Changes and problems.
2012. Lost steam in keeping up these notes. Put in a 4TB Hitachi to replace the too-slow 2TB WD Caviar Green. Now no problems recording 5 shows while scanning 2 and watching 1 from the same drive, and no longer moving recordings around. Except during the Olympics when I filled up everything.
Commercial skipping is still working most of the time, occasionally ShowAnalyzer gets stuck and sometimes Comskip has to be used manually to scan a show SA can't do. Hasn't been enough of a problem to automate killing SA and doing automatic rescans.
2011.11.12 Cabinet temp remains same as room so I problem don't need a fan for the cabinet. Have to see when computer is doing more work some day.
2011.11.10 Replace the old TrippLite UPS with the CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD. Total noise is dramatically less; it was not clear that the old UPS was making that much noise. But the internal cabinet temperature is much less too (22C to 24C vs. 28C to 30C), so the computer is drawing in much cooler air an so its fans aren't running as fast.
2011.11.08 Move computer closer to the back of the cabinet and take out a little more of the back panel so the case fan has a clear path. Temp inside the cabinet drops from 30C to 28C. Room is 22C so it may still need a fan.
2011.11.07 Sleep might be an option; confirmed MC will wake up computer 5 minutes prior to a scheduled recording. Will have to make new activity on Harmony One to be sure system on macro works when computer is on or in S3.
Or not. Have gone into sleep and resumed twice, and HDMI audio is gone again. Have not found a way to recover that without rebooting.
Look for some case fans "in case".
2011.11.06 Clean fans; processor heat sink somewhat clogged. I don't have any thermal compound around, else I would pull that off and do a better job. On restart, cores seem cooler, around 43C, but later, system still idle, temps are back around 53C. That's fine, but I don't like 92C it reached before. Should wait unit new UPS comes before deciding what else is needed.
See if sleep is an option. ATI HDMI audio doesn't work after resume from sleep or hibernate; disable RealTek audio and that problem seems to go away. MC remote sleep button is a toggle; will be hard to make work right all the time. Look for discrete codes for sleep/wake. Info from Harmony One forum helpful, here. Add the Windows Media Center SE device to test remote.
2011.11.05 Got VCTemp working so I can watch core temps from laptop. Instructions were note clear that is has to run on the MC system too in server mode. Had to give users write access to program folder so it could write its .ini file and add program to Firewall exception list. Maybe a CoreTemp plug-in that launches automatically when CoreTemp runs would be possible.
2011.11.04 To address heat issues, remove more of the back panel from the audio cabinet behind the computer. Move cables around to be sure they aren't blocking air flow. System isn't doing much so it isn't clear if that helps enough or not. Might need a cabinet fan or a CPU cooler.
Notice that TripLite UPS fan is pretty noisy, and it is warm too. This 1500VA was found new at $75 at the salvage warehouse, but maybe wasn't such a great deal. Order a CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD which I know is quiet (we have them at the office) and think will be cooler.
2011.11.03 Add the Core Temp Grapher Beta so I can see a history of CPU temps, at least recent. Really neat. Wish there was a plug in to save historical data to a file.
2011.10.30 Installed Core Temp and MC add-on to watch CPU temps. Works very well.
2011.10 The computer's fans run very loudly when it is scanning multiple files for comskip and I'm converting a WTV file to DVRMS. It seems to be a lot louder than when new. Vacuum out dust; position system so air intakes aren't blocked.