[arrow]

Well...after a few months of amazing success, Windows on my HTPC decided there was a corruption in the registry.


No big deal, I thought, Windows says it will fix it. It fixed it by wiping out all my drivers and making me load them all again.


While reloading the drivers windows noticed that I didn't have enough interrupts for all my cards. Strange I thought because everything had been working previously.


On the next reboot, windows decided it would hang.


No problem I thought. I download drivers for my dos cdrom drivers on my laptop and transfered them to the htpc so I could reinstall windows. The process would hang during plug n play autodetection.


Peeved at this point at having to rip things out of my rack, I pulled all my cards out of the HTPC except for the Radeon LE. I tried a few different things, but never could get the pc to boot. So the Radeon is out and the GF2 is back in which finally got windows booted. Yay for me.


Tomorrow I will either get the system put back together or I will be throwing it off my roof.


--Les

 

[mrbadog]

This sounds like too much to blame on the ATI player


Could this be a virus?

 

[Grant Smyth]

Les: If you throw your HTPC off the roof just make sure you let go!


Hey, I thought your RP56 was doing everything you need. Would I be reading too much into your post to assume that you're using your HTPC almost exclusively - that is when it works.


And this hobby is supposed to be fun?


Cheers,


Grant

 

[arrow]

Grant,


Yes, I use the HTPC exclusively. Had been working like a charm til now. I was actually shocked how easy everything went into place the first time.


The RP56 sits disconnected on top of the component cabinet. When people come over to see the LT150, I usually show them the difference between the RP56 and the ATI player.


Everyone prefers the ATI player, but usually only by a slight margin.


Next test will be either be:


A. Tommyboy Mod'ed RP56 with SDI output to Dan's spankin new SDI capture card into DScaler vs. ATI player.


OR


B. How high does an HTPC bounce when dropped from 12 ft high.


--Les

 

[Kei Clark]

Les,


You maybe able to find out what is causing the hang-up by running Windows in the "logged" mode, which will generate a bootlog.txt.


Have you tried booting into the safe mode? Does it?


Kei Clark

Digital Connection

 

[arrow]

Kei,


I tried log mode. Strangely enough, the machine hung and no log was generated.


I also tried many combinations of step by step boot. I always chose a bootlog.txt, but one was never written.


Safe mode succeeds. This would seem to indicate a driver problem rather than hardware to me. However, I never could actually get the machine to boot with the VGA driver.


--Les

 

[chap]

I blew mine away the other day and started from scratch. . . I think the best thing to do, once you get it fully working in the begining with ALL the stuff your ever going to need is to create an image using Ghost or some other software so that you can reload it on later when problems occur. Once a month just make a new image of all the essentials.


Also using Windows XP or Windows ME with the System restore function is a big plus I find. I have had numerous issues that the system restore has fixed for me.

 

[Randall Morton]

Les,

I've had problems with bad memory on two different computers. Even though both computers were working with the bad memory I kept having problems. After buying new memory the problems vanished. I don't know if that is the problem, but it is the first thing I would check if you think it could be hardware related. Its very cheap now and you can always use more.

 

[tahustvedt]

Sounds like it's running hot. Check if the CPU-fan is running. It could also be faulty RAM. Try some other RAM DIMMs or if you have two DIMMs in the pc, try using only one at a time.


TAH

 

[orbillius]

I cannot reccomend using Norton Ghost enough! It has saved me more than once.

 

[uncledeathmonkey]

Yes I totally agree!! People.... use ghost...


Start with a fresh windows install:

Yank any non essential cards (everything but the vid card and nic) and format the target partition - then install windows (choose a flavor) and ghost the resulting virgin os (call this winclean)!

This will save you days of pain in the future...


Patch your system - but add no software:

Stick all the cards back in and patch your system with all your 4in1 card drivers, sp2, blah blah etc.. - then ghost this as well (call this winpatched)!

This will be your main recovery image...


Add all your ht gak...

Drop on your dvd players, mp3 stuff, descaler - whatever... then ghost this too (call this winht)!

Now you can experiment to your heart's content and not have to worry a bit...


I have a cheapo 9gb drive dedicated to ghost images and installers... yes - this is extreme, but it works... remember we are dealing with windows here... now - go forth and ghost!

 

[Augie]

Quote:

Originally posted by Grant Smyth Les: If you throw your HTPC off the roof just make sure you let go!

And make sure you take pictures!!!

 

[uncledeathmonkey]

Oh yeah... a funky thing I discovered about radeons... if there is a breakout box/boxes for vid in/out, remove it while doing the windows install.


It seems that before the card drivers are loaded these alternate connections can interfere with the vga port. *wierd*


Just pull all the connections for the radeon except for the vga cable till all the drivers are up and running... (this "feature" had me pulling my hair out for a few days)

 

[karos]

Not only ghost-I use BootIt NG. This allows several partitions. I have a partition specifically set up for DVD projection. BootIt even hides all the other partitions if you want it to.

 

[MrWigggles]

Everytime you get to a stopping point ghost and don't forget to ghost.


The ATI player gave registry problems all of the time years ago, back in the early Paniamorphic Era.


Some dinosaurs just won't go extinct no matter how much natural selection dictates them to.


-Mr. Wigggles

 

[KBK]

If you are using the Radeon LE,and win98SE, you MUST run directx8 BEFORE adding ANY drivers of ANY type into the computer. Just a warning. This is the ONLY way I have ever managed to get windows and the Radeon LE to work. otherwise, it's no video for you.

 

[jakehall]

Quote:

Originally posted by arrow Kei, I tried log mode. Strangely enough, the machine hung and no log was generated. I also tried many combinations of step by step boot. I always chose a bootlog.txt, but one was never written.

bootlog.txt is a hidden file that can be difficult to see. it lives either in your root directory of you main hard drive or in the \\windows directory. if you can't see it, go to a dos prompt and type:

c:

cd \\

attrib bootlog.txt -s -h -r


this should make the file visible. if not, change the line "cd \\" to "cd \\windows"


anyway, good luck and happy hunting


jake