[mythtv-users] SOLVED Random lockups on Mythbackend

[dwoody1]

>On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 2:16 PM, dwoody1 <dwoody1 at charter.net> wrote:
>> Brian Wood wrote:
>>>> I record OTA and Mythtv shows 720, 1080, HD and sometimes blank. But,
>>>> we live in Texas, so I assume it is all digital if that makes a
>>>> difference.
>>>
>>> So we're talking about HD. I suspect your CPU is not capable of 
that much
>>> activity with HD, especially since you are using software decoding.
>
>Years ago I was running a frontend based on on a single-core sempron.
>Can't remember the clock rate, but it wasn't high.  It would barely
>keep up with decoding HD in software; the CPU would be running over
>90% constantly while playing 1080i, slightly less for 720p but still
>quite high.  This was all captured OTA using pcHDTV 5500 cards.
>
>But the point is that it DID keep up, so your athlon X2 should be
>handling it without a problem.  As long as you have proper cooling and
>hardware that works, a cpu can be pegged at 100% all day and never
>lock up.
>
>>>> I have been using the HDMI output. I thought that used less cpu than
>>>> using VGA output. But perhaps still too much.
>>>
>>> I wasn't aware that HDMI made any difference in CPU usage, first I had
>>> heard of that.
>>
>> I read some where that with the HDMI output the computer did not have to
>> convert to analog, which would take more processing. Do not really know
>> if this is true or not.
>
>The part about there being no analog conversion is true, but it is all
>handled in hardware by the video card and it makes no difference in
>CPU usage.  HDMI is just a connection type.
>
>>>> If so, from your comments above, a VDPAU-capable video card would be
>>>> called for. From your experience, are there cards that you would
>>>> recommend or avoid?
>>>
>>>> From comments here and other places I'd go with an nVidia GT220 or 
240,
>>>
>>> they are reasonably priced and seem to work well.
>
>Personally, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about the video card and go
>upgrading it unnecessarily.  If you have the cpu power to do software
>decoding then it is perfectly fine, and in some cases even better to
>just use that.
>
>Your problem definitely sounds like faulty hardware and it seems like
>you may have already found the problem w/the mce usb receiver.  After
>replacing that, long as your system is stable and you are not having
>problems that are actually traceable to lack of free CPU cycles, why
>mess with it?


After a lot of testing I found the problem. The memory was bad. The
memory test ran for 4 days and over 100 passes without even one failure
(go figure).
I have been using Mythtv for over one month now without any lockups at all.

Thanks to all for the help,

David