Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1110 causing HyperTransport Flood Sync Error?

[falcifer]

Hello,
I recently upgraded my system and installed Windows 7 64-bit.
While playing Batman: Arkham Asylum for 30-60 minutes, my system would freeze for a few seconds, then reboot and display the message "A HyperTransport sync flood error occurred on last boot. Press F1 to continue"
Pressing F1 would reboot the system without any problems, and it seemed that it only happened whilst playing Batman.
However, after removing the Hauppauge TV tuner card, I have not had the problem, so I'm sure it's related to the card in some way.

I did install the card again recently and managed to watch TV for a few hours without incident, but some time after closing WinTV, the system froze and I got the same message.

I'm wondering if it is anything to do with the card directly, or if it could be the power supply, which is 450W and a few years old. A few PSU calculators online recommend 450W as the minimum for my system.

Also, when installing the card, the slot is slightly misaligned; as though the slot is a few millimeters too close to the rear of the case, so it is a tight fit, but I don't feel like I'm forcing it. I do think that there might be some pressure on the card when it's installed, though.
Unfortunately, the other PCI slots are blocked by the graphics card.

System is:
MSI 770-G45 motherboard
AMD Athlon II X4 640 (3.00GHz)
Corsair 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
ATI Radeon HD 5670 (512MB)

I also have a couple of SATA II hard drives and a front panel which incorporates a memory card reader, fan controller and USB ports.

What I'd like to know is whether it's the card that's the problem, or whether it's just causing a problem by interfering with the power being supplied to other components (like the CPU and RAM).

I've also got the same error with everything unnecessary unplugged/disconnected (excluding the TV tuner card).

Finally, I've seen people getting the same error and fixing it with a BIOS update (which I've done - the error occured before AND after a BIOS update) and others by increasing the RAM voltage from the default 1.5V to the correct setting for their specific RAM, but the voltage for my RAM is 1.5V, which is what it's set at.

I'd appreciate any insight on the subject.

EDIT: CPU-Z says that RAM voltage is 1.5V. SpeedFan says Vdimm is 1.14V, though, and Vcore is 1.34V. I'm not sure which is more correct/accurate.
Also, the BIOS setting for RAM voltage is greyed out, set to Auto, and the info panel for that setting says "Min: 1.5V Max: 2.xV" It's 2. something, but I don't remember what. As I said before, the RAM I'm using is 1.5V, so I don't think that RAM voltage is the issue.
I may install the TV tuner card again and check the voltage, though.

Ultimately, though, I need to know whether spending the £60 on a new power supply is going to solve the problem or whether I actually need to get myself a new TV tuner; either USB or PCI-E.

 

[elbert]

There are many scenarios that may cause this but they all lead to the main reason. Not enough power to the CPU.

1. High OC without enough CPU volts.
2. Not enough CPU Volts at any speed.
3. Bad power supply.
4. Motherboards with very high amount of VDroop which leads back to "Not Enough CPU Volts". This will reveal itself with a load on the CPU. Could just be that the motherboard has CPU power issues like (Good power from PSU but the motherboard wastes power before reaching the CPU).

For the majority this error mostly seem to be MSI motherboards with a few ASUS. All I can suggest you do is follow these steps. Live update may do a bios update so save your current version.

1. Reconnect or reset all devices on your motherboard.
2. Clear cmos, then in bios load optimized defaults.
3. Under windows use MSI Live Update to update the drivers.
4. Remove the current VGA drivers and reinstall it from ATI website.
5. If possible use another CPU and memory to check.
6. If the issue remains reinstall the system to have a try.

If the issue remains, please contact MSI tech support.

I would suggest these free options first and if all else fails buy a new PSU. You could try checking your PSU's power output with a test meter.

 

[falcifer]

There are many scenarios that may cause this but they all lead to the main reason. Not enough power to the CPU.

1. High OC without enough CPU volts.
2. Not enough CPU Volts at any speed.
3. Bad power supply.
4. Motherboards with very high amount of VDroop which leads back to "Not Enough CPU Volts". This will reveal itself with a load on the CPU. Could just be that the motherboard has CPU power issues like (Good power from PSU but the motherboard wastes power before reaching the CPU).

For the majority this error mostly seem to be MSI motherboards with a few ASUS. All I can suggest you do is follow these steps. Live update may do a bios update so save your current version.

1. Reconnect or reset all devices on your motherboard.
2. Clear cmos, then in bios load optimized defaults.
3. Under windows use MSI Live Update to update the drivers.
4. Remove the current VGA drivers and reinstall it from ATI website.
5. If possible use another CPU and memory to check.
6. If the issue remains reinstall the system to have a try.

If the issue remains, please contact MSI tech support.

I would suggest these free options first and if all else fails buy a new PSU. You could try checking your PSU's power output with a test meter.

Thanks for the reply.

I am currently using the motherboard's "Easy OC" switch, but the problem existed prior to that, and I've been running the FSB at +15% without issue, so I don't think that's the problem. I've also run 7zip's benchmark for at least 30 minutes with no problems. Incidentally, switching it to +20% overclock did cause the system to crash after running the benchmark for a few minutes, so I'm certain that +15% is stable.

I don't think that solution #1 will solve the issue, since it happened with a completely fresh install (both hardware and software). I also tried #2 to no avail.
As for #3 and #4, Live Update didn't work, but I used the M-Flash option to update the BIOS, and installed all new motherboard, CPU and GFX drivers from the appropriate sites.

I'd love to try #5, but that's not possible, although I could always try removing one stick of RAM - I'm using 2x 2GB at the moment.

#6; At first I thought it was an issue with Windows 7, so I went back to XP Pro, 32-bit, which didn't help, and a clean install of Windows 7 (plus all updated drivers, etc) after that didn't help, either.

As I mentioned, 450W is the minimum recommended by a few PSU calculators, and the Radeon card recommends 400W, so my 3-4 year old 450W PSU (which is JeanTech, PCWorld's own brand, I think) probably needs upgrading anyway.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

I'm going to remove a stick of RAM, unplug any devices I don't need and use a different PCI slot, to see if it helps.

 

[elbert]

You may want to try raising your CPU-nb clock. Here is a link that will explain why and how.
http://www.amdzone.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=137699#p183035

If you wish to replace your old PSU I would suggest a quality Antec PSU.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-BP550-PLUS-GB/dp/B0019JASJ4/ref=sr_1_9?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1286116522&sr=1-9
This PSU is major overkill for your system. This model can handle 2X 5770's so you should have no PSU power problems.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-0761345-06501-6-ANTEC-BP500U-GB/dp/B000JEF822/ref=sr_1_18?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1286116522&sr=1-18
This PSU could handle a single 5830.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-EA-380GREEN-380W-EarthWatts-Green/dp/B002UOR17Y/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1286116522&sr=1-7
This one can handle a 5670 but your OCing could be a bit to much for this model.

I currently have an Antec 430W powering a XFX 5770. Granted there are huge differences in brands.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=Antec+EarthWatts+Green+EA-430D&x=0&y=0

 

[falcifer]

If you wish to replace your old PSU I would suggest a quality Antec PSU. This 550W PSU is currently on sale plus a promo code for only $44.99 with $1.99 shipping. Maybe check on Amazon.co.uk for this brand.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016
This PSU is major overkill for your system but at this price you cant go wrong. This model can handle 2X 5770's so you should have no PSU power problems.

I currently have an Antec 430W powering a XFX 5770. Granted there are huge differences in brands. I would suggest my model but currently its a bit higher price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371034

You may want to try raising your CPU-nb clock. Here is a link that will explain why and how.
http://www.amdzone.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=137699#p183035

Thanks for the tips.

I'll be keeping an eye on that thread over at AMDZone, and I'll be sure to try upping the CPU-NB, too.

So far, though, I've removed one stick of RAM and disconnected one hard drive. I also switched the video card to the other PCI-E slot, and have put the TV card in a different PCI slot.
So far, the system is running fine.
I ran 7zip's benchmark and OCCT's GPU benchmark at the same time, for about 30 minutes, and there's been no problem so far.
According to CPU-Z, the core voltage goes up to about 1.37 during load, and stays at around 1.34 at idle. There haven't been any weird spikes or dips, either, so I don't know if CPU power is the trouble, but I'll plug in my other hard drive and reinsert the RAM and see what happens.

I'll definitely be picking up a new PSU soon, though, as I also plan on getting a new hard drive, and possibly another graphics card later, too.
Thanks for the recommendations on the power supplies. I'm in the UK, though, so I've had to find the same models on Scan.co.uk rather than NewEgg (scratch that remark, I just noticed your edit; thanks), and the first PSU isn't in stock at the moment (here).
I did find a couple of alternatives, both from Antec; 500W EarthWatts and a 550W TruePower. They're both slightly more expensive, though.

I was originally looking at OCZ. There's the 500W StealthXStream, the 600W StealthXStream and the modular 500W ModXStream, all similarly priced.
Do you know if they're a decent brand? (For PSUs, I mean.)

In any case, the HTSFE isn't very reproducible, unfortunately, so I'll just have to wait and see if it happens today. If it does, I'll try changing the CPU-NB ratio to see if it helps. If it doesn't happen before I go to sleep, I'll reconnect the extra components (HDD and RAM) and leave something running overnight.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[falcifer]

Since about 6pm (5 hours ago) I've had all the hard drives plugged in, the TV tuner card plugged in, both sticks of RAM in and all the other peripherals and components plugged in.

I've managed to play Batman:AA for an hour or so, had WinTV playing for a couple of hours and just been generally using the computer, all without any problems.

I looked at the BIOS setting for the CPU-NB ratio, and the setting is there, but it only goes up to 10. I can change the HT Link speed, though, if I need to.
Right now, according to AMD OverDrive, the HT Link speed is 2300 MHz and the NB Speed is 2300 MHz.

I'm going to leave the computer running overnight to give it a chance to crash, if it's going to.

In any case, I think I'll close this thread up now. I don't suppose there's much more to say on the subject.

If the computer crashes during the night, I'll try changing the HT Link speed. If that doesn't work, I'll get a new power supply. If that still doesn't work, I'll post over at AMDZone, in the thread mentioned earlier.

Just in case the problem is solved; the graphics card is in the second PCI-E slot, the TV tuner card is in a different PCI slot.
I removed all but one stick of RAM, disconnected all but the Windows hard drive, unplugged the external hard drive, disconnected the front panel USB headers.
On first boot, I had to reinstall the display drivers, which I did using the setup.exe in the ATI folder already present on my hard drive from the last installation, then rebooted.
I then ran CPU and GPU benchmarks at the same time (7zip and OCCT, respectively).
No problems there, so I installed WinTV 7.
I played Batman for about an hour, and watched some TV (using WinTV) for about an hour.
No problems here, so I reconnected everything; HDD, RAM, USB.
Almost 5 hours later and there's been no sign of trouble.

As I mentioned in the opening post, when installing the TV tuner card in the bottom PCI slot, it did need slightly more pressure to insert than I would have liked. It seems as though the PCI slots towards the bottom of the motherboard are slightly closer to the rear of the case than those higher up. Which means that I had to push the TV tuner card up against the blanking slots at the back of the case rather firmly, in order to the the card aligned with the slot. I don't know if, after being installed, there was a slight pressure on the card from the chassis, which was pushing it out of place and disrupting the signal from the PCI bus, but the slot that the card is in now didn't the same treatment.
So if you have a sound card, TV card or any other PCI card which you had to insert with more pressure than usual, try it in another slot if you can.

 

[elbert]

Antec is the best of the best with 24 years of proven quality. OCZ is pretty new to the PSU market but they do have quality PSU's. Antec biggest competitors are Seasonic, Enermax, Corsair, and Zalman. Here is a review of the best PSU made.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html

Biggest thing about Antec is their weight. When you pick up one you know its got a lot of material for handling high heat and is a quality product.
http://www.dvhardware.net/review53_truecontrol550.html