Reboot Affected Signal Strength!

[Black Hole]

I was watching Dave perfectly well, but the machine needed a reboot because the schedule had gone AWOL (again – this is the third machine, and no I didn't think to look at previous advice).

After the reboot, Dave was all blocky. Hard to believe it's a coincidence.

 

[EEPhil]

and no I didn't think to look at previous advice

Tut, tut!

Depends what you're watching on (Ewan) Dave. HIGNFY often goes blocky during and just after captions on the orange/red newsprint type background.

Edit: Haven't noticed other programmes being blocky, or HIGNFY on Dave ja vue exhibiting the same problem

 

[Black Hole]

It wasn't just blocky, the signal metering was rock bottom too.

 

[EEPhil]

It wasn't just blocky, the signal metering was rock bottom too.

Something you failed to mention.

Is there/was there a fault on the transmitter?

High Pressure weather conditions affecting television and radio reception across the UK - 14th May​

Some viewers and listeners across parts of the UK might experience short term interference to television and radio services. If your television picture starts to break up without warning this could be the cause of the problem.

For further information, please see our Works and Warnings page.

 

[bottletop]

There is also a very large list of works...

Planned engineering works

Maintenance and development of terrestrial TV services sometimes require engineering work on transmitters. While every effort is made to minimise the impact on viewers some disruption may be possible

www.freeview.co.uk

Spoiler: Planned engineering works by region - week commencing 12/05/2025

Planned engineering works by region (copied from web page above)​

Region	Transmitter Name	Main/Relay	Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 12/05/2025
Anglia	Sandy Heath	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Anglia	Wells Next The Sea	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Anglia	Sudbury	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Border	Caldbeck	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Border	Keswick	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Border	Galashiels	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Border	Jedburgh	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Border	Bonchester Bridge	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Border	Lauder	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Border	Yetholm	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Border	Clovenfords	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Border	Kendal	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Central	Allesley Park	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Central	Nottingham	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Central	Ridge Hill	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Central	Hazler Hill	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Central	Sutton Coldfield	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Central	Waltham	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Central	The Wrekin	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Channel	St Helier	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Channel	Les Touillets	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Channel	Alderney	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Granada	Winter Hill	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Granada	Pendle Forest	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Granada	Saddleworth	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Granada	Whalley	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	Lancaster	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Granada	Blackburn	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	Douglas	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Granada	Foxdale	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	Glenmaye	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	Port St Mary	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	Storeton	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Granada	Union Mills	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	West Kirby	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	Jurby	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Granada	Ramsey	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
London	Guildford	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
London	Assendon	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
London	Crystal Palace	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
London	Mickleham	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
London	Reigate	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Brighstone	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Meridian	Dover	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Margate	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Bluebell Hill	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Hannington	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Heathfield	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Luscombe Valley	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Meridian	Midhurst	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Rowridge	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Salisbury	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Meridian	Whitehawk Hill	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Northern Ireland	Moneymore	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Northern Ireland	Limavady	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV Central	Black Hill	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV Central	Tillicoultry	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV Central	Darvel	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV Central	West Kilbride	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV Central	Rosneath	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV Central	Campbeltown	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV Central	Dychliemore Link	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV Central	Port Ellen	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV Central	South Knapdale	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV Central	Torosay	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV North	Angus	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV North	Tay Bridge	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
STV North	Dunkeld Town	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV North	Duncraig	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV North	Dunkeld	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
STV North	Rosemarkie	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Tyne Tees	Kielder	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Tyne Tees	Pontop Pike	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Preseli	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Abergavenny	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Ynysowen	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Arfon	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Abergwynfi	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Moel y Parc	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Aberdare	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Betws y Coed	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Blaenplwyf	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Carmel	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Ferndale	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Haverfordwest	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Kilvey Hill	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Long Mountain	Main	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Llandrindod Wells	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Llanddona	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Llandinam	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Wales	Machynlleth	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Pencader	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Pennar	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
Wales	Wenvoe	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
West	Bristol Ilchester Crescent	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
West	Kilve	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
West	Mendip	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
West	Siston	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
West	Washford	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
West Country	Slapton	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
West Country	Widecombe In The Moor	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
West Country	Southway	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
West Country	Beacon Hill	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
West Country	Porthleven	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
West Country	Porthtowan	Relay	Screen may go black on some or all channels
West Country	Redruth	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Yorkshire	Chesterfield	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Yorkshire	Idle	Relay	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Yorkshire	Belmont	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Yorkshire	Oliver's Mount	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels
Yorkshire	Sheffield	Main	Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

 

[Black Hole]

Exactly coincident with when I rebooted? Doesn't seem very likely.

Something you failed to mention.

I thought the one implied the other.

 

[EEPhil]

I thought the one implied the other.

Obviously not to me.

Exactly coincident with when I rebooted? Doesn't seem very likely.

I wouldn't have thought so. However, if you've looked into all the obvious causes...
There was something wrong for you to need a reboot. I possibly misunderstood your use of schedule to mean EPG and framed my guesses accordingly. If the recording schedule goes missing on a Fox-T2 then this is outside my knowledge.

 

[bottletop]

I was watching Dave perfectly well, but the machine needed a reboot because the schedule had gone AWOL (again – this is the third machine, and no I didn't think to look at previous advice).

After the reboot, Dave was all blocky. Hard to believe it's a coincidence.

Have you tried more reboots? Do you get the same issue on each reboot? Have you tried reproducing the issue?

 

[Black Hole]

Nope, don't often use that machine and tine is short.

If the recording schedule goes missing on a Fox-T2 then this is outside my knowledge.

It's happening from time to time, on my units anyway. A reboot restores the UI's view of the schedule from some deeper store (and I don't mean auto-schedule-restore), until when nothing gets acted on.

 

[Robobunny]

To help narrow it down, are other TV channels on the same MUX also bad (list here but easier, the web-if -> diag -> mux info will also tell you)? I know you say you only rebooted, not re-tuned(???) but also check your receiver is using the correct expected MUX Channels (postcode checker here - and it will tell you the bearing your aerial should be pointing - has it come loose?). As you've got more than one box, are they all using the same MUX Channels?

Some background - I definitely have to manually assign MUX channels to mine using that postcode checker - for daft reasons not worth going into, my Humax sees both Hannington & Crystal Palace (CP) transmitters equally well, so an auto-retune will grab the first it sees, then put loads of duplicated channels in the 800s, but CP is line of sight with a French transmitter using similar frequencies that causes interference, so I have to ensure I only use MUX channels from Hannington.