Recording Service Crashes and Won't Restart

[mikeh49]

Need some help on this.

From the beginning: wireless router damaged in lightning storm leaving only one port working. No internet for HTPC. Installed spare Westell router and HTPC with original static ip address (on the correct subnet) would not connect. Changed to dynamic address and still would not connect. Futzed around with a TCP/IP stack "repair" using netsh winsock reset and netsh int ip reset. Finally got it to work by manually specifying the gateway address. NPVR was OK during this time. New Linksys router arrived and after installing, the HTPC would again not connect. Went through some more dynamic vs static address switching, and it finally connected. Has been OK since. There were other problems with the firewire devices disappearing, but some repairs and fiddling have them back, and they seem to be stable. Now, NPVR is sick.

The recording service dies when the machine wakes for a recording, and then cannot be restarted (the service, the computer seems to be fine). From the Services applet, a start request gives an Error 1067 Process terminated unexpectedly. From the NPVR start the service command, it gets a timeout message eventually. The event viewer reports the service stopped. There is some xml info I can provide if needed.

After a period (hours, at least) the service can be restarted, watch live TV etc. Then, when the HTPC sleeps and subsequently wakes to record, the service dies. Others have reported that a corrupt config.xml caused the 1067 error, so I deleted it to start over, but no help. This started with version 2.3.6, so I upgraded to 2.4.3 with the same results. Leads me to believe the problem is Windows rather than NPVR.

So, logs attached with what looks like an internal network problem. Windows firewall is off and there are no other firewalls. Hope somebody can point me in the right direction. (I probably should have reinstalled Win7, it would have taken less time than I have spent so far.)

[sub]

When it's in this state, if you run "nrecord.exe RUN" from the command line, does it show any error message?

[mikeh49]

Here's what I get in a pop-up window titled Windows Service Start Failure:

Windows Service Start Failure
---------------------------
Cannot start service from the command line or a debugger. A Windows Service must first be installed (using installutil.exe) and then started with the ServerExplorer, Windows Services Administrative tool or the NET START command.

This is from an administrator command prompt with the service stopped, command was nrecord.exe run in the program files/npvr directory.

FWIW, here's what's in Event Viewer for this start attempt:

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="NPVR Recording Service" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-05-09T01:58:22.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>8810</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>htpc</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data>Service cannot be started. The service process could not connect to the service controller</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

HTH

[sub]

"RUN" needs to uppercase.

[mikeh49]

Argh! Stand by.

[mikeh49]

Here are two screen prints of the command window. It looks like it stalled, as it never came back to the command prompt, and Services show it as not running.

[sub]

That looks like it's started fine there. Running it this way runs it as a normal process rather than a service. I was just hoping to see an error message, but there is none.

If you try to use the recording service when it's running this way, does it work? ie, from either live tv or recording. It might be later that you're experiencing the problem.

[mikeh49]

I get a Cannot communicate with the recording service popup when trying live TV when running in this mode. There is no Nrecord process in task manager.

[sub]

I get a Cannot communicate with the recording service popup when trying live TV when running in this mode.

If it hasn't exited back to the command prompt then it's still running, making me think it's firewall related.

There is no Nrecord process in task manager.

If it hasn't exited back to the command prompt , then I'm sure it's still running, and should be there in the task list.

[mikeh49]

Here's a quick status update:

Once I started Nrecord RUN correctly, it seemed to run properly. You have to leave the command window open as the logging information appears there. Closing the command window appears to stop Nrecord. Also, as noted in another thread, you have to select "Show processes from all users" in Task Manager to see if Nrecord is running.

Windows firewall: was off and had been throughout the whole experience. But, to be sure, I turned it on, and then selected the "Set recommended settings" button, then turned it off again.

After this, I was able to watch live TV and properly recorded two scheduled programs with waking from sleep.

Today, I stopped Nrecord and started the recording service using NPVR's start command. It started OK, and I watched live TV and schedule two programs to record. I'll report back later.