Retty:

The plot thickens.

I installed one of the hotfixes yesterday and it didn't cure the problem. It did however result in the system suffering a blue screen on shutdown. It's hard to say what caused it though because I did run Prime95 for a short while before shutting down. I didn't need to run chkdsk.

Best to be cautious!

I didn't actually need to run chkdsk either, I just do it every time an operating system crashes.  No errors were detected after the BSOD either.

I did configure the system to conserve power yesterday though.  I turned on automatic S3 suspend, automatic shut down of hard drives, and away mode when the power button is pressed (or any other sleep request is performed).  Its very cool.  With S3, it appears to be completely shut down, but with any remote input or power/sleep button it instantly pops back to life right where it left off.  I was never able to get any of this to work with MCE2005, yet with Vista it "just works".

Away mode isn't all that impressive with Media Center though.  For some reason Media Center doesn't recognise it and keeps doing whatever it was doing with the screen and sound off (it will keep playing a TV show for example instead of stopping and getting ready at the main menu for the next "power on").  Basically with Media Center, instead of away mode providing the appearance of turning off, it "appears" to the user as simply a blanking of the screen and muting of the audio. 

Another thing very annoying with Media Center is at the end of watching a TV show, if automatic sleep is turned on, it instantly goes to sleep instead of giving the user the proper "end of show" menu.  Again, Media Center doesn't seem to provide the "auto off" functionality you'd expect (I would expect it to shut down only after a period of true inactivity, not instantly at the end of a show).

I don't know if Media Center's inability to play nice with these power saving features is specific to our hardware or not.  I'll do a little research and create a new thread.

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STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote

Hmm, another problem I've noticed is that when using Vista the motherboard real time clock runs fast - gaining about 20 seconds every 15 minutes or so.

This problem doesn't arise when using XP on the same system and it doesn't appear when the PC is turned off.

I'm starting to regret the "upgrade"!

 

I can't remember the details, but I recall that Vista uses a different method of keeping track of time when using the default ACPIx86 HAL.  From what I read (somewhere), it sounds like if you're having this issue that changing to ACPI will likely fix it.  Unfortunately it will also drop you from 24 IRQs (APIC) down to 16 IRQs (PIC).

Although Vista has been running fairly stable for some time now, I finally decided to plan and complete a total system upgrade for our HTPC.  The motherboard is showing signs of fatigue, but most importantly I have not been able to get HD playback working in Vista at all.  The reason for the lack of HD playback is the lack of decent video drivers for AGP cards in Vista.

The upgrade includes a P35 based Gigabyte motherboard, a quad core Q6600 processor, 2GB of PC2-6400 RAM, a pair of new 500GB hard drives, and an ATI HD 2600 XT 512MB video card.

If the upgraded system can't play back HD content smoothly, nothing will...

For more information on the upgrade see http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/ShowThread.aspx?PageIndex=2&PostID=208745#210568

The "old" HTPC motherboard, etc. will be moved into a basic case and used to replace my daughter's 11 year old Dell Optiplex (running MCE2005).

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STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote

Thanks again!

I've changed to ACPI and I'll wait to see whether or not the problem with the real tim clock is fixed.

I'm also concluding that it's time to upgrade - partly because having used the Media Centre functions of Vista it seems a bit limp to return to XP. The nforce2 motherboard, whilst running Vista with some stability (only one bsod since the stable install a couple of months ago), is subject to a number of annoying quirks and shortcomings under Vista (the most annoying being the background hum when using 2 channel sound).

Your new system sounds impressive. And, I suspect, a good balance between power and price. I'm still trying - and failing - to get to grips with Intel's processor ratings but thank you for the link to the processor on processorfinder.intel.com.

My other conclusion is that buying a processor/PC with gaming in mind is a bit of a let down unless you have limitless pockets and a willingness to update core components regularly. I think it's a sensible option to emphasise the core tasks you need and to bring this focus to buying decisions. I've decided that a division of labour is the only way forward - a PC to perform core tasks that only a PC can perform and a Xbox360 and perhaps soon a PS3 to play games (I'm tempted by promises of the PS3's PVR functionality in UK/Europe).

I am a little saddened though that I only managed to get about 3 and a half years out of the A7N8X. The processor is still powerful enough to use Transcode360 via Media Centre for full length films (albeit with a decent amount of pre display buffering). It can handle every poductive app I throw at it (including Autocat LT) with no problem at all.

I'm also not happy with nVidia's lack of support for nforce2/nforce3 and Vista (an acquaintance of mine has a nforce3 mobo and I really do feel sorry for him - he didn't buy it *that* long ago). I'm going to go for an Intel based mobo in future but which one I'm just not sue. The thread you mentioned has highlighted some of the issues for me and it's food for thought to be sure.

It's good to hear that the old motherboard and at least some of the other components will be put to good use!

Thanks again for all your help and good luck with your system building.

 

One thing I thought I should mention is you can't change from ACPI back to ACPIx86 using Device Manager.  In MCE2005, if you downgrade the HAL, you actually can't go back without reinstalling the operating system.

Luckily with Vista, it is even easier to upgrade back to ACPIx86 than it is to do the downgrade that you just performed.  To go back to ACPIx86 in Vista, all you need to do is click the start button, type "msconfig", press enter, and select "redetect HAL" in the advanced section of the BOOT.INI tab.

After a reboot, it will be back to the highest level HAL for your hardware (which is ACPIx86 with our MBs).

BTW, you said "And, I suspect, a good balance between power and price".  Most would probably say I've gone way overboard and for minimum requirements I have.  Whenever I build a new system (or design anything) I always tend to go on the overdesigned side of things.  In this case I justify it by expecting to get a very large number of years out of it with excellent performance.  Really, sticking with AMD based or older Intel chipset based hardware could be almost 1/2 the price and still work reasonably well today.  I don't know if this will make it, but my "vision" is for this upgrade is to provide fully functional networked HD performance for up to 10 years.  I expect to upgrade through several revisions of Media Center, but it will likely stay with Vista permanently.  I'm hoping I'll be able to make use of R5000HD hardware to bring subscription based HD content into the HTPC through the migration to MPEG-4 in a few years.

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STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote

Thank you. Downgrading the HAL does seem to have helped - the clock has gained 4 seconds or so in 3 days compared with the previous situation whereby it gained 10 minutes in about 20 minutes!

I'm looking to buy a new system and one that is going to be capable of weathering the software upgrade problems that have plagued nforce: a lack of support.

The thread you cited, describing your upgrade decisions, is welcome. I don't think I will go for an all in one solution again.

As for going overboard I think it's difficult to pre-empt the demands that future software and expectations can present to processors that, by today's reckoning, should be able to cope well with anything. I will spend perhaps a bit more than I can justify on a good motherboard and processor and the rest I will just have to compromise on.

It will be interesting to know whether or not you manage eventually to bring subscription based HD content to the HTPC through the migration to MPEG-4! I wonder whether or not the encryption time will justify the cost of the extra processing power?

I see that Windows Update has, in the last few days or so, made available a Soundstorm driver for A7N8X and Vista - and it works well to!

It's a Realtek driver (version 6.0.1.6243) and it requires no modification to run. Installation is straightforward and it seems to support the usual Soundstorm feature set well.

I haven't yet experienced any of the problems I faced with the previous Soundstorm driver workaround.

Microsoft has obviously been doing some work on the compatibility issues with Vista and this result at least is very welcome. I'm amazed!