Picture suddenly disappears for about 1 second!

H

HarveyB

Active Member
My Humax T2 PVR 1TB has been running fine for the past 22 months
During the last few days it seems to have developed a strange quirk!
It will be happily play then suddenly the picture will disappear for about 1 second then return and carry on as normal.
The sound seems unaffected, if I rewind the live program the picture does not disappear, so it would seem that it is nothing to do with the aerial or receiver side of the box.
Most I've seen it do this is probably twice in an evening (4-5 hours).
I am still looking for a pattern.
Tonight for instance the characteristics were:
- tuned to BBC One HD having switched from BBC One SD 15 minutes earlier.
- nothing recording at the time (other than live buffer)
- nothing else using the box (eg DLNA)
- Disk approx 50% full
- HDMI (1080p) connection to TV
- max 10% CPU since start up
- temperature show fan at 1/4 speed around time of problem (normal pattern throughout period)

Any ideas welcome?

I'm running 1.02.29/2.12 installed mid Sept.
 
It could be an early sign of disk corruption. Can you post the results of the diskattr diagnostic?
 
I get that too, have done for some time. How do you run diskattr when you have two external drives? (I know: unplug them)
 
What does this say?

Code: 
>>> Beginning diagnostic diskattr
Running: diskattr
smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [7405b0-smp-linux-2.6.18-7.1] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   119   099   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       231575968
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   097   097   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   097   097   020    Old_age   Always       -       3778
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   082   060   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       173674941
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   092   092   000    Old_age   Always       -       7846
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   099   099   020    Old_age   Always       -       1889
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   093   093   000    Old_age   Always       -       7
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   049   043   045    Old_age   Always   In_the_past 51 (18 24 51 51)
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   051   057   000    Old_age   Always       -       51 (0 13 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   044   035   000    Old_age   Always       -       231575968
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0


>>> Ending diagnostic diskattr
 
And here is my result.
AF123, can you deduce anything from this please.

The "FAILING NOW 12617" looks worrying!

>>> Beginning diagnostic diskattr
Running: diskattr
smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [7405b0-smp-linux-2.6.18-7.1] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 113 099 006 Pre-fail Always - 58234034
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 095 095 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 096 096 020 Old_age Always - 4333
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 001 001 036 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 12617
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 078 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 76315074
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 095 095 000 Old_age Always - 4594
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 098 098 020 Old_age Always - 2167
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 2
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 096 000 Old_age Always - 901956894930
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 068 043 045 Old_age Always In_the_past 32 (10 13 32 32)
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 032 057 000 Old_age Always - 32 (0 18 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 042 039 000 Old_age Always - 58234034
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0


>>> Ending diagnostic diskattr
 
HarveyB said:
Can you deduce anything from this please.
Code: 
>>> Beginning diagnostic diskattr
Running: diskattr
smartctl 5.41 2011-06-09 r3365 [7405b0-smp-linux-2.6.18-7.1] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, [URL]http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net[/URL]
 
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 001 001 036 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 12617
>>> Ending diagnostic diskattr
Click to expand...

The Reallocated_Sector_Ct is the only attribute which indicates a potential problem.

Every drive has occasional defects in manufacturing which prevent reading/writing to a sector. As a way to combat this, every hard disk is manufactured with extra space and any damaged sectors are flagged and moved, or reallocated. Reading and writing to those reallocated sectors imposes a slight performance penalty but otherwise you wouldn't notice. Any sectors that become bad during the lifetime of the disk are also reallocated automatically by the drive firmware.

In general, as every drive series is different, sector reallocation is a poor indicator of drive health so you should only really worry if the reallocated sector count is increasing consistently. Run the diagnostic over a few days and see if that value changes.

Whilst relocation errors are not a sign of impending doom, if you read through Google's statistics on hard drive failures you will see that when a drive throws relocation errors then there is a significant statistical probability that the drive will fail sooner than one that is not exhibiting this behaviour : (

I would start archiving any recordings that you want to save to be on the safe side.
 
Thanks af123, I will monitor.
Machine is 2 years old at the end of November so I need to watch it closely. Mind you it's been very good to date so a future disk replacement may be best option.
I did have to reformat the disk 12 months ago to get rid of random jumps in recordings, but that sorted it.

Looks like a time consuming backup exercise is in the pipeline then .... 500 gig ... Time to decide what I really need to keep I think.
 
When I had a new HDR running in parallel I saw the same live glitches on that, so I am not convinced they are due to disk issues. Winding back the live buffer and replaying was usually perfect, implying the incoming data was OK and that it made it to disk. I think it would be worth removing the CF for a while to eliminate it as a cause.

I get a lot of breakup on recordings, particularly HiDef, which do not go away on replay. I have an 80% full disk that has been in use for over 2 years - so my suspicion is that fragmentation is a major issue. We have been this way before and been told there are no effective tools for defragging an Ext2 other than saving off and reformatting.
 
BH, by CF do you mean compact flash drive, my box doesn't use one, it has nothing in USB sockets (network is Ethernet).

Af123, given that BH has no failures showing on his diskattr result, would that infer that problem lies elsewhere, though BHs view that it could be fragmentation is a consideration I must admit.
My disk is half full and has not been "rebuilt" for 12 months.
 
Sorry BH, senior moment. Well it is early!

Mind you the thought of removing CF is like asking somebody to cut off their right arm, if you ask me!
 
For what it's worth, here are the results of me running fix-disk (took 20 mins, most of it on pass 1 for /dev/sda2):

Code: 
humax# fix-disk
Checking disk sda
Unmounted /dev/sda1
Unmounted /dev/sda2
Unmounted /dev/sda3
Checking partition /dev/sda1...
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
/lost+found not found.  Create? yes
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda1: 15/65808 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 14129/263064 blocks
Checking partition /dev/sda3...
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
/lost+found not found.  Create? yes
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda3: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda3: 13/655776 files (0.0% non-contiguous), 158594/2622611 blocks
Creating swap file...
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 1073737728 bytes
Checking partition /dev/sda2...
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
/lost+found not found.  Create? yes
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda2: 7593/29860704 files (10.3% non-contiguous), 91339881/119209984 blocks
Finished - type 'reboot' to return to normal operation
humax#

See what I mean about fragmentation (sda2)?
 
If by "dissapear and return 1 sec later" you mean the screen goes totally black I may be able to suggest a partial explanation
but sadly nothing proven:

I have a humax 2xPC's and a laptop connected to a display via a HDMI switch box.
Occasionally I get the black screen on 2 of the PC's and the humax (at different times) for 1 second as described above.
I have traced the issue to the switch box - and believe it may be the chips that feed the hdmi signal but
I can't be certain of that. (gut feeling) The same sort of chips could be in displays etc.

I dont get this very often but when it happens I'm now in the habit of just pushing on all the HDMI
cables (these HDMI plugs seem about as reliable as scart plugs - i.e designed by committee)
I dont know if that does anything useful - I just do it.
I have noticed it is more likely to happen when a PC is feeding a lot of HD data.
It may only happen once every few weeks or if I put a fast moving 3D game on more regular.
I can confirm I still see the issue if my humax drive is free from errors (500MGB drive)
usually just 200-300 in use and usually on a HD channel (I think - I wil ltake more notice of that now).

Also I have noticed in the last week (or about that) that the BBC HD channels have gone
black with just the BBC icon in the top left being visible very faintly - I've seen this 2 times.

Incidently - I now know that a poor aerial signal can cause humax boxes to do a reset cycle
or to "lock up" I have monitored this and been able to reproduce it although the effects are random.

No real help I'm afraid but perhaps the info is of use longer term.
 
Thanks Jack616,
My humax is direct hdmi connect to tv.
I have already jiggled tv end but will check humax end as well.

Running backups at moment, but will also run fix-disk later.
 
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