Random lockups

[Wallace]

One of our two 'daily use' HDRs has developed an annoying problem. It will randomly freeze and require a cold boot (mains off/on) to recover.

Tonight it happened again. I had two timers set. One for Lewis on ITV1 (not HD) and the other The Pottery Throwdown on BBC2 Two again, not in HD.

At the time, we were watching some other recording on my other HDR.

I noticed that the ring was purple on the Hummy making the dual recordings as redring is installed, indicating it was indeed recording the two programs.

When we had finished watching the programme on my other box, we changed back to start to watch Lewis that had just recorded. The unit would not respond to the remote or any front panel button, I had to power cycle the unit to get control back. When I checked the media library, I noticed that the recording of Lewis was only 25 minutes long. It started recording at 21:01. I then checked The Pottery Throwdown, that was short too, having started at 21:00 but only 26 minutes recorded. The box appeared to freeze at 21:26

This freeze happened when there was no interaction on our part. Not the first time this has happened now, but previously, I put it down to me interacting with the unit at the time. But not this time.

I have run a full fix-disk and no issues were found with the HDD. No reallocated sectors at all and none pending so I can assume the HDD is OK.

Any other suggestions? Front panel perhaps?

I have posted in the CF section simply because I am running CF. But feel free to move...

 

[Black Hole]

All my HDRs freeze from time to time - one obvious sign is that the display stops scrolling. I might not notice until I find it doesn't show up in my remote mounts. I just take it as "one of those things".

My off-site unit doesn't seem to suffer from this as much, but the user cycles it in and out of standby far more often than I do with mine (all interaction is done with a Harmony, and the "watch TV" button is programmed to power up the TV and HDR together). If it was freezing as often as mine I would be getting phone calls! However, that said, it has happened and she has been taught to toggle the rear switch.

Mind you, with three HDRs on practically 24 hours a day I should expect a lot more freezes (presuming they are entirely random with a set probability in any particular time period) than with a single HDR that is only on when the TV is on.

 

[prpr]

One of our two 'daily use' HDRs has developed an annoying problem. It will randomly freeze and require a cold boot (mains off/on) to recover.

Yes, my spare unit has taken to doing this over the last 3 weeks or so as well. Damned annoying it is. Uptime varies from 20 minutes to a few days.

I have run a full fix-disk and no issues were found with the HDD. No reallocated sectors at all and none pending so I can assume the HDD is OK.

Likewise.

Front panel perhaps?

I'm thinking that or power supply.

 

[Black Hole]

Uptime varies from 20 minutes to a few days.

This seems more serious than my experience, and a damn sight more annoying.

 

[Wallace]

Yes it is very annoying. Unfortunately, with the failure yesterday, the unit was 'tuned' to ITV1 so there wasn't any indication of a lockup on the front display as that channel name is short enough to fit on the display in it's entirety.

AFAIK, no background tasks were taking place. I.E. shrinking or decrypting, which are enabled at the top folder level. The unit hadn't been used since it woke up to record a programme at 17:00 which was successful and was decrypted and shrunk as normal.. We were out at that time and the system was in standby when we got home. I did turn it on at about 18:00 so the unit was awake before the evenings recordings were scheduled.

I would be prepared to accept this 'as one of those things' if it was the first or perhaps second time it had occurred but this must be the third or forth time now. As prpr has said uptime varies.

I do actually have a fully working spare I could use as a reference unit for voltage testing etc. I don't really want to start scavenging it for parts if they are available elsewhere, but it would be good to know if the PSU, front panel or even mobo were to blame.

IIRC, this has started in the last couple of weeks. Does this tally with anyone elses experience of this? Just wondering if it could be due to some external influence or a faulty package update? He says 'grasping at straws'!

 

[Black Hole]

My type of freezes have happened from time to time over a very long period, to the extent that I am unable to correlate them with anything - and as all my HDRs are affected it is hard to blame a component failure. It is therefore my assumption that anyone with an HDRFOX who has not experienced a system freeze is simply not on a sufficient duty cycle for it to have shown up yet (but it will).

Your (and prpr's) experiences may indicate another fault mode where some kind of component degradation enhances the probability of a freeze.

 

[Wallace]

Thank you for your reply's. Whatever the cause, it appears I am not alone with this.

The units are now 'of an age' where component degradation could very well be a factor, although I have done all I can with regards ventilation etc. The fan package has been installed from almost new give or take a couple of months and the HDD temp is consistently at a sensible level.

By the very nature of random, I could just be unlucky and now have a lock-up free month or two! I hope so.