WD TV Live keeps losing network shares

CasanovaFly wrote:
I mean, computers are machines and it’s simple cause and effect.


And that’s the problem right there cause we don’t know the cause which is why the bug hasn’t been fixed. We assume it’s (dual) master browsers or UPNP that’s throwing off the WDTV in some networks but that’s not 100% certain.

Just to add a little more info to this whole windows shares discussion that seems to be going on in several threads I experienced something strange in my home network.

I have a simple home network, a MyBookLive NAS, 2 windows 7 PCs, 1 windows 8 laptop and my SMP. I play media from the HDD attached to the SMP as well as media from the NAS and one windows 7 PC. (I also have a Samsung TV and an LG TV that can play media from DNLA servers but I rarely use them).

Like a few other I experienced dropped network issues at random times. I solved this by dropping windows shares and using linux shares exclusively for streaming media. haven’t had any problems in weeks now.

HOWEVER: While browsing for source inputs on my Samsung TV I noticed that the MyBookLive NAS was not listed as a media server. I checked in my WDTV but the MYBookLive was still listed under media servers. I thought it must be the TV. I checked the LG TV, and like the Samsung the MyBookLive was not listed. I checked the windows media players on the 2 windows 7 PCs and like the TVs the MyBookLive was not listed as a media server. I checked the dashboard in the MyBookLive and the media server was operational.

So something happened within the windows network that blocked all the windows PCs and TVs from seeing the MyBookLive as a media server. But the WDTV could still see it and play media from it.

Turning the media server off and then on again in the MyBookLive allowed all machines on the network to again see the MyBookLive media server. For 3 days. Then the same thing happened again. The WDTV SMP could still see the media server, the rest of the network could not. I dont know what this all means except that something seems to be happening to windows networking and that only started recently. To me this issue seems to indicate that it may not be the WDTV firmware that is solely to blame for these networking issues.

It’s so annoying…

The only “solution” that works for me is to reset WD box.

So…had a call arranged for the evening of July 23rd with a WD rep by the name of [Deleted] and received NO CALL. Not only that, I then receive a request to fill out a satisfaction survey. Unbelievable!!!

I’m sure others have figured this out but I’ve found a workaround that works for me when  no network shares  appear.

Step 1

Turn off Router

Unplug WD Media Device(s)

Shut down all PC’s/Laptops

Turn off WIFI on Mobile devices

Step 2

Turn on the network device that you wish to stream from. i.e. network share

Turn on Router, wait for it to initialize

Plug in WD Media Device(s), it should power on as soon as it’s plugged in and connect to the network

Turn on WIFI on Mobile Devices

Going through this process has worked for me every time, but it’s just a workaround and the network shares WILL disappear again at some point.

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Oh, and I’ve requested another call be arranged with WD… see what comes out of that.

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WD called last night and we discussed the issue at length. They were unable to reproduce the problem in their lab and ended up escalating it to upper management. I’m supposed to hear back from them within the next 24-48 hours with some form of update.

They also offered to replace both of my units but we all know that won’t solve anything.

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dmbottawa wrote:

So…had a call arranged for the evening of July 23rd with a WD rep by the name of [Deleted] and received NO CALL. Not only that, I then receive a request to fill out a satisfaction survey. Unbelievable!!!

 

I’m sure others have figured this out but I’ve found a workaround that works for me when  no network shares  appear.

Step 1

Turn off Router

Unplug WD Media Device(s)

Shut down all PC’s/Laptops

Turn off WIFI on Mobile devices

Step 2

Turn on the network device that you wish to stream from. i.e. network share

Turn on Router, wait for it to initialize

Plug in WD Media Device(s), it should power on as soon as it’s plugged in and connect to the network

Turn on WIFI on Mobile Devices

 

Going through this process has worked for me every time, but it’s just a workaround and the network shares WILL disappear again at some point.

This is terrific.

I’m on 1.16.13 and I shut down my computer while I had the box on. My shares disappeared and have yet to reappear. This worked quite well after no amount of device restarts or resets did, so thank you. I’ve got it written on a post-it note to keep handy (which is really sad, when you think about it).

Also, it was nice of WD to actually get in touch with you. And it’s understandable they can’t reproduce the issue since it seems to be at random for so many of us. Keep us (or at least me) updated! And thanks!

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Glad to hear it worked out for you. At least there’s a way around it until the “bug” gets fixed…  though it is a pain in the **bleep**.

Feel free to give me a Kudos  :wink:

I’ll post an update when I hear back from WD.

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WD has a serious issues around which computer is the “Master Browser”.  The above instructions just minipulates which device gets to be the Master Browser.

A router that can be the master browser solves all problems, e,g, an Asus RT-N66U or other comparable models… Upgrade your router – you will be glad you did – it is now 2014, and things have changed in the router world.

I put in the feature request to allow us to configure a manual server address.  This feature request has gone largely unnoticed but this feature was implemented on XBMC and it worked fantastic when the master browser election process caused issues in older releases.  I think that all anybody really wants when it comes to this is the ability to view their content.  In the perfect world the ability to have it show up automatically is awesome, but as as a fall back, I would like the ability to specify manually.

mike27oct wrote:

A router that can be the master browser solves all problems, e,g, an Asus RT-N66U or other comparable models… Upgrade your router – you will be glad you did – it is now 2014, and things have changed in the router world.

Maybe WD should put that on the packaging untiil they fix their networking issues.  Sure would reduce the number of upset people.

Attention all, 

I have removed some of the post in this thread. Please keep in mind that (“WD”) provides the WD Community as a service to its users and customers, to help them exchange ideas, tips, information, and techniques related to our products.

Let’s keep this professional and friendly.

ERmorel wrote:

Attention all, 
 
I have removed some of the post in this thread.

Mucho Gracias!

Hello, i was experiencing the exact problems, always losing access to network shares… after an extensive search, i found what, at least for now (been OK for a month) seems to have solved the problem.

My setup is:

PC - Win7 Ultimate SP1 - 24/7 - Sharing all the data (videos/photos/music)

Well, you’ll have to check the event viewer system log, when i saw mine, there were alot of errors like this:

Source: srv
Event ID: 2017
Level: Error
The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the server reached the configured limit for nonpaged pool allocations.

Apparently, we need to tell Windows that we want to use the machine as a file server and that it should allocate resources accordingly. 

Set the following registry key to ’1′:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache

and set the following registry key to ’3′:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size

After that, restart the machine.

Never seen the mentioned error anymore and as i said above, the problem is gone.

leila wrote:

Hello, i was experiencing the exact problems, always losing access to network shares… after an extensive search, i found what, at least for now (been OK for a month) seems to have solved the problem.

My setup is:

 

PC - Win7 Ultimate SP1 - 24/7 - Sharing all the data (videos/photos/music)

 

Well, you’ll have to check the event viewer system log, when i saw mine, there were alot of errors like this:

 

Source: srv
Event ID: 2017
Level: Error
The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the server reached the configured limit for nonpaged pool allocations.

 

Apparently, we need to tell Windows that we want to use the machine as a file server and that it should allocate resources accordingly. 

 

 

Set the following registry key to ’1′:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache

 

and set the following registry key to ’3′:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size

 

After that, restart the machine.

Never seen the mentioned error anymore and as i said above, the problem is gone.

 

I gave this a shot, but no luck. Never checked re: the errors you got or anything, but I thought I’d give it a shot anyway. I’m running Win8,. but nevertheless found the same registry keys and changed them.

Recently shut off the power to the house and the breaker panel to do some electrical work, which shut off/hard reset the WD box, and when it popped back up it had lost the shares.

The only duplicatable solution that I have found so far is dmbottawa’s “Steps To Success”:

Step 1

Turn off Router

Unplug WD Media Device(s)

Shut down all PC’s/Laptops

Turn off WIFI on Mobile devices

Step 2

Turn on the network device that you wish to stream from. i.e. network share

Turn on Router, wait for it to initialize

Plug in WD Media Device(s), it should power on as soon as it’s plugged in and connect to the network

Turn on WIFI on Mobile Devices

CasanovaFly wrote:


leila wrote:

Hello, i was experiencing the exact problems, always losing access to network shares… after an extensive search, i found what, at least for now (been OK for a month) seems to have solved the problem.

My setup is:

 

PC - Win7 Ultimate SP1 - 24/7 - Sharing all the data (videos/photos/music)

 

Well, you’ll have to check the event viewer system log, when i saw mine, there were alot of errors like this:

 

Source: srv
Event ID: 2017
Level: Error
The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the server reached the configured limit for nonpaged pool allocations.

 

Apparently, we need to tell Windows that we want to use the machine as a file server and that it should allocate resources accordingly. 

 

 

Set the following registry key to ’1′:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache

 

and set the following registry key to ’3′:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size

 

After that, restart the machine.

Never seen the mentioned error anymore and as i said above, the problem is gone.

 


I gave this a shot, but no luck. Never checked re: the errors you got or anything, but I thought I’d give it a shot anyway. I’m running Win8,. but nevertheless found the same registry keys and changed them.

 

Recently shut off the power to the house and the breaker panel to do some electrical work, which shut off/hard reset the WD box, and when it popped back up it had lost the shares.

 

The only duplicatable solution that I have found so far is dmbottawa’s “Steps To Success”:

 

Step 1

Turn off Router

Unplug WD Media Device(s)

Shut down all PC’s/Laptops

Turn off WIFI on Mobile devices

 

Step 2

Turn on the network device that you wish to stream from. i.e. network share

Turn on Router, wait for it to initialize

Plug in WD Media Device(s), it should power on as soon as it’s plugged in and connect to the network

Turn on WIFI on Mobile Devices

That is insane!

@Borgo  (and others)

Your issues stem from the Master Browser (aka MB) environment, which is a Windows “traffic cop” of sorts.  Search the Live Streaming forum for all kinds of threads about it. 

The MB manages traffic in your network, and it is usually your main PC which becomes the MB, so it needs to be turned on first (after the router), but if/when it gets turned off, another unit can take over from that PC, Then, MB issues arise and your network shares can get bunged up.  Another PC taking over as MB is OK, but if the WDTV takes over, that is not good, because it does a lousy job as MB.

You can always find out if your MB is healthy and how you want it – see this link and download and install the free program from the site:

http://scottiestech.info/2009/02/14/how-to-determine-the-master-browser-in-a-windows-workgroup/

Just remember that a PC must be the Master Browser, and not the WDTV, and the above program helps you know what unit is your MB.

If it isn’t a PC, you need to turn off (unplug) the WDTV, wait 5+ mins or so and check with the program – your PC must be the MB.  It takes a while to flush out the other MB in memory, (starting with a rebooted router can speed this up) When it is not the WDTV, you can turn on the WDTV again. 

There is an exception to a PC being the MB, and that is to have a router that can be a permanent MB since it is usually on 24/7 whereas PCs and WDTV etc get turned off and on. 

When I replaced my router a couple of years ago, I discovered my new router can be a permanent MB, (with some adjusted settings) and ever since I set it as MB, all the MB problems disappeared.  My router happens to be an upper tier Asus router model, but there are other modern routers that can do the same.  Find a router that can be a MB.

Good luck solving the issue.

If you can I would recommend using Linux shares instead of Windows shares. My NAS is a MyBookLive so has a Linux share built -in, and installed an NFS server on my windows PCs. Since then no network problems at all, all shares are rock solid.

I have been living with the network shares problem for a long time and my fix was to reboot the computer where the files are located. I found a tip online today and it sounds promising.

In device manager, look for your network card and double-click it to view the properties window. Click the POWER MANAGEMENT tab and un-check the box marked “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. Mine was checked.

That could be the reason my WDTV worked in the morning but that evening the dreaded spinning wheel of death appeared when trying to access my files. I have a wired network using Windows 7 and a Verizon FIOS Router.