Hard Drive problems - failed recordings

makem

makem

Member
I have an HDR Fox T2 which was failing to shut down properly and now I find it has a HD problem:

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It showed that two recordings were taking place but one stopped and recorded blank, the other never started and was always blank. I stopped both and tried an immediate recording of a watched channel but the recording did not happen, all that it said was the the channel appeared encrypted.

It has stopped responding to the remote too. I have had to turn it off with the switch at the back.

Can I get some assistance?

Edit: The HD has been in it for as long as I have been a member here so may well need replacing rather than waste time attempting repair. fix-disk returned 0 result. I will replace with a Swagate ST1000VM002 Pipeline HD 1 TB as I have never filled more than 50% of the original HD if it is suggested I should go ahead.
 
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I don't know what you think you will fix by replacing the HDD. The fault report in post 1 is thermal - so that doesn't really affect anything you've mentioned and neither would fixdisk cure it.

What you need to do is establish whether the HDR functions properly without the HDD connected. If it does, you have a chance the problem is caused by some interaction between the HDD and the motherboard. If it doesn't (ie it continues to fail to respond to the RC handset, assuming you establish the handset works), you have a more significant problem that may condemn the unit.
 
The unit responds to the remote now, presumably because it has cooled down. My first thought was, 'heat'........HDD as I am no expert.

I was unaware I could run the box without the HDD!

Anyhow, now that it IS responding, do I still need to disconnect the HDD as a first step? If so it will have to wait for month.
 
Disconnecting the HDD is a step in the process of diagnosing faults, to isolate whether the HDD is causing the problem or apparent HDD faults are only a symptom of the problem. Obviously the HDR won't record without a HDD, but it will still act as a tuner (if it works at all).

If we assume it is just heat that is the problem (and assuming the unit is not being operated in a hot environment - including an enclosed cabinet with insufficient exchange of air), you need to check the fan and clean out any fluff/dust in the unit. The temp sensor in the HDD is the only means the unit has to monitor internal temperature, and is used to control the fan. As standard, the fan is idle until a critical temperature is reached. The custom firmware fan package allows this default behaviour to be over-ridden by giving the "idle" condition a fan speed other than zero.

The sysmon package provides system logging (including temperature) so you can see historical data in the form of graphs. If the fan isn't working at all, obviously the temperature chart will go high and stay high - and the fan package setting will have no effect.

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makem said:
I am no expert
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Some reading for you, which will progress you towards becoming an expert (it only requires logical thinking and a little background knowledge):

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Note particularly the test for fan operation, and means to repair, in the "Commissioning" link. An alternative method to test the fan is to install the fan package and set the idle pedestal to 100% - it will then be obvious whether the fan is working (although first you need to assure yourself the fan package is working: it - and many other packages - requires a reboot after installation)!
 
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I am not sure why line 190 is being displayed with an orange background, the 'Worst' column shows that the HDD has never exceeded 57 Deg C, this is normal and shows that there is no 'heat problem', the FAILING_NOW message is misleading as it only indicates that 'fan on' temperature has been reached
 
The fan package is installed and set at 100% minimum and has been rebooted several times.

Sysmon show the fan is off at the moment.

When I return next month I will dismantle the unit and see just what is happening. In the meantime I will turn the unit off permanently.
 
Ezra Pound said:
the FAILING_NOW message is misleading as it only indicates that 'fan on' temperature has been reached
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Well, technically it means that the temperature has exceeded a threshold defined in the firmware by the drive manufacturer. I can only speculate on why they define the threshold at one value but advertise a much greater value in their literature!
 
The figures show that your Humax has never had a heat problem, 57 Deg C is normal, here are two 'Line 190s' from my Humax units :-

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Sysmon does not show you if the fan is on or off, it only shows you if it should be on or off at the current temperature, also the Sysmon display was designed before the 'Fan' package was released and only really works well when 'Fan' isn't installed
 
@af123 do you know why line 190 in post #1 has an orange background ?, should it be on at 55 Deg C?, it will mean that every unit that does not have 'Fan' installed will get this Warning
 
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I think the 'orange' will cause users to panic as it has in this case, 55 deg C is perfecly normal operation when 'Fan' isn't running
 
Ezra Pound said:
the Sysmon display was designed before the 'Fan' package was released and only really works well when 'Fan' isn't installed
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I don't go along with that - the only part which the fan package renders irrelevant is the prediction of fan behaviour (which is only correct under the standard firmware, and is not any kind of measurement and neither does it take the fan package settings into account). So long as the user knows that, and ignores the fancy colouring in, the actual graph is correct and relevant.
 
Black Hole said:
So long as the user knows that, and ignores the fancy colouring in, the actual graph is correct and relevant.
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The user doesn't know that he is meant to ignore the colouring in does he, he will just see green = 'Fan off' as the OP did, the graph is fine but the fan status icons / colours don't work with the 'Fan' package
 
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The fan package is installed and set at 100% minimum and has been rebooted several times.

Sysmon show the fan is off at the moment.

When I return next month I will dismantle the unit and see just what is happening. In the meantime I will turn the unit off permanently
 
Ezra Pound said:
The user doesn't know that he is meant to ignore the colouring in does he, he will just see green = 'Fan off' as the OP did, the graph is fine but the fan status icons / colours don't work with the 'Fan' package
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I wondered about that because sysmon showed the fan as 'red' a couple of times and now I have installed 'fan' it shows as fan off. This made me think I should physically check if the fan needs de-fluffing and/or is defunct. I will uninstall 'fan'.

At £38 I am seriously considering buy two new drives as the initial ones have served well over the years and I still have this 'failing to turn off' problem. I will fix everything later but now no time to attack the box again lol.
 
With the 'Fan' package installed (and set to a sufficiently high %), the graph will always be green, it does not mean the fan is off, you are probably better off keeping the 'Fan' package and using the colours as follows :- green = temperature OK, all other colours = temperature too high.

There is also a package called tempmon, (best used with the 'Fan' package), when installed this package will flash the 'ring' in the centre of the Humax, if it isn't flashing no temperature problem has been detected, Note, if you use tempmon without the 'Fan' package, the default alert temperature should be 58 deg C or higher to avoid false alarms
 
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Thank you @Ezra Pound but the salient point there are the words 'sufficiently high'. How would someone like me, a relative novice know at what level to set it at? I tried 100% but have no idea whether that had any effect or not because it said off!

I think I prefer to replace the drive and maybe the fan or at least clean it, leave settings at default and remove the 'Fan'. It will be an interesting exercise.

Edit: I suppose I could use sysmon to monitor the temperature and trial and error. Without 'Fan' sysmon now showed a 10 minute 'red, followed by 3minutes at half and 6 minutes of quarter followed by 'off'
 
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makem said:
I think I prefer to replace the drive and maybe the fan or at least clean it, leave settings at default and remove the 'Fan'. It will be an interesting exercise.
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You have latched on to a reported temperature issue as a drive failure. It's more likely to be a cooling problem that may have damaged the drive - that is not clear at present.
Replacing the drive without ensuring that the cooling is operating effectively risks the same thing happening to your new drive. So it is imperative that the first thing you do is test for and if needed rectify any problems with cooling. Once the environment is sorted you can then safely fit a new drive if you decide it is needed.
 
I run fan set at 40% and temp never reaches 50C, a little bit of experimentation will soon find a value that works for you without excessive noise

Due to Humax's silly settings everyone has had high temperature events and replacing disk is overkill
 
makem said:
How would someone like me, a relative novice know at what level to set it at? I tried 100% but have no idea whether that had any effect or not because it said off!
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But you now know that it is not 'off' don't you?, if you set it to 100% and look at the Sysmon temperature reading in deg C, you will see it is quite low (in the 30s?), you should also be able to hear the fan quite easily, so reduce 100% to say 40% and keep an eye on the sysmon temperature, aim for say 45 deg C
 
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