aboutcctv.com

The company I purchased my DVR went out of business not long after I purchased my system 8 months ago. About two months ago, it began shutting down for no reason. After letting it sit for awhile, I could restart it an have it run for about 24 - 48 hours before shutting down again. I ran a virus scan on it, but it found nothing. Tech support is non-existent. The DVR runs windows XP, and the DVR seems to be generic with no name.

My business is wide open to theft! I can REALLY use some help ASAP! Willing to pay for someone to fix it.

Hello,

I'm thinking that your DVR may be overheating, which may cause your motherboard to shut your PC down. Take a look at the rear of the DVR... specifically, the case fan... do you see lots of dust or is it clean? What about the vent holes... clean or full of dust? Considering the nature of your problem, I suspect you will see dust.

If dust is what you see, then a can of compressed air is what you will need. To fix the problem (for now), have the inside of your PC cleaned with compressed air. Also... chances are that your DVR was not built with adequate cooling. You may want to consider getting additional case fans to help keep the temp. down.

Other suggestions would be to keep your DVR off the ground (where it is dusty), off of carpet, and out of confined spaces where it may not vent properly.

Lastly, you may be able to learn the manufacturer of the multi-capture PCI card. Have the card checked, and see if their are any identifying markings. If so, then go to www.asiansources.com and try locating the manufacturer. If found, and email to them would not hurt... however... given the language barrier, don't be surprised if you don't get much help.

If this does not do the trick, check back with us and we will see what else we can do to help.

How much will this cost me? Will this fix my problem? Should I be concerned about my system quitting-out on me again?

Can of compressed air is just a few dollars. Depending on the quality and size of the case fans, materials cost may be about $10 - $30 retail. Search your yellow pages for a PC tech or computer repair store, and expect the job to take about 45 minutes to an hour of actual tech time (really... it should only take them about 10 minutes to blow out the DVR, and another 15 to 20 minutes to install the fans).

Even after doing these things should you still be concerned.... YES!. Chances are that the surveillance card is below par, the surveillance software is very below par, and the PC was built using generic parts. A quick test will be this... start up your DVR, make sure it's recording, and hit control-alt-delete (at the same time). Click the performance tab, and see if either the CPU or Memory usage is high.

Secondary to the actual PC and surveillance hardware, the software you are using may very well be either outdated, pirated, or plain old un-stable or difficult to use.

If you are comfortable using your DVR, and if it does a decent job of recording... then I'm sure you will want to keep using it. However, if it continues to be unstable & you cannot find support for it, then let us know and we will suggest a good PC-Witness Pro that will be perfect for your surveillance application.

I can understand soem of hte points being raised here, but I'm sorry I don't agree.

B&B in Stratford-Upon-Avon

Does anyone know how I can translate this forum into my language? I am having trouble readin it.

The B&B in Stratford-Upon-Avon