HDR-Fox T2 crashing once a month!

[phd]

Hi,
I have been experiencing my Humax hDR-Fox T2 crashing quite regularly once a month.
I have the custom software installed, and also have the fan assist package installed.
I managed to catch it crashing yesterday, the picture froze whilst watching a recorded program, the box rebooted and started up again ok.
When I checked the web interface, the crash.log just lists says that it crashed, as I've seen regularly in the crash log, with almost exactly a 1 month separation between them.
I then looked at the hardware diagnostics, which showed a red line across the temperature, stating that "Now" the hard disk was at 69 degrees. Feeling the back of the unit, it was blowing out quite hot air. The system monitoring of the harddisk temperature, ramped up to 55 degrees, then cut off, with a period of inactivity, I then quickly turned it off to let it cool down. The fan normally kicks in when it hits 55 degrees then it cools down to around 45 degrees before slowing ramping up again - quite regularly!
I didn't know if the fan control service was crashing and not firing up the fan when it should be, causing it to overheat. I was extremely surprised and worried that it managed to get up to 69 degrees, without it being cooled back down again.
I can't be sure of the reasons for previous crashes, it quite possibly was due to similar overheating, it's just that yesterday I managed t0 witness it happening.
Any assistance or suggestions would be gratefully received.

 

[Ezra Pound]

If the fan is switching on and off, then the 'Fan' package is not working because it sets a minimum continuous speed. I would uninstall and then re-install the 'Fan' package

 

[Black Hole]

Steps for Resolving HDR-FOX Crash/Reboot Issues (click)

 

[phd]

I normally have the minimum set to about 25%, which seems to be ok, the system monitor shows the 4 levels of fan control based on the temperature. Where is says "off", I assume this is where the minimum fan setting kicks in and maintains it on at whatever level is set. On the system monitor it normally shows red bars for a few minutes before tailing off as the fan kicks in.
I did force it up to 99% to try and fast cool it down when it was overheating, which it got down to 36 degrees after 20 mins or so. I've reset this down to 45% for the time being to see how that behaves.
I'm wondering if something is preventing it starting the fan when it should, either the fan package falling over or something in the Humax control of the fan not behaving correctly, or whether there is some conflict between the two.

 

[prpr]

"Now" the hard disk was at 69 degrees.

Ouch, that's very hot.

I didn't know if the fan control service was crashing and not firing up the fan when it should be, causing it to overheat. I was extremely surprised and worried that it managed to get up to 69 degrees, without it being cooled back down again.

Run the fix-flash-packages diagnostic just to make sure things are installed properly.

I run my fan at 48% minimum and the hard disk temp. is fairly constant at about 41 degrees.

 

[phd]

I've done the regular checks for crashing, the hard disk is fairly new, with the diagnostics up until now not showing any problems, it's just recently that I saw it flag an over temperature warning that reached 69 degrees.

 

[phd]

I installed the latest package version after the failure, although there were only 3, none of them being the fan package.
Although the hard disk diagnostic stated 69 degrees, the system monitor only showed a maximum of 55 degrees - then a period of no reports - but there was obviously a power down (reboot and me turning it off for a bit!).
I'll give that diagnostic a go later this evening, what should I expect as results from the diagnostic?

 

[Trev]

I run my fan package at 58% for a HDD temp of around 43 deg C. Perhaps 25% is just too low and effectively not cooling the HDD much, so it overheats. Try running it at around 50-60% and keep an eye on Sysmon to see what's what with the HDD Temp.
Forcing it to 99% and the HDD cooling down reinforces the fact that you have the minspeed too low.
It seems that there is little wrong, just a too low setting.

 

[af123]

It seems that there is little wrong, just a too low setting.

Or the package could have become disabled due to a couple of crashes in rapid succession. Follow prpr's advice and run the fix-flash-packages diagnostic too.

 

[phd]

I run my fan package at 58% for a HDD temp of around 43 deg C. Perhaps 25% is just too low and effectively not cooling the HDD much, so it overheats. Try running it at around 50-60% and keep an eye on Sysmon to see what's what with the HDD Temp.
Forcing it to 99% and the HDD cooling down reinforces the fact that you have the minspeed too low.
It seems that there is little wrong, just a too low setting.

By default, without the fan package it set it off, so I thought just giving it a bit a light air flow would be enough just to extend the period between being switched on to full by the normal Humax service, also keeping fan noise to a minimum.
Setting it 99% was just to quickly cool it down after reaching 69 degrees.
I did notice, and I don't know if it's a bug in the fan package, but trying to set to 100%, the display only shows 10, whether that's just the number field not expanding to 3 digits on the display or it really is only setting it to 10% I don't know.

 

[Trev]

By default, without the fan package it set it off, so I thought just giving it a bit a light air flow would be enough just to extend the period between being switched on to full by the normal Humax service, also keeping fan noise to a minimum.

So set it to 50-60% and never have the fan come on full, permanently keeping the fan noise to a minimum

 

[Luke]

I'll second/third that. I initially copied prpr and set it to 48% but after a few days tried setting it to 40% and then 44% both of which proved too low and so it went back to 48%.