Have you read the threads in the Top Up TV sub-forum and the Threads on the Technotrend units (Aldi Technosonic and Tevion PVRs)? They have significantly more problems than the Humax PVRs and very few satisfied users. The Humax 9200 is probably the most popular PVR of any so is more like to receive more reports of problems than rarer units.

Colin

My 9200T has never locked up once. Until tonight, when it is locking up every 5 minutes or so! It does it even when on standby. I have reformatted the hard drive to no avail.

I am on Crystal Palace, is anyone else experiencing similar problems?

Vic

Well known problem. First thing to try is a reset to defualt settings.

Yup, that seems to have sorted it thanks!

Phew!

my 1 week old 9300 has suffered its first lock up tonight at 19:36 while tuned to BBC3 and recording ITV1.

No channels in the 800s on Emley Moor.

has anyone had a response from Humax on this?

I have owned a 9200T for a couple of years and have never had any lock-up problems. As a satisfied Humax customer, I recommended a 9300T to my parents ready for the digital switcover in Galloway this year.

Almost straight away, their lock-up problems began. On average it was happening about 4 times a week - but sometimes as much 3 times a day. I called Richer Sounds who swapped the unit for a new one - same problem.

I called Humax Tech Support who said that a factory reset should fix the problem and at first it appeared to have done the trick - no lock-ups for a couple of days. However, it soon started again. After a second call to Humax, they concluded that the second box was faulty - I didn't believe them. Incidentaly, I got the impression that Humax are fully aware of this problem even though they didn't admit it directly.

Richer Sounds kindly let us upgrade to a Foxsat HDR - no more lock-ups - should've gone Freesat in the first place!

I suspect the root cause of the problem is either signal quality or something in the broadcast that causes the Humax hardware/software/firmware to crash. Eitherway, the Humax system needs to be more resilient - it's clearly a widespread problem. We should all phone the Humax helpline once a day until they tell us what the issue is!

The grandparents just got a 9300T last week after I recommended it to them. They had there first lock up today. It happened after switching the box on- the channel froze straight away and the entire unit became unresponsive. A power cycle was needed after going through with it over the phone.

I have a 9200t and in the last month or so it too has become sluggish and has crashed a couple of times.

I'm shure these issues are linked to the Switch over things going on. Whilst installing the box it found multiple "unknown" channels. My box crashed when loading the retune popup message.

It sounds like many people in lots of forums are having issues with the Humax boxes recently - all sound virtually the same problem. Looks like something is nackering the boxes up in the freeview stream.

And another duff one ...

Took delivery of a 9300T today, and within minutes it had locked up as I went through the channels, checking reception. Got a message on one of the channels above the news channels about 'loading data' - which seems to be significant in the light of reports in this thread - and then it froze. Switching on and off 'cured' it for an hour or so, until it froze again, while tuned to BBC2. Searched the forums, did a 'default' reset, without aerial plugged in, and half an hour later it suddenly re-booted without warning.

So already I seem to have two problems in one not-all-that-cheap box.

- Transmitter: Caldbeck (digital switchover complete)
- No duplicate channels in the 800s ... only the six correct Muxes (too far south to receive the Scottish variants).
- Old box (cheapest of the cheap: Digihome [Veste]l) never once showed either of these problems in three years of quite heavy use

I'm already beginning to wish I'd found this forum before buying ... and made a different choice.

I wouldn’t run away blaming the 9300 for everything just yet. This sounds like a serious software or hardware conflict. My 9200 has been locking up and has had sluggish response recently also- as have other people.

There seems to be EPG and software issues with other brands of PVR.

I blame the absolute cockup and mess of the recent digital retune and switchover fiasco. Something somewhere is causing 9300's 9200's and 9150's to get very upset.

Maybe, but I'm not going to let their problems become my problems. Humax are in the trade - I'm a consumer. If they can't get their act together, they'll just go under - and should do. The new box I've purchased is not fit for purpose: it has re-booted twice more this evening and wrecked two scheduled recordings. It is therefore not a PVR and is going back whence it came. I'll fit a bigger hard drive in the trusted Digihome, which seems blissfully unconcerned about switchover issues. Oh, and at a fraction of the price ...

Good Luck

Grandparents box froze again twice since my late post on Tuesday. This situation is ridiculous. What is going on? I dont believe the box is faulty.

Every time it does so the channel is frozen. Also it seems to crash after boot with the wrong time and channel. At other times the channel is frozen after leaving the box on a few hours with the TV Off.

My 9200 isnt this bad although it to has become slow and sticky to respond recently. Is it some sort of problem due to the retune event? They have a booster fitted too- don’t know if that’s to blame?

They are getting on a bit so stress of this isnt wanted - especially having to power cycle and do things out of the confort zone.

Have you tried following Big-Les's instructions religously, as per this link?
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...38&postcount=5
If you have, I cannot suggest anything else.

Thanks will give i a go. It seems to crash at irregular times. but the frozen screen when switching on in the morning is odd. wonder if its something to do with the auto update overnight?

If the box is freezing I'd always suggest a Default Setting. On the very rare occasion that my 9200 has froze and I've brought it back to life with a simple re-boot (mains off-on) I've notice other problems afterwards like not going fully into standby, a Default Setting has fully cured it. After the default setting check for channels from 801, if there are any then follow my Manual Search instructions linked above.

There is a pictorial guide to default setting the Hummy on this web-site, perhaps you could print it out and send it to your grandparents reminding them to re-set their personal menu settings like screen aspect ratio afterwards.

Its probably safer if i pop round and do it. Would signal boosters cause a problem? An engineer fitted a signal booster that’s on a separate plug. - it a grey box with unusual fixed aerial connectors.
The problem started on the day a freeview engineer fitted a free box in another room- he didn’t touch the humax but could some sort of interference cause problems?

Some boxes are just faulty ...

After the fiasco of the perpetually locking & re-booting new pvr9300 last week, and an even more pointless non-conversation on the Humax helpline, I parcelled it up, sent it back, had it exchanged - and the replacement works flawlessly.

Worth a try, if you feel you've been sold a brick. Pvr9300s obviously can work ...

I know

Glad you got it sorted, it really is a good box.

Rgds.


Les.

Just an update.. Ive only had the one lock up in a month, just wish the remote was easier to navigate particularly in the dark...maybe Im too use to the sky+ remote

I have had a Humax 9300T for about 6 months now, with only one or two lockups. That was until the 30th September 09 "retune". Since then I have had frequent lockups, averaging one a day for the last few days. I have written to Humax who suggested doing a factory reset (default). I have done this several times now, but the problem persists. We get a very strong signal from Wenvoe (3 miles away) and I have deleted all the channels I never watch (all the +1s, bidup tv, etc) to give the EPG an easier ride, plus the two channels which appeared in the 800 range (redirecting viewers to the new channel numbers). The lockups are becoming annoying, so I hope Humax can develop a solution soon!

When you did the reset to Default Settings, did you let it carry on with the Automatic Search, or did you cancel it immediately and Manually Search on the 6 muxes for your Transmitter only?

It has become apparent that since the retune, more people who can (unknowingly) receive from more than 1 TX, are getting different muxes exlusively from different TXs, causing no 800s (the usual sign) but still getting signals from 2 (or more) TXs. This is more prevalent in post-DSO regions, but also seen in pre-DSO regions on some occasions. This situation will still cause problems with EPG population, and could contribute to lockups.

You can check by going into the System | Signal Detection menu whilst tuned into a channel from each of the 6 muxes, in turn, and checking the UHF Channel number against the known numbers for your TX.

If you have numbers that don't match up on 1 or more Mux, you need to repeat your resetting process, but stop the Auto Search immediately, and do the Manual Search

If you already made sure you only tuned in to your TXs 6 muxes, then ignore this.

Rgds.


Les.

Since the retune I have noticed that some channels, particularly ITV3 have worse reception often with picture breakup, presumably because the signal is not as strong. I did not have this problem previously. I originally checked to see if I had any 800s and I don't. How do I know f I am receiving from the "wrong" or duplicate mux if it does not show up as an 800? Is there a list somewhere which details which mux I should be receiving each channel from?
I'm in North East London.

See this post from Big-les.

You can follow the first part of his instructions to find out your transmitter and the uhf channels.

If you then go to this site, and scroll down to click on the transmitter name you found previously, you can see which channels are on each mux.

On your box, tune into one of those channels in turn from the 6 muxes, and go into Menu | System | Signal Detection. You will see the UHF Ch No. at the top. Compare each one with the numbers you got from the digitaluk site. If you are lucky, you may be able to tell from the transmitter name, but if you are receiving from 2 TXs in the same Region, all you are likely to get is the Region name, which is as much use as a chocolate teapot.

If any are different, then follow the rest of Big-les's instructions.

Rgds.


Les.

Thanks I found the MUX list almost as soon as I had posted. All my channels are coming from the correct MUXs at Crystal Palace but MUXA that carries ITV3 and History is way down in signal strength and quality compared with the rest. I wonder why this should be.

I noticed on Saturday the PVR responding sluggishly to the remote and then locking up altogether. Reset to default Settings (that took a while) and no improvement. Left the unit unplugged for 8 hours and that seemed to reolve it but then went I went to TXT it started running through the options all by itself. Wierd. Only had the thing a few weeks so my question is: should I return it back to Richer Sounds and ask for another? If not then what else should I do? Cheers. Mr K.