[mythtv-users] Re: How I solved my PVR-350 hard lockup problem

[jerome lacoste]

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 22:17:22 +0000, Ryan Dalzell <ryan at tullyroan.com> wrote:
> Hi Guys,
> 
> I just recently did some fiddling with my machine and - of course - created
> severe havoc and much domestic turmoil for days afterwards. The box would
> hard lock (hang) and have to be power cycled. Then it would hang again.
> There is seemingly no pattern to when these would happen. I could watch
> LiveTV for hours and then change channel and it would hang.
> 
> I've fixed it now but I noticed plenty of other people having the same very
> frustrating problem. 


I am part of those. I thought about the power supply. 

Just a question: your machine seems to be a simple front end, no
tuner/DVB card, correct?

My board has *only*  the PVR350, a 160G hard disk, a USB wireless key
and a slim CDROM which I almost never use. This should fit with the
small power supply I am using.

It still crashed when I only had the disk and the tuner, no USB and no CDROM.

On the other side, many people believe the problem could be related to DMA. 

There's a thread about that here:

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=60131&STARTPAGE=1#391672

I am also seeing a lot of DMA errors in the logs. You can check the
ivtv-dev list for a post from me and other people with simlar issue.

So if the problem is DMA related, removing the disk would also solve
it. If I understand, your disk is only used as a storage element.

If you have time, could you try to put the disk back, but disable DMA
(in BIOS and in OS)?

That way we will perhaps see if the problem was the power supply or the DMA...

Cheers,

Jerome