[BillyGoat1978]

Hello All!

I recently built myself a rig as an exclusive HTPC for XBMC with the following configuration:

AMD Athlon X3 440
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H Rev. 1.4
2x2GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM @ 1600MHz (The BIOS POST however reports that the RAM is running at 1333MHz, unganged)
Western Digital 320GB SATA Blue Hard Drive
Corsair VX450 Power Supply
Cooler Master CM590 Chassis
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

I did some reading on the forums here and elsewhere and realized that the onboard GPU, HD4250, was sufficient for 1080P content. All my media is stored on a NAS and the network is gigabit. When I copy files stored on the NAS to this system, I am getting speeds between 40 and 60MBps.

I got the latest XBMC 10.0 Dharma off the home page of the site.

I installed Windows and ran all the updates. Got the latest drivers for the HD4250 from ati/amd and installed the same. I then installed XBMC. The skin in use is the default Confluence. I enabled DXVA2 from the System Menu. However, when I tried playing any 1080p or even 720p encoded mkv file, I am encountering constant "buffering" issues and constant frame drops. I even copied the files locally to the system and tried but with the same result. However, the same files play flawlessly with MPHC, both with DXVA enabled and disabled. With DXVA enabled, the CPU is running at under 10% and with DXVA disabled, it runs just above 40%.

For reference, the values for the RAM for the GPU is set at defaults through the BIOS and Windows reports that it is using 512MB for the GPU and the rest is allotted to Windows, i. e. 3.5GB.

I also tried using a dedicated GPU, the MSI HD4670 with 512MB RAM but still got the same issues.

I do understand that it is advised that I get a dedicated GPU for bit-streaming and DTS Audio. I do intend to do that but for the time being, I want to use the onboard GPU. I will get the HD5xxx GPU in a couple of weeks.

I have another system running the following specs:
Intel Core Duo E4400
Asus P5GC-VM Mainboard
4GB RAM
80GB SATA Hard Drive
MSI HD4670 with 512MB RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Here, due to the limitation of the mainboard, the RAM is reported as 3.5GB. The onboard video is disabled.

On this system, XBMC runs well and the files play flawlessly, However, this system does not belong to me and I had this for testing soon after Dharma was released. However, I tried using Aeon MQ2 on this build and it was very sluggish. However, even with Aeon enabled, the media files played without issues.

Now, I need help to eliminate the issues with the AMD build which I intend to keep as the HTPC.

Your help will be really appreciated.

[htpc guy]

Did you go to gigabytes website and download all of the correct drivers for your motherboard? I'm running a similar system in Linux and it works like a dream. I'm not quite sure what your exact issue could be. Can you enable debug logging and then post the log to pastebin? You will get better responses then.

[BillyGoat1978]

Hmmmm, the drivers may be an issue. I will download them tomorrow and give it a shot once again. If this fails, I will post the log from XBMC. If all else fail, I will have to get rid of this combo and get an intel rig. Thanks for the heads up.

[BillyGoat1978]

I tried the system again yesterday with all the drivers installed and updated as required. Now, it does not do any buffering but it simply stops playing the video and returns to the last sceen. However, unlike last time, this time, the video stops playing after a considerable period of time, ranging from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

Any ideas why this is happening?

Currently, I have disabled the on board GPU and did a fresh install of Windows 7 x64. Nothing else other than the drivers were loaded along with XBMC. Infact, I did not even install the AMD Catalyst drivers for the GPU. The GPU now being used is the dedicated MSI HD4670 with 512MB RAM.

Should I try this build with a Linux install?

[bmcclure937]

Did you go to gigabytes website and download all of the correct drivers for your motherboard? I'm running a similar system in Linux and it works like a dream. I'm not quite sure what your exact issue could be. Can you enable debug logging and then post the log to pastebin? You will get better responses then.

I do not mean to bud into this convo, but I am also having issues with my Gigabyte mobo. I am unable to boot from my USB drive (which I have written the XBMC iso to by using 'dd').

Since you have experience with Gigabyte mobos, did you boot from USB? I think the issue may have been writing the image to the USB drive. I am going to start over... and see what happens.

[eskro]

I think the issue may have been writing the image to the USB drive

have you tried FlashBoot 2.0u??
it can burn an image file to a USB key!

[bmcclure937]

I am on a *nix box (actually a Mac). If it comes down to it I can create a VM of Ubuntu and use unetbootin (or whatever the utility is called). Or I think XBMC Live has a utility so I can boot a VM from the .ISO and create a USB from there.

I was hoping for a solution like using dd to write the ISO to the USB. But I do not think that will work for whatever reason.

[eskro]

hold on, you cant have access to a windows PC as we speak?

then if not, i suggest you follow this --> Create bootable USB drive using the OS X terminal

or even this --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SLyfHOnJUI

[BillyGoat1978]

Today again I tried to solve the issue I have been having but in vain.

Following are the logs. I hope that someone can figure out what the problem is.
http://pastebin.com/xS14dew7
http://pastebin.com/wrWUCY0n
http://pastebin.com/z8m9LsMN
http://pastebin.com/jXXexEey
http://pastebin.com/JCzW8iMs

Much appreciated.

[eskro]

just get the cheapest get the HD5xxx GPU card you can find....

example --> ASUS Radeon HD5450 512MB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.1 $29.99 after mail-in rebate card

[BillyGoat1978]

So is my problem due to the onboard GPU? Then why am I having the same problem even with a dedicated HD4670 which works perfectly well with an E4400 chip?

[eskro]

HD5450 is a card that play ANY HD video and audio formats flawlessly....

we can't always say why this + that worked...

but we know that the HD5xxx series is the card to get for HTPC ATI lovers...