Need help with multiple PC DVR's freezing/not re-writing

[Turais 0]

We have had multiple systems across the state freeze up, it seems like they aren't re-writing over old footage. I'm trying to troubleshoot one of the PC's to see if I can understand/solve the problem. It should be noted that not all of our systems have failed, just about 20-25% of them. We have 2 total hardware builds out there. 1 isn't having any issues at all, and the ones we are having problems with are like the one listed below.

 

I have a long history of building/repairing/working on PCs in general. I have very limited knowledge of surveillance systems. Other than what I learned since Monday. (About 12-16 hours of unorganized information hunting)

 

I'll lay out the specs and hope I don't miss any vital information

32 analog cameras per PC DVR

 

Windows 7

Intel socket 1150 asus motherboard

Intel i7 4770

Kingston 16bg pc12800 1600mhz memory (memory is NOT supported by motherboard in the motherboard qualified vendor list for memory even though it seems to run fine.)

1 WD 250gb sata2 HDD (operating system)

Highpoint rocketraid 2320 raid controller card

6 WD 3 TB SATA 2 HDD's connected to raid controller card (originally setup as RAID5, had issues, now drives are partitioned into 9 pieces, 2 TB each, JBOD mode, we were told by Hikvision support that their software may have issues with drives over 2 TB in size)

2 Hikvision DS-4016HCI PCI Encoder cards

We are using HIKVISION DVR Software V5.37

I think that's the important stuff.

 

So we record about 40 days of video, hard drives fill up, and the PC/DVR program begins to lock up, and doesn't seem to be recording new data until someone restarts the machine, and then it only works for a little while before freezing again.

 

I really appreciate any help I receive, I'm pretty stuck on how to track down the problem. I'm thinking it has something to do with the hard drives, or the way they are setup and the age of the software.

 

Thanks

 

-Turais

[SunnyKim 2]

Can you show the picture of the pci card?

How much you paid for it?

[tomcctv 190]

Hi .. You don't have a graphics card listed

 

 

But your problem I think is the amount of partitions. What is a simple setup has become more than what is needed

 

I would run as standard ...... OS on drive as you have and then use 3 x 2tb harddrives

 

Also you don't say how many units there are but as well as the problems you already have you need to think of upgrading.

 

The system at the moment is just less than D1 at 4 to 5 fps

 

I would look at starting to change to hybrid standalone from hikvision.

Cost wise you are not that far apart repair pc or change

 

Your quality will go up on recordings plus with going hybrid you can swap out old analog for Ip cameras when ever they go down

[Turais 0]

Can you show the picture of the pci card?

How much you paid for it?

 

I have no idea what we paid for it, but I know they are really old.

 

 

 

Three internal pictures of PC DVR and encoder card

 

http://s1164.photobucket.com/user/ken_wilson1/library/Mobile%20Uploads

 

You will have to copy and paste that link into browser, Work computer is blocking me from linking/copying/or even browsing many websites. I uploaded those from my cell phone.

 

 

 

Hi .. You don't have a graphics card listed

 

 

But your problem I think is the amount of partitions. What is a simple setup has become more than what is needed

 

I would run as standard ...... OS on drive as you have and then use 3 x 2tb harddrives

 

Also you don't say how many units there are but as well as the problems you already have you need to think of upgrading.

 

The system at the moment is just less than D1 at 4 to 5 fps

 

I would look at starting to change to hybrid standalone from hikvision.

Cost wise you are not that far apart repair pc or change

 

Your quality will go up on recordings plus with going hybrid you can swap out old analog for Ip cameras when ever they go down

 

We are using on board video, I didn't put these systems together or I would have naturally installed after market GPU's, but most of what I've read has said that onboard video on newer generation motherboards are alright for PC DVRs. Maybe its not alright? My understanding isn't incredibly clear, that's why I'm here.

 

The hard drive situation is a little interesting, I won't give out sensitive details, but these PC DVRs are used in a large scale government system, specific to law enforcement. We have to keep video footage of at least 1 month, 2 is preferred. Right now there are 6 HDD's, each HDD is 3TB, after being configured through the raid controller card they were split up into 9 partitions of 2TB each. It doesn't make sense to me why it was setup this way, but apparently Hikvision support indicated that there might be issues with the software working with drive volumes over 2TB in size. So if we need 2 months of video, we might need to limit the number of cameras per system or risk running out of HDD space.

 

You said that I didn't say how many units there are, do you mean cameras? My understanding is that we run 16 analog cameras per Hikivision encoder card. Two cards per PC DVR, so 32 cameras per system. Hopefully units=cameras, sorry if I misunderstand.

 

You said "The system at the moment is just less than D1 at 4 to 5 fps"

What does that mean?

 

You suggest that I go hybrid standalone, you mean a standalone DVR system over PC DVR? What sort of standalone suggestion do you have?

 

Is there any other DVR software that you would recommend instead of the Hikvision DVR software? One of the techs said that the reason we use the Hikvision DVR software is because it works directly with the Hikvision encoder cards. Do these encoder cards require proprietary software? Are there any encoder card alternatives or DVR software that are more efficient and up to date?

 

Sorry for playing 20 million questions, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what to address. I know that the memory not being on the QVL list for the motherboard can be an issue. I know the way the HDD's are setup needs to be redone.

 

Thanks for all the help.

[SunnyKim 2]

Turais,

It is pretty much old card. It seems Hikvision already dropped it on their product list. You better check Hikvision for the updated software.

[Turais 0]

Do you mean I should check for a new updated encoder card? After visiting another one of our sites today I found 2 more DVR PCs frozen again. I wiped the HDDs and made 2 small hardware changes. I have been thinking about the encoder cards and software. They have to be near 10 years old now. Back when the hikvision software and the firmware for the encoder cards was written, we probably didn't have dual core CPUs or systems that used more than 4 gigs of ram. I think these systems are suited well for being dvr pcs other than the encoder cards and software. Does anyone have any recommendations on newer generation encoder cards and software? Or any input or questions please? Thanks for helping.

[Turais 0]

I'm using hikvision DS4016HCI and HSI cards in these computers, some freeze up, some don't. We have about 64 cameras on average per site.

 

They last for about a month (which is roughly the recording capacity of our current setup) and the clients freeze up, video stops recording.

 

We are using hikvision DVR software 5.37 (which is really old, but so are the cards)

 

We are likely going to be switching over to a Pelco Endura system but its a large transition to plan because we have about 8 sites that host 64+ cameras each.

 

I'm getting a ton of heat trying to stop our current DVR PCs from freezing up, does anyone have anything further they can offer opinion wise or otherwise?

 

Thank you in advance..

 

Sorry for bumping my own post if that's against the rules, I just haven't found any other forum resources to tap into for help.

[ak357 0]

I'm using hikvision DS4016HCI and HSI cards in these computers, some freeze up, some don't. We have about 64 cameras on average per site.

 

They last for about a month (which is roughly the recording capacity of our current setup) and the clients freeze up, video stops recording.

 

We are using hikvision DVR software 5.37 (which is really old, but so are the cards)

 

 

Where are u located ?

I used to sell the same product before

last Ver I used was 6.65

but within last few last years I slowly upgrade customers to Avigilon

very often I use the same comp

[Turais 0]

We are located in Oregon. These are government - law enforcement systems, the core of the PCs are new, but the software and cards are old, and I am given a very small budget to fix them.

 

I am heading out of town this next week to go check out a pair of DVR's that haven't had any issues at all and see if there is a difference between them and the ones that are freezing up. I'm afraid the systems are going to be identical though, so I'm searching for a different solution if possible.

 

Do you happen to have a version of 6.65 on hand? I can't locate a download for it anywhere, I found some old 5.76 version yesterday online after hunting for a while but haven't tried it out yet.

 

Thank you very much for your reply.

[ak357 0]

We are located in Oregon. These are government - law enforcement systems, the core of the PCs are new, but the software and cards are old, and I am given a very small budget to fix them.

 

I am heading out of town this next week to go check out a pair of DVR's that haven't had any issues at all and see if there is a difference between them and the ones that are freezing up. I'm afraid the systems are going to be identical though, so I'm searching for a different solution if possible.

 

Do you happen to have a version of 6.65 on hand? I can't locate a download for it anywhere, I found some old 5.76 version yesterday online after hunting for a while but haven't tried it out yet.

 

Thank you very much for your reply.

PM sent

[english 0]

Since you've built computers, you know heat kills.

 

I'd guess the build dates are all pretty close with each other (That means they'll fail the same time). You said they're old too?

 

I'd start by cleaning them of dust and replace thermal paste.

 

Forensically go through event viewer, compare all software updates.

 

Using a multimeter, I would test & document everything. Also known working locations.