QAM MCE Missing Channels

Well, Media Center is not perfect. You'll find that by default it'll scan and detect 9-13 channels. The remaining channels can be found via "Edit Channel Listing". From there you can map the digital cable number to the appropriate Electronic Program Guide.

If you need some help mapping out the QAM channels found in MCE, use this listing: [link].

Check out your local TV listings to translate what some of those TV channel codes mean. Yahoo! has a decent service for this: [link].

Overclocking - now that's a value proposition!

Well, I must confess. The main reason why I bought a Q6600 Intel 2.4Ghz quad proc was to overclock it. It's why I deliberately bought a chip with an FSB of 1066Mhz and a motherboard that can easily go up to 1333Mhz. Overclocking is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Attempt 1:
1. Enter the BIOS [Del].
2. Go into M.I.T. Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker.
3. M..I.T settings:

• a. FSB - Memory Clock Mode [Linked]
• b. FSB (QDR) = 1333
• c. Leave everything else as is.

4. Reboot - witness a blank screen. *panic*.
5. Frantically find the CMOS reset jumper on the motherboard, clear the CMOS and hope for the best.
6. Checksum Errors! *more panic*.

Luckily the GA-E7AUM-DS2H comes with a nifty feature called Q-Flash. Flash the BIOS without the need to boot into MS-DOS or any OS. *Remember to Q-Flash, the storage device must be formated as FAT/FAT32. NTFS is a no-go.

Attempt 2:
7. Download the latest GA-E7AUM-DS2H BIOS.
8. Boot up with a trusty USB flash drive (formatted as FAT32) with the binaries on the stick:

• E7AUMD2H.F2
• FLASHSPI.EXE

9. Post Boot screen (after the beep). Hit [End] and enter Q-Flash.
10. Re-flash the bios from the corrupted F1 to a brand new F2. [link]
11. Boot *oh joyous day* it worked!
12. M.I.T Settings:

• a. FSB - Memory Clock Mode [Unlinked]
• b. FSB (QDR) = 1333Mhz
• c. Memory (DDR) Mhz = 667Mhz
• d. CPU Clock Ratio = 9x

13. Boot - presto quad core 3.0Ghz!

*follow-up* with your standard suite of stress tests: including prime 95, 3dmark etc.

Nifty Netflix on Media Center

Nothing short but pure awesome for the little plug-in for Media Center. (Which works great on 7MC).

MCE Plug-in by Anthony Park:
http://www.anpark.com/software.aspx

Manage your queue, and "Watch Now"!

Windows 7 and Media Center

To be completely honest, after assembling the PC (motherboard, CPU, RAM, Wireless network, HDD and DVDRW) the installation was a breeze!

Steps followed:
1. Assemble PC from components.
2. Boot from Win7 Beta Build 7000 ISO downloaded from [link].
3. Go thru the setup wizard.

After installing the OS:
4. Install first TV tuner - ATI HDTV Wonder.
5. Boot into Win7 and Install the Windows XP drivers from [link].
6. Setup 7MC with a single analog tuner, get thru the EPG and TV channel scans.

After installing the ATI HDTV Wonder as an analog tuner:
7. Install the Hauppauge HVR 2250.
8. Download and Install the Beta Drivers from Hauppauge [link].
9. In 7MC, manually configure the TV Tuner Cards:
Setup ATI HDTV Wonder as an Analog Tuner.
Setup the Hauppauage HVR 2250 as two Clear QAM Digital Cable Tuner.
Scan for channels (may take up to 15-20min)
10. Start to record and watch HDTV with two tuners!

Windows 7 and Media Center (7MC)

Let's see how smooth it is from zero to record...

The Setup:
Intel Q6600
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H 9400
1TB HITACHI
4GB Corsair DDR2 800
HAUPPAUGE HVR-2250
ATI HDTV Wonder (obsolete) w/ KRAM drivers

TV - Samsung LCD over d-sub 15.
Win7 Build 7000 Beta release

Let's go Clear QAM!