Rebooting every 1 minute unless antenna cable pulled out

peterh337

Member
I apologise for posting a common topic but I have done tons of googling, have disabled the internet (wifi) media server feature which is said to cause this sometimes, have run the "HD test" diagnostic function, and can't think of what else to do.

The unit (a7.33) has had the custom firmware 2.22 which has worked for at least a year but the rebooting has started only in the last 2 weeks.

Last night I came down at 3am and it was doing it every minute - until I pulled out the RF antenna cable.

I tried to download new firmware (because losing the CFW functionality is better than having a useless PVR) but it says it cannot find any update.

Incidentally the only way I could even get to the firmware update menu, without it crashing, was by pulling out the antenna cable, going to the menu, and plugging in the cable.

So clearly whatever is crashing it is not running when the PVR is in that menu.

Maybe some new feature / data structure in the EPG data is crashing it.

The HD is about 10% full.

I would appreciate any suggestions, because this £300 box has to be binned otherwise, which is a waste after 2 years and 1 month (1 month out of warranty).

Incidentally, if the HD might be the cause, what is the HD replacement procedure? It is a 1TB SATA so presumably with the right software one could put both the old and the new into a windows PC and clone them. I have Trueimage but that doesn't do a low level copy; for example it won't copy drives with some unusual partitions like e.g. Thinkpads have for the system recovery.

Has anybody had any success with Humax repairing these, and how much?
 
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The firmware update menu won't find any new firmware because it is only transmitted Over The Air very occasionally. it is possible to download virtually all versions of official Humax and Custom Firmware from the Wi-Ki HERE, the current Humax official firmware is 1.03.12 and the current Custom Firmware is 3.00 the a7.33 is the loader version, this normally doesn't change. You can check the health of your hard disk by running the Custom Firmware fix-disk from Maintenance Mode, details HERE
 
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Thank you for these pointers.

Is there anything in the newer firmware that addresses the rebooting issue?

I think there is a correlation between the rebooting and how long since the last time one searched for new channels, because if one does a new channel search, the rebooting tends to go away for a few days or so.
 
No version of firmware suffers from rebooting under normal circumstances, if the rebooting is still present after un-plugging any LAN connection + USB devices, the problem is probably a fault with the hard disk, I would download the System Flush Update File, place it on a USB Flash drive, place it in one of the Humax USB sockets and power off the Humax and then power it back on, as if you were loading Custom Firmware
 
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Should I do the system flush, or should I just load the latest firmware?

I have seen that writeup, Martin, but there are some things in there I should try e.g. checking for spurious IR sources.
 
If you are familiar with Telnet, I would still run fix-disk from the Custom firmware Maintenance mode option first, as it will most probably fix anything that is wrong with the hard disk. If you are not familiar with Telnet I would install the latest official Humax firmware and check to see that the unit is stable and functioning properly (it may still re-boot if there is a hard disk problem). the official Humax version 1.03.12 is HERE. After making sure the Humax is functioning properly, you can always install 1.03.12+Custom firmware 3.00 from the Firmware download page
 
Should I do the system flush, or should I just load the latest firmware?

I have seen that writeup, Martin, but there are some things in there I should try e.g. checking for spurious IR sources.
The write-up referred to leads you through a logical process of diagnosis and cure step by step, rather than stabs in the dark.
 
I went through the article and did two things: ran the telnet session to run the HD repair feature, and upgraded the firmware to the latest custom one. And re-scanned the channels, just in case. And ensured that the two IR remote controllers we have in the room (one Humax and one for a Sony TV) are not pointing at the Humax.

So far, no reboots.

If we get reboots again, I will work through the list again.

Many thanks all :)

As a hardware and software developer since c. 1975, I have to say that this Humax box is a piece of junk, to crash so easily. It is like Pagemaker 0.99 beta, Windows 3.0, etc - the junk software from the 1980s. How can a bad HD crash the whole product? Any IDE/SATA HD made in the last 10 years or so remaps bad sectors automatically, and the O/S should do the rest. Most consumer gear is based on some stripped down variant of Linux and Linux works pretty well, so what have Humax done to produce something so flakey? A product which crashes within 30 seconds of plugging in the RF antenna cable is just a joke... This is 2012 (when this box was last developed, AFAIK) not 1982 when the IBM PC came out and AutoCAD came on half a dozen 5.25" floppies and crashed several times a day.
 
I have some more data... somewhat disturbing!

After the HD repair over telnet etc described above, it looked like it fixed it - until today.

For the first time in some days, we watched Channel 4 + 1 (channel #13 here in Brighton). Back to rebooting every minute!

Switching to ch #130 (BBC News) stops the reboots totally, though sometimes one gets just one reboot after the switchover. This is 100% reproducible.

Also Channel 4 (ch # 4) does not crash it. 100% reproducible.

So it looks like maybe some data structure is getting downloaded on ch # 13 which crashes the software.

What can one do about this? I have the latest factory software already.
 
No network connection at all. Nothing plugged into the ethernet socket. But how would a network issue be TV channel dependent, anyway?
 
No network connection at all. Nothing plugged into the ethernet socket. But how would a network issue be TV channel dependent, anyway?
Some services carry MHEG data, which triggers network activity, some don't. MHEG data used to crash the HDR-FOX, firmware updates improved that, but now it has been reported that a network problem can result in a reboot, whereas either a properly working WAN connection or no connection at all does not crash.
 
I seem to recall there was a hack to schedule something for 3am every morning, to prevent the Humax losing the custom firmware. Will that be lost also? To be honest, while the CFW was nice to have, I don't mind losing it because the box is currently useless for anything at all.

I will try it tomorrow.

NOTE: I have no network at all.
 
I seem to recall there was a hack to schedule something for 3am every morning, to prevent the Humax losing the custom firmware. Will that be lost also? To be honest, while the CFW was nice to have, I don't mind losing it because the box is currently useless for anything at all.

I will try it tomorrow.

NOTE: I have no network at all.
There has been no proof of the custom firmware causing problems. Regarding the disable-ota package, the reminder schedule is 0420-0440, to defeat the OTA search. Although the Restore Factory Defaults option will result in the loss of this (and all other) schedule items, disable-ota will reinstate it. Your whole schedule will be restored by the WebIF automatically (but will need a reboot after the factory reset).

Without a network, the CF is less useful anyway.
 
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