Self re-booting?

paddyrm said:
I'm having the same problem of loss of schedule with a newly acquired 9300T, and noted the timer icon disappearing when coming out of standby. Have been testing various options and note that the schedule stays intact if I switch off via the power switch at the back. Still there if I switch on some hours or days later.
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Loss of schedule in standby on a 9300T is a well known problem that seems to be related to the age of the box. Your observation that it stays intact if you switch off the power is interesting and I don't recollect seeing it before. The problem with switching off at the back is that you will almost inevitably corrupt the file system sooner or later if the hard drive is being written to; you might try selecting a channel that is not broadcasting before switching off.
 
MartinLiddle said:
Loss of schedule in standby on a 9300T is a well known problem that seems to be related to the age of the box. Your observation that it stays intact if you switch off the power is interesting and I don't recollect seeing it before. The problem with switching off at the back is that you will almost inevitably corrupt the file system sooner or later if the hard drive is being written to; you might try selecting a channel that is not broadcasting before switching off.
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Thanks Martin, I have found that if I put into standby first, then switch power off, the schedule is retained eg overnight, when I switch on and come out of standby.
The problem appears to be that the standby mode is unable to retain the schedule for a length of time, as yet unknown as my tests continue. It has retained for one hour and failed at five, so somewhere between the two I guess.
Does anyone know where the schedule code is stored? Surely on the HD or it would disappear on power off? Or perhaps in volatile memory but stored to HD when switching to standby?
 
Why? The HD-FOX and HDR-FOX are perfectly capable of preserving tuning, schedule, etc whether there is a HDD connected or not, even with the power off. NVR.
 
Black Hole said:
Why? The HD-FOX and HDR-FOX are perfectly capable of preserving tuning, schedule, etc whether there is a HDD connected or not, even with the power off. NVR.
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Thanks for your advice: mine is old iron though, in the form of a PVR 9300T. Perhaps in those far-off pre-Fox days the schedule was held elsewhere? In any case, it wipes after about 3 hours on standby but is still there after 24 hours power down.
Our workaround then is to put on standby overnight and then switch off round the back, to keep the scheds intact.
 
paddyrm said:
Thanks for your advice: mine is old iron though, in the form of a PVR 9300T. Perhaps in those far-off pre-Fox days the schedule was held elsewhere? In any case, it wipes after about 3 hours on standby but is still there after 24 hours power down.
Our workaround then is to put on standby overnight and then switch off round the back, to keep the scheds intact.
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The schedule is held in NVRAM on the 9xxx series boxes. The only thought I have is that if left in standby it will boot up during the night to check for software updates which might be when the schedule is lost. Please keep monitoring it and report back in a few weeks time whether you can still reliably preserve the schedule by powering off.
 
MartinLiddle said:
The schedule is held in NVRAM on the 9xxx series boxes. The only thought I have is that if left in standby it will boot up during the night to check for software updates which might be when the schedule is lost. Please keep monitoring it and report back in a few weeks time whether you can still reliably preserve the schedule by powering off.
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Will do Martin, it's going to get switched off every night so will report back in due course. Thanks for your help!
 
Have now tested the PVR-9300T for loss of schedule with two possible workarounds:

1 Put on standby/switch off power/leave for more than three hours/switch on power/take off standby
2 Switch off power/leave for more than three hours/switch on power (ie not using standby)

Neither workaround preserves the schedule: it shows completely blank. I have found that two hours off on either option keeps the schedule intact.
Since the Humax runs the loader v a4.40 software after both two and three hour delays I'm assuming that is not the cause of the problem.

The only options remaining are to leave the Humax on full time, or recreate the schedule on powerup each day.

Since the schedule is stored in NVR (non-volatile RAM) it should surely not be affected by loss of power by more than two hours or so? But I do remember with the PVR-9200T having to clean the circuit board to stop loss of clock in standby, perhaps a similar problem is occurring here?
 
I don't suppose there is a battery in the 9300 for the NVR as in computers that loose the date is there?
 
Trev said:
I don't suppose there is a battery in the 9300 for the NVR as in computers that loose the date is there?
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I don't think there is a battery for any purpose in a 9300T. There is, I think, a capacitor to keep the time chip running for a reasonable period in the event of power loss.
 
paddyrm said:
Since the schedule is stored in NVR (non-volatile RAM) it should surely not be affected by loss of power by more than two hours or so?
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I agree it should retain its contents even with no power.
But I do remember with the PVR-9200T having to clean the circuit board to stop loss of clock in standby, perhaps a similar problem is occurring here?
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The issue with the 9200T clock board was a film of contamination (presumably from a poor production process) that generated enough voltage to stop the clock on the 9200T. I suppose it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that something similar is happening on the main board but to really get to the cause of the problem would need someone with a good electronics knowledge and the right test equipment to investigate.

Does anybody know if failure of the NVRAM chip itself will lead to it losing data over a few hours?
 
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It rather depends what technology is being used. Typically a higher-than-normal-supply voltage pules is used to inject charge carriers into an insulated region of silicon, and the charge thus deposited there affects the resistance of a conductive channel nearby. The normal failure process is that the charge leaks away over a period of years so that a program contained in it gets corrupted. I can speculate on failure mechanisms that could lead to a short memory retention: eg the programming voltage generator is out of spec, or the floating gate is no longer isolated as well as it used to be because of some kind of ageing process.
 
Tried using Menu/Preferences/Time Setting to power off at midnight and power up at 11am, but the settings went missing presumed lost in the NVRAM.
Not able to use Time Setting multiple times, but trying for another workaround:
Set a schedule to record 5 minutes of radio each hour on the hour, and put the 9300 on standby. My hope is that the 5 minutes of power per hour will keep the NVRAM charged. Will let you know how it goes!
 
Update: 5 minutes recording per hour not enough, 10 minutes every 30 minutes works. Will try 15 minutes per hour overnight.
Very relaxing spending Sunday watching the 9300 display slot :)
Paddy
 
Main reason is it will sit there burning watts for no reason for 18 hours a day, so cost to me and the environment the main reason.
All workarounds failed, so in the end I will power off at midnight and power on at 6pm, and pick through the guide for items to record.
Be nice to get the NVRAM replaced, but no idea how or who would do it.
 
The NVR may be embedded within the system chip.

As for electricity, work out how much it will cost per month or year to leave on 24/7 and decide from that whether the convenience is worth the price (or if it is a better economic prospect to replace).
 
paddyrm said:
Be nice to get the NVRAM replaced, but no idea how or who would do it.
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I think in practical terms that isn't feasible. My advice would be to put up with it for as long as you can and then get a refurbished HDR-1800T or HDR-2000T which are better recorders than the 9300T. Humax Direct have the 1800T for £96 or Tesco Outlet on ebay for £80 both with warranty and of course there are cheaper options on ebay without warranty.
 
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