HDR Fox T2 loses all signals after a day or 2 unused

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epo

New Member
I have been using the custom firmware for a few years. For quite a while now I have found that when switched on after being unused for a few days that it has no signal strength on many (I presume all) channels.

If I retune at this point I can get them all back but also if I leave the box alone then the channel signals all reappear after about 10 minutes after an interim period of very poor signal (picture breaking up etc).

A few days ago I did a factory reset (but not formatting the HD) which did not seem to immediately resolve the problem (ie I did not wait 10 minutes). I then copied the latest official Humax firmware to a USB stick and installed that and retuned. Everything was now fine. Now 2 days later same thing, switch on, no signals, wait 10 minutes and signals reappear. This makes it practically useless for timed recordings.

What could cause tuned signals to attenuate and recover like this, is it a Humax fault or an aerial installation problem?

The house I am in has an interesting aerial installation (aerial in loft, coax runs down to an amplifier on the ground floor which is then distributed to the house, why the amplifier wasn't put up in the loft?...) but that wasn't historically a problem and for now I am stuck with it. The original amplifier in the kitchen had failed so I replaced it and I wonder if the signal loss post dates that change.

I have another Panasonic freeview device I could switch to but exporting recordings will then be my next issue (yes, lots of HD).
 
How is the amplifier powered? From mains plug or via antenna?
I would have a look at the antenna power settings on the humax but have no idea why that could cause a 10 minute delay
 
MymsMan said:
How is the amplifier powered? From mains plug or via antenna?
I would have a look at the antenna power settings on the humax but have no idea why that could cause a 10 minute delay
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Amplifier plugged into mains, I should have said that :-( Thanks for the power settings tip, will do that.

Edit: Sony TV FWIW.
 
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Sounds like it has an issue related to temperature, ie isn't working well when it's cold. FWIW I run mine 24/7.
 
epo said:
What could cause tuned signals to attenuate and recover like this, is it a Humax fault or an aerial installation problem?
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During the 10 minute period can the TV show live broadcasts when connected to the Humax or when connected directly to the amplifier?
 
Is it just the tuners that aren't working for 10 minutes?
Can you access the webif, play recordings etc ?
Can the TV see channels directly (i.e, not via Humax) in the warm up period

@MartinLiddle and I having same thoughts at same time!
 
I think this is the same problem as I have, when initially switched on the message is

"The channel is scrambled or not available" which then changes to "No programmes are currently being broadcast on this channel"

There are several threads on here reporting this.

On mine the tuner signals are 70% strength and 100% quality on both tuners.

Typically it begines working after 10 minutes.

I can play recordings from disk during this time without problems so HDMI out is ok.

Works ok when left on permanantly.

If I try recording one mux then change to a different mux I will get a picture. Stopping the recording loses the picture again.

This sound the same problem as you have?
 
hjug said:
I think this is the same problem as I have, when initially switched on the message is

"The channel is scrambled or not available" which then changes to "No programmes are currently being broadcast on this channel"

There are several threads on here reporting this.

On mine the tuner signals are 70% strength and 100% quality on both tuners.

Typically it begines working after 10 minutes.

I can play recordings from disk during this time without problems so HDMI out is ok.

Works ok when left on permanantly.

If I try recording one mux then change to a different mux I will get a picture. Stopping the recording loses the picture again.

This sound the same problem as you have?
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Having now come back from the office I logged on to ask epo exactly the same question.

I.e.
@epo
The next time this happens please would you start an instant recording on the channel giving you the issue then switch to another channel on a different mux and see what happens.
To see which channels are on a different mux see https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/channel-listings-industry-professionals
 
I'd suggest doing a signal strength measurement on each tuner via the hidden menu during the warm up period. That would tell you if it's a fault with tuner 1. Quite what you do about it is another thing though, as there is nothing that you can do about it, apart from not letting it go cold.
It's a hardware fault. Pi55ing about with firmware changes is pointless, but you've already found that out the hard way.
 
This sounds very like the problem I had this time last year. To save anyone from ploughing through the thread , I established that the tuners were not at fault (by substitution) and the signal was being lost later in the processing chain.

Applying heat by a hair dryer would restore the picture, and it would remain so for lengthy periods. Because of the lack of focus using a hair dryer it was not possible to identify any individual components, but the general suspect area was around the middle of the board between the tuners and the processor. Using an aerosol cooling spray, the reverse could be induced, but again due to lack of accuracy, individual faulty components could not be identified, although due to latency when using the spray, I had a gut feeling that the processor chip, having a heatsink might be the problem.

Checking capacitors was not conclusive because they were measured in circuit, although readings obtained were exactly the same as from a spare board kindly supplied by BH. I did consider changing all the capacitors, but trials on the spare board resulted in only about a 50% success rate with my limited equipment.

At this point I gave up for Christmas and as I had sourced a replacement, I never picked things up after the break. I have just recovered the unit from the bottom of the wardrobe and it still has the problem. Perhaps I will have a further look.
 
opened up my box and removed the drive, I can see no visible damage on either side of the board.

Turned it on and both tuners were showing between 70 to 80 % strength on all muxes, but no picture was displayed on any of them.

Tried a heat gun on the tuner 1 area, although it wasn't well contained, picture appeared within 35 seconds. Picture has remained a few hours now even though the board has cooled.

Confirms BMAX's results with the hair dryer
 
Just started having exactly the same problem with my Humax HDR Fox T2. Retune the box and all channels are fine. Leave it for a day and all I get is the error message saying nothing being broadcast.... :-(
 
the other symptom is if you manually record does it work?

if you heat the board does it work?
 
Yes it records and plays recordings fine. Once I've retuned the box it all seems fine, but next time I switch it on after a day or so even though the guide shows the correct schedule it won't receive any picture on any channel. I haven't tried opening the box and heating it up though.

Having done some searching this appears to be a common problem with the Humax Fox HDR T2.
 
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midinotes said:
Having done some searching this appears to be a common problem with the Humax Fox HDR T2.
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I suggest it is only a problem of ageing HDR-FOXes (and they're all getting elderly).

I normally run mine 24/7, but am away for a while and have made the possible mistake of switching them to standby. I'll see what carnage awaits when I get back.

midinotes said:
even though the guide shows the correct schedule it won't receive any picture on any channel.
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The EPG is cached. The key is how far it extends to the right – it should be 7 or 8 days. Any less, and the data has not been added to since last cached.
 
My backup HDR has started to have this problem.

When switching channels today, I briefly got decent signal/quality bargraphs which then went to one bar each, and the "channel is scrambled->no signal detected" thing, and this happened even when attached to an aerial cable that works fine on one of my main HDRs.

I tried a retune as I couldn't remember how long ago it was since I had used it, and while it can't find anything, it pauses for a fair time (up to a minute) when looking at a transmitter channel where it should be finding a multiplex, so it gives the impression that it knows there's something there but can't make sense of it.

I guess I should try the board heating thing at some point and see if that makes a difference.
I do have a hot air rework station, so if area heating does work temporarily, I might try using that with a small nozzle and see if I can narrow things down.

It may be unrelated, but I actually turned it on yesterday to have a look at the stored recordings, and it was still running today rather than having gone into standby. I don't recall it doing that before, apart from maybe a hangup or two.
 
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