Wow, Mike, thanks for the long, detailed response (over something that's not likely related to your driver!). I have used the device in Windows just to check if it was working, but I didn't run it long enough to see whether a transient problem like this could be cropping up. Heat could definitely be an issue - it's not a well ventalted space, and we're having a heat wave this week here (So. California). I'll rearrange the hardware this evening to improve ventiation and try again. So close...
Cheers, Bill On Monday, September 27, 2010 08:22:12 am Mike Isely wrote: > On Mon, 27 Sep 2010, Bill Kristan wrote: > > New problem... my wintv-hvr-1950 now works only briefly, then stops. The > > device node is still there, and I can play it (with mplayer or mythtv), > > but it gives a black screen. The first time I saw this, dmesg gave a > > "device stuck" error from pvrusb2. Removing and loading the module > > didn't fix it, nor did rebooting the computer, but power cycling the > > capture device did. I was able to play /dev/video0 with mplayer, but > > when I tried to record with mythtv I got a black recording again. No > > error message was reported the second time. > > > > I'm using the firmware extracted from the driver CD. > > [...] > > > Not sure what to try ... maybe go back to the firmware from isely.net? > > Seems the version shipped with the device would be best, but it would be > > something to try. > > Software normally doesn't "break" by itself - if it was working before > and you didn't change anything then it should keep working. (Well this > isn't quite true; MS software seems able to break by itself...) > > If it was working before and now it isn't you have to ask yourself what > has changed? Also, generally if it works at all - even briefly - then > the software is probably OK and you have some other sort of problem. > > Based on your description it sounds like the FX2 in the device itself is > crashing. Of course that should *never* happen and there's really no > way for the pvrusb2 driver to cause that, short of downloading corrupted > FX2 firmware - but even then if it's working briefly then the firmware > is probably just fine. > > I'd probably turn my attention to other possible causes for the device > to crash. > > Is it getting too hot? (Having it work for a short time before crashing > each time is something that can be caused by heat.) I've never heard of > an HVR-1950 actually overheating, but the other PVR-USB2 models > sometimes had this sort of issue. I learned of one case years ago where > a user had stacked 4 PVR-USB2 devices inside a closed box with no > ventilation, and that eventually caused the hardware to die from > overheating. > > Is it possible that it's getting hit by power spikes? Remember that > your device is getting power from its own little power brick and that > brick isn't anywhere near as resilient against power line flakiness as > your PC's internal power supply will be. I have heard of numerous cases > where power glitches in the nearby environment (e.g. A/C compressor > turning on in the house) will crash your capture device. You could try > moving it to a different circuit, putting it behind a surge protector, > or (best choice) plugging it into a UPS. If any of that helps then the > problem is dirty power. > > Another possibility is that the power brick itself is failing, drifting > out of tolerance. This was exactly the problem a while back with the > Silicon Dust HD HomeRun tuners - they had a bad batch of power bricks > which would fail after a few months. Now, I have *NOT* heard of that > happening here with Hauppauge, but power bricks frequently are a weak > spot with externally powered devices. > > One big lesson I learned years ago when I was messing with TTL circuits > (yes it was a LONG time ago) - if the circuit is misbehaving then always > suspect the power first. > > Can you run the tuner successfully under *cough* Windows *cough*? If > there really is some kind of external problem that's killing the tuner, > then the answer to that question should be "no". > > -Mike -- Department of Biological Sciences California State University San Marcos, CA 92096 voice: (760) 750-8096 fax: (760) 750-3063 [email protected] http://www.csusm.edu/wkristan _______________________________________________ pvrusb2 mailing list [email protected] http://www.isely.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pvrusb2
