22 replies to this topic

[LWood]

At startup each day, ehrec.exe uses a constant 50% of the CPU until I reboot or kill it with the task manager.

It's only started doing this in the last week or so. No h/w or s/w changes except usual updates.

Performance doesn't seem to be affected, but the fans start whining away because of the high cpu usage.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[Redwight]

This usually was a sign of the power supply failing, around5 to 20% is normal during cyclic usage but if the PSU start to fall over the tuner use far more CPU for some reason.

[LWood]

Eek! I wasn't expecting hardware issues to be the solution. That's really thrown me. How would I test to see if that was the case?

[Sutty]

Eek! I wasn't expecting hardware issues to be the solution. That's really thrown me. How would I test to see if that was the case?

Not sure I agree with the diagnosis, but the easiest way to check would be to swap out the existing power supply with a known good one of sufficient power rating and see if that brings the CPU usage down

[DednDave]

you might try running through MCE setup again
it sounds like it may be trying to update the tv guide or something like that
i also disable things like "sign up for the MCE improvement program", etc
i am thinking it may have lost it's way

EDIT
i seem to recall having this problem, once
as i remember, i had a virus
my memory is not what it used to be
but, it couldn't hurt to keep it in mind

[LWood]

Thanks for the tip to run setup again. I noticed that the guide listings didn't go past a few days in the future, so I went through to setup and guess what? When the guide went to check the internet connection, the fans whizzed up and the progress bar stopped.. ehrec.exe back up to 50%. Killed the process and tried again and setup worked.

Now all set up again with guide listings. I guess I'll know tomorrow if it has worked (only happens first boot of the day). I'll report back.

Thanks all!

[LWood]

Ah well. Back to the drawing board. CPU still at 50% with ehrec.exe on first boot of the day.

Puzzles me that a restart fixes it. Might be time for that Win 7 upgrade.....

edit: Hang on, when I try to get the latest guide listings, it says one is already in progress, so it looks like it is failing to get the guide and just keeps on trying. I can feel more googling coming on.

[DednDave]

ok - here is what i would try...
go through Media Center setup again
this time, select NO guide at all
wait a day to see if the problem is resolved
if so, re-configure Media Center for the guide listing and wait another day to see the result
i recall seeing somewhere, a way to clear out the local guide listing data - that may also be helpful

recently, the guide listing database has been going through some major changes (digital TV and all)
it may be somehow related to that
i know that, in my location, they just got it straightened out
up until a month ago, the guide listing provided information for several channels that aren't even available in my area
and - no information for the channels that are available

[LWood]

Ok, I like that. Waiting to see what happens...... will report back.

[DednDave]

good luck - fingers crossed, here

[LWood]

Hey DednDave, that worked! No whingeing fans and no ehrec.exe!

I'll try the setup again and see what happens tomorrow -Thanks!

[mikehayton]

From you comments, it looks like you're pre-Win7. Before Win7, ehrec.exe is the process that is downloading the tv listings. So it does look like tv listings have something to do with it.

ehrec.exe is also the process that co-ordinates the recording. Its the one that wakes up and then talks to ehrecvr, instructing it to tune to a particular channel, start recording, stop recording.

[LWood]

Aargh! Back to 50% at first startup and also when I try to set up guide listings. I select 'TV signal provider from list' and MCE hangs, with ehrec at 50%. I now have no guide listings and no apparent way to get any!

@mikehayton -thanks for the info -that all fits in. Just wondering how to move on now.

Thanks for all the constructive comments so far....

[DednDave]

well - i think you have narrowed it down by disabling the guide listing
Mike's suggestion about recording may still be valid, though
for example, if it thinks you want to record from a channel that is no longer available, it may be looking for it - lol

my next suggestion is to do a little research
i have seen threads that were related to clearing out the recording schedule and guide listing data
(maybe it was here - may have been the green button forum)
try disabling the guide listing, then clearing out all this old data and start anew
if that does not fix the problem, it may not be you that is at fault
i don't know anything about program info in your specific locale
you might see of others that would use the same guide listing info have similar problems
the idea is - it's a process of elimination
if you have eliminated all other reasonable possibilities, it may be the guide database site that has the problem
if so, just disable the guide and try it every week or so until they get it fixed
you can't fix the problem if it's on their end

[Thorny904]

I developed the same issues about a month ago. I tried all the suggestions with zero success (except the CPU suggestion :-P).

Sadly, the only thing that solved the problem was a reinstall of the operating system.