Hey folks, I am in a bit of a jam and am looking for help. Over the last few weeks I have been having issues on my mythfrontend. My .xsession-errors file is getting HUGE, and eventually fills up my hard drive every few days. When I open the file, I get this:

This is repeated over and over again in the log file. Performance wise, my frontend freezes all the time in the GUI. When I am in the process of selecting a recording to watch, my cursor will freeze over specific recordings, and it will not display the preview window. At this point my system is completely frozen, and restarting mythfrontend is the only way to get out of that screen. This only seems to affect certain recordings. The only way to use my frontend is to navigate around these problem recordings, and eventually delete them using mythweb.

I an using an Nvidia 6200 video card with 9755 drivers. I also have a backend/frontend system with the same hardware and drivers that does not have this problem. My frontend was working fine since I installed it 7 months ago until this started happening 3 weeks ago. I have not changed anything in my systems. I am running R5F27 on all my systems, Dragon 2.0 hardware.

Any advice would be great, thanks.

Sounds like a heat related issue to me. But then I'm far more hardware guy (that'll be my overclocker background).

Things I'd look at:
Fans - are they turning or not. Are they blocked with an excessive build up of dust on the blades?
If non-existant, perhaps add a case fan to cause some air movement.
Has it been really hot over the past few weeks?
Is it in a cupboard or unit that traps heat? Some sort of wooden enclosure? Hard drives can be very susceptible to heat, especially an encolsed environment as can cpus.

I've had various pieces of hardware start behaving oddly when too warm.

You say that it's certain recordings... is there a particular type (ie lots going on) it could be that your machine is generally near too hot and more intensive processing is pushing it over the edge? Is it in exactly the same place the programme borks and freezes the system?

Things I'd try/consider:

Watch those recordings on a different system. Do they cause issues on these systems?

Have you installed / modified any software packages recently?

Failing harddrive / PSU.

However, before you start splashing the cash on replacement parts, look to the easy stuff to fix. And wait for other mor proficient Linux gurus to suggest some things.

Sorry for no answers, only more questions....

Chris

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Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

For clarification, I cannot even get into the playback portion of the recordings that freeze my system, my system freezes in the 'watch recordings' menu when I am in the process of selecting a recording to watch. As soon as a problematic recording is highlighted my system crashes. If a recording will play, I have no issues during the actual playback.

I do have fans that are turning, I will crack the case tonight to see if there is any dust build up.

It has not been really hot over the past few weeks, I am in MN and the temperature keeps dropping!

It is in a cupboard unit, but the airflow path (front to back) is clear.

I turned the unit off before leaving work. My hope is that when I come home, I can turn the unit back on, and immediately try and play one of the recordings before my system would reach peak temp. If the playback works, then I am guessing that it is a heat issue, and I will need to make some modifications. I will report back.

All recordings and GUI work fine on my other system, no problems at all.

Apologies, I mis-read you initial post, I now see that you are talking about a separate front-end.

The information I suggested may amount to naught.

Good luck at tracking down the cause

_________________
Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

Well, I confirmed that it was not an overheating issue. Any other ideas?

There's an idea here http://threebit.net/mail-archive/mythtv-users/msg00025.html

He said

Simple google search, incidentally.

Mike

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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Thanks manicmike,

I actually tried deleting all recordings, then used the optimize_db.sh script to make sure everything was cleaned out. The issue started happening again after just 7-8 new recordings.

Hmm.. Can you start the frontend with increased verbosity? May give more of a clue. Delete the .xsession-errors file first if your fs is filling.

Mike

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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