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Author Topic: Problems with USB TV stick  (Read 4175 times)

pwantzel

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Problems with USB TV stick
« on: January 22, 2010, 10:33:28 am »

First, my computer will not boot with the TV stick attached.  It hangs part way thru the process.  Removing the TV stick from the USB port lets it finish booting.

Second, after this happened, the TV stick has problems.  When I go into Television and try to watch a channel, I get an error box that says something like it's having problems playing files, I should check that the library points to the right place.  I can get you the exact words tonight when I get home from work if necessary.  This happens on any channel I try. 

I tried to rescan channels (in another library).  It didn't find any channels.  Previously, it found a couple of dozen.

I did not touch the antenna or the antenna connection wiring between the time it worked and when it didn't.  I don't have another Digital TV tuner to try it on.  I tried rebooting (without the TV stick attached) several times.  No change. 

Win Vista Business SP2.

Did the TV stick die?  Help.
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JimH

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2010, 10:40:21 am »

Try turning off UAC to see if it makes a difference.  It may not be hung.  It may just be the OS blocking.
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2010, 11:02:44 am »

UAC is already off.  I find it way too annoying, so I never use it.
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JimH

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2010, 11:05:32 am »

You reported that it worked a day or two ago.  Different user?
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2010, 11:08:00 am »

It did work before.  Same user.  It stopped working after I attempted to boot with the TV stick installed.  If it matters, the reboot was required by a Windows Update for IE 8 security patches.
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Yaobing

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2010, 05:01:46 pm »

I have seen such a behavior with an USB device before.  I do not remember which device it was, but I think it was a different TV device.

I never figured out what caused it and how to fix it, but I later was able to use the device.

Maybe your device driver was corrupt.  Try reinstalling the driver.
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Yaobing Deng, JRiver Media Center

pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2010, 06:54:16 pm »

Tonite when I tried to watch TV I didn't get the error message I was getting, but I didn't get any signals either.  Following the suggestion, I reinstalled the driver.  Now I can see programs again.  Sheesh!

Any ideas why I can't seem to boot the computer with the TV stick installed?  I haven't tried this again today, though, since I reinstalled the driver.
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #7 on: January 23, 2010, 08:51:29 am »

This happened again this morning.  It was working fine, then I had to restart the computer and it stopped working.  The error message I get when trying to watch anything reads "Media Center encountered errors while trying to play the last several files.  Please make sure that the path in your media library points to the right location."

This time, several reboots and re-installs of the TV stick driver software failed to fix it.

Help?
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JimH

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2010, 08:57:23 am »

Are there any other TV tuners in the PC?

Why did you have to restart?  Any problems with the PC?
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2010, 09:01:29 am »

No other TV tuners.  The restart was to enable JR Media Server per your advice in the main forum to enable TV recording.
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2010, 09:29:12 am »

Well, after rebooting again and reinstalling TV stick driver again, it finally started to work.  What's going on here?
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JimH

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2010, 09:48:31 am »

I don't know.  If it doesn't clear up in a week or so, we can swap the device.

If it stalls again on a reboot, leave it for 15 or 20 minutes if you can.  It might recover.
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2010, 09:56:36 am »

Quote
If it stalls again on a reboot, leave it for 15 or 20 minutes if you can.  It might recover.
By this you mean that it should work OK to leave the TV stick connected during a shutdown and a reboot?  And you're suggesting that I let it try to reboot for 15-20 minutes if it seems to have hung up? 
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JimH

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #13 on: January 23, 2010, 10:08:05 am »

Yes and yes.  I'm sorry, but I really don't know what's going on.

Is there anything unusual about your PC?  Is it connected to the Internet, for example?
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #14 on: January 23, 2010, 10:15:49 am »

Computer is fairly new, i7-920 processor, Gigabyte motherboard, 6GB RAM.  The USB ports are all implemented on the motherboard.  Yes, it's connected to the internet (via DSL).

I think I'm going to try this on another computer and see if it works any different.
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JimH

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #15 on: January 23, 2010, 10:35:20 am »

Windows 7?  Release version?  64bit?
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #16 on: January 23, 2010, 11:10:09 am »

Windows Vista Business x64 SP2
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JimH

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2010, 08:48:34 am »

Here's a similar problem on another forum:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1147785
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pwantzel

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Re: Problems with USB TV stick
« Reply #18 on: January 25, 2010, 08:16:33 pm »

I read that article.  This problem happened when cold booting but not when warm booting. 

The only idea I got from it is to check if my computer was set to boot from USB, and it wasn't.  I did change one thing in the boot sequence.  It had a choice for "other add-in bootable cards" that was second in the list, and I moved it to last.  Don't know what this might actually do.  But after I did that the USB TV stick doesn't stop the boot process anymore (on two tries).  But it still doesn't work after doing this until I reinstall the driver.
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