Question about PC tuner system

[Dee_Ann]

Hi guys,

I can't find the section about PC stuff anymore so I don't really know where to post this.
If this is the wrong section then please forgive me, I'm a bit out of touch with the site lately..


Anyway..

So, I have some problems with a few PC's..

The PC that I have an S2 tuner card in, it's working ok I guess. BUT, it's ancient, in PC terms.

My ex built this machine for me several years ago. He installed windows 7 on it and then he put that app, My Theater 4. It appears to be written by some guy in Russia, as best as I can tell.
My ex, the idiot, registered the app to himself, in his name. I hounded him for 2-3 years to change it over to me. He never did. Now his name is stuck on the screen. That's annoying but it isn't a show stopper.
What IS a show stopper is that the Russian guy seems to have vanished and the app seems to be "abandonware" now. It seems that there are no more updates to it to support new things.

I'm stuck using this app, some of you who have been around awhile might remember a few years ago when I tried EVERY satellite app known to exist and ~none of them~ would deal with the unusual switch setup I have.
Overall, it's not that bad of an app, I just hate that it's stuck in time and they no longer support it.


So anyway, here's where my real problem is. My other computer died. It was a home made Hackintosh. I have replaced it with a totally new, ultra wicked Mac Pro.

What I want to do now is take the CPU from the dead Hackintosh which is an intel Core 2 Duo quad core and swap it into the satellite PC which is running a Core 2 Duo dual core CPU.
They are both LGA775 and I know that they are interchangeable. The motherboards are,
Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 (the dead Hackntosh) - has the quad core CPU
and
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (the satellite PC running My Theater 4) - has the dual core CPU

But what I'm worried about is that I have read that the Home Theater app is locked to THIS computer.
If I swap the CPU's out will the app stop working? How can I fix the app to not notice the CPU being changed? Or is the app locked to that machine forever?
Since the app writer has vanished I assume that eventually something major will fail on the PC that I will have to replace and then it's game over for that app.. Yes no?

Another question I have that's related to this, I want to build a file server out of the dead machine. Sometimes it will start but only gets to the initial Gigabyte logo screen then freezes dead.
Most of the time it won't even do that much. I removed the battery from the mother board and shorted out the pins for it's setup memory for like three weeks.
I think it's toast. But I have money invested in it. Last year I put 8gigs of memory in it. And there's the quad core.

Turns out, they don't make or sell LGA775 stuff anymore. I checked on ebay for a replacement board and they are just way to expensive for a USED board.
I need to find some sort of replacement LGA775 motherboard that has a lot of SATA connectors on it because I want to plug in a lot of old hard drives. I have a BIG case and a BIG power supply for it so there is no problem with putting 10 or 12 drives in it if I want.

I need to find a motherboard that's compatible with the CPU and the memory sticks I have so I don't have to buy new memory and a new CPU. I want to spend as little as possible. I'm hoping to find a motherboard that's under $50 that I can pop my memory sticks and CPU in.

MAYBE someone has an old LGA775 motherboard that will work with my memory and CPU that we could trade for some satellite stuff. I have a little collection nowdays..


TL;DR
Can I swap a dual core CPU for a quad core CPU without My Theater 4 having a stroke?


Thanks!

 

[updatelee]

I have no hard answers for you as Im not a windows user but I would take an educated guess and assume that switching the dual core for the quad core should not be a problem, even if it is you'd think you could switch it back and be up and running again.

Sucks MyTheatre isnt supported anymore, I used to use windows about 10 years ago for dvb and MyTheatre and TSReader were the best apps out there.

Some motherboards wont boot up past the bios screen if the ram or cpu arent seated correctly, I would guess its the ram. just remove it blow on the contacts on the motherboard and maybe wipe the contacts on the ram and reseat it. might as well do the same with the other cards too although I doubt thats what it is. Bet its the ram.

UDL

 

[Dee_Ann]

I have no hard answers for you as Im not a windows user but I would take an educated guess and assume that switching the dual core for the quad core should not be a problem, even if it is you'd think you could switch it back and be up and running again.

Sucks MyTheatre isnt supported anymore, I used to use windows about 10 years ago for dvb and MyTheatre and TSReader were the best apps out there.

Some motherboards wont boot up past the bios screen if the ram or cpu arent seated correctly, I would guess its the ram. just remove it blow on the contacts on the motherboard and maybe wipe the contacts on the ram and reseat it. might as well do the same with the other cards too although I doubt thats what it is. Bet its the ram.

UDL

I removed the memory and the video card and used an air compressor to blow the dust off of and out of everything. Everything was pretty darn clean in there, a few times a year I take my computers are blow them out with an air compressor. I don't smoke or allow it in my house so the inside of my computers look like brand new even when they are 6-7 years old.

I used a scotch bright pot scrubber to very gently buff the memory contacts to be bright and shiny. I have kids. My son had a 1st generation Nintendo game that was ALWAYS messing up. I learned about cleaning the cartridges 20+ years ago.. I also learned that you can use a pencil eraser to do the same thing. I just couldn't find a pencil this time.

The reason the Hackintosh is dead is because it was corrupting the setup memory. There was a long, long, long discussion on a Hackintosh forum about that problem. Apple playing dirty to try to prevent people from building their own Macs.. It happened soooo many times that I think it damaged it where it won't come up anymore. Doesn't matter a whole lot, I got a new Mac Pro now that's a million times better than that ever was.
However I was hoping to turn it into a file server for all my media.. I'm not counting on reviving the board so I'm looking towards replacing it. If I can't find someone that has one to trade maybe I can get some advice on finding a replacement.

Thanks!

 

[guacharaca]

Can I swap a dual core CPU for a quad core CPU without My Theater 4 having a stroke?

My Theater should not see the change. Only the operating system will see the change and it should not be a problem.

If the older, slower computer is functioning fine, do not mess with it as it will only bring you more headaches. There are issues with glue and cooling that you will have to deal with.

In your shoes I would buy a new up-to-date board and a new CPU to go with it to replace the problem board. That new Board will accept your 8 gigs of DDR3 memory while your older computer will not as it only accepts DDR2 memory.

With old motherboards you will eventually see the "blue screen of death". It is very heartbreaking to see the blue screen of death when you have invested a lot of time into the computer.

 

[Tron]

As Guacharacha said above, take care if you decide to replace the CPU to make sure that the heat spreader surface (the flat metal surface of the CPU assembly) is completely clean and free of old thermal compound. Use pure Isopropyl Alcohol on a lint-free microfiber cloth to clean that surface completely, and be sure not to get any fingerprints on it before you install a new fan/heatsink assembly with new thermal compound. This is critical; A CPU can be damaged very quickly if it is not correctly installed and thermally protected.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

Before investing in another board, try a different power supply. I made that mistake a month ago. The computer wouldn't do anything other than spin up the fans and drives (no display, no beeps). I tried booting the computer with both sticks of RAM, one stick, the other stick, then NO sticks. It didn't give any beeps indicating a memory error, so I thought the board was kaput. After buying a new motherboard, it had the same problem. Swapping the power supply fixed it, and was cheaper.

I don't think there'd be an issue putting the quad-core into your satellite PC. Then you'll have the rest of the hackintosh parts to build your server. Also, rather than trying to find a board with 10-12 SATA ports, you could get a more common 6-8 ports plus a PCI or PCIe card with more ports. (This is my plan since I already have 5 HDDs and a DVD drive taking up all my ports.)

 

[DRCars]

I am a MyTheatre user and it is indeed married to the "Machine ID" (whatever that is) of the computer it is registered for. I have had 2 SNAFUs that required re-registering with SAAR (the author). You have to send him an email (Saar@dvbcore.com) with the "Machine ID" that is generated by MyTheatre and request a new registration key.

SAAR was still giving out new keys in mid 2011 but I don't know if he still is. In case you get SNAFUed you might have to have your ex ask for the new key or tell him who your ex was (maybe an e-mail address) and convince him you are legit.

DRCars

 

[1badtwo]

I am/was also a MyTheatre user. I think you can still email Saar with a new machine ID and get the registration. Have you tried SmartDVB? I tried plenty of DVB apps and its the only one that would control my USALS motor and switches other then MyTheatre.

 

[Dee_Ann]

In the dead machine, my power supply is fine.. It's a Corsair 750 watt and it's fairly new.

I went ahead and bought a new old stock Intel LGA775 board for $35.
It's more basic than I wanted but it will have to do since I want to reuse the memory and CPU I have.

It's just going to be a file server. I'm considering using FreeNAS ( http://www.freenas.org ) because I like that it will file share with pretty much anything. I need Windows, Apple, Linux and DLNA support and this apparently will do it all.

I need more sata disk ports but I can put a card in to add more later.

And since the replacement board is really, really basic and will only be a simple file server I'm going to go ahead and switch the CPU chips, I want the four core chip in the machine that is the Home Theater PC.

Apparently I will need some sort of goo to put on the chip and the fan when I take this all apart. There is a Best Buy near me, would they have something like that ? I refuse to go in Radio Shack, I went in there a few times and they are just greasy kids that are disrespectful and just try to sell you cell phones, toys, stereos and satellites.. I don't want any of that. Or the rude, greasy disrespectful kids.


I'm reading everything I can get my hands on to change all this stuff out. And the guy I'm dating is sort of a computer nerd but I don't want to ask him for help, I want to do this myself. But if I have to I could, I suppose.
I would just as soon leave him out of the equation, I have a little vision of what I want in my head and I don't want him ruining it all by trying to take it over and doing it differently. As soon as I ask him questions he wants to take over. I would rather get it done and then show him up. Maybe I can win a few respect points that way. At least he hasn't tried to tell me how to do my satellite stuff. But he did flip out about all the stuff I have on my Dish Network DVR. He has a Dish DVR too and knows how to use the remote. He started plowing through my recordings and b***hing at me that I should erase everything. BAH!! Begone! BIG fight broke out over that. I hate that he knows how to use a Dish DVR. Now he won't leave my stuff alone. Always changing the channels to stupid stuff while I'm watching MY stuff and even worse, going through ALL the channels, real fast. As fast as he can push the up/down buttons! I'm not too far off from smacking his hands!
I wish there was a way I could key lock the remote so he can't mess with it...

Anyway, I hope to get that file/media server done by this weekend and switch the CPU's.. I hope I don't have problems with the My Theater app after I change the chips. I'm a little worried now that I've read some more on how the app is "married" to the computer somehow. I have no idea what that entails. I also wonder if that's going to cause Windows 7 to have a brain fart by putting a new chip in it. I don't really use windows nor do I know much about it other than I do not like it.
I'm an Apple chick. I Apple !! :

I am sad that the old motherboard is dead, it had a lot of disk ports (8 satas) and a lot of slots for extra cards.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

The "goo" is thermal paste, which helps the heat move from the cpu to the fan/heatsink. You only need a tiny amount around the size of a grain of rice. It's possible it might be at Best Buy. My tube came from Newegg (Arctic Silver brand). Just be sure to clean both the heatsink and cpu well with isopropyl alcohol or everclear and a lint-free cloth.

 

[Magic Static]

I run MyTheatre. It is not "abandonware" as Dee calls it. When I upgrade my computers I send the new Machine ID to Saar and get a new code for them. I have done this many times. I own three copies of MT. It cost $40 for a new license. You can change anything in the computer that doesn't wipe out the registry without the need for a new key. But wipe the hard drive without changing a thing and you will have to get a new key. I had a virus eat my key gone once too. But I never have a problem getting a new key from Saar.

 

[Tron]

Apparently I will need some sort of goo to put on the chip and the fan when I take this all apart. There is a Best Buy near me, would they have something like that ? I refuse to go in Radio Shack, I went in there a few times and they are just greasy kids that are disrespectful and just try to sell you cell phones, toys, stereos and satellites.. I don't want any of that. Or the rude, greasy disrespectful kids.

Best Buy has CPU fans/heatsinks with thermal compound already attached. Their store brand (Rocketfish) comes to mind, and they are about $30. I'm pretty sure they still have LGA775 compatibility.

When it is time to install, remove the protective film from the thermal compound on the bottom of the heatsink and carefully install the heatsink straight down onto the CPU without sliding it or moving it about very much. When you fire up the computer after installation, go into your BIOS and monitor the CPU temperature for awhile to be sure its staying relatively cool.

 

[concord]

There is a learning curve using any software RAID, FreeNAS is no exception. I've played with an earlier version and the web administrator interface (colors, organization, etc) was lacking, hopefully they improved it. Note that the only real support is on the users forum, iXsystems will only respond to purchasers of their own systems (which uses their own forked version called TrueNAS). Don't rely on RAID for your only copy of a file, as RAIDs can fail.

Others to look into:
http://www.flexraid.com/
http://snapraid.sourceforge.net/
http://lime-technology.com/
http://www.stablebit.com/DrivePool/Features

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok, I made progress but at the same time, I'm stuck.

I went to Best buy and bought some silver diamond paste. (really??) Anyway.. I bought the goop.

I took the quad core CPU out of the dead motherboard, took the dual core out of the HTPC and switched them.

I gooped the CPU and put the fan cooler on it. When I powered the machine up it wasn't very happy about the new stuff but it came up and went through a long process of updating drivers and what-not..

It eventually came up to a working state. BUT, when I try to run My Theater it comes up with a message that says the channels.mdb is corrupt and asks if I want to restore from a back up.
I tell it yes and it errors again. Nothing I do will let the program start up now. EVERYTHING ELSE in the system works fine..

Does anyone know what this might be and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok, I made progress but at the same time, I'm stuck.

I went to Best buy and bought some silver diamond paste. (really??) Anyway.. I bought the goop.

I took the quad core CPU out of the dead motherboard, took the dual core out of the HTPC and switched them.

I gooped the CPU and put the fan cooler on it. When I powered the machine up it wasn't very happy about the new stuff but it came up and went through a long process of updating drivers and what-not..

It eventually came up to a working state. BUT, when I try to run My Theater it comes up with a message that says the channels.mdb is corrupt and asks if I want to restore from a back up.
I tell it yes and it errors again. Nothing I do will let the program start up now. EVERYTHING ELSE in the system works fine..

Does anyone know what this might be and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

 

[Dee_Ann]

I got it working..

When I was swapping things around I broke the data connector on a 2 TB disk.

I used some epoxy glue to stick the broken plastic part back but I need to let it set up for a few days so I can't plug it back in just yet.

Well, that was my D: drive. And my PC was setup to use D: for the temporary files.
It was using D:\TEMP and D:\TMP for whatever it needs to use that for.

Well D drive is kaput for now and not plugged in.

No temporary folders so programs were pooping themselves trying to access something that's not there.

I found where to change the settings in windows manager and everything works just fine now.


So now I have a quad CPU and double the memory, 8 gigs after swapping parts from the dead machine into this one.
The big deal though is waiting to see if my epoxy fix works on the disk I broke.

 

[Tron]

Glad you got it figured out. Was the broken SATA connector on an internal or external hard drive?

 

[Dee_Ann]

Glad you got it figured out. Was the broken SATA connector on an internal or external hard drive?

Internal..

It's a little black tab that's very tiny, you could put 4 or more of them on a nickel. The data cable plugs into it. It's got a itty bitty L shape to it and on one side there are about 8 little copper colored contacts.

I haven't tried my repair yet. I tried to mix up some old epoxy and I made a huge mess just to get less than a pin head worth of the stuff.

I figured I should let it set up for a few days. I did connect power to the disk so it will warm up and there is a fan inside blowing air across it (and the other disks)..

I can't lose this disk, it's 2tb and it was 99.5% full....

Once I do try the connector I think I'll zip tie the cable to something to immobilize it and hopefully prevent a future disaster.

What I think I should really do is buy a portable USB shell to put it in, retire it to that and replace it with a new, blank disk.
In the USB shell it should be totally safe from bumps and what-nots...

 

[Anole]

sounds like a good idea

Last year, I decommissioned a bunch of external USB drives, in favor of several internal 2tb SATA drives.
File transfer speed is vastly better, but for video playback, it's not a factor (even HD).
Only time it matters is if I forget and video edit on USB.
Editing between two internal SATA 2tb drives, is the way to go.

 

[Tron]

I was installing ESATA ports on my PCs until recently. Now, with USB3, you can get speeds near SATA3 from a USB3 port (assuming the hard drive you have attached to the USB3 bridge is one of the newer SATA3 drives).