My Humax seems to crash rather a lot. I have cold boot it at least once a week and its starting to drive me up the wall. I rebooted it just before we went on holiday but it still hung on the first day so didnt record anything Grrrrr.

I know when it going to crash because it starts to drop frames or something becasue the picture starts to go jerky and scrolling through the EPG takes forever.

I am hoping some of your intelligent guys here will be able to suggest what the problem may be ?

Could it be anything I did when i installed it ? flakey wiring to the LNB or something ? or is it maybe a hardware fault with the box?

I havent done a full reset of the box as I didnt want to loose some of my saved HD recordings but if thats the only option then I guess i could bite the bullet.

Thanks
Woody

Welcome Woody

There are all sorts of possibilities depending on what you were doing at the time. But the picture dropping frames etc., may indicate a problem with the signal - LNB and/or Cables/Connections.

A user over on Hummy.org did report that replacing his cables with new, better quality cables cured his lockups.

Edit : Apologies, I just found the thread, and it cured failed/missing recordings, not lockups

BTW, the factory reset will not erase your recordings, but you will have to set up your scheduled timers again.

Rgds.


Les.
Last edited by savvy : 07-07-2009 at 18:16

I know exactly what Artanor means, because the problem he has, is exactly the same as the problems I've described on here in the past.

When it drops frames, it isn't dropping frames due to a bad connection. it's dropping frames because the box can't keep up.

The dropping frames effect, is more like you get one frame every one or two seconds, and the responsiveness of the box drops by a factor of 100. i.e. you can wait a good few minutes for a remote control command to take effect.

The best way of describing the effect, is like a computer with a memory leak making intensive use of a pagefile.

Artanor: Do you switch you box off to low power mode when not using it? I find the box is pretty stable, but only if you remember to turn it off when not using it. Leave it on for more than 24 hours, and the chances are, the box will have locked up.

It could be heat related I guess, but for me, the problem just smells of a memory leak. Thinking of how PCs crash when they overheat, they don't slow down over a period of time and crash, they instantly halt instead. - of course the HDR isn't a PC, but it isn't a million miles away from one either.

Forgot to mention...

I did use the auto power off feature to try and reduce the number of lock ups I had, it did work for a period of time, but then auto power off stopped working too.

I've recently performed a factory reset (in the last week), and auto power off now works again and I've not yet seen a crash, however I suspect it may still crash if I disable auto power off and leave the box running. - which I'm not prepared to test at the moment whilst the box seems to behaving itself.

I have EXACTLY the same symptoms as yourself.

The HDR needs a daily reboot, or it suffers a memory leak and eventually starts dropping frames, then locks-up.

When the automatic power off stops working, go into the set-up and set the on/off times to same and "OK" them. This seems to restore the auto power off again.

Hopefully, these bugs can be fixed but we need this work-around until then.
IMHO a small price to pay for a basically good box.

Frank

If you read elsewhere you will see that the behaviour you are experiencing is NOT normal. The box should not drop frames, leak memory, or lock-up. If yours does, then it's a faulty box. Mine has been running continuously since last November (apart from the one time I was trying the record two TV channels and then listen to the radio bug). The only problems I have had are the same as everyone else gets and the broadcasters inability to get their meta data to agree with their broadcasts.

Get your box replaced whilst it's still under warranty. As it's not a bug there will not be a magical fix, so the work-around is to take it back to where you bought it, explain that the box does not work (locks up) and you want a replacement box. The basic functionality of setting up a recording schedule, going away for several days, come back and find that the recordings are there WORKS.

Thanks Frank.

I've not seen any one else post on these forums with this specific problem until today. Sorry to hear you are suffering too, but it's good to know it isn't just me.

I wondered if it's something I've done, (e.g. set an option that the HDR doesn't like), hence the reason why I've decided to perform a factory reset. No problems as yet, but the HDR has been auto powering off without a problem since the factory reset.

Sounds similar to the Humax 9200T bugs, I think a new firmware could fix it.

You've hit the nail right on the head there. This is our 3rd box and its the first one that we have purposely switched off at night till the next day... Guess what? Haven't had a freeze or lock up for ages now... We are also very careful when we start a deletion going (making sure a timed recording is not about to kick in...) so as to minimize conflicts. Of course, we really shouldn't have to do all this jumping through hoops to use the HDR

You simply don't know this. I wish some contributors to this forum would stop discouraging Humax users from posting problems.
(Don't worry, BobCat won't go away. )


Agreed. Though, I would strongly support the hypothesis that there is a memory leak.



You simply don't know this.



That's good. I hope it stays fine for you.




You simply don't know this.

Thanks for the tips guys. It happened again this evening and I noticed something the might be significant. The last 3 times now its crashed the box was left on cbeebies which had stopped transmitting. I though it was a coincidence but after 3 times maybe not. Ill try making sure that the box is left off when were not using it too.

Dropping frames - could be down to hardware, but if you read again, it isn't so much dropping frames as not able to keep up with the work the box has to do. This could be hardware, but it's unlikely in my opinion.

Leaking memory - this is a software issue, it has nothing to do with hardware. Admittedly, I don't know for a fact that it is leaking memory, but the effects I see carry the hallmarks of leaking memory, and I would like to think that I know a little bit about what I'm talking about, as I'm a software developer.

Locking up - you are quite right it could be down to hardware, but you can not assume it is the box that is at fault. Software can equally be responsible for lockups too, especially when the lockup occurs immediately after the above issues.

I've been actively turning off my Freesat HDR since I got it - I look at the point of view if you leave a pc running it's not good for it. So it gets turned on and off like a tv does - it's worked like a dream since January

You will find that actually turning a PC off and on actually stresses the electronics more.

Leaving it on with correct cooling would be less stressful on it, but not practical.

Ah, so you've missed all those 2am updates that Humax have been flooding us with

The point I am obviously failing miserably to get over is that a firmware bug is something that affects everyone. It is repeatable, it happens to all units in the same circumstances.

When there are quite a few of us on this forum who don't get the same effect, then it cannot be firmware UNLESS there is some extraneous outside effect (bad signal, poor mains) that the firmware is not handling. Other things that can look like firmware (which usually assumes that the hardware is working to spec) is when one or more components are out of spec. The vast majority of the issues reported by a small number of people (mainly lock-ups) are in this category. The PVR firmware is not safety critical, and can reasonably expect to be running in a 'friendly' environment. There should be a degree of defensive programming (lost signal, disk not responding, the sort of things that tend to be binary in nature), but there are limits.

The realistic approach by any manufacturer to trying to cope with failing components is to treat them as hardware issues, and let the consumer return the product - not try to code around them.

So, where there are issues reported that affect small numbers of units (sometimes only one or two), when others say that their units do not exhibit the same behaviour in similar circumstances, the variables that can be wrong tend to rule out firmware and point to anything else. The best diagnostic tool for us as Joe Public is get a new box.

Where the forum is really useful is when someone can spot a trend (it always locks up when ...), and others can try the same circumstances. If they all lock up - Bug.

If someone has a unit that demonstrably behaves differently to everyone else's, and they are hoping for a magical firmware fix because they have mentioned it on this forum, then I think they are sadly mistaken.

And if you have had anywhere near the same software experience as I have, in safety critical, real-time and commercial systems you would know that that hardware follows the classic "bathtub curve" whereas software never deteriorates or wears out.

Depends whether by off the OP means power switched off or going to full power saving sby.

Mine gets turned to power saving sby every night and apart from one well documented lock up during which the stb continued to record (all night as it happens) no problems at all since last November. Can't say I noticed any firmware updates though

The OP was taking about a complete power off, equating it to turning off his PC at night.

Like you, my unit has been powered on since last November, just going to standby for most of the time and coming active when I want to watch TV (or it wants to record). I went to check how many version upgrades it has had, but it looks like I missed them all as well, as it's still on .02. Oh well, there's always tonight. :yawn:

Hi All,

As I have posted before - my box with .02 software locked up once a week. Humax eventually sent me a replacement - all conducted by email and emailed claim forms etc.

Problem - the replacement box, a month ago or so, is obviously just a return and has the same firmware version. It is worse than the first one. Humax stopped answering my emails - so I phoned. They are now sending me another box when I return from Holiday in a weeks time.

The current box is often locked at start up, and only a full power off and on will allow it to respond to the remote.

Like the OP I am really driven to distraction now. A gentle probe in one or two retail outlets that sell the Humax tells me that we ain't alone in having problems.

If I could get Comet to take it back I would and spend more than double on the Panny blue-ray HDR.

Now totally fed up.

But there are a number of us that do.

It could be down to user settings, or they way in which we use the features, or the channels we watch/record, or the amount of time the box is left switched on, etc. etc.

There are lots of factors that could cause this software problem to manifest itself.

It just doesn't smell of being a hardware problem, and furthermore, since performing a factory reset, I have as yet (touch wood) not had a single crash. Although I did have to perform a power cycle when the box stopped responding to the remote or front panel buttons, but this is obviously not the same problem.

Just to add my 2 pennies.

I have had the HDR since November. It crashed and went unresponsive a number of times for the first month or so requiring a power cycle to fix.

Bizarrely this problem went away, with no change of set up or usage at my end. Since xmas I have not sufferred one lock up. Missed recording yes, but no weird behaviour.

One question I would ask is regarding the hardware. Several long term users here have also commented they don't see problems.

So, have there been any hardware design changes or production changes since manufacturing started?

A minor revision could be causing problems that only the newer boxes (or indeed certain batches) could be experiencing.

just a thought.

It also could be something external.
Interference from another device (certainly oin terms of IR), or even down to high/low voltage perhaps?

I have had three or four lockups , but these have always been when using the remote.

Right for fear of getting blasted by Panman as i did in another post which incidentally the same issues were covered regarding comments... but we wont go there.

I had a HDR which experienced "weird" behaviour, I wont go into detail but basically unresponsive remote, box switching out of standby for no reason but not actually recording anything as there were no timers set etc etc.

I received a replacement and it has been running now for 1 week. Within the first week the following have appeared over a the days:

Remote becoming un-responsive again.

Scheduled recordings failing to start (poss META data, not confirmed)

Recordings stopping mid flow, "power failure" indicated in the media list.

EPG ridiculously slow

I am NOT going to do any resets, cycles etc with the box but let it run its course to see what happens.

The first box was purchased in December and this one July.

sps

Wow what did I start!

Well after turning on the power saving feature I have not had 1 case of the box locking up!

I suspect memory leak myself, no particular reason other than 20 years of IT experience.

However I was looking at the Panasonic DMR-BS850 at the weekend, looks nice but thats for another thread.

I don't think so, as I was an early bird and received mine within 3 weeks of it going on sale.