WDTV live drops connection after a few minutes

Community Archives WD TV Live Networking
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Hi everyone, this post is a follow up from one I did in the General Section.

I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s pretty annoying, here some stuff that will sum the things up for ya’ll.

Thanks in advance :

Just bought myself a WDTV live to stream content from my computer to my HDTV.

So I was listening to a show, and only a few minutes in, the network decides to drop.

The streaming stops and I also lose my connection in my main computer. What could cause that and, how can it be fixed?

I’m using a brand new Gigabit Router from D-link (DIR-655), updated firmware, everything is wired (no wireless connection between devices).

It does it every time I stream something… even 480p content…

Here’s the link to my prior post : Here

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Try this:

From your PC that’s sharing files, open a CMD window and issue the following command:

ping -t [ip address of WDTV]

You should see this:

C:\Documents and Settings\a0193633>ping -t iflsr20

Pinging iflsr20.itg.ti.com [192.168.169.45] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.169.45: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=251

Reply from 192.168.169.45: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=251

Reply from 192.168.169.45: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=251

…

and it should continue like that.

Now, go stream a file and watch the PING window.  When the WDTV stops working, does the PING also start saying “Request Timed Out” ?

3

I’ll test this tonight when I won’t be uploading to large and very important ISO files to my server, thanks :slight_smile:

4

It runned for a few minutes, one or two, all pings were <1ms, a few went to =1ms then it just started spamming “General Failure” and pow, Request Timed Out.

Boo… :frowning:

5

Ok.  This indicates one of three things:

   1-  The WDTV loses its network marbles.

   2-  The host PC loses its network marbles.

   3-  Something in the middle is causing a failure.

So, let’s narrow it down.

A couple of questions:

   When you’re viewing or listening to media, are you using “Media Server” or “Network Shares?”

   Does this happen on ALL media, or is there a pattern?

   IN ADDITION to the PING test above, try it again with an ADDITIONAL ping running, where the destination is your router’s IP address (do this in a second CMD window.)

   When the WDTV “fails,” IMMEDIATELY go to the SETTINGS / NETWORK and do a CONNECTION TEST.

6

Alright, so it was a bit different this time, the WDTV “crashed” when the network dropped, I couldn’t go back to the Home menu or do anything, it was frozen on the movie. At some time it decided to return to the media page but I couldn’t do anything except power cycle.

It almost does the same thing on and on : for larger files it takes about 3 to 4 minutes to crash, on the ping windows, it’s General Failure at the same time for both devices, then time out.

For SD files, it takes more time but in the end, it still drops.

It’s really strange because it does not stutter at all or lag or anything, it’s just dropping at some point…

Thanks for the support!

Every time I get a new gadget, I get bad lucks and it doesn’t work… eh… story of my life…

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Tony, you are my only hope, you hold my faith in your hands!

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Let me make sure I understand you:

You say when it fails, BOTH the ROUTER and the WDTV stop pinging?

If so, then the fault is either your computer or your network, and the WDTV is just a victim.

It is NOT unusual for the WDTV to completely crash like you describe if the share goes away during a stream.  It’s a bit of a bug, but actually is more inidication that your network is unstable.

You didn’t answer my other questions, though:  Are you using SHARES, or MEDIA SERVER?  Does it happen on ALL MEDIA, or is there a pattern?  Also, if the WDTV doesn’t crash, go do the Connection Test I described.

Also, you could test this:  Take your router out of the path.   Use a simple Hub or a Crossover Cable to hook your WDTV DIRECTLY to your PC.   You will likely need to set the IP addresses for the PC and WDTV manually if you do this test.

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Both the WDTV and the Router drops at the same time when I did the test.

I use Windows Sharing, not media server.

It crashed on all media, it takes more time on SD files compared to Bluray rips or larger MKVs.

I’ll test the direct connection asap.

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So, do you have any new thoughts?

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Not yet.  I was waiting on the results of the additional tests you said you’d run… :slight_smile:

Incidentally, there’s another thread HEREof a user with an identical issue.  No resolution for him.

12

Oh wow… well… grr…

It’s not exactly the same problem, he’s on wireless and the router is rebooting itself…

But it still ■■■■■…

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I’m just annoyed because I just bought this device, and it had the same bug with my old router (WRT54G), and now, I’ve spent 100$ on this new router and it still does the same ■■■■ and it seems like I’m not the only one in this situation…

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Something odd is going on – I have a WRT54G and it works fine with my three Live units.

Tony’s the expert, but if you tried with two routers with the same symptoms I’m going to guess it’s not your router that’s the problem.

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That’s fore sure, but what else could be wrong? My computer is correctly running… could it be a malfunctioning WDTV?

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Ok, PBEAR, I made an assumption; apparently an invalid one.  My Apologies!  

I assumed that, since you said that BOTH the WDTV and the ROUTER go unresponsive to pings at the same time, that the router WAS rebooting itself.   So, that’s not the case, huh?

Well, then it may be an IP Stack issue on the PC, so let’s move in that direction.

IMMEDIATELY During a failure (when PINGs are going unresponsive) issue the command 

ipconfig /all

and paste the results.

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Yeah… it’s not rebooting (that issue is kinda strange… how could a device trigger a reboot from a router).

I’ll test that right away!

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Windows IP Configuration

   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : PBEARMAIN
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Ba
se-T Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1B-FC-C8-2A-68
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::3cfb:d84e:7940:2c12%11(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.199(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : July-15-10 12:14:19 PM
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : July-16-10 11:33:40 PM
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 234888188
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-12-C5-7E-6A-00-1B-FC-C8-2A-68

   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{278CB362-3310-4F71-A79F-14C8022AA65B}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e74:241a:1d2b:524e:693b(Pref
erred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::241a:1d2b:524e:693b%13(Preferred)
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

It’s strange because this time it lasted for more than 4 minutes before the crash, I’d say prolly 10 minutes…

19

So, out of nowhere, I had the idea to test the streaming trough another computer on my network.

Well, I’ve been running a 720p MKV file and it didn’t crash yet…

So it’s clearly my computer that is messing the WDTV.

The other computer is a basic Core Duo with 2GB, a “okay” hard drive and Windows XP.

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About the only difference I see on mine is that I disable IPv6 on my interface.