Extenders not connecting to WMC

[Tbro81]

I had a HTPC with WMC and two Ceton Echo extenders that was working fine. Then it started to exhibit problems tuning in to channels on both the HTPC and the extenders to the point where it was taking ~20 minutes to tune in to a channel. I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling WMC as well as replaced the Comcast cablecard in my InfiniTv 6 (ETH). That seemed to improve things on the HTPC as I was able to tune channels in a reasonably short period of time but now I am unable to connect the extenders to the HTPC. When adding them, they go through four of the five "add" steps but it times out on the last step (Connecting to your extender). On the HTPC it says the extender is "Setup but not available". I have tried multiple Ceton echo extenders with the same result. I'm using a relatively new Orbi mesh router so, to eliminate that as the problem, I went back to an older router that I used on my network and also got the same result. Finally, I put the "bad" HTPC on a network where I already have another "working" HTPC also with an InfiniTv 6 and three (Ceton) extenders. (I set up the working HTPC with 4 tuners and the bad HTPC with 2 tuners.) The bad HTPC was able to tune channels with no difficulty but when I tried to add an XBox 360 extender I got the same result (Connect to your extender failed). All of this collective information tells me there is a problem with the (bad) HTPC and/or WMC as I've eliminated all the other variables (the network, the router, the extenders, the InifiTv 6, the Cablecard, etc.). I'd prefer not to have to reinstall Windows 7 (Professional) but that's the only remaining option I see available. I would appreciate any suggestions and thanks in advance!

[mech_egr]

I've experienced similar issues in the past and found that: If you currently have a large library of recordings [either local storage, or NAS mapped drives to recordings] then the pairing process can tend to hang on that last step. To resolve this issue, I found that if I removed the additional TV recordings folders (as well as a large collection of Movie folders), then simply have WMC down to the 'default' recording folder, that the process of pairing the HTPC w/the Ceton echo would get through the multi-step process relatively quickly. After achieving the re-pairing process, you should be able to re-add your additional libraries of TV/Movie recordings, from which the echo will begin to sync with the HTPC as the recording-libraries re-establish themselves. Probably worth trying, given the usefulness of the echo thin-clients. I have 4 echo devices that have behaved well over the years [house wired w/CAT6 and have dual-bonded Ethernet ports from the HTPCs [e.g., 2 GBit bandwidth from HTPCs running through a TP-Link Managed 16 port GBit switch [bonded ports for HTPCs and utilizing vlan configuration to manage throughput to each of the echo devices].

I think the problem with the echo thin-clients is simply hitting an overload of TV/Movie information hitting it all at once during the pairing w/the HTPC; if you can reduce the volume of your libraries (temporarily), I suspect you should be able to get the echo paired up w/the HTPC running WMC again.

[Tbro81]

Thanks for the input mech_egr. My HTPC does not have any libraries that I am using that I am aware of as it’s only purpose is to allow us to watch TV (not record shows, play saved videos or play music). That said, I’ll look to see if I have any residual media on the HTPC that might be gumming up the works. Much appreciated.