TV applications (xawtv/tvtime) hard freezing my pc

[Malakai]

Ok, I've been working on this for days. I have a radeon 9700 pro and a winfast tv2000/xp.

I install the bttv module and the other modules that it says were needed in the various threads. I've tried using the ati-drivers method, and the kernel DRI ati drivers. I've tried with kernel 2.6.3 gentoo-dev-sources AND 2.4.25 vanilla-sources.

Xawtv and TvTime both run, detect teh video, but have no sound (that's another issue though). After 5-20 seconds, the whole system hard locks.

I tried using the start script from this thread (https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=78780&start=225), because I get mtrr errors in /var/log/kernel, but it says "Local Failed to Start" at boot. Never the less, I run the mtrr fix right after I log in, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Please, the tv card is the ONLY thing holding me back from ditching windows completely. This hard locking is a serious problem that I have to tackle

[neenee]

hm.. i had a similar problem. first with windows, then
with linux. i had it first on slackware, then on gentoo.

the only thing i can recommend to you is that if you
are using an amd cpu, try adding 'mem=nopentium'
to your grub.conf kernel line.

my problem was probably caused by my system not
liking the enabled fastwrite/side band addressing
with my nvidia graphics card. somehow accessing
memory using a tv-app when those were enabled
locked up the system. i think it had something to do
with how the memory was spoken to by linux. too
aggressively perhaps.

i am not sure if ati has fastwrite/sba options, but if
it does, try disabling those.

good luck

[Malakai]

It works now, however I didn't apply your fix yet.

It seems it fixed itself


Thanks for the reply anyway ^_^_^_^_^

[neenee]

lol. good to hear

though.. things do not fix themselves

[Malakai]

Meh, the problem has returned


I watched tv all day the other day with no problems, but now it freezes the pc after 5-10 minutes again.

It spits out mtrr errors right before the crash, and something about a pll in the syslog.


I disabled fast writes, to no avail. Same with the mem=nopentium kernel option.

[aerotech]

Look for irq sharing I had this same problem I moved the pci card down a slot, and it has never happened again -- It was sharing with hard drive

Aerotech

[beastmaster]

I'm having the problem with xawtv too, it also hard-locks my system (BSOD) when I load it up

Any pointer where I should look for the source of problem?

system spec:
ati 9800 pro, 3d acceleration enabled, dri enabled
gentoo-dev 2.6.5-r1 kernel