FOXSAT HDR locking up

Thank you all Gentlemen for your time and thoughts. It would appear the problem is solved. Yes a faulty recording, but not the one I was playing.
The problem .ts file turned out to be last night episode of Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (probably not going to watch them anyway after reading a couple of reviews).
Foxsat 1 was booting OK, then after a couple of minutes it was struggling with something that was slowing it right down. If you waited it did respond, but took so long and obviously couldn't play anything.
What was happening was the "convertfiles Plug-in Settings" was getting to 12% in on Beowulf and hitting an error in the .ts file it could not get passed. Presumably gobbling up the CPU and making all other functions painfully slow. Playing the episode, well fast forwarding it, it got to a point and it stopped. I pressed stop and after many seconds took me back the menu and normal function resummed. Tried to copy the .ts off with Filezilla to examine it, but again reading the file caused the Humax a massive problem and I lost my FTP connection.

Thanks again guys.
 
Just an update on this. After 5 clear days I had 2 recordings made simultaneously that had faulty .ts files.
To cut a long story short, on opening Foxsat 1 (the one I had 2 months ago replace the HDD) I found the SATA cable was trapped. In the picture you can see a bracket sticking straight back from the front facia. The cable was on top of this with outer metal casing squashing down in it. There are some indents in the red sleeve, so there has been some pressure.
Having freed the cable I spent 24 hours taxing Foxsat 1 with 12 odd simultaneous recordings in conjunction with playback and streaming. All recordings were without error.:clap:

Want to replace the cable as a precaution but having trouble finding one online. Not sure of the names of internal PC connectors. Have seen some that look about right but the power connection is a strip (like this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-M...7380502&sr=8-5&keywords=SATA+7+15+4+pin+molex) not the square shape in the Foxsat.
Can anyone point me to a correct replacement cable off the shelf, or would the style I have quoted here work if I swapped the plastic power clip over?

Have a good one...
 

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Nope, the plug to the HDD is a combined data and power (see picture). The power cable that plugs into the board is a "Mini-Fit Jr" Molex type, I have discovered. Googled myself silly but can not see any complete cables of the right type. Or just an sata power cable to a Mini-Fit Jr.
Looks like I'm going to have to make one, or at least adapt one.
 

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What about the old adage "If it aint broke (now) then don't fix it"?
You must be able to do it with separate cables, if you can find the right power cable. It doesn't have to be the combined one to fit the HDD. In fact, I have never seen one of those before and I'm certain my T2 hasn't got one.
 
I just said that. I wonder if it's possible to separate the power/SATA elements of that plug thing.
 
The Humax cable is proprietary, but you could probably cut the combined connector between the data and power sections, reuse the power cable and replace the SATA data cable. You could also rewire one end of a SATA power cable (or SATA/ Molex power cable). The other end of the power cable is a four pin ATX PSU connector, but it is wired differently to the standard ATX connector: just copy how the original is wired if you do this.
 
I don't think it's worth the bother replacing the cable, unless you believe any of the conductors are actually broken or intermittent. The signal errors were probably caused by the capacitive loss to the metal of the case. If there are any exposed conductors, put some tape around it to insulate them - but otherwise leave well alone.
 
Trev said:
You must be able to do it with separate cables, if you can find the right power cable. It doesn't have to be the combined one to fit the HDD. In fact, I have never seen one of those before and I'm certain my T2 hasn't got one.
Click to expand...
Both the HDR-FOX T2 and the DTR-T1000 use the same type of cable with a combined SATA data and power connector at one end (like the one in Peso's photo). I don't know if the current Humax models still use this type of cable.
 
Thank you gentlemen.
I shall leave the current cable in situ for the present. I have made some 20 test recordings in the last couple of days and all converted.
If I get any further problems then I shall replace the cable. Though this will require manually configuring the 4 pin powerplug (or looking for a dead HDR on ebay for parts).

One additional thought I had over what was causing the failure. The way the cable was trapped it would have been putting upward pressure where the cable sleeve connects to the SATA plug and thus the SATA connection to the HDD. Perhaps rather than pressure on the cable causing some signal loss/corruption/interruption, it was happing at the termination to the HDD.
We will probably never know!!!

Thanks again y'all.
 
Hello again....
After 5 days of happy, it happened again. The scenario it occurred in I believe is significant, as it first came to light under these conditions.
Last night while recording two simultaneous HD broadcasts and watching a HD recording, both recordings failed, with some unrecoverable error part of the way through. I believe it is times of high workload it most often seems to occur.

PSU? I have had the lid off tonight and all the capacitors look fine.
SATA cable damaged (caused by me)? New cabling has been ordered. Will have to connect it to the existing internal power adaptor to make it work.
HDD? It is a new one I bought to replace the original after that was locking the HDR sometimes when playback of recordings stopped. That fault has not happened on the new drive.
I have had a thought here that you gentlemen maybe able to corroborate or hopefully dismiss. The original Seagate 320GB power requirements as stated on the drive are 5v 0.375A and 12v 0.290A. The replacement is a 1TB WD10EURS requiring 5v 0.60A and 12v 0.45A. Could the greater amperage requirement be the culprit here?
 
Still waiting for the replacement cable to arrive.
I do have an update to share. After years my brother finally let me put the CF on his HDR at Christmas. I have only just seen him again today and he reported similar symptoms to me. Playing back recordings and getting the no or bad signal message. He experienced it on at least one recording I had also made. He noted it seemed to happened when they had been watching and recording at the same time in the evening, as I have.
The common denominators between these machines are 3 fold.
1. Both machines had the CF installed around Christmas 2015. Mine due to a HDD upgrade.
2. Same USB stick used to load the CF.
3. CF came from the same compressed file downloaded when it was first released.

Has any kind person any thoughts what might be going on here, or indeed experienced something similar? I'm at least hopeful my shiny new HDD is not playing up.
What parts of the CF that affect the recordings? settop patch obviously, my understanding of it was it just fooled the HDR to treating HD as SD.
 
It seems I have similar problems, picture freezing but sound still playing, this happens when not recording, but just when switched on after a couple of hours. I have formatted the hard drive, done a factory reset with no joy.
Are there any updates to this thread.
Thanks Ray
 
Peso said:
Still waiting for the replacement cable to arrive.
I do have an update to share. After years my brother finally let me put the CF on his HDR at Christmas. I have only just seen him again today and he reported similar symptoms to me. Playing back recordings and getting the no or bad signal message. He experienced it on at least one recording I had also made. He noted it seemed to happened when they had been watching and recording at the same time in the evening, as I have.
The common denominators between these machines are 3 fold.
1. Both machines had the CF installed around Christmas 2015. Mine due to a HDD upgrade.
2. Same USB stick used to load the CF.
3. CF came from the same compressed file downloaded when it was first released.

Has any kind person any thoughts what might be going on here, or indeed experienced something similar? I'm at least hopeful my shiny new HDD is not playing up.
What parts of the CF that affect the recordings? settop patch obviously, my understanding of it was it just fooled the HDR to treating HD as SD.
Click to expand...

No part of the CF affects recording. The Humax settop application isn't altered (that's why the UI looks identical when using the box).

It runs on top of the Humax software and basically adds the capability to run Linux applications.

It can however modify the files the box uses to save data like the recording schedule. That's why you have to reboot the box after making recording reservations by the CF. The reboot reloads the now modified recording schedule file.

Nowsters patch isn't part of the CF, this does make a small alteration to the settop app. The CF simply makes it possible to apply the patch.

As you say it just fools the box into treating HD as SD. The CF does though have a maintenance mode that can check and correct file system errors on the hard disk. I would run this on both machines.

PS did you jumper pins 5 and 6 on the WD drive to reduce the sata transfer rate ?

If not that could well be the problem.
 
Last edited:
deafray said:
It seems I have similar problems, picture freezing but sound still playing, this happens when not recording, but just when switched on after a couple of hours. I have formatted the hard drive, done a factory reset with no joy.
Are there any updates to this thread.
Thanks Ray
Click to expand...

Try a different hdmi cable. If you have the CF run a maintenance mode disk check.
 
Hello Ray,
My initial problem at the beginning of this thread was when stopping playback, or fast forwarding to the end to get back to the media menu, it would sometimes freeze on a blank screen, or blank screen with frozen progress bar, sound sometimes continuing. I did reset and format the drive and reflash the software to no avail. Eventually I scanned the drive for errors and it found lots. As it was still searching and finding them after 3 days I bought a new hard drive. The new one has not exhibited the original problem.

Hello Graham,
Thank you for your input. A question for you...the new drive I bought is only an SATA II 3gb/s, like the original Seagate I took out. Therefore I did no jumper. Would forcing it to work as an SATA I not impact on the boxes intended performance?
I am prepared to try jumpering, however my brothers experience of the same problem, with no hardware changes, has really troubled me (Out of guilt I have just bought another box off ebay to swap with his so I can take it away for testing. Can't leave him with the possibility recordings failing). It certainly points at software not hardware cause.
As both had installs of the CF over Xmas, was wondering if some file had been updated in the repository for when you first install that has an error. It would only take the CPU topping out for a moment to potentially cause write error and it seems to happened when the system is taxed (recording two channels and playing back a recording).

I'm not knocking the CF or its marvellous makers and testers. I just want my beautiful box to work like it did.
 
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