Hi, I have a Logik LPVR88 T825.
I've had it for quite a while now & it's proved very reliable & I've been very happy with it.... until today
It's taken to resetting itself every few hours or so.
It doesn't matter whether I'm watching live TV or a recording from the library. When it feels like it, it will just turn off. The light on the front will flicker back on again. A message will appear asking me to wait while the hard disk initializes.
Then it will return to live TV.
All this takes a few moments, meanwhile I'm missing something unless I was watching a recording.

What is the matter with it & can it be fixed?

Hoping someone may have an answer,
AlexKid.

First thing would be to try a first time installation to reset everything (apart from your recording library, of course), in case it is due to a rogue timer, or something like that, is causing the software to reboot the unit.

If that doesn't help, there is a possibility that a capacitor on the power supply board may be starting to fail (see http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1309563), which can usually be fixed easily by somebody with the necessary skills. If you can see a capacitor that is visibly domed or leaking, then that would make things easier, although in your case it sounds like it is in the early stages so might not be so obvious.

Thanks futaura,

I'll try a FTI & see if that cures it & post back.

Regards.

Well... I've just done a FTI, edited the channel list, set a few timers... Sat back & the thing turned itself off & reset itself again!

I might try swapping the power board over for one out of another box to try your other theory.

I feared that would be the case, but worth a try before messing with the hardware. Swapping out the PSU board sounds like a plan to me .

OK... This is realy strange

I unplugged my T825 & put in its place an Hitachi T835 (I've had it for a while but the slowness of the low power mode annoys me so I've stuck with my old box).
I re-tuned it & set up my timers but as soon as I set Stargate on channel 11 Pick TV to series record the box turned off & restarted.
I've tried several times now & it's done the same every time.

Hmmm... did the T825 reset itself with no timers set? If you had set Stargate on the T825 too, then that might indicate something in the EIT/EPG is triggering the issue. Have you tried setting a timer on a BBC channel on the T835 to see if that causes a reset too?

Unfortunately, my T835 is not in action currently. However, on all my HD boxes I'm finding that although I can set up a series link on PickTV, no programmes are scheduled for recording - this goes for all programmes on PickTV. Fortunately, I have debug software on my T7300 which lets me view the series and programme CRIDs in the EPG. Something looks strange with all the programme CRIDs which show up in the form crid://www.sky.coms22480741 - I think this may be breaking the T825 and later Vestel boxes. Normally, the CRID would be like crid://www.sky.com/s22480741. It's possible the missing slash is causing the problem.

A quick search of the other forums here lead me to http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1857824 - similar symptoms as yours. Don't go pulling your T825 apart just yet!

I think you're right. I think the problem is "series record" on Pick TV causing the box to reset.

Selecting "record series" on any other channel presents no problem & I've tried a couple of T835 boxes now. They both behave the same way.

My "old" T825 was working fine so I'll try putting it back & not set up any series record on Pick & see if there is still any problem with it randomly resetting itself.

Yes, I'm guessing your T825 is ok - the T825 and T835 software probably have the exact same bug which is causing the crash, triggering a reboot. I say "bug", but in reality if it is malformed EIT data for Pick TV, then it's their fault. That said, I'll monitor this over the weekend and let Vestel know on Monday - even if the EIT is at fault, software should always be able to cope with errors without crashing.

It is perhaps no coincidence that Sony DVD/HDD Recorders have also been hit with problems since last night.

My Hitachi HDR255 has been doing the same thing for the last couple of days and I thought it was a hardware failure. I've deleted my Pick TV series link and just waiting to see what happens now. I do hope it turns out that was what was causing it, could save me a lot of money if so!

Just to update...
I've re installed my T825, this time I've not set up any timers on Pick TV & it's working fine.
So it seems the problem is indeed with Pick. I'm surprised more people haven't reported problems with T825/T835 box's due to this.
Or perhaps Pick just isn't so popular

Seems to be o.k. now I have deleted the Pick TV timer *crosses fingers*. Do you know whether it would be o.k. to set a one-off (i.e. not series) timer for Pick TV or not?

It might be ok - one-off timers are working correctly on Pick TV on my HD models, at least. It could well be related only to series timers on the SD models. It's not just Pick TV - Challenge also has the same problem as that is a Sky channel too. Probably Sky News also.

Let's hope it is fixed tomorrow. I have no idea who or where the problem should be reported though. I seem to remember there may be a third party managing the EIT data for Sky. Via the manufacturer is one path, and it seems Sony are looking into the issue. The problem I think will be getting a message to whoever broke Sky's EIT data and to convince them it is their fault.

Unfortunately, I think most peoples first thought will be that their box has broken.

Actually, it seems it is fixed already! Should be safe to set your series links back up as usual. I've checked the EIT data, and surprise, surprise, the missing '/' character in the programme CRIDs has now returned. This has also revived the Sony boxes too.

Thanks for the info. I only wanted to record The Lost Room and it is the final episode, so there's no need to record series anyway. Glad to hear it's fixed.

Seems like the BBC took the brunt of the complaints from Sony owners, even though it was nothing to do with the BBC. Anyway, it seems the correct person got to hear about it in the end, whoever that may be.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be fixed.
I've just taken a chance & set the final episode of the Lost Room + the 10am episodes of Stargate on series record... As soon as I did this the box went off & re-set itself.

I cancelled the series record & set daily timers for Stargate ... so far OK.

It may be that a reboot was required on the T825 to flush out the EPG (which is held in memory when in standby). Either that, or the fix hasn't filtered out to all transmitters yet.

Everything back to normal now I hope? I'd just like to say thanks for your feedback on the problem here - yours was the first report. If you didn't try your T835 too and mentioned setting a timer up on Pick TV, I doubt I would have ever spotted the problem with the EPG, or indeed even linked it to the EPG at all. Your box would have magically started working again and nobody, including Sony/Pioneer owners, would be none the wiser as to what had caused the problem (naturally, many would assume their box may be starting to fail).

Perhaps even it wouldn't have been fixed so soon - Sony was getting the blame big time. I've still yet to find any sort of official clarification or explanation as to what the problem was, and who was to blame (the only sites that I found that claim to offer an official explanation are just paraphrasing what I wrote here and in other threads). Reading between the lines, it looks like Sony probably got in touch with Digital UK (who maintain the EPG service as a whole, but don't actually provide the data). Perhaps Digital UK fixed it, and perhaps they even caused it. Otherwise it would have been the company feeding the Sky channels' EPG data to Digital UK's system, whoever that may be (Sky themselves, Arqiva or some other company). I guess we will never know for sure. Let's hope it doesn't happen again.