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Had to do a system reset


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Old 29-09-2013, 12:20
David Waine
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My TalkTalk YouView box started to misbehave yesterday. Several recordings that had been scheduled failed to record and it could not record the programme that was being watched. Fearing the the hard drive was packing up, I rewound the buffer,which caused me to watch 'Atlantis' twice. That worked fine, which suggested that the hard drive was all right. That left either corrupted software or another hardware fault as the most likely cause. If the former, a system reset should sort it out. If the latter, a phone call to TalkTalk would be required.

Accordingly, I did a system reset, which can be accessed from the Settings menu. I knew I would lose all my recordings (not the problem that some might find - I am really not that attached to them) but it warned me about it twice before it would let me do it. When I did, the reset was painless enough and took about fifteen minutes. When done, the disc was empty again, but I was pleased to see that the remote still controlled the TV. It was only then that I realised that I had reset the box, not the remote.

Happily, that sorted the problem and the box is fully functional again. I know it shouldn't happen, but software can become corrupted and any computer can crash. A PVR is, after all, a specialised type of computer.

The moral to the tale is don't become too attached to your recordings because there is the danger that you might have to ditch them one day. If there is something that you really want to keep for the rest of your days, buy the DVD.
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Old 30-09-2013, 12:59
lbear
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With the Humax box there is a secret "engineer's" menu which has further options for firmware recovery including one which does not involve loosing your recordings. I presume there must also be one for the Huawei although this has not been publicized. (I mention both as early installs from TT used Humax boxes)
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Old 03-10-2013, 12:56
barbeler
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Mine's becoming increasingly erratic. In spite of getting a steady 16.5 Mbps, the on-demand services continually grind to a halt. iPlayer is the worst and I often have to re-start the programme several times.

I went to watch a recording last night and after only ten minutes, it suddenly said 'your recording has ended', with about 40 minutes of the programme still to go.

A couple of nights ago it seized up completely, so that the box didn't respond to the remote at all. I plugged in my old digi box with iPlayer and it worked perfectly, although I have to admit that the iPlayer interface is even more irritating than the YouView version.
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Old 03-10-2013, 14:26
David Waine
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That sounds like there is something wrong with your box. It shouldn't behave like that. You could always try a system reset just in case your software has become corrupted (that is what happened with mine). Be aware, however, that you will lose all of your recordings if you do. This wasn't a great problem for me. Other people may feel differently though.

If it is corrupted software, that should sort it out. If it doesn't, you may have a hardware problem, in which case you will need to contact TalkTalk for a replacement box. Perversely, that could turn out to be good news for you because there are rumours that they have been trialling a new Huawei box with upgraded components.
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Old 03-10-2013, 14:35
David Waine
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Regarding iPlayer, I suspect that there are problems with that, and they originate with the BBC, not TalkTalk. I have the Entertainment Boost, which gives me a selection of Sky channels in addition to Freeview and the on-demand stuff. Watching these channels is painless. The picture quality is very good and they don't buffer.

Watching iPlayer is another matter. My connection is a reliable 11-12Mbps, which should be more than enough, even with other computers accessing the Net at the same time. iPlayer buffers badly, however, even on my connection. It is HD, of course, whereas the Sky channels are SD. Would that explain it? Might we all have to wait for fibre optics before we can get reliable iPlayer in HD - or is there something wrong with the iPlayer?
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Old 03-10-2013, 14:40
lbear
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Before you do a system reset, always try a "hard reboot" as standby does not clear the various buffers etc that are retained within the firmware. As you say, these are specialist computers and few people leave their PCs running full time (and if you do updates from Microsoft jam things up within a month or so)

To do a "hard reboot", make sure you have no recording scheduled for the next 10 minutes, put the box into standby and then use the rear switch to turn off the power. Wait about 30 seconds for the memory to clear and turn back on. This solves a lot of problems and the precautions should prevent potential damage to the hard drive.
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Old 04-10-2013, 00:38
barbeler
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Regarding iPlayer, I suspect that there are problems with that, and they originate with the BBC, not TalkTalk.
I don't think so, because different boxes have different iPlayer interfaces. I find that when the TalkTalk box freezes, I can simply plug in my iCan Easy Hd box and it works straight away.

The big difference is that the iCan Easy HD box displays all the programmes in a linear fashion - i.e. if you're exploring 'Factual' you have to scroll (very slowly) through about 500 episodes of Bargain Hunt, whereas the TalkTalk interface displays them in one box as a series, so you can skip straight past the bloody things..

It has reached the stage where I expect any one-hour programme on the TalkTalk box to have to be re-started about five times. It really is becoming irritating. Also, there is no software update available - the last was some time in July.
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Old 04-10-2013, 05:30
David Waine
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For all that, iPlayer used to play more or less buffering-free on my YouView box, but it doesn't any more, so something has changed somewhere.
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Old 09-03-2014, 14:57
Rolland_Brown
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I did a system reset it now says nearly ready all the time and the three lights light up as usual but its been on nearly ready all night still on yet have unplugged etc tried everything help please anyone ?
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Old 18-03-2014, 21:12
barbeler
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As I mentioned on a different thread, the guide is now failing to load on mine. When combined with its painfully slow response to the remote control, this is really starting to get annoying.
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Old 18-03-2014, 22:37
David Waine
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I did a system reset it now says nearly ready all the time and the three lights light up as usual but its been on nearly ready all night still on yet have unplugged etc tried everything help please anyone ?
A system reset should have returned it to the state it was when it left the factory (including deleting all your recordings). You would then have to reinstall it, but that is simply a question of following the instructions. If it is stuck on the loading screen, something is very wrong and you will need to speak to TalkTalk, who should either fix the box or replace it.
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Old 19-03-2014, 09:47
barbeler
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As I suspected the guide loads perfectly this morning, in fact I suspect there has been some kind of a firmware update to make it load more quickly. It's a pity that when this happens they can't also provide some way of enabling the changes to take effect immediately, rather than disabling the recording facility for about 12 hours.
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Old 19-03-2014, 22:27
barbeler
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Spoke too soon. It locked up again and I had to pull the mains lead out for a few seconds to re-boot it.
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Old 20-03-2014, 05:29
David Waine
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It sounds like an intermittent fault. You need to speak to TalkTalk.
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Old 20-03-2014, 12:02
barbeler
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I simply can't believe it's a hardware fault - when the guide is unable to populate, it's far more likely to be something that's going wrong with the system updates.
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Old 20-03-2014, 12:55
David Waine
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So what caused that? It doesn't seem to be affecting other people's boxes, and certainly does not affect mine.
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Old 20-03-2014, 22:12
Rolland_Brown
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talk talk sent out engineer if nothing wrong with box would be charged £50 he came out last Saturday tried everything nothing worked so I got a new box ,engineer said never seen that before result thanks all
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