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Slow Remote

P

Peter H

Member
Hi,

I have the recorder running the customised F/W without problems for several years but recently have got increasingly long delays in R/C operation.
Could you please advice as to the latest appropriate action to try to remedy the problem?
Background:
Changed batteries and R/Cs
Read some old info. and completely powered down, this worked for about 24 hours but then it gradually deteriorated.
I found some advice saying the removing then re-installing F/W could solve the problem, is this still the recommended approach and if so can someone point me to the way to do it?
Any other advice appreciated such as, doing SMART disk checks or specific log files to show up the source of the problem would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Peter H said:
Could you please advice as to the latest appropriate action to try to remedy the problem?
Click to expand...
You need to sanitise the hard drive. Over time, HDD faults and file system inconsistencies build up, which make the (low powered) processor work harder and slows down the response to commands. This should be on everybody's routine maintenance schedule. It will also help if you don't keep the disk space full to bursting.

Full details here: Quick Guide to Disk Recovery (click)
 
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Thanks for the info.
I did get an email showing reply from Black Hole mentioning "defrag" but it seems to have gone when i open the link which is strange.

When I tried to get into the webpage I cannot open the address and need to sort the problem before i can proceed.

Rather than raise it here I will start another thread. When I do some diagnostics I will give results for info.
Thanks
 
Peter H said:
I did get an email showing reply from Black Hole mentioning "defrag" but it seems to have gone when i open the link which is strange.
Click to expand...
Process of continuous improvement - I frequently edit my posts subsequently, to improve clarity, accuracy, or whatever. An email should be regarded as an alert to look at the actual reply on the forum (no subsequent email will be generated if there is more than one reply), not as a substitute for looking at the forum.

The original post explained that it's not actually a defrag, and subsequently I decided to call it a "sanitise". I thought "defrag" might be familiar to people from a personal computing background, but might also attract criticism as being technically inaccurate (been there, done that, despite the best intentions... yes, forums are political too).

Peter H said:
When I tried to get into the webpage I cannot open the address and need to sort the problem before i can proceed.
Click to expand...
That is a possible symptom of file system problems. Use Telnet.
 
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Black Hole said:
Process of continuous improvement - I frequently edit my posts subsequently, to improve clarity, accuracy, or whatever. An email should be regarded as an alert to look at the actual reply on the forum (no subsequent email will be generated if there is more than one reply), not as a substitute for looking at the forum.

The original post explained that it's not actually a defrag, and subsequently I decided to call it a "sanitise". I thought "defrag" might be familiar to people from a personal computing background, but might also attract criticism as being technically inaccurate (been there, done that, despite the best intentions... yes, forums are political too).


That is a possible symptom of file system problems. Use Telnet.
Click to expand...
I was and still can use the link from the email and thought the was something wrong with the site, I did not realize I could delete/edit my post.

I have now got to the webpage and the crash log shows 10 entries but not what happened.
The disk diagnostics shows no errors but I am not sure if the details are from the past and I need to now RTFM and assume I need to go into "Maintenance Mode"!
My problem was either my 5 port switch or the HDR not allowing DHCP but its all working ATM.
 
I could not find reference to "blank spaces" in my 16 pages of the guide.

After running fixdisk for a few hours with hundreds of fixes, the remote is now back running normally.
everthewatcher said:
Gets done once a month here.
Click to expand...

Do you do the monthly sanitizing by running a script or manually as I will need to put it in my diary!?
 
Peter H said:
I could not find reference to "blank spaces" in my 16 pages of the guide.
Click to expand...
Do you expect me to anticipate and cater for everything anybody might do? Surely this comes under the category
Black Hole said:
Editing Your Posts
Click to expand...

Peter H said:
After running fixdisk for a few hours with hundreds of fixes, the remote is now back running normally.
Click to expand...
There 'ya go. Sorted.

Peter H said:
Do you do the monthly sanitizing by running a script or manually as I will need to put it in my diary!?
Click to expand...
It cannot be scripted. You have to take the unit into Maintenance Mode (which involves a reboot), and you should monitor what's going on even if only dipping in and out. If you need a diary entry to remind you, make a diary entry. It doesn't have to be monthly necessarily, whatever's convenient, but I find things on a to-do list are more likely to get done if they are either daily, weekly, or monthly.
 
Thanks for the info. I am now happy and a bit more knowledgeable.

Unfortunately I still cannot find a reference to "blank spaces" in the guide and not understand what is wrong with my posts.
As you do not have time to explain I will not trouble you further but hope, should I need further help, I will not be blacklisted in future due to not posting correctly.
 
Peter H said:
As you do not have time to explain
Click to expand...
I can explain, but it seems like labouring the point.

Peter H said:
Unfortunately I still cannot find a reference to "blank spaces" in the guide and not understand what is wrong with my posts.
Click to expand...
The issue of blank space was referred to in your other thread, not here. This post:
Peter H said:
Hi,

I am having a problem connecting to the webpage via an ethernet cable and have a couple of questions on how the box functions...
Click to expand...
...contained many blank lines at the end, followed by a random alpha character (which stopped the surplus blank lines being truncated automatically). Consequently the post displayed badly, but subsequently a moderator removed them for you so you can no longer see there was anything wrong.

All I was saying was please edit the post to remove the blank space. You didn't so somebody else (with admin privileges) did it for you. Here's some gratuitous blank space to illustrate the point:















Peter H said:
I will not trouble you further but hope, should I need further help, I will not be blacklisted in future due to not posting correctly.
Click to expand...
No question of being blacklisted, but in as much as this was in a different thread it's not very good form to discuss it in any other thread!
 
Sorry I did not realize I had written on another thread or put in blanks.
I had a stroke a year ago and have problems with right finger triggering which sometimes results in hitting return and adding blank lines - should have checked.
 
Sounds like the disk check has fixed the OP's issue. Also though, the "Red Ring" package notes say "Redring can cause slight delay of Remote Control key presses, e.g. Pause etc." and it did on mine. Also (and probably obviously) RC actions that use the hard drive (e.g. browsing the library) are slower if the drive is busy (e.g. chaseget detectads or such like).
 
I assume Red Ring package has the abbreviation RR in the crash logs, if so I forgot to mention there were 10 in the log all quite recent but not on the same day and all happened between 10-12munutes after booting!
I did not investigate further but assume there is a RR log, if anybody is interested I could have a look.
What did you do to correct RR crashes?
 
I thought the "fixdisk" in maintenance mode (for a few hours) had resolved the problem but it has now re-appeared with more malfunctions and would appreciate a pointer as to what to try next.
I can still open the webi and can telnet into maintenance mode. The webif gives the following message:
"There are file system problems with the hard disk on this system. /mnt/dev/sda2 is read only, visit hummytv" which refers my back to fixdisk.
I now have multiple problems with the box being slow and non operating buttons, one permanent problem is I cannot rewind a watching TV program, another feature is that if i press record it brings up the normal window to show how much of the programme is left but I cannot pause it. If I press play after a few minutes their is no red line showing the recording time and both the start time and recording time move together and of course not recording is made. Is this fue to the disk running in read only mode?
I have just found I cannot run "Disk Diagnostics" from the webif, do I now need to uninstall the CF and reinstall to try and cure the problems or are there other alternatives?
Thanks
 
Peter H said:
I thought the "fixdisk" in maintenance mode (for a few hours) had resolved the problem but it has now re-appeared with more malfunctions and would appreciate a pointer as to what to try next.
I can still open the webi and can telnet into maintenance mode. The webif gives the following message:
"There are file system problems with the hard disk on this system. /mnt/dev/sda2 is read only, visit hummytv" which refers my back to fixdisk.
Click to expand...
So have you run fix-disk again? I doubt that anything else, other than changing the hard drive, will help.
 
Will run fixdisk again this afternoon before proceeding.
Was it the "fixdisk" that made the HDD to be run in "read only"?
Will report on results before changing HDD
Thanks
 
Peter H said:
Was it the "fixdisk" that made the HDD to be run in "read only"?
Click to expand...
No. The file system becomes "read only" as a protective measure when the data structure has become so inconsistent that writes might corrupt existing data. Correction of the file system is the only way forward, and fixdisk automates the process rather than novices trying to do it all on the command line.

Note that corruption of the file system could be an indication of a failing HDD. The log from the fixdisk run will enable us to offer an opinion.
 
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