Hauppauge Colossus Crashing PC

[skatingrocker17]

Hello everyone, first post here on VideoHelp. I purchased a Hauppauge Colossus V1 as I thought this may be a good card to capture home movies with from a Panasonic AG-1980. I had this card years ago and captured some home videos and was happy with the results. I was using a different computer at the time but also running Windows 7 64-bit. I also bought V1 specifically to test the built in TBC (was not aware of this years ago).

Anyway, when I open Hauppauge Capture and connect a signa (s-video or composite)l it will either play for a few seconds and crash my computer or it will crash and reboot the computer without ever displaying the signal. I've tried both a VCR and DirecTV HR24, same result. There is no BSOD, I don't see anything obvious in the event viewer, but I haven't been able to get it working. I've tried some older drivers I found online and the latest, 1.8.31093.0. I have also tried installing by pointing the device manager to the drivers, tried launching the Hauppauge executable to install the drivers, tried using the Hauppauge Capture software to install drivers, running HCWCLEAR.EXE and rebooting before each reinstall. I even went as far to temporarily install Windows on another partition to test on a clean install, but I'm still getting reboots when trying to use the capture card.

Hauppauge Capture seems to be on the only software I can use to view a signal, even though it crashes shortly after. VirtualDub says it's connected to the capture device, but I can't preview the signal. I'm confident that the PCI-Express 1x port in my media server is working correctly because I had an AverMedia C027 HDMI capture card installed before installing the Hauppauge Colossus. I thought it could POSSIBLY be power supply related as the card would draw more power when in use, but this is a fairly low power media server with a Corsair CX430 which should be more than adequate given the specs.

I haven't tried another computer, which I plan on trying if everything else fails (I have one in storage, not directly on hand). Any ideas of anything to try? Anything I'm overlooking?

It would be great to continue using the computer for capture as it has multiple large disk drives. If I used another computer I would be capturing and transferring files over the local network eating up more time.

[JVRaines]

Re-seat the card in its socket. Check Device Mangler for IRQ conflicts. Did you take anti-static precautions when handling the card?

[skatingrocker17]

Re-seat the card in its socket. Check Device Mangler for IRQ conflicts. Did you take anti-static precautions when handling the card?

I have tried reseating the card but I haven't tried another PCI-Express slot. It's a micro-atx board, so not a lot of slots available. There's a PCI-Express x16 slot that I could theoretically try but it's currently being used by the GPU. However, not a huge problem considering the AMD chip has integrated graphics that could be used if needed.

I did take anti-static precautions when installing the card as I always do when opening up electronics. I did not check for IRQ conflicts, I actually hadn't considered that because I've never run into a problem like this before. I see a few entries with the same IRQ number, does this look like a problem?



EDIT: Looks like no conflicts are reported


Also, when Windows boot back up it displays a "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown" message with the following problem details:

[usually_quiet]

I can't suggest solutions to your problem with crashes, but I can explain why only some software works with the Colossus, and what choices are available to you.

A few years ago I bought the original HD-PVR Colossus to capture the HD output from my cable box. Back then, Hauppauge's bundled a customized version of Arcsoft Showbiz and WinTV with the original HD-PVR Colossus. After Arcsoft stopped supporting Showbiz, Hauppage replaced Arcsoft Showbiz with Hauppauge Capture, and reportedly, recent Windows security patches have broken Arcsoft Showbiz. Capture4ME is another program designed to work with the original Colossus, written by the same developer who is responsible for Hauppauge Capture.

I also used NextPVR and Windows Media Center (with a special Windows 7 Media Center plug-in for the Colossus installed) to make scheduled recordings with the original Colossus, but these programs are inconvenient to use for capturing.

Unfortunately, capture devices which use onboard hardware to encode require software written specifically to work with the hardware encoder. It is also usually possible to build a filter graph with GraphStudio or GraphEdit, but if capture software is available, it is more convenient to use than GraphStudio or GraphEdit.

Virtualdub is for use with capture devices which can encode using software. Since the original HD-PVR Colossus encodes exclusively with its onboard hardware, it isn't compatible with Virtualdub.

[JVRaines]

Also, when Windows boot back up it displays a "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown" message with the following problem details:

[Attachment 45667 - Click to enlarge]

You could try the "Generic Troubleshooting Strategy" a little way down on this page.

[skatingrocker17]

With Capture4Me, I see the same issue. Occasionally I can view the signal for about 5 seconds before my computer reboots. Other times it does't work at all and says "waiting for s-video signal", even though there is one.

I cleared the CMOS and saw this error in Hauppauge Capture for the first time. I think I've exhausted my options and I'll just call the card faulty.

[skatingrocker17]

FYI: I wanted to provide an update just in case anyone in the future finds themselves in the same situation. I can confirm that the card was faulty. I ordered another Hauppauge Colossus (same model, version 1) and swapped out the defective one. It worked right away and I've been capturing my VHS tapes without issue.

[SHS]

Some time you just can get a bad a device there get around that even I got a few bad thing not just from Hauppauge

Something that is very useful is BlueScreen Viewer App just switch to XP mode that way you can see what really dll or sys file cause the crash.