KWorld UB405A too slow to start.

[franksalazar]

Hello all. Thanks for taking the time to read this and, hopefully, to shed some light.

First, the specs of the system:

Emachines ER1402-05
* AMD Athlon Neo K125, single core (1.7Ghz)
* 4 GB DDR3 RAM
* NVIDIA Geforce 9200 integrated graphics
* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit edition - SP1

KWorld UB405A USB Analog TV Tuner.
TivMe TV Tuner control Software
Windows Media Center

The problem is as follows: I upgraded the RAM and the Hard drive on my computer from the original 2 GB-RAM / 160GB HD to the aforementioned specs. Obviously, had to make a clean install of everything, so I created the restore DVDs from the manufacturer´s hidden partition, using the manufacturer´s included software. Installed the new HD and RAM and reinstalled everything.

Thing is, the software for the tuner takes an AGONIZING LONG time to load after a reboot/restart/power on. I mean, when I first power up the computer, and launch the software to control te TV tuner, it starts ok. BUT, when I choose the video source (analog cable TV in my case) the computer hangs for about 2 minutes before opening the new window with the TV picture. If I close the software, start it over again and choose cable again, then the new windows open inmediately, no lag at all as when launched for the first time. This behavior applies to Windows Media Center, too.

I also noticed that when I record a show from the TV, the sound is jerky most of the time. It happens both with the original TV control software as well as with Media Center. Whe this happens, it doesn´t matter if it´s the first time you started the software or have already started it earlier on the same session.

The funny thing is that, before I made the upgrade, this problems weren´t there. It started the video without any lag at all, even after reboot/restart/power up.

Steps I have already performed trying to find a solution:

* Upgrade driver on nvidia video card to latest version, no change. Reverted back to original driver, no change either.

* Upgraded driver on TV tuner, no change. Upgraded TV tuner control software, no change. Reverted back to original (CD supplied) driver. No improvement.

* Uninstalled both driver & software for TV tuner with Windows control panel unistaller, and reinstalled with latest version from web site, no improvement. Neither did it worked when I performed that step with the CD supplied with the TV Tuner.

* Uninstalled both driver & software for TV tuner with revo uninstaller and a couple of other uninstaller, and reinstalled with latest version from web site, no improvement. Neither did it worked when I performed that step with the CD supplied with the TV Tuner.

* Upgraded nvidia nforce drivers with drivers listed on nvidia website. no luck. (thinking the USB port driver might be a problem)

* Reverted to nforce drivers supplied on emachines web site. no luck, either. (thinking the USB port driver might be a problem)

* CPu usage check with task manager. Right before the system hangs, the main app using the CPU is TVPanel.exe*32, using about 40% of CPU time, then it hangs, task manager no longer responds. After about 2 minutes, the system strats operating again, and task manager shows no indication of 100% usage or anything like it. It just resumes from where it "paused" when the system hung. The clock stops advancing, too. It jumps from the time when I clicked install to the new time (usually about 2 minutes more).


According to Windows Update, everything is up to date (drivers, patches, etc, etc...).

I do not think the upgraded RAM or HD are responsible, since I have not found any other problems on the new system with any other application. Everything is working a tad better, except for the friggin TV tuner. Bad thing is, I do use it a lot as a HTPC....

I can´t think of anything else to do, short of reinstalling the whole friggin OS, but I serously doubt that would help, since THAT was what made it start to work erronously and slow on the first place, not to mention the fact that I have no place to backup all the data that I have placed in the disk.

Any help would be highly appreciated! I really hate to wait 2 friggin minutes to start watching TV when I get home and to be unable to adequately record tv shows, because of the jerky audio!

Thanks in advance for your help!!

Cheers!

Frank.

[ranchhand]

Hello Frank, sorry to hear of your frustration. I can only give you my opinion, and it's a downer (sorry). First problem is that you have an E-machine and you are attempting video capture. E-machines are the closest thing to a disposable, all-in-one shrink-wrapped computer there is. They are built for the low-end buyer, and perform accordingly. Second, you are running only a 1.7 GHz processor, and integrated video (not a separate video card). Your computer just isn't fast enough to adequately capture video. Third, IMHO, anything made by K-World is garbage. I have only had one analog to digital capture converter from them, and I spent dozens of hours with that piece of junk trying to get it to work. I finally gave up and got a Hauppauge Capture card and all my problems vanished. Again, sorry, but I have to tell it like I see it.

[jman98]

That machine sounds underpowered for Windows 7 64 bit. I know that it does exceed Microsoft's minimum requirements but Microsoft is known for telling people not what will make it run well but what will make it barely work.

I'm just going to be blunt here. In my opinion ALL laptops are poor choices for video capture and you would be much better off to use a tower PC.

[franksalazar]

Thanks both for your comments! I know it´s a low end computer, and I don´t expect all that much about it.

What baffles me is that BEFORE I upgraded the RAM to 4GB and the HD to 500GB, the capture card worked without a hitch, so I know that the computer can handle the video without a problem.

Any other ideas?

[davexnet]

Have you checked Windows error and reporting (used to be called the Event Viewer in XP) to see if any errors show up ?

[DB83]

Did you replace all the ram or just add 2 more gig ?

1. The timings of the new ram are different to the timings of the existing ram and the MB can not deal with both

2. The bios has been set for the timings of the old ram and if the timings of the new 4 gig are different then the bios will have to be reset to provide for the optimum timings of the new ram.

[jman98]

In addition to what DB83 says, it is possible to get bad RAM off a new purchase. You could look for Memtest and run that and see if it reports anything. You could have not been grounded when you installed it and damaged something. Take the new RAM out and see if your card runs OK without it. But you are still trying to do a heck of a lot with a cheap machine that was never intended to be used for video capturing. I'm also pretty doubtful about the ability of very small capture devices like yours.