Building the Ultimate (cheap) HDTV PVR – part 1.2
The system has continued to stall even after replacing the video card and sound card. I thought it was the HDTV tuner card and removed that. This fixed the problem for a while, but then I experienced the system freezing again. So now the question is - what is causing the system to freeze?
The things that popped into my head were:
- Processor is dying
- My motherboard is incompatible with c-media sound processors (like the ones found in the turtle beach montego and Auzentech X-plosion)
- The 380w powersupply is either underpowered or failing
Well, I decided to try a few things today to figure out what was wrong. I removed both TV tuners and watched a DVD. The system worked fine. I added in the Analog tv tuner - the system worked fine. I added in the Digital Tuner - the system crashed while playing a DVD.
Then, I removed the analog tuner and booted with the Digital Tuner. The system booted fine and was stable. I loaded the ATI TV software and played an HD stream. The ATI card fixed the problem of choppy playback, however it seems that the HD signal is stronger directly on my TV, but that is another issue.
So, prior to realizing it could be a PSU issue, I ordered a new motherboard, processor, ram and video card.
| 80699-5 | AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $107.40 | 1 | $107.40 |
| 241163 | MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Athlon 64 Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $80.99 | 1 | $80.99 |
| 80098-21 | Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5 Value Select Memory Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $80.90 | 1 | $80.90 |
| 321962 | MSI RX1300PRO-TD256E Radeon X1300 PRO PCI Express 256MB DDR2 Video Card w/TV-Out & Dual DVI Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $95.75 | 1 | $95.75 |
Those are coming on Tuesday or Wednesday and I am debating buying a PSU just in case the system still crashes. I also decided to purchase a DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite to replace the ATI HDTV Wonder that I thought was giving me a bunch of problems.
Building a HTPC is not quite as easy as I thought it would be, even with the extensive experience I have in building PCs.
I wish apple had come out with their HTPC a few weeks ago when I decided to do this project. According to reports from the shareholders meeting, Steve Jobs' comments "We hear you loud and clear" may indicate that apple is working on something. It certainly wouldnt take much to take the Mac Mini to the next level.
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Ahnteis
