That does not happen with my box - if you pull the plug from the wall socket when the box is on, wait 30 seconds and put the plug back - box comes on in standby mode

Strangely, if you turn the box off by the mains switch on the back (when box is on) and then switch it back on, it does come back in the 'on' mode and not in standby

Unless, of course, my box has another fault ............

I think you need to to leave the power off long enough for the PSU capacitors to fully discharge. I recommend a period of time long enough to make a nice cup of tea.

A Bios does no such thing it determines the boot sequence from a cold boot,The boot seq can be modified by entries in the files that the boot sequence accesses during a cold boot. This is how after a new programme is installed after a reboot additional code is initiailsed to modiffy files that can't be modified whilst windows is running. After the code is run (often to change files that can't be changed whilst windows is running the instructions are delkted so st the next boot it does not hapopen again ) thats why the underiying command interface apperars during the reboot sequence. The BOS has no understanding of the operating system thats being booted it merely follows a preset sequence of standard files.

Installing a new programme will never modify the bios settings unless it's infected with a virus

Sorry, Graham, as a simple matter of fact you are wrong. The BIOS of current computers control an enormous amount of settings that affect the motherboard and elements of power management are certainly amongst those.

Only last Sunday I modified the setting of a Dell so that it automatically booted when mains power was applied.

It is worth noting that while the product is based on a Linux kernel the comparison to a PC is not correct, the product is an embedded device with a different architecture. These days even the BIOS in a PC is a legacy mechanism and has been superseded on many other architectures. Some computers, such Apple, feature a system called EFI as their bootloader and many embedded architectures don't even need anything like a BIOS so boot directly to the application. Linux embedded products often contain a basic bootloader which just initiates the next phase of initialisation with minimal other functions. The Humax bootloader is actually a very small application but with very critical functions.

There is also a system called the micom which is separate from all of this and controls the product when it is in standby and is also very key to this issue.

Altering the boot loader, application and micom is a major task which is still under review.

There is and never has been a problem if a power cut happens when the box is fully on. The problem arises if the stb is in sby and the loss of power is long enough to drain the stored energy in the power supply capacitors. This takes about 25 sec on a hdr in low power standby.

I think our definitions of a power cut are different.

A very short mains interuption (less than the hold up time of the psu) should not cause a problem, but unfortunately, mains interruptions are not limited to one or two cycle drop outs.

There is a European Standard EN61000-4-11 which covers Voltage Dips, Variation & Interuption. Products meeting this Standard have to state performance as 'no loss of performance', 'temporary loss of performance' (ie recovering to full performance) or 'permanent loss of performance'.

I don't believe there is a requirement for domestic products to meet this standard, unlike industrial products where manufacturers are at a major disadvantage if they do not meet this (and other) Standards; they usually state compliance in Data Sheets and make copies of Test Reports available to end users.

I can't see Humax going down this route as they haven't even had the courtesy to acknowledge my letter.

OK, maybe I confused the issue by using the term BIOS! I really meant the 'hardware configuration UI' which you can access before any other software is booted/loaded. My only excuse is that this is commonly referred to as the BIOS (even by motherboard manufacturers) although it is not really the correct term.

You are correct, Badvok.

The BIOS now contains many functions other than Basic Input and Output (although if you tried to run MS-Dos it would still perform that function). It's one of those terms (like a car's 'bonnet' or an Internet 'radio') where the purpose or mechanism has diverged from its original configuration but the name has stuck.

Although BIOS is now a somewhat anachronistic name given it's main functions it is, nonetheless, the name by which it is known by people who fully understand its purpose so to all intents and purposes it is the correct term and whether a box is PC, Unix or mac it will almost* invariably have an equivalent part - even if, in specialist boxes it may be included within another component.


* 'Almost' because it would not be impossible to have every setting that is normally handled in the BIOS hardwired onto the motherboard or embedded in some other component. Of course, that approach has the disadvantage that you can design yourself into a corner - something that may well account for the difficulty Humax are having addressing this problem.

A computer bios has no operating system content, it merely looks after the hardware. MSDOS or any other OS (Linux, Windows etc) is stored on a seperate memory device usually the boot drive but can be also a CD. Any computer that can boot from CD ROM can be booted into Linux using a boot CD without any change whatsover to the installed OS.. Without this the computer won't do anthing but set up the hardware (check the memory etc).

I would point out that all PC motherboards I have seen have a nice little battery on the motherboard to keep the clock running etc.

We get lots of power cuts - normally very short - So I am another one that would like this problem fixed. I would expect that Humax have decided to how solve this on the next generation HDR and if it is in software, rather than hardware, then it should it should not require much resources to solve it on the current HDR.

I don't believe that anyone has suggested otherwise.


Well, it always boots from the boot drive. That's rather why it's called by that name.


Indeed.

And in order to do that you may need to make a BIOS change. If the BIOS is set to look for an OS on a hard drive it will ignore the CD drive. If it's set to look at the CD first it will boot from the CD drive if it finds a bootable disk present there. If it finds no such disk it will look on the next device in the boot list.

In amongst all this, has anyone figures away to overcome the problem? I am about to buy a freesat box and this problem/fault is making the Grundig look like a better option.

I think Graham thompson uses a universal remote to turn the box on and off at set intervals, I don't think many remotes have that option though so you'd have to hunt around.

Cool thanks.

It's a Phillips SBC RU 885

Not sure where to get one now though