Tuners not installed

[jziggity]

I did a cursory search here, but I'm not finding anything directly related to my issue:

I have 2 Primes that have been working great for some time. They are connected to my network via an 8 port switch. On rare occasion, I have been getting error messages when trying to watch live TV stating that there are no tuners installed. This is via extenders and on the HTPC itself, which is Windows 7. It used to be so extremely rare that it really didn't impact anything. Now it is happening more often to the point that recordings are being missed. I can see errors in my Media Center log that some programs failed to record because "the tuner is not working or not installed."

I have caught this twice now when it actually happened in real time. When Media Center can't find the tuners, I can still ping the Primes successfully, and I can still navigate to the device webpages. There are no error lights on the devices. I can even use the QuickTV application to watch some broadcast channels while it is stuck in this condition.

I can immediately fix the issue by re-running the HDHomeRun Setup application. The setup application immediately scans for, and detects all 6 tuners, and as soon as that part is done, Media Center will again find the tuners. The problem also rectifies itself over time (although I'm not sure how much time). There have been instances where I didn't even know there was a problem until I noticed a missed recording, because everything was currently working fine.

So, given the above, I am tending to believe this is not a hardware issue, since the Primes themselves are still accessible during the tuner loss. I am more inclined to believe it is an issue with Media Center not properly recognizing the tuners for some reason. I haven't done anything else to my system at this point other than running the setup application when needed. I am running with the latest firmware on both Primes.

I am thinking I could just uninstall Media Center and re-install it as (hopefully) a long term fix? If I do this, I know I will need to reset my guide preferences (logos, size, etc.), and library locations, and series settings. I should *NOT* lose access to my protected recordings, correct? That is one thing I am concerned about. Also, can I just uninstall Media Center via the Add/Remove Windows features, and then reinstall it the same way? Thanks for any advice!

[Crash2009]

Exactly what does the error message say? Tuner not found, Tuner not available, Tuner not ready, etc.

[TeddyR]

This used to be a common example either:

1 - An antivirus other than windows essentials being installed that then updates its settings/definitions and blocks communications from the PC to the prime. Even if it works initially after a WMC scan, a definition update can easily derail the settings. If you have ANY AV other than the MS av, uninstall it completely and reboot. This sometimes can also be caused by MaleWareBytes and other antispam tools as well....

2- A vpn software installed (especially one that uses the deterministic engine like the Cisco IPSEC client) or one that does not do split tunneling. The traffic is going through to the VPN tunnel rather than to the local network.. If you have VPN installed, uninstall it completely and reboot.

[Rainey]

I have been having the same issues as the OP, where after some random time WMC thinks i have no tuners. A reboot of the PC will let WMC see all tuners again. Restarting the WMC services some times works to get the tuners back, other times it hangs trying to shutdown the service and a reboot is required. I have not tried running the HDHR setup program but will try it next time.

I think the error i get is WMC will show a blue screen, Searching for tuner, i get the little circle in the center of the screen while it searches, and then No Tuners found error after the timeout . I either have to wait for it to timeout or exit WMC and restart but it will still not find tuners unless i reboot the PC. Network Tuner Monitor shows all tuners available. QuickTV works find also and can find the tuners. So it is just WMC that cant find the tuners.

I am running win 7 64bit. 2 HDHR Primes also

[bobstr]

I have been having the same issues as the OP, where after some random time WMC thinks i have no tuners. A reboot of the PC will let WMC see all tuners again. Restarting the WMC services some times works to get the tuners back, other times it hangs trying to shutdown the service and a reboot is required. I have not tried running the HDHR setup program but will try it next time.

I think the error i get is WMC will show a blue screen, Searching for tuner, i get the little circle in the center of the screen while it searches, and then No Tuners found error after the timeout . I either have to wait for it to timeout or exit WMC and restart but it will still not find tuners unless i reboot the PC. Network Tuner Monitor shows all tuners available. QuickTV works find also and can find the tuners. So it is just WMC that cant find the tuners.

I am running win 7 64bit. 2 HDHR Primes also

I'm running a similar config (2 Primes, one dedicated to my primary Windows 7 MC system, the other Prime dedicated to 2 other MC systems - one a W7, the other W8.1) - not often enough to be a big issue, but every now and then the main MC system will get the 'no turners available' error (but I haven't seen it for 3 or 4 months). I usually get a fix from restarting MC, sometimes by rebooting the tuner. I usually don't have to reboot the MC system to get this fixed.

The tuner that's used by my primary MC is on a gigabit capable 5 port hub / switch right next to the MC system, with the only connections on it being the MC system, the tuner and the uplink to the rest of my home network.

[TeddyR]

If you have not done so already, configure the devices with a quasi-fixed address using your dhcp server/router by reserving the IP address for the HDHRs and configuring the HTPC with a static address.

What model was is the device giving dhcp to the HDHRs? A while back there were issues with certain routers and their firmware wrt how dhcp renewals were handled? The issue was traced to the router and NOT the hdhr code (when the hdhr sent a dhcp lease renewal request to renew the lease the router would not reply back or acknowledge that request correctly, which forced the hdhr to stop using that address and request a new address, thus interrupting the link.... [https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lib ... 58935.aspx])...

[jziggity]

Sorry, I haven't checked back on this thread for awhile. Regarding antivirus, all I run on the HTPC is MS Security Essentials, so should be no problems there. I also don't do any type of VPN. The primes are connected to a DLink gigabit switch, as is the HTPC. The HTPC itself is manually assigned its own static IP address, outside of the DHCP IP address pool range of the router. Everything else on my network is assigned addresses by my router's DHCP. It's an Asus RT-N66U router, which has been pretty rock solid for me.

I have noticed that although I don't have manually assigned IP addresses for any other devices on my network, none of the addresses for other wireless devices ever change. If I ever need to reboot my router for whatever reason, every device gets the same address when the router completes its reboot. I actually don't mind this feature, it keeps things nice and simple.

For clarification, the exact error message in my WMC log read "xxx was not recorded because the tuner is not working or is not installed."

Since the original post, I have not seen the error again. So, here's hoping it continues to stay that way, I guess!

[Rainey]

I found in my case when my HTPC can not find any tuners, running the HDHR setup program did not restore (let WMC find) the tuners.

I found that if i close WMC and restart the WMC receiver service (ehRecvr) then run WMC it finds the tuners.
Since i only have the problem after a week or two, i just scheduled a bat file to run (as admin) to stop and start the service.
If the Bat file is run while WMC is running then you will need to exit WMC and then restart it for the tuners to be found again.

Code: Select all

rem stop the ehRecvr service
net stop ehRecvr
rem Pause for some time
rem Wait 10 seconds
ping -n 10 127.0.0.1 > nul
rem start the ehRecvr service
net start ehRecvr

[hughesplan]

hello, I'm having similar problems: i was getting several problem messages searching for tuners, no tuner available, recordings ending mid show... I set up another HTPC on a fresh win7 install and am getting similar messages (although less frequently) on the new setup. So i'm now looking for help with possible network issues.
my setups:
computer 1 win7 pro; core I7 3770K; now looking at HDhomerunprime and 2 older SD atsc dual tuner network tuners.
computer 2 win7 home (fresh install, no additional software); core I5 haswell; now looking at ceton 6tuner network tuners.

both HTPC machines are connected to a TP-LINK TL-SG1016, as are the infiniTV6 ETH and the 2 SD ota tuners. that switch connects to a Netgear R6300v2.
The HDhomerun prime (along with several extenders) is connected to another switch which is connected to the netgear router.
I was getting network congestion last fall so both the router and the tplink switch are relatively new (November and December).

I am also experiencing another new and very odd issue (i don't know if they're related) when skipping forward (or backward) quickly, 2 different samsung smart tv's on 2 different echo's will reboot. the tv will power off then back on just from the echo being used (over used?).
any thoughts will be appreciated, thanks