Recordings started an hour & a half early!

[Mike88]

I had a problem last night with recordings starting 1 ½ hours before they were scheduled.

NBC was supposed to be 8:30 - 9:00. The History shows 8:32 - 9:00 and states Partial - began late due to temporary failure…
OK, that might explain 8:32 vs. 8:00. But the recording actually started 2 hours earlier!! The NBC bug in the corner actually says 6:32.

CBS supposed to have 3 recordings: 7-8, 8-9, & 9-10.
The first one was skipped & the second one’s History also says partial from 8:32 - 9:01. But the actual recording is 2 hours, 29 minutes long & started early. So by luck it did record the 7:00 program & part of the program before it.

ABC was similar.

I understand a partial if there was a system problem. But any idea what would cause the history to state one thing and the actual recording to start 1 ½ hours early?

FWIW tonight’s recording was OK.

[Crash2009]

Have you reviewed all this Mike?

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 0&start=20

[JohnW248]

What is your tuner and if cable type of cableCARD and do you have SDV? I've seen some strange things happen with tuning adapters, but this sound like there might have been a local time issue, check your event log under administration and see if there are any time warnings. If you do, you can schedule a task to update the clock more often. There is a task in the Task Library in the Media Center Section that will run the time update task, you'll just have to create a new task since it normally is there without any schedule or trigger.

[Mike88]

Have you reviewed all this Mike?

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 0&start=20

I read it now & have a question. How do I check the time on my modem or router? Does this only apply to a cable modem? I have an AT&T DSL modem & separate router & have never seen a time setting on either.

FWIW - I use the time.nist.gov server.

[Crash2009]

what model of router and modem. I'll send you the link tomorrow. These are worth a check, but it's more than likely the windows clock.

[Mike88]

What is your tuner and if cable type of cableCARD and do you have SDV? I've seen some strange things happen with tuning adapters, but this sound like there might have been a local time issue, check your event log under administration and see if there are any time warnings. If you do, you can schedule a task to update the clock more often. There is a task in the Task Library in the Media Center Section that will run the time update task, you'll just have to create a new task since it normally is there without any schedule or trigger.

I"m using two AverMedia duet OTA dual tuner cards. That gives me 4 tuners so that should not be a problem.

Previously I checked the event log but don't recall which sections. But what I found almost exactly mimicked what the WMC history said: "Partial - began late due to temporary failure…" I'll get the exact wording next time I turn on the TV.

I didn't notice the problem until the next evening, but it recorded OK that next evening without any changes from me. And has worked OK since.

My PC's clock only drifts about 1-2 seconds per week & I check it on weekends when checking the schedule for the up coming week.

I've noticed if the clock is only off by something around 2 seconds or less that doing an update does not change anything. So I sometimes manually change the time by a couple minutes & save it. Then I go back & update the Internet time & it gets changed to the exact time, at least according to time.is.

[Mike88]

what model of router and modem. I'll send you the link tomorrow. These are worth a check, but it's more than likely the windows clock.

Modem: SpeedStream 5100b
Router: D-Link DIR-601

Here's from my Event Logs:

Recording of NCIS: New Orleans: Chasing Ghosts began as scheduled on 11/25/2014 8:32:01 PM while the program was already in progress.

Recording of NCIS: New Orleans: Chasing Ghosts began late on 11/25/2014 8:32:01 PM due to a temporary failure caused by either a system malfunction or a power loss and stopped on 11/25/2014 9:01:00 PM.

Again, the actual recording was 2 hours, 29 minutes long & started early which meant I did not miss the 7:00pm recording. There is no mention of the 7:00pm recording ever ever being recorded, skipped or missed. Nothing. I just lucked out because the 8:00pm recording started so early, even though all indicators state it did not.

[Crash2009]

speedstream 5100 check dsl reports link in post 25 in the link I sent you.

time for d-link = http://screenshots.portforward.com/rout ... ttings.htm

If you have a managed switch you should set the time there also. Un-managed not necessary.

Have you run Barnabas's time config zip yet? its in the link I sent you. post #2. Haven't you had time to read it yet? This is likely the best place to start.

[Crash2009]

"system malfunction or a power loss and stopped on 11/25/2014 9:01:00 PM."

Can also mean BSOD http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html you likely want to eliminate this as a possibility, as soon as you can.

[pc210018]

I had a similar problem after I had to recover from an earlier restore point. This is what fixed my problem.

Go to: C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\Media Center
and deleted the StartRecording task file there. Started WMC and it will recreate the file.

[Mike88]

speedstream 5100 check dsl reports link in post 25 in the link I sent you.

time for d-link = http://screenshots.portforward.com/rout ... ttings.htm

If you have a managed switch you should set the time there also. Un-managed not necessary.

Have you run Barnabas's time config zip yet? its in the link I sent you. post #2. Haven't you had time to read it yet? This is likely the best place to start.

Thank you for all the information.

I did look at the dslreports link & it applied to cable modems & my old DSL modem was not listed. FWIW the 5100 is different than the 5100b. I Googled & several results repeated the info in the following link. Basically it says "I see it synchronizes its own internal notion of time with two restricted-access stratum-1 NTP servers."
http://compgroups.net/comp.protocols.ti ... atio/33913

For some reason I never paid attention to the D-Link's time. Perhaps I did when first setup because I try to look at all the setup screens. But it has been rebooted several times & therefore the time was off. I tried to copy the computer's time settings but nothing changed so I did the auto config using one of the listed D-Link servers. Curious, other than time stamping its logs, does the router's time affect it's routing?

Yes I did read the link you sent in post #2 and have previously read Barnabas's time config zip & similar scheduled tasks. I have never set up any scheduled time task because the HTPC has never been off by more than a few seconds & using the 2 minute early start padding has always been more than enough to compensate for the few seconds time difference.

No switches in the system.

Thanks again.

[Mike88]

"system malfunction or a power loss and stopped on 11/25/2014 9:01:00 PM."

Can also mean BSOD http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html you likely want to eliminate this as a possibility, as soon as you can.

I did not get a BSOD. And IIRC a 9:01pm recording started on time following the corrupt one.

The HTPC is plugged into a UPS therefore main power should not be a problem. And everything was working fine the next day & recordings were proper. Later on when I tried to watch stuff is when I noticed the problem recordings.

Long time ago I had a RAM problem & tried to read the minidump files & event logs but they never meant anything conclusive, at least not to me. Everything said unexpected power shut down or words to that effect.

[Crash2009]

Everything said unexpected power shut down or words to that effect.

Write down the words exactly next time, and google them. OR, find the error in event viewer.

There are a couple different versions of Unexpected Shutdown.

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Al ... n%20errors

[Crash2009]

Mike, the Speedstream 5100 is in the Ameritec Modem Museum. Ever thought about upgrading?

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12966

[Mike88]

Mike, the Speedstream 5100 is in the Ameritec Modem Museum. Ever thought about upgrading?

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12966

The 5100b is an oldie but goodie & just keeps on working.

Short story - AT&T sent me a Netgear 6200 a couple years ago. It works but slows down my 3Mbps DSL connection by about 10%. AT&T was on the phone as I swapped modems back & forth & the Netgear always cut back my connection speed. Turned out there was more noise on the line with the Netgear so it throttled back the speed. Since 3Mbps DSL is the fastest I can get, & the actual connection is less, I want every bit (no pun intended) of speed available.

At some point I'll have to do something because the 5100b does not support IPv6. From what I understand I can run it in bridged mode & the router will then handle IPv6.

[Crash2009]

For some reason I never paid attention to the D-Link's time. Perhaps I did when first setup because I try to look at all the setup screens. But it has been rebooted several times & therefore the time was off. I tried to copy the computer's time settings but nothing changed so I did the auto config using one of the listed D-Link servers. Curious, other than time stamping its logs, does the router's time affect it's routing?

Not sure about that. But these network guys around here seem to believe that different times on different devices will cause problems. In my un-educated network opinion, I can only imagine, that if device 1 is asking device 2 "What time is it" and device 2 is asking device 3 "and 3 is unable to provide the time instantly", I could see where device 1 and 2 could get into a bit of an argument, causing device 4 to say "To hell with you guys, I'm not going to do anything until you quit arguing". During the argument device 4 is not really sure what time it is, and, is trying to accomplish a task which is dependent upon what time it is, I can imagine the complication of an endless loop of Device 4 saying "I can't do this because I can't do that".

Maybe the time has nothing to do with your problem, but I firmly believe that it is a basic necessity to have it set up correctly so that the correct time can be eliminated as a possible cause of a timing problem which is the topic of this post.

Maybe someone else has a better idea, but what I would do is elect one device to be the time server and point everyone else on the network to get the time from the elected device.

The first step is to run TimeSync.zip on the HTPC.

[Mike88]

Maybe the time has nothing to do with your problem, but I firmly believe that it is a basic necessity to have it set up correctly so that the correct time can be eliminated as a possible cause of a timing problem which is the topic of this post.

Maybe someone else has a better idea, but what I would do is elect one device to be the time server and point everyone else on the network to get the time from the elected device.

The first step is to run TimeSync.zip on the HTPC.

I tried to copy the computer's time settings to the router but it would not work. Clicking on that box in the router did highlight the box but other than that the time did not change. Could it be the router did not know which computer to use?

Do most routers let you chose which PC to use for time?
How do you get both PCs to use the same time?

[Crash2009]

Maybe the time has nothing to do with your problem, but I firmly believe that it is a basic necessity to have it set up correctly so that the correct time can be eliminated as a possible cause of a timing problem which is the topic of this post.

Maybe someone else has a better idea, but what I would do is elect one device to be the time server and point everyone else on the network to get the time from the elected device.

The first step is to run TimeSync.zip on the HTPC.

I tried to copy the computer's time settings to the router but it would not work. Clicking on that box in the router did highlight the box but other than that the time did not change. Could it be the router did not know which computer to use?

Do most routers let you chose which PC to use for time?
How do you get both PCs to use the same time?

Page 65 ftp://ftp2.dlink.com/PRODUCTS/DIR-601/R ... .00_EN.PDF

Looks like your router can be the "Time Server"

[Mike88]

Page 65 ftp://ftp2.dlink.com/PRODUCTS/DIR-601/R ... .00_EN.PDF

Looks like your router can be the "Time Server"

I did enable "Enable NTP Server" in order to do the Automatic Time Configuration using a dlink server.

I still wondered why the "Copy Your Computer's Time Settings" which is under the "Set The Date & Time Manually" section did not work. I tried it again & still didn't work. I tried to set the time manually to see what would happen. Well you cannot set the year because the drop down selection only covers 2002 - 2012. That probably explains why it can't copy the computer's time setting. I've only had this router about 2 years which means it might have been "out of date" when purchased. I did update the firmware less than a year ago & obviously that never updated the year calander.

All that being said I did pickup a new router because every so often (maybe once a month) the D-Link stops working & has to be restarted by powering off/on. I'm presuming this was not the cause of my problem because from what I've read & from experience, if the HTPC loses it's Internet connection the recordings still take place as long as the EPG is filled out for the scheduled dates.

It's a little busy around here this time of year & will try to install the new router first chance. Better to do that than spend time on the old one. Hopefully I won't have to bug you after I get it set up.

Thanks for all your help.

[Crash2009]

Bingo! I think you found the problem Mike. Y2K-012 Bug.

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=51932.0

After you get the new router set up, you might want to try the new modem again. Maybe the router was affecting the results of your last attempt.

You can bug me any time.