Xbox extender freezes upon opening WMC

[merleau79]

Blueiedgod, sorry for the late reply. TWC has been a complete mess. 3 times they forgot the Cablecard. When I finally got it they forgot the tuning adapter. Anyway, I have everything set up. One thing that does concern me is a weak tuning signal and when the screen freezes. I have everything wired. I'm not sure if it is my laptop since it is running all the time and it is about 2.5 yrs old. And the fan runs a lot due to heat. The laptop that I have is a Dell Inspiron 15R N5110 Intel Core i-5-2410M @2.30 Ghz (boosts up to 2.6 Ghz) 4GB RAM 64 bit. I rarely get my RAM above 3.10. Most of the time, when I have my browsers closed it is below 2.5.

I don't know if I should get a tower solely dedicated for a HTPC or if the freezes are commonplace. Sometimes at the end of the night I have to reboot my laptop because the tuning signals are weak. What was really weird last night was that my extender playing a show, but my laptop couldn't receive any signal.

[Crash2009]

I got sidetracked. extender freezing upon opening WMC is usually network driver problem on the HTPC. get the right drivers in there and the problem will go away.

[merleau79]

The problem of the extender freezing when I open WMC doesn't happen anymore. I think that was due to the fact that my laptop wasn't wired. Everything works pretty well now except for a few freezes intermittently during the day. Now I'm just wondering if some freezes are normal and why I sometimes get weak tuning signals. My signals right now are between -0.8 and +3.6. Is my laptop's specs good enough to run a Ceton 6 throughout the day for the long haul? Like I said in the first post I really don't want to buy a tower for this, but if I have to I will since each day the Ceton seems to be getting better and better.

Another question: If a program is copy protected and I have an external hard drive connected to my laptop, will I be able to connect the hard drive to a tower (if I get one) and watch the program?

[cwinfield]

Another question: If a program is copy protected and I have an external hard drive connected to my laptop, will I be able to connect the hard drive to a tower (if I get one) and watch the program?

No the content is linked to your laptop so on a tower PC it will say copyrighted content.

[merleau79]

No the content is linked to your laptop so on a tower PC it will say copyrighted content.

Ok, thanks. That's what I thought, but I was able to watch recorded programs on my extender that is protected so I wasn't completely sure.

[Crash2009]

Whenever I got freezes in the past, it was usually my router or network adapters. Next time it freezes, open up the router configuration page and check the CPU usage, and if you have a traffic monitor look and see what's going on at the time of the freeze.

What kind of router do you have?

[merleau79]

Whenever I got freezes in the past, it was usually my router or network adapters. Next time it freezes, open up the router configuration page and check the CPU usage, and if you have a traffic monitor look and see what's going on at the time of the freeze.

What kind of router do you have?

When I go into the router's configuration page it has a button for 'Traffic Statistics', but the graph is blank. On my task manager, I rarely go above 3GB (my computer has 4GB) and my CPU usage varies between 40%-60%.

My router is a Belkin N600 dual band: http://www.belkin.com/us/F9K1102/p/P-F9K1102/

Edit: Right now my laptop and extender are lagging. The CPU usage is 45% and the RAM used is 2.84. However, it works other times when those numbers are higher.

[Crash2009]

When I go into the router's configuration page it has a button for 'Traffic Statistics', but the graph is blank.

I am not sure about the Belkin. I am running a dual band Asus. Your traffic monitor is likely similar, in the sense that on mine I can click on WiredWan, WiredLan, Wireless2.4Ghz, or Wireless5.0Ghz. When I clicked on the 5Ghz tab the graph was blank. Then I turned on 5Ghz live TV on the Samsung S4 phone, then my 5Ghz graph started to populate at 20:11:00. If you have no 5Ghz clients, your graph will be blank. Long story short, you should be able to select Wan, Lan, 2.4, or 5, and see what's going on in your network. Better yet, leave it on until you have those little freeze episodes, then have a look for possible clues.

[merleau79]

I am not sure about the Belkin. I am running a dual band Asus. Your traffic monitor is likely similar, in the sense that on mine I can click on WiredWan, WiredLan, Wireless2.4Ghz, or Wireless5.0Ghz. When I clicked on the 5Ghz tab the graph was blank. Then I turned on 5Ghz live TV on the Samsung S4 phone, then my 5Ghz graph started to populate at 20:11:00. If you have no 5Ghz clients, your graph will be blank. Long story short, you should be able to select Wan, Lan, 2.4, or 5, and see what's going on in your network. Better yet, leave it on until you have those little freeze episodes, then have a look for possible clues.

OK, I just enabled the Quality of Service of traffic. Immediately the graph started going. I will post a picture tomorrow when I have enough data to show. However, I will say that on mine it shows 'Normal', 'Medium', 'High', and 'Highest' for the bytes/second. One thing that is odd is that, under 'Wireless->Channel and SSID' 2.4GHz my network name shows up, but under 5GHz it says 'belkin' and some numbers. Does that mean that the 5GHz isn't in my Network? Does it matter since I have wired into?

Edit:

[Crash2009]

One thing that is odd is that, under 'Wireless->Channel and SSID' 2.4GHz my network name shows up, but under 5GHz it says 'belkin' and some numbers. Does that mean that the 5GHz isn't in my Network? Does it matter since I have wired into?

I think it means that your 5Ghz Wifi is not set up yet. I usually set them up using the clients name and someway to identify 2.4 or 5, and if the router has a guest feature.

Merleau2-4Ghz
Merleau2-4GhzGuest
Merleau5-0Ghz
Merleau5-0GhzGuest

The idea is to get all those 2.4 devices running in the 2.4 lane. Leaving you to race around the track in the 5.0 lane.

You might want to get to know your router a bit better http://www.belkin.com/us/support-produc ... 002wBTVAA2 after all, it is the heart and soul of your network, often overworked and misunderstood.

[merleau79]

One thing that is odd is that, under 'Wireless->Channel and SSID' 2.4GHz my network name shows up, but under 5GHz it says 'belkin' and some numbers. Does that mean that the 5GHz isn't in my Network? Does it matter since I have wired into?

I think it means that your 5Ghz Wifi is not set up yet. I usually set them up using the clients name and someway to identify 2.4 or 5, and if the router has a guest feature.

Merleau2-4Ghz
Merleau2-4GhzGuest
Merleau5-0Ghz
Merleau5-0GhzGuest

The idea is to get all those 2.4 devices running in the 2.4 lane. Leaving you to race around the track in the 5.0 lane.

You might want to get to know your router a bit better http://www.belkin.com/us/support-produc ... 002wBTVAA2 after all, it is the heart and soul of your network, often overworked and misunderstood.

Ok, just enabled the 5GHz settings. My computer doesn't pick up 5.0. My phone does though. My computer is only 2.5 years old and it was middle of the road back then. It's a dual core (4 thread) i5 2.4GHz (boosts up to 2.7). One thing that my brother said could be the problem is the background processes. It is 126 going on, but I don't know which ones I need. Last week I ran a program and I thought I messed things up because it said WMC couldn't play the video since files were missing.

But if everything is wired does it make a difference if it is 2.4 or 5.0?