Poorly STB

[ShaunJP]

Hi all,

Had a fully functional box for over a year with custom fw installed. Today I tried to change the channel, only to find the remote would not work. When I touched the big silver button on the front, the humax crashed with a countdown to reboot. I have reinstalled the latest custom fw successfully, but the remote will still not work and when I touch any button on the front the device crashes to a countdown. I have had the box powered down and have tried with aerial and network disconnected to no effect. Is it broken permanently?

Thanks

Shaun

 

[ShaunJP]

Update:- left it turned off for about half an hour, turned back on and now it's responding to the remote! Is it possibly a overheating issue?

10 mins later, remote has stopped working again.

 

[Ezra Pound]

Under the Web-If >> Diagnostics >> Hard Disk >> Attributes, you will see ID line 194, this will tell you the 'worst' i.e. the highest temperature that your hard disk has reached, it should be below 60 Dec C. Also there is a Custom Firmware package called Sysmon that will show you a history of your hard disk temperature

 

[ShaunJP]

Thanks Ezra, the worst is 65. I have also installed sysmon

 

[Black Hole]

Does your fan run? Cut a rectangle of paper about 2" x 2½" and fold the ½" to a right angle, then balance it on the rear edge of the HDR-FOX obstructing the fan vent. If within about half an hour of the HDR being turned on the paper is still in place, there's something wrong with the fan.

 

[ShaunJP]

I'm sat dead quiet now and I can make the fan run by using the fan package and setting it to a minimum of 100%

 

[Black Hole]

OK, so your fan runs using the fan package, but does it run of its own accord? You could also leave it at 100% and see if your problem recurs.

 

[ShaunJP]

Good question, I'll uninstall the package and try the paper trick

 

[ShaunJP]

Ok, uninstalled it, switched off and waited for full power down. When I switched back on it came up with E-OS on the display panel and a screen menu similar to the one which gets displayed when you're updating the firmware. Except it said OTA on it amongst other things. Remote did not work.

Pressed silver button on unit and it restarted but remote would not work. Pressed channel up button on front panel and it crashed to the countdown.

After it restarted, the remote worked again

 

[Ezra Pound]

There no need to uninstall the fan package, if you set the fan threshold to 0% the Humax will operate as it would without the fan package being installed. What does the sysmon >> disk temperature graph show?

 

[ShaunJP]

It's done now. Paper is hung on the back. Will report back tomorrow

 

[ChrisDaniels]

I've seen that on my box many years ago. Had to reformat the hdd in the end. I assumed something must have corrupted on my disc.

 

[ShaunJP]

Update:- this morning the paper has gone off the back of the box and the box was is standby. I guess the fan is working. Should I try the format as suggested by ChrisDaniels?

 

[Black Hole]

Many years ago we didn't have disk fixing tools: Quick Guide to Disk Recovery (click)

 

[ChrisDaniels]

If you are not bothered about keeping whatever is on the disc, its a LOT quicker to format.

 

[ShaunJP]

Ok running disk check at the moment. I'm not too bothered about the stuff but would be nice to keep it. I just want a working box :-/

 

[ShaunJP]

Right disk check finished and lots of errors, multiply-claimed blocks etc. restarted out of diagnostic mode and......the remote doesn't work and the box crashes when you touch the silver buttons on the front. Exactly the same behaviour. Any other ideas please?

 

[Ezra Pound]

Although it is a tedious process, it is worth running fix-disk until it doesn't find any problems, it is not always possible to achieve this in a single run

 

[Black Hole]

I have doubts about disk fixing curing as catastrophic symptoms as reported in the OP, but we'll see.

Shaun: are you confident to go in and disconnect the HDD? If the symptoms persist with the HDD disconnected we can be sure it's not that.

 

[ShaunJP]

I can disconnect HDD yes, it should be fairly easy shouldn't it? I removed the amber filter from the front panel display without any trouble when I got the box, it must be easier than that?

I'll let it finish disk checking again first.

Personally I'm convinced it's a heat issue as it always seems to be fine after it's been switched off for a long period.