[mythtvnz] Diagnosing the jitters - lesson to be learned!

[Nick Rout]

My frontend (a hp/compaq 7100 small form factor with a half height PCIe
GT8400GS) has been running like a dog lately. Skipping, out of sync, jumpy.
Same in mythtv, xbmc and mplayer. I was unconcerned as it is mainly used by
the kids and I hadn't realised how bad it had got. Finally sat down to
diagnose on sunday.

Ultimately thought some update or other must have screwed something in the
nvidia drivers. Finally decided to do a reinstall. There is no data to speak
of on the machine.

Complete reinstall and update, still running like a dog. Run nvidia-settings
and discover the video card appears to be running at 148 deg C and auto
slows down at 130 or 140. Yikes. I know in the past it runs at low 70s at
idle and mid to high 70s decoding 1080p.

Turn off, unplug, open up. Just happened to buy a can of compressed air
yesterday [1]. clean out system fans and video card fans, boot up and card
running at 72 deg.

Wish I had thought of that a while ago. There was an important setting I
forgot to back up before reinstalling and now I have to trawl through masses
of alsa documentation to fix it.

C'est la vie.

[1] complete co-incidence, happened to be at counter at Dick Smith and saw
someone else buy one and thought yeah, I need another can of that!
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