[brohawk]

A couple months ago my RPi model B started randomly crashing; it's gotten gradually worse up to the point where one day, it suddenly stopped being able to play any type of video file. Whether from external hdd, internet stream or live tv, it crashes and restarts xbmc after no more than 3 seconds. Other odd behaviors popped up same time, such as the skin reverting visually to Confluence, even though in skin settings it still says it's using Aeon Nox. Addons/skins disappeared, yet once re-installed, all previous settings are still there. Also, CEC warning now always pops up at start up, which you'll see in the attached log--my TV doesn't have CEC capability so I have it disabled in OpenElec settings. Running Gotham 13.2 w/ storage partition on an 8gb 2.0 usb stick, system running from sd card

Initially I assumed either the usb or sd card were corrupted. Have wiped and re-installed both, also tried using a new 32gb 3.0 usb, and still can't get a video file to play--also doesn't matter if SD or HD, although it does seem to play higher compressed SD files for a little longer before crashing. CPU looks to be running almost constantly at 100%. Noticed at one point prior to wiping the usb that mem had been changed to 60--not the case prior to though. I increased to 128, then 256, removed overclock, increased overclock, nothing helped. I also tried 3 other power supplies (2 x 1A phone chargers and a 2.1A Nook charger) none of which improved the issue either. At this point, I really don't know where to go to next. Any ideas from the community would be greatly appreciated. Log is here: http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=366491

[ActionA]

I don't see any attempt in the log to playback any media/video so that we can see what the issue might be. Though, if I had to guess,

Code:

18:32:41 T:3059266080  NOTICE: ARM mem: 256MB GPU mem: 256MB MPG2:1 WVC1:1

it's probably being bled dry of memory. I don't think there should ever be a reason to set gpu_mem higher than 192 and if it didn't solve any issues, you should revert it to stock setting. You also seem to have a bit of background processes (addons) running at boot that will of course also demand RAM and CPU. Where are you reading the 100% CPU use from? SSH Top?

Someone else will have to address the CEC issue though.

Seeing a log that contains a failed attempt to play media is necessary though.

[brohawk]

Sorry, in looking at the log I noticed that too. I assume I'm doing debugging correctly, having turned on debugging, played a video, crashed, then restart, open xbmc log uploader, send. Maybe I need to go into the log uploader settings and have it send the old log instead of new?

Can you please advise what stock setting is at? I'll try 192 first, but would be nice to know. Thanks.

[ActionA]

Yes, xbmc.old.log

I'm not certain what OE uses as stock setting, I'd guess 128.

[brohawk]

Got it, thanks. I'll try that and upload xbmc.old.log if lowering the mem doesn't fix things.

[popcornmix]

I suggest going back to basics. Avoid the USB stick (and any other USB peripheral you can avoid), and make a clean sdcard install. I'd suggest using the Helix RC
Try playing videos locally (e.g. through local network) and report if that's reliable.
I notice you have a lot of addons installed (including ones that can't be discussed here) which may be causing the crashes, so it would be good to confirm the hardware and software are stable without these addons.

[brohawk]

I'll try that too. Initially I did a clean install (though still on USB) and then tried streaming a youtube vid which caused the same crash. I then restored from a ~2 week old backup to save myself time in not having to scrape my library again first, to see if local files also still caused a crash--which they did too, so then I produced the log I (unsuccessfully) tried to upload. New (old) log I'll have to send tonight, as I'm in the office at the moment. Thanks to you both for the suggestions/advice.