Hauppauge 1250 TV Tuner hangs after 10 minutes

[Misch868]

I'm beta testing Windows 7 64-bit but dual booting with XP 32-bit SP3. I bought a Hauppauge 1250 tv tuner and on both operating system I can watch TV just fine for about ten minutes. Then I just lose the signal. I have used BeyondTV, Media Center (on Windows 7), and winTV (the program that comes on the disk with the card). I updated my drivers from Hauppauge website and moved the card around on different PCIe slots and nothing seems to get it to run longer than ten minutes. There were just a couple times when I first bought it (not even a week ago) that I could watch TV as long as I wanted (maybe an hour at a time). So do I have a software or a hardware problem?

Computer:
XFX nForce 680i LT mobo
Intel C2D E8400
eVGA 8800 GT
2 x 1GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 800 RAM

 

[SNGX1275]

Heat may be related.. does it work again if you fire it up right after it hangs? If so, does it run a full 10 minutes again or does it hang sooner. If it hangs sooner it probably is heat related. If not then further investigation will be required.

 

[Tedster]

hauppage tv cards aren't known for boosting signal properly enough. I highly suggest getting an RF amplifier - about $25 from an electronics shop.

 

[Misch868]

More

I am plugging a standard coax cable into this card. I am not using any over-the-air signal.

Also, once I watch TV and it loses the signal after ten minutes, no other program can pick up a signal unless I restart my computer. After a restart, any program gets a signal and any program will soon lose it.

I keep my computer under a desk so I can imagine it gets pretty stuffy in there after a while. I didn't know tv tuners made much heat but it's also pretty close to my 8800 GT. Like I said I moved it around a little with no success and I also left the side of my case off for a while.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[SNGX1275]

They actually will get fairly warm, I've used a couple of the old Hauppage cards (PVR-150 and PVR-250). But even at them being pretty hot I've not had any problems.

How long do you wait before trying again, before rebooting to make it work? If its longer than a reboot time, which I'm sure it is. Then it likely isn't heat related.

Is there anything odd happening in your Event Viewer for System or Applications?

 

[Misch868]

I couldn't tell you specifically how long I've waited without rebooting before trying to watch TV again. I'm sure that it has been longer than the time it takes to reboot though.

To be honest I haven't checked the Event Viewer. Is that through the operating system or through whatever program I'm using to watch TV?

 

[SNGX1275]

Through the OS... I actually don't have an XP machine at the moment. In Vista is its Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer. I Think it is the same in XP, and now that I think about it I'm not even going to check my 2k computer because I'm sure its the same.

Take a look through there. It will almost certainly have something that occured at the time (it timestamps everything, so when this occurs try and roughly remember the time (hour or minute is ok, don't need seconds).

Hopefully something will show up there that can help us further. At the very least you just learned a new place to look for information about errors.

 

[Misch868]

I'm not really seeing anything in the Event Viewer... I got it down to the minute when I lose signal and I'm not seeing anything really happening at the time. I've been using windows media center so I can see if anything happens if I use BeyondTV.

I read about timestamp issues with hauppauge cards. Is that what I'm having here?