Beeping Box

Bazza1024

New Member
Hi

Hope someone is able to advise me, I have a HDR-Fox T2/GB/1TB bought in September 2013 from humax direct as a refurb model. Chosen with the hope of being able copy recording off to watch on my phone/hudl on the train to work.

Mostly the box has done everything i wanted except every now and then it starts beeping it is quite high pitched noise and impossible to ignore and continue watching, the box is sluggish to respond to the remote, but live tv is fine at this point.

When I got the unit it came with 1.03.06 it wasn't clear if it could be replaced with a custom firmware. So 4 months later and wanting some to get some idea what is causing this noise and also being able to copy off the recordings in case I have to send it back, I've upgraded to the 1.03.11 mod 2.22 unfortunately the beeping continues. I really love the new functions in the firmware, but it hasn't solved my problem.

Today I happen to feel the box while it was doing this beeping and noticed it was hot, I've moved out from its normal home in the hope to get more air to it while running, but i've noticed the Fan at the back doesn't seem to spin, it can spin I've tried turning it with a pin while the box is disconnected, its not stuck, it also looks very clean, but then the box is not 6 months old yet. I don't know if my

The web interface is telling me


Disk realloc sector count is: 1275 (was 1229)
Disk pending sector count is: 1
Disk offline sector count is: 1

Disk realloc sector count is increasing steadily, the other messages are new today.

I've telnet'd in and run disk tests a few times, nothing interesting as the result.
Is it as case that I need to send it back or does anyone have any ideas?

I'm quite comfortable with linux and replacing hardware if need be, but at the moment my warranty sticker is still in tact.
Has anyone had similar problems, what to do?
 
You can study what the fan is doing if you install the custom pack System Monitoring

Will let others comment on your disk data. The fan should start up after it's been on a bit. There is another custom pack to change fan speed but I keep mine as is and don't use that pack. If your fan never spins then you got a problem.
 
It does sound like you have HDD problems, and with a box still under guarantee, perhaps you should get onto Humax to replace it.
 
It sounds like your fan is malfunctioning and your disc is overheating. As Tell suggested, install the sysmon package to monitor the temperature (you need to enable viewing of advanced packages in Web-If to find it). The fan should come on at 55°C and the temperature should start to fall. If it does not then your fan needs to be replaced. The disk reallocated sector count is high and this can't be fixed. The pending sector may be fixable but I would not bother. The disk is on the way out and the pending sector will probably make the unit fail the standard Humax HDD test. This and the fan issues are enough for a warranty return. I recommend unprotecting any content you want to keep (auto-unprotect package) and copying to a USB or network drive: copying to an attached USB drive using the standard remote control will decrypt. You will need to decrypt by another method first if you are copying over a network. Then you'll need to revert to standard firmware before returning. If you have old style hardware (the aerial sockets on the back are aligned horizontally) run the RMA diagnostic from Web-If and then install version 1.02.32 of the standard firmware. If it is a new hardware 'RE' box (vertical aerial terminals) do the same but then install the extracted, non-customised 1.03.06 firmware after first installing 1.02.32. I have not done this part myself, so I suggest checking out the procedure on this forum to get more information.
 
It does sound like you have HDD problems, and with a box still under guarantee, perhaps you should get onto Humax to replace it.

The unit overheating and the disk flaking up aka bad sectors. Can't beat the old days of computing. Good instructions from MontysEvilTwine.
 
If you are interested in how hot your hard disk has got, then Web-If >> Diagnostics >> Hard Disk >> Attributes will show this

HDD2.png

Line ID = 194 'Worse' will show the highest recorded temperature that the disk has reached, if shouldn't be above 60 Dec C
 
Thanks, I've installed the sysmon package, will try to keep it cool enough to copy the recordings to another drive tomorrow.

Attributes
IDNameFlagsRaw ValueValueWorstThreshTypeUpdatedWhen Failed
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-- 200286335 118 099 006 Pre-fail Always -
3 Spin_Up_Time PO---- 0 095 095 000 Pre-fail Always -
4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 1621 099 099 020 Old_age Always -
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 1276 069 069 036 Pre-fail Always -
7 Seek_Error_Rate POSR-- 5153975483822 042 040 030 Pre-fail Always -
9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 1197 099 099 000 Old_age Always -
10 Spin_Retry_Count PO--C- 0 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always -
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 811 100 100 020 Old_age Always -
184 End-to-End_Error -O--CK 0 100 100 099 Old_age Always -
187 Reported_Uncorrect -O--CK 75 025 025 000 Old_age Always -
188 Command_Timeout -O--CK 919137026262 100 074 000 Old_age Always -
189 High_Fly_Writes -O-RCK 0 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 28 072 042 045 Old_age Always In_the_past
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 28 028 058 000 Old_age Always -
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered -O-RC- 200286335 037 037 000 Old_age Always -
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--C- 1 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----C- 1 100 100 000 Old_age Offline -
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -OSRCK 0 200 200 000 Old_age Always -
 
System monitor gives you fan speed and hard disk temperature in histogram form over, 2 hours, 4 etc, user selectable. So if the fan is bust there won't be any evidence of cooling when it's speeded up. Not sure what it gives if the fan is disconnected - presume it shows it as being asked to speed up unless spin speed comes back from the fan via a sensor. The fan package allows you to meddle as I understand but possibly best not to medal until one has worked out what it's doing at the minute. That's my advice.
 
@Bazza1024. The worst temperature (line 194) is 58°C which is not awful. The sound you report does seem like a fan problem though. The disk is on the way out and should fail the HDD test. Humax will probably tell you to reformat the disk but it won't fix the problem. I would copy your programmes off and return to standard firmware before doing this: a disk format will remove any hard drive custom firmware traces anyway, so won't hurt before returning it. They will probably send you a different unit, but if low on stock they might repair it and send it back: make sure you mention the fan problem too just in case they do this.
 
I don't think the unit has a Fan problem, 58 Deg C is perfectly normal and it indicates that the fan has turned on at some point. However ID's 5 ,197 and 198 do show that the hard disk isn't in good shape and it has only been running 1200 hours, so I would get it replaced
 
The fan is probably still functioning, but something is making the high-pitched noise described by Bazza1024. A dead drive tends to make a horrible clicking and scraping noise. The high-pitched noise must be either the fan or the hard drive: without testing it is hard to be sure which. At any rate, the disk is clearly in poor shape and needs replacing so it is probably not worth spending time testing the fan.
 
@Bazza1024: Humax Direct only seem to have the 500gb model in stock at the moment so they might replace the hard drive in yours rather than swap the unit. I think it is worth mentioning the fan: at least then they should test it before sending it back.
 
The fan package allows you to force the fan to run at full speed. There is no danger in it, you set the minimum speed and if the thermal regulation demands a higher speed it gets it. The point is that it can be difficult to know whether the fan should be running or not, setting a minimum 100% removes the uncertainty.

There is no feedback to Sysmon, the fan figures are presumed from the temperature profile based in previous observation.

The noise could be coming from the fan itself. If there is anything wrong with the fan (making a noise or not running at all), a warranty return is justified.
 
You could probably stick a toothpick in it and see whether it stops, the sound.... On a tower unit I previously had the fan in the power supply was the curse of it. I replaced the power supply once just since the fan would stick and the whole unit would cook. Sealed unit. Cat hairs, dust and fans don't go together. I use to nudge the power supply fan to get it going, that did screach. Obviously poking things in the back of things can be dangerous.
 
On my 1TB unit, when the fan 'kicked-in' it emitted a screech until it reached operating speed. Even though the unit was quite new, I replaced the fan myself. It was very straight forward. I also replaced the 'failing 1TB Seagate HDD', (it had an increasing reallocated sector count), at the same time.

As has already been mentioned, if it is the fan, you can use the FAN package to aid faulting
 
Does it really matter what is causing the beeping on the OP's box?
Humax direct said:
They come fully boxed with all accessories and full instructions and are all backed up by a complete 1 year on site warranty.
Sep '13 to now = 6 months. In my limited experience (of three failing HHDs) a high pitched beeping comes from the drive. I have never heard a fan beep, only screech and
 
Thanks everyone, for you help.
A quick update, been looking at the temperature on sysmon, HD temp steadily increases when the box is on, it got to 45C. no sign of the rear fan starting, checked with a torch wasn't moving, and I couldn't start it with a toothpick either. but no noise either at that temperature.
Installed the fan package, changed the fan setting to 100%, checked fan again, stationary.

Wife is looking for receipt ready to return, currently coping recordings of drive.

I've now got a old PC fan sat behind blowing air through the stationary internal fan, sysmon, harddrive temp is now stable at 30c. Reallocated sector count is up to 1323 today, so looks like the drive is on its way out. I don't want any other components overheating, if they are going to repair it, hence the fan, plus I'd rather the low hum of old pc case fan than that beep what ever was causing that.

I've made a note of the serial, number if I don't get the same box back I'll post it online. Oh the aerial in and out are horizontal, I though the original cardboard box said it was HDR-Fox T2/GB/1TB/RE, but the model number underneath is just HDR-Fox T2/GB/1TB
 
30'c is quite cold. Mine isn't even at that temperature when it comes on. i.e. stand by is hotter. The max temperature it gets to is 57'c when the fan spins in. It stabilities at at 54'c.

Sure you are allowing it to get hot enough before studying the fan ?.

I've never used the fan app given that i don't have a problem so considered it best to leave alone. Assuming at 100 percent means come on and spin to 100 percent, or does it mean when it comes on spin at 100 percent. Hence Q on whether you are allowing it to get hot enough.
 
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