WDTV Live Hub keeps losing network connection, workgroup name & time-zone setting

My WDTV live hub frequently loses the settings for my network requiring me to reinitialize my DHCP settings then reboot. Also I need to re-input my time-zone and workgroup settings. After not using the hub for several hours when I try to access my Seagate 1.5Gb external USB drive the Hub won’t see the drive because it is in sleep mode and needs a few seconds to wake up. When the Hub doesn’t immediately see the 1.5 drive it gives me a message that it can’t see the drive and shuts down it’s access to the drive from the library. I can still see the 1.5 drive from the files section but the Hub has turned off the library function until I reboot the Hub. There needs to be a delay or retry while the external drive spins up before the Hub disconnects it’s self from the USB drive after only one failed attempt to connect. Most computer BIOS have a drive initialization delay function to to allow a drive to fully initialize before the system looks at the drives status. Last night it took me almost 30 minutes to start watching a movie because I had to reset my system parameters and ended rebooting the hub 3 times before it saw my USB drive and the files. Every time the HUB disconnects my 1.5 after one quick, failed read, the HUB has to rescan the 1.5 after a reboot, before it will again see my library. This is happening every time I don’t use the HUB for any length of time.

Check if you have the latest firmware version, which could fix some of your problems. 

How to automatically or manually update the firmware on a WD TV Live Hub Media Center or WD TV Live Streaming Media Player

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5749

I appreciate your reply but I always have the latest firmware. Also, I have my hub set to notify me of new updates. I have been an IT support specialist for the past 25 years so I tend to be a bit obsessive about using the latest firmware. I have noticed that I have not lost my settings in the last few days. Maybe the last update helped. One thing I did do is to turn off the sleep setting on the hub. I think all of the problems stem from that feature. If the Hub doesn’t sleep, it doesn’t forget my core settings when it wakes up. Now I just use the screen saver and leave the hub powered up. Not very energy efficient but the hub doesn’t use a lot of power to begin with and my Seagate 1.5 external drive still powers down when not in use. I think that as long as I don’t try to access the drive immediately and give it a few moments to wake up before trying to access the library, the hub doesn’t disconnect the 1.5s internal library access.

I have had a few problems with the library not seeing series programs in my TV Show folders but I solved that by using the TVDB XML Fetcher program to re-write my XML files. I have been putzing around with my episode naming convention lately and finally settled on one that seems to work well, is supported by TVDB XML Fetcher’s built in naming function and gives me visible information on screen. I have a rather extensive library having collected TV shows on my TIVO for the past 14 years. I am one of the first TIVO subscribers and currently have about 18TBs of shows recorded and converted to MPEG2 format so I can access them using my WD live and hub. The WD is much better at streaming from my server than the TIVO box is. Due to the huge library, you can see why having my hub reject my library and have to recompile it frequently is such a pain.

Thanks for the input on this problem.

MisterFixIt1952

Sorry, but did you tried updating your router? Or assigning Static DHCP?

I’ve had a similar problem with my 2 WDTV Live boxes.  The problem began when I changed the option to user Power Saving and turn off the WDTV live automatically after 3 hours.  As soon as it turns off the network connection is lost and needs to be reinitialized.  Oddly enough if I turn the WDTV live off with the remote control power button then the network connection is not lost, it is only a problem when it turns off automatically.  Therefore my solution was to manually turn the WDTV live on and off which keeps the connection live at all times.