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failed recordings in MCE

  • 15-07-2006 9:05am
    #1
    ffocused
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,224 ✭✭✭


    I have just got my second MCE machine, a Vaio VGX-XL100 and have had 3 failed recordings so far. I only got it on tuesday and only had 2 successful recordings.
    My last machine, Advent DHE500 failed so often that i reverted to using a HDD recorder with tv link.

    I have a digibox connected to it and have all the MCE updates installed.
    I enabled the optimisation feature this morning to see if it will help.(it made matters worse on the Advent)

    are failed recordings common to everyone?


Comments

  • #2
    8T8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭8T8


    Nope never had it happen to me (but I self built) though I don't doubt it if you went to Google and looked for the issue there are lots of links to the topic.

    In what sort of scenario does it fail like you set it to record something at a certain time and it fails to come out standby or it just doesn't record the program at all even it does come out of standby ?

    Is the machine on for long periods of time ?

    If you go to RecordedTV -> Scheduled > History it should if you are lucky give a little bit of info as to why the recording failed or so Google tells me.

    Check the event viewer as well in the control panel/administrative tools and look for anything flagged related to the failed recordings.

    Also from a review of the VGX-XL100 it says Sony installs it's own little quirky apps alongside MCE could some of these be interfering with MCE ?

    Also does Sony install crappy & bloated anti virus packages like Norton onto the system ?


    Update:
    After reading a bit more and having found others who where having issues with similar Sony HTPC's I got the distinct picture that Sony bundles a lot of crap on the computer and in some instances this actually breaks the machine when you download the updates from Windows Update.

    Software purge:
    What I would do is go into add/remove and uninstall as much as possible that you don't use or need like for instance if they installed Sony's awful & buggy SonicStage software. Also see if Norton anti virus is present and if it is get rid of that as well and replace it with a more system friendly program like Avast Anti Virus (free), basically try to get rid of as much bloatware as possible that your are comfortable with.

    TV tuner:
    Okay all I know about your TV tuner is that it is made by AverMedia Sony provide driver updates but they wont let anyone onto their site without a serial number of the machine so what you should do is check the Sony driver site and see if an updated driver for your TV Tuner is present. Download and install it, after the reboot run the TV tuner setup wizard again so it replaces any old settings from the previous driver.

    MCE Standby:
    Download this plug-in for MCE what it does is allow you finer control over MCE and it's standby support, if you leave the machine on 24/7 set it to auto reboot at least once a week or once a day.

    Also in the control panel/power options section under advanced make sure the box is 'not' ticked for "prompt for password when computer resumes from standby".

    So if you do all of the above let me know how it goes after that.


  • #3
    ffocused
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,224 ✭✭✭ffocused


    Thank you for for such a comprehensive reply,
    I have Norton systemworks 04 and norton internet security 06 running but am not to keen on removing them or anything else just yet.

    all the failed recordings happened when the system was in stand by, and the reason given is '**** was not recorded due to a temporary failure caused by either a system malfunction or power loss'

    I have changed the power management settings and will leave the pc on 24/7 and see if it helps.

    for the failed recordings it comes out of standby, but i have to do a manual reboot (holding in the power button for 10 secs) to get going again after the recording has finished.


  • #4
    8T8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭8T8


    Okay just so you know Norton is a very invasive program that buries itself deep into the OS which can use problems on some systems, this needn't be the case as there are better anti-virus scanners than Norton that do as good as if not better job without the baggage Norton adds.

    I really do urge you to ditch the Norton applications as the Windows firewall is perfectly safe to use in conjunction with a NAT capable router (which is pretty much all routers) and AVG or Avast are superior anti virus programs.

    Check for a bios update for the motherboard on Sony's site you way want to go into the bios and go over the power management settings as well to make sure everything is in order.

    The MCE Standby Tool I linked to above offers a lot of tweaks as you can see in the screenshots play around with some of the settings like restarting the ehome when resuming to see if that makes any difference.


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