VMS Turns off Computer with Cable STB

WillGill wrote on 1/28/2007, 9:16 PM

My computer has many things attached to it but is very stable. It just doesn't crash... except for once instance.

I have a Cable Set Top Box (STB) connected via Firewire. I use it for capturing HDShows via SageTV. When I fire up Sony VMS 7 (or 6) it begins to load, then black screens my computer and resets it. It's as if I pressed the computer's Reset button.

If I disable the Firewire drivers for the Cable STB in Device Manager, Sony VMS works fine. This gets to be a pain because I can't record while working in VMS. I've also been forgetting to reEnable the Cable STB drivers and it won't record my TV shows.

Has anyone seen this?

Comments

Andy C wrote on 1/31/2007, 2:26 AM

Whilst I haven't see this exact kind of problem, it sounds a bit like a resource conflict -specifically IRQ or DMA.

What I'd do is go into your machines's BIOS and disable any hardware you don't use. For example, not many people use the parallel or serial ports nowadays. Try disabling those for starters. It may well be that VMS and the STB drivers are vying for interrupts, even DMA channels..

Just a thought,
Andy.

PS: Do you get any events logged in the Windows Event Log that correspond with the moment in time it restarts?

WillGill wrote on 1/31/2007, 8:59 PM

Here is what Sony support said:
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We cannot work with any TV tuner cards or HDV set-top cable boxes. What's happening is that VMS is not able to work with these devices and for some reason its causing a crash. We do recommend removing any firewire devices that are not able to work with VMS while working with this software.
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I've got a LOT of things connected to this computer. While it's not impossible that a resource conflict is an issue, I don't think so. I believe Sony VMS is trying to communicate with the Cable STB via the Firewire and it goes nuts. I just wish I could tell Sony VMS to not communicate with it.