Humax Foxsat HDR Slower Boot and Won't Recognise USB Drives

engine

20-03-2012

Hi All!
In the last few days i've noticed that the Humax Foxsat HDR is taking much longer to boot up. I couldn't be for sure what it was previously, but was approximately 15-20 seconds. Now, it appears it's taking over a minute to boot up, and just shows the 'BOOT' message in the display.

That's very strange. Perhaps there was an OTA update I missed.

Any ideas?

Secondly, my external HDD, which was always left in the USB socket, is now no longer recognised. I don't even get the message appear when plugging the drive in. That's a little worrying.

The drive appears to be working, and I can see the files on my PC. I have a second Foxsat HDR and plugging the drive in there works fine.

Perhaps you've had these problems in the past, or perhaps it's a sign that my Foxsat HDR is about to fail.

What do you think?

Bspks

20-03-2012

How full is your built in drive? Perhaps that's become very fragmented.
It might not be a bad idea to transfer your recordings to the external drive, format the internal one and do a factory reset just to eliminate any operational issues.
After all, we are considering them as set top boxes, but in reality they are a type of computer.

engine

20-03-2012

Disk fragmentation is a possible problem, and the disk is at about 80%

Quote:
“It might not be a bad idea to transfer your recordings to the external drive,”

I would if it could recognise the external HD.

Frank1

20-03-2012

Originally Posted by engine:
“Disk fragmentation is a possible problem, and the disk is at about 80%

I would if it could recognise the external HD. ”

You are brainwashed by the world ruled by Microsoft.

Problems due to file fragmentation is a "feature" of less able filesytems and is not a problem here.
The HDR does not boot from the hard disk.

Its worth doing a factory reset and retune before considering any more radical action.

Frank

bigbobjoylove

20-03-2012

I had a humax past 2 years and as far as i'm aware 2-3 years is their "shelf-life". My HDD packed in, humax don't seem too interested via customer/support etc. Seems a new model HDR is on the horizon soon, this could explain their lack of interest about the problems i had. Good luck

engine

20-03-2012

Quote:
“Problems due to file fragmentation is a "feature" of less able filesytems and is not a problem here.”

If it's not the problem, what is?

Quote:
“Its worth doing a factory reset and retune before considering any more radical action.”

I assume that will mean the HD will be wiped, and all the recorded programmes lost. Mrs engine will not be too happy with that.

grahamlthompson

20-03-2012

A factory reset and retune will not affect your existing recordings in any way.

grahamlthompson

20-03-2012

Originally Posted by bigbobjoylove:
“I had a humax past 2 years and as far as i'm aware 2-3 years is their "shelf-life". My HDD packed in, humax don't seem too interested via customer/support etc. Seems a new model HDR is on the horizon soon, this could explain their lack of interest about the problems i had. Good luck”

A new HDD is very simple to fit and apart from the current hike in prices due the situation in Thailand was not very expensive.

REPASSAC

21-03-2012

Originally Posted by Frank1:
“You are brainwashed by the world ruled by Microsoft.
Problems due to file fragmentation is a "feature" of less able filesytems and is not a problem here.
The HDR does not boot from the hard disk.

Its worth doing a factory reset and retune before considering any more radical action.

Frank”

The HDR does indeed boot (Linux) from the hard disk if a hard disk is present. If one is not it boots from flash memory..

Frank1

21-03-2012

Originally Posted by REPASSAC:
“The HDR does indeed boot (Linux) from the hard disk if a hard disk is present. If one is not it boots from flash memory..”

Sorry, I'm not convinced.
Where does the "Linux on the hard disk" come from when a new HDD is installed?
AFAIK, the "format" routine just creates the default partitions and filesystems.

gomezz

21-03-2012

I can imagine it failing back to boot from HDD if the flash copy is corrupt. Apparently there is a new beta available from Humax on request.

Frank1

21-03-2012

Originally Posted by gomezz:
“I can imagine it failing back to boot from HDD if the flash copy is corrupt. Apparently there is a new beta available from Humax on request.”

Don't think so..
Four partitions:
1. Reservation: file: reserve.info
2. EPG: folder: fsatepg, and within file: fsat.epg
3. Media: folders: Music, Photos
4. Recordings: folders Movies and Video

It is likely that a failing HDD would slow the boot process as the OS tries to mount these partitions.

Frank

REPASSAC

21-03-2012

Originally Posted by Frank1:
“Sorry, I'm not convinced.
Where does the "Linux on the hard disk" come from when a new HDD is installed?
AFAIK, the "format" routine just creates the default partitions and filesystems.”

On reflection and having jogged my slightly defective memory you are corrrect - sections of flash memory are indeed mounted

Code:

Foxsat-HDR~# mount
/dev/root on / type squashfs (ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nodiratime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hda4 on /mnt/hd4 type ext3 (rw)
tmpfs on /media type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/mtdblock3 on /usr/lib type squashfs (ro)
/dev/mtdblock4 on /usr/bin type squashfs (ro)
/dev/mtdblock5 on /usr/image type squashfs (ro)
/dev/mtdblock7 on /usr/data type jffs2 (rw,noatime)
/dev/hda4 on /opt type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda1 on /mnt/hd1 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda2 on /mnt/hd2 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda3 on /mnt/hd3 type ext3 (rw)