WD TV Live keeps losing network shares

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.

@blueribb

Sounds plausable, but I don’t think that is your real problem.  My laptop has the same check, and I have NO share issues.

You likely are losing your network’s  master browser like many do.  I lived with these problems, too, my settings were all correct, but I still could lose shares.  It was not until I had a permanent master browser (created by my router settings) that my router became the MB, 24/7.  Share issues are gone!  Your PC would be the MB otherwise.  If it lost MB status and the WDTV took over, that is when problems with shares appear.  Read and download the free program here and keep tabs on your MB with this program.   http://scottiestech.info/2009/02/14/how-to-determine-the-master-browser-in-a-windows-workgroup/

When you reboot the PC, you are “starting over” with the master browser, and you need to turn off the WDTV if it was the MB before the PC reboot   so the PC can be the MB once again.  (Or, get a router that can be the MB.).

2.1.86 or 2.0.32, it seems a lot of people have a problem with network shares, as it is obviously the achilles heel of the box.

Same for, i upgraded to 2.0.32 yesterday and windows shares stopped working. spinning wheel all the time without pc discovery.

Now, i dont want to be a hacker to make this thing work. I want to turn on the frigging box and see movies!!!

Needless to say i have tried all solutions written here, nothing works. Is rollback the only answer???

arismac wrote:

2.1.86 or 2.0.32, it seems a lot of people have a problem with network shares, as it is obviously the achilles heel of the box.

 

Same for, i upgraded to 2.0.32 yesterday and windows shares stopped working. spinning wheel all the time without pc discovery.

 

Now, i dont want to be a hacker to make this thing work. I want to turn on the frigging box and see movies!!!

 

Needless to say i have tried all solutions written here, nothing works. Is rollback the only answer???

It sounds as though this isn’t the typical network share issue. My issues were sporadic, but it was possible to get them working. I upgraded to the most recent (2.02.32, which I assume you meant) and I’ve got no issues with media shares.

So, I guess my suggestions for you would be try the reset instructions that I’ve marked as the ‘solution’ for this thread and then see. If that doesn’t work, then I’m not sure. I’ve had no real issues thus far with the new firmware, and it sounds like you lost connectivity as soon as you upgraded, which hints at a larger problem.

“WD TV Live keeps losing network shares - Page 10 - WD Community  When you reboot the PC, you are “starting over” with the master browser, and you need to turn off the WDTV if it was the MB before the PC reboot   so the PC can be the MB once again.  (Or, get a router that can be the MB.).”

It seems to me an easy fix for this would be if WD would just have an option in the System section that asks “Allow this device to be a Master Browser… Yes or No”.  Can’t believe they can’t implement something so simple, when they see all the grief their customers are going through.

Just like the unnecessarily complicated rollback process, where the user has to be technical enough to edit some file with some dummy future revision number, to fool the device.  Seems to me they could avoid all that by letting the device up/down grade to whatever version was on the USB stick, and throw a message to the user “Are you sure you wish to proceed?  Yes or No”.

It just makes me wonder why they don’t care enough to implement some simple fixes.  They could have a great little device here if they wanted.

fred9999 wrote:
Just like the unnecessarily complicated rollback process, where the user has to be technical enough to edit some file with some dummy future revision number, to fool the device.

Which he does not cause WD offers rollback firmwares with an already edited VER file.

Yes, technically you’re right, but there are enough posts that show user confusion about that issue.

My point was, they could alleviate all that confusion by throwing a message box, whether it’s upgrading or downgrading.

Not that hard to do.

Neither is checking the official pages for the knowledgebase which has an entry on rollback. But people just don’t roll that way, most never even heard of the search funtion.

I started seeing my Network Shares when my WDTV SMP became the master browser.

There is a setting in your computer registry to set your computer to Auto, Yes, No for Master Browser.

Currently, mine are set to Auto, but I’ll need to test more and see if having my WDTV the master browser causes problems.

I do know when my computer was the MB, I could not find my shares, so not sure what the solution is since I turn off my WDTV and if you have 2 or 3 WDTVs then what happens then?

mz_inet wrote:

I started seeing my Network Shares when my WDTV SMP became the master browser.

 

There is a setting in your computer registry to set your computer to Auto, Yes, No for Master Browser.

Currently, mine are set to Auto, but I’ll need to test more and see if having my WDTV the master browser causes problems.

I do know when my computer was the MB, I could not find my shares, so not sure what the solution is since I turn off my WDTV and if you have 2 or 3 WDTVs then what happens then?

Have you tried the steps a posted a while back?

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.

My computer was the Master Broswer and I couldn’t see my shares, after reading and trying many things I found 1 thing that fixed it. I turned OFF the Networking Sharing option on my SMP and BAM! - No more problems. One thing that probably helped too, was to turn off the Computer Browser service on my 2nd computer and change the registry setting on my 2nd computer it to NEVER be a master browser, so it can never be “Elected” as a master browser.

That’s it. It now works everytime and all of the time. :slight_smile:

I think besides my 2nd computer fighting for master browser, it was most likely the WDTV SMP setting for Network Shares to be ON. So this setting is most likely needed if you have a hard drive connected to the USB port on this device and you want to share it with another device, but I would never need this because my network shares are 4 to 5 Terrabytes and growing and I couldn’t hook them up even if I wanted to.

Followed this solution and it now works if I reboot computer and WDTV ( http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=2351.0)::slight_smile:

Win7 (and Vista) has some issues broadcasting its availability on a network.
You could try these changes to your Win7 box:-

Firstly, configure Sharing and Discovery:

      1. Navigate to the Network and Sharing Center via the Control Panel
      2. Click on the down arrow icons and select ON/OFF as follows:
              Network Discovery - ON
              File Sharing - ON
              Public Folder Sharing - OFF
              Printer Sharing - ON
              Password Protected Sharing - OFF
              Media Sharing - OFF

Next, configure the folder you want to share:

      1. Select the folder
      2. Right-click and choose ‘Share’ from the menu
      3. From the drop-down box select the Everyone (All users in this list) account, making sure permissions are set to ‘Reader’
      4. Click the buttons Add, Share and Done.

Here are some further registry ‘tweaks’ if this doesn’t work:

WARNING: This requires editing your PC’s registry which, if edited incorrectly, can cause Windows systems to become unstable and unusable. So, follow the instructions below at your own risk. - we are not responsible for any damage caused by following these steps.

      1. Navigate to the following location in the registry editor.
              MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\
      2. On the right side, double-click on ‘everyoneincludesanonymous’ and change the ‘Value data’ from ‘0’ to ‘1’
      3. Double-click on ‘NoLmHash’ and change the ‘Value data’ from ‘1’ to ‘0’
      4. Navigate to the following location in the registry editor:
              MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer\Parameters
      5. Double-click on ‘restrictnullsessaccess’ and change the ‘Value data’ from ‘1’ to ‘0’
      6. Close the registry editor

After all of this I still had problems. I turned Win 7 Homegroup OFF and only used my server since, with no other computers on the network and it is NOW working consistently. I’ve had to reboot my server in the past to get it to find the server again, but NOW it seems to find it all of the time.

I think we’ve collectively narrowed it down that your computer – or the location of your shares – needs to be the master browser. Or I think that was it, anyway. The steps that dmbottawa quoted you, and that I’ll post again, are what has worked for me every time without fail up to this point.

 

_ 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

Also, I would check your firmware. I upgraded to the latest release when it came out (2.02.32) and it fixed ALL my issues so far. I even had the power go out, resetting everything in the house, and everything was okay. Normally when that happens my shares disappear – and they did in this case – but I just had to load them back up. Normally I try to find them and it can never locate them, forcing me to go through the above steps. Now, it pops up right away.

Don’t think I’ve seen a post for my particular flavor of this problem.

My WDTV is set up with network shares coming from four different PCs.

Two of the PCs are Windows 7, two of the PCs are Windows 8.1

All PCs are in the same Windows homegroup and workgroup

All have identical settings for advanced sharing and media streaming

On the same random basis as others have reported, the network shares from the Windows 7 computers disappear.  But the network shares from the Windows 8 computers NEVER experience this problem.

I actually have two WDTV Live units - both units experience this issue in an identical manner.

No other SMB/network share problems with any other device or program.

Don’t know that this provides a different clue as to the problem, but thought I would offer it up.