HTPC Freeze troubled tracked to Xlobby

[Richard_P_Harvey]

For the last year I have had an imtermittent problem where my HTPC would freeze for about 15-20 seconds and then resume playback. This would happen during movie playback and during MP3 playback. It was ALWAYS very intermittent and the machine recovers each and everytime so it never really sat too high on the list of things to track down. But this week I decided to try to figure it out. On the base XP installation I did all the normal tweaks to ensure optimal operation including the most logical culprit, System Restore which is now turned OFF. I also removed all visual effects, turned OFF themes and several other non-essential items to ensure XP was running lean and mean on the 3Ghz - 1MB ram machine. Still after all the tweaks the freeze still happens.....! So as a little test I started using the HTPC without Xlobby as my frontend and to watch movies I would just launch TheaterTek directly or to listen to MP3's I would just use WinAmp directly. Very old school and clearly not as easy to navigate but guess what, in 3 days using this method I have not had a single freeze at all. This is not yet conclusive because the freezes were very intermittent but I would have expected one by now. So my question to the experts, is there something going on in Xlobby (network related maybe) that would suddenly take over the entire machines resources for about 15-20 seconds and then give it all back again and do this in a VERY random way......?

[lar282]

something to start with


1/ is the xlobby server turned on?
2/ Try again without ANY plugins in xlobby

see if that helps and if it did help try to copy the plugins back one by one


//Lasse

[Atlas]

I have been experiencing the same problems. However I can say that I still get the 10 second hang with TheaterTek without Xlobby running. Happens rarely. I have noticed that my harddrive light comes on continuously until it resumes. At first I thought it was with playing movies across the network. However I've had it happen a couple of times with DVD discs. It also hangs every so often while playing music in Xlobby. I haven't played Foobar long enough outside of Xlobby to see if it happens then too.

Sorry I don't have a solution, but just wanted to mention it happens to me without Xlobby. Please reply if you do solve the problem (in Xlobby or not)

[rhinoman]

I had a similar xlobby issue but it would cause an irrecoverable freeze.

With my HTPC's I always optimize the install by turning everything not needed off.

After troubleshooting using the event manager in xp it turned out I had disabled something which stopped .net working fully. Not had a problem since.

[Richard_P_Harvey]

I had a similar xlobby issue but it would cause an irrecoverable freeze.

With my HTPC's I always optimize the install by turning everything not needed off.

After troubleshooting using the event manager in xp it turned out I had disabled something which stopped .net working fully. Not had a problem since.

One of the first places I looked for clues at to what was going on was the Event Viewer and there was nothing there, not a single error.

[rhinoman]

The only other hiccup issue I had once on a friends machine was when the hard drive was auto detected in the bios. I manually set the auto to hardrive and the playback hiccup went away.

[Roscoe62]

I've had similar problems in my setup for the last 18 months or so in my networked system. 99% of my movies/TV Episodes/Music is played from my server over the network. I would occasionally end up with a complete blue screen of death. I updated all of the drivers (including getting the latest BIOS) - didn't help - I changed the graphics card from a GeForce 6800GT to a 6600GT of the same make as the motherboard (Asus) to help compatibility. Since doing that the blue screens seem to have gone away but the occasional freezes are still there. 2 months ago I upgraded to a Gigabit switch, upgraded all the cables to Cat6 - problem still exists. I even set up a small separate database of movies on another PC to make sure it wasn't something specific to the server - I still get the freezes (but at least I know the server isn't the issue anymore!). Finally, last week I changed the NIC on the HTPC over to a new one (was using the onboard one) - made no difference. About the last thing I have to try is to remove the installed soundcard (M-Audio Revo) and try the onboard one to see if that makes a difference.

Richard, you don't say whether you stream your movies from HDD or just put the disc in the drive. It might be helpful to know.

Unfortunately I can't remember whether I'd tried to use the system without XLobby to see if that improved it or not. I may have to give that a try as I'm running out of options. I'll keep monitoring this thread.

[Richard_P_Harvey]

Roscoe62,

I both stream movies and play them from local hard drives.....! I have a network of several machines and in total 13 hard drives that I have rips stored on, only 2 of the 13 drives are actually inside the HTPC case itself. I get the freeze playing movies on any of the 13 drives, including the 2 in the HTPC itself.

I have now had several more days to play and I have kept Xlobby unloaded the entire time, not a single freeze or hicup at all, so I'm reasonably convinced that it's got something to do with Xlobby here. I'm thinking of doing a demo of Medio and see if the issue comes back....! I hate to move off of X because I have used it now for years but if it's causing this freeze I'm not sure I have a choice.

I would add however that I run Xlobby on no less than 5 machines and I get the freeze on only one machine, of course it's my main HTPC. Another interesting point is that I too use a Revo sound card in the HTPC, I wonder if there is something in Xlobby that conflicts with M-Audio somehow.

[Roscoe62]

It's one of those situations where some people swear that they've not had any problems at all with the Revo and others have had them, sold them and say they'll never own another one. It's pretty hard to judge without knowing all the facts.

Just out of curiousity, do any of the other machines you run XLobby on (the ones that are running fine) use the Revo as a soundcard? If so, have you run them long enough to detect whether they fault? Damned intermittant faults!

I'm trying to clear some time in the next 2 weeks to remove the revo and just use the motherboard's onboard sound. Not as a permanent solution, but just to try and see whether the Revo is causing the problem. You can be sure I'll report what I find back here. The only problem is that life is uncomfortably busy at the moment and I can't try it out sooner.

It's interesting though, that once you've taken XLobby out of the picture you're not seeing any more freezes. Still, as you say, it's probably a bit too early yet to know conclusively.