -
even automatic updates are turned off.

- Videocard is an HIS Radeon 9550 256meg 128bit AGP card with VIVO. Latest
ATI MCE drivers installed.
- Capture card is a Hauppauge PCR500MCE with the cable box connected to
SVideo in.
- HDD has LOADs of room on it
- 512meg of memory installed
- I've installed the NVidia decoder (why not try it for 30 days - everyone
says it's great)

I did try and reload the NVidia decoder again with no change. Changed
resolutions from 800x600 to 1024x768 (Not the easier to read 8 point text
on!) All the DirectX tests pass without a problem.

.... now I'm stumped. What happened? and more importantly, How do I fix it???

 

it???

Well.. I figured out what happend... Mainboard, CPU or PSU decided that it
didn't like all the attention it was getting. Got a FDD error at one boot, a
HDD error another time and finally nothing... Fans spin but no beeps and MSI
LED's coming up all red, as if there were no CPU installed on the board.

At least I know I didn't botch the MCE installation. It was really working
well with the exception of only having one input for the dual tuner.

Now to start swapping parts... Hope my musings posted here aren't too
annoying.

 

Twas the CPU that died... MCE machine is hobbling along on a Duron 600 chip
at the moment.

Video decoder still reporting errors though. I've reinstalled the ATI
videocard drivers, the NVidia DVD decoder and the Hauppauge PVR500 drivers
and still having the same error...

What other driver could be broken?!?!?

 

First try playing a DVD using MCE. If that works you know that your decoder
and video card are working fine.
Second try playing a recording using Media Player. If that works you know
the tuner card is working and that the program is properly being recorded on
disk.
Third try playing a recording using or watching Live TV using MCE if this is
the point when you start having problems it is because MCE is having trouble
maintain its TimeShift buffer and 1.0 replay rate due to some lack of
resources such as CPU power.

 

Twas the CPU that died... MCE machine is hobbling along on a Duron 600
chip

Looks like it was the NVidia decoder that broke.

I was really trying not to have to install a whole DVD player app if I
didn't need to, but I couldn't think of anything else. I installed the DVD
software that came with the video card and everything is fine again.

Looks like I've got a damaged file or something in my NVidia install.


....now to deal with my final hurdle...