Losing audio after working once.

[paulm64]

Hi,
I have Beyond TV 4.6.1. And I'm having a strange problem. It works fine ONCE. Then when I exit live tv and then go back I lose the audio. The only thing that fixes it is rebooting. When I schedule some recordings, The first has audio but the rest have no audio. This is really frustrating! I have completely reformatted and re-installed everything several times to no avail. I like beyond tv. It's probably the best pvr software out there. But this problem is driving me nuts! I have the following hardware/software...

P4. 2.4GHz, 640MB RAM, 240MB HD.
Windows XP Pro SP2.
ATI Radeon 7500 Video Card 64MB.
ATI TV Wonder. I think it's an older one. The version number on the CD that came with it says '180-V01018-400'. It's a PCI card.

Help!

[Empyrean5]

What other media software do you have running?

[paulm64]

None. I completely reformatted my computer last night. I currently only have BeyondTV on it. Well, that's not entirely true. I had to install the ati drivers and it comes with it's own multimedia software. But it's not running. I also have Orb 1.0 installed. But that doesn't seem to be having any problems. I'm trying to get this thing working as a dedicated pvr. So I am not loading anything else that could possibly cause windows to freeze up or crash. So much for that idea. This morning the computer was froze up! And that's with hardly anything on it! I'm starting to really hate windows!

[Empyrean5]

Well, if your computer is randomly freezing-up, I'd look into that issue first .. might be related.

The usual things .. update drivers, check the Event Viewer, yadda, yadda... service packs ... don't forget to peek at the BIOS settings ... you know, the whole drill!

[paulm64]

Well, I fixed the audio problem. Here's what I did...

I completely reformatted and re-installed the ati stuff using the cd's that came with them. The ati tv software works. The guide+ works. (But it sucks out loud!) But beyond tv exhibits the audio problem decribed above. Also, when using the ATI TV MMC software, there are a couple VERY loud thumps/pops when switching channels.

The ATI Radeon 7500 software was version 180-G01400-100
The ATI TV Wonder Version was 180-V01018-400
(according to the labels on the cds) I know that the ati tv tuner said version 1.01 (in the About screen) and the MMC said version 7.1

So then I went to ATI's website and drilled down thru the menus and found the latest drivers. It was drivers:1.11, mmc:9.06 or something. These DID NOT work at all. The ATI tv tuner software just got an error when trying to start. "TV player failed to initialize", and another error indicating that there was something wrong with the video driver. Dratz!

I think they must be using a new version of the card with these 'latest' drivers because they didn't work with my stuff at all! I must have an older version of the TV Wonder. But I don't know to identify my card.

So I decided to download the next up version from mine. Which was drivers:1.11, and mmc:7.9.

This worked. The ATI software, i.e, TV tuner, and MMC, and Guide+ worked fine. And the loud pop is less severe. Though I noticed that changing channels takes a moment longer. But the ATI software still sucks!

But the good news is that the BeyondTV software now works correctly! Woohoo!

[Empyrean5]

Glad to hear it. Now, get ready to sit back, have a beer and watch something on TV, because here on the East Coast, it's almost quittin' time!

[paulm64]

Originally Posted by Empyrean5

Well, if your computer is randomly freezing-up, I'd look into that issue first .. might be related.

The usual things .. update drivers, check the Event Viewer, yadda, yadda... service packs ... don't forget to peek at the BIOS settings ... you know, the whole drill!

Well, after leaving the computer on all night with a fresh load and no extra crap loaded my computer it still froze up. I have since done an exhaustive memory test wich turned out ok. I also went into the bios and set all the settings from 'best performance' values to 'optimal settings'. Not exactly sure what this means, but I think that the optimal settings are more relaxed that the best performance settings. I also turned on something called "pci ide busmaster". Not sure what this is but I know it has to do with dma's. My hard drives were running with ultra dma mode 6, and they are still running in this mode after changing that setting. I don't think it really did anything.

I have noticed that when my computer is locked up, the hard drive activity light is always on. I think that the hard drive activity has something to do with it. Also, it almost never happenes when I'm using the computer. The lockups are always when the computer is idle for a long time. I have several extra fans in my computer and I don't think that heat is a problem.
My motherboard is a Intel VIA 845 something. I'll try to find more specifics.

[Empyrean5]

Your HDD might be failing. Does it make any unusual noises? Do a surface check.

Right-click a drive -> Properties -> Tools -> Check Now... -> "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"

[queonda]

Also try to remove your video card and use your onboard video card (if you have one). I had an issue with a computer which always froze and rebooted and turned out to be the video card.

[paulm64]

Originally Posted by Empyrean5

Your HDD might be failing. Does it make any unusual noises? Do a surface check.

Right-click a drive -> Properties -> Tools -> Check Now... -> "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"

Nope. I have two 120GB HD's and they both check out fine.

[paulm64]

Originally Posted by queonda

Also try to remove your video card and use your onboard video card (if you have one). I had an issue with a computer which always froze and rebooted and turned out to be the video card.

Nope. I don't have onboard video.

I'm thinking about doing a bios update. But I have to figure out how to do it without a floppy drive.

[paulm64]

I just updated the BIOS on my computer. Luckily, I didn't kill my computer. The release notes for the update mentions that it fixed some timing/stability issues. Here's hoping.

[paulm64]

Originally Posted by paulm64

I just updated the BIOS on my computer. Luckily, I didn't kill my computer. The release notes for the update mentions that it fixed some timing/stability issues. Here's hoping.

Well, it's been two days now and the computer hasn't frozen up yet! I can't believe it! The BIOS update must've fixed something. Geez! I've had this computer for a few years now and it's always been a little flaky. I can't beleive I didn't try the BIOS update sooner. I just figured it was windows that was crashing. Well, I don't wanna jinx it. So I'm gonna shut up now.