If you dont like it return it and get your money back

As this seems to be the place for "other bugs", has anyone come across this one:

I noticed this morning that the disk was still spinning, even though I had put the
9200 into standby last night. I had not scheduled any recording.

When I took the box out of standby, it instantly displayed BBC 1, without the usual
load progress bar. I tried taking it out and back into standby, but this did not make any
difference: the disk was still spinning, and it came alive instantly. I also tried setting the
automatic power off, but this did not stop the disk either.

I finally got the thing to stop by doing a power cycle.

I'm not too bothered by this. I only noticed because of the barely-audible hum of
the disk (compared with the completely inaudible fan). But, I thought it worth
reporting.

givemestella, thinking about this issue about time you are having I am being pulled in two directions:

1) There is a post detailing what Humax did to look into this problem a fellow forum member shared and following the tests and calls back, Humax confirmed a problem with the unit and advised a return and swap.

2) there is a post about a notice on Humax website about loosing time which affects freeview PVRs. Its says the time in the Humax clock is the time sent down in the stream of a channel it is on - in accordance with DVB specifications. If the broadcasters send the tine incorrectly, say by 30 minutes or 5 minutes, then this will be reflected on the time in the receiver and when it goes into standby. If you change to a different stream/channel your clock may again change, hopefuly back to the correct time as it is being transmitted.

I presume therefore that if you do some preliminary checks yourself one night by:

-check the correct time is still being shown and turn to standby
-in the morning check the time on the box before bringing it out of standby

If its gone pete tong, then I suspect a dodgy box and Humax will go through some checks and conculde as per number 1.

EDIT: I deleted the second step in the check process about shceduling a recording as its not actualy relevant and also, this may make the box check the time when it wakes up for the scheduled recording at night.

**Also** there is information starting to apear (well I saw on post actually) about Humax checking for certain firmware versions when customers call the support desk. It appears there is a level of firmware that should not be on boxes out in th wild. Apparantly you cant check this by going into the usual menus and requires Humax help to do this. If you are unlucky, the initial eport is that you can not carry out an updae yourself and the box will need to go back and you get another one. I could be well out here but worth asking the support people when you call - let us know what they say!

That sounds like they need to change the bootloader rather than the app code. If that's the case rather than taking the "secret squirrel" approach I don't understand why Humax don't make the procedure to determine the version public so everyone can check. I guess they want to avoid being innundated by returned units but it doesn't seem fair on the folks who may have a problem but don't know about this.

Cliff

This is interesting. I'm sure I remember someone stating that Humax support said the lock-up problems could be caused by the software "not being uploaded correctly" in the factory. IIRC they also said that Humax stated that this could not be corrected by the user - the unit would have to be returned.

Maybe they actually meant the software was the wrong version, and were just trying to cover themselves...

.................

Could be

...................

Could be

If there is a way of finding out what "version" is the correct one, and the way to find out, so many people would be able to do a quick check and instantly know whether their PVR is standing on dodgy foundations to begin with.

withdrawn for a good reason.
Last edited by CJL : 10-11-2005 at 16:09

LOL. As these threads are homes for people with PVR related problem discussions, questions,enthusiats, chat even etc, I wouldnt be suprised if the "procedure" becomes widely known at some point.

perhaps not.

Sorry, I just pushed the wrong button again

(I was actually try to edit a previous post but even though it was only made about 1/2 an hour ago the [edit] button has already gone - ho hum)

I think theirs a high chance it was the Auto Software Update getting confused. By default the box is set to check for software updates at 4am. It switches the box on and the hardrive for 3mins at 4am then should switch to standby and power off the hardrive. I think the software update channel is BBC1? Software updates can only be sent around once every 1.5months and for only around 48hrs. I wonder if the reception varies or some other error while the box checks for updates causes the problem?
Anyway, check your user guide on how to change the Auto Update check. If you want to no when a Software Update will be transmitted, try http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl
If you miss an update, you can always download it from the Humax Global Website, acording to Humax + the userguide = will need a PC and a serial cable.

This has now happened two nights in a row. I've decided not to do a power cycle
this time to see if it eventually sorts itself out.

Spoon261 suggested that it may be the auto software update getting confused.
But, there are no scheduled software updates for Humax on the dtg site.

The dtg site isnt able to tell the PVR there is a software update so if the box is switched off, it will have a check itself at 4am.

Sounds like your machine has had it

This sounds like the problem I came across once where the box still thinks it is recording.

Next time it happens can you try and access PIP........my guess is you will not be able to because the box thinks it is recording.

Thanks Barry, you could be right. (Although I don't think the front panel was showing the REC symbol.) Do you know how to stop it thinking it's still recording ?

I've had the machine about 3 weeks now. Not had any real problems at all. I've recorded around 80 programmes (none from radio EPG though), and all have recorded perfectly.

I had never had the standby problem, where it will instantly go to standby with the clock displayed and no timer icon in the top right, rather than the longer power down with --- displayed, the hard disk powering down, then the clock and the timer icon coming up in the top right (Does that make any sense?)

This seems to go hand in hand with the instant power on, rather than the hard disk boot with the loader progress, STING and then the box turning on. It's the one where the box behaves as though it is still recording, but it isn't.

I've have now had this problem three times in the last three days. The only thing that has changed is that now, around the time I get home and turn the box on, it is recording a programme from 6 - 7 (Mutant X on Sky Three - thought I'd give it a shot...). I had never been recording when turning the box on before. The programme is always recorded fine, and all others are even after standby and no timer icon being displayed.

At a guess, I reckon that when it is normally in standby, it gets kicked into action by a timer, boots up in a 'pretend standby' mode with the clock still displayed and the small Rec icon on, records, then goes back to real standby. When you turn it on and it has already been recording, it seems to not clear the 'pretend standby' mode and always returns to that without properly powering down.

Bit of a long winded explanation, but has anyone else who gets this noticed if it only happens if you switch the box on when it is already recording? It seems 100% repeatable for me. A switch off at the back always cures it anyway, but it would be nice to see a fix for this in the next update...
Last edited by srjohnst : 11-11-2005 at 10:50

This sounds very plausible. I'm pretty sure that yesterday I took the machine out of standby while it was recording, and it's quite possible I did the same the night before (I've had this "thinks it's still recording" behaviour 2 days running).

On the other hand, I'm sure that when I put the box into standby last night, the disk stopped, and the display was only showing the time. Whereas, this morning, the disk is spinning away, and it's showing BBC ONE. So, perhaps the problem is also related to the auto update in some way.

My box was on best behaviour for a week or so but suddenly started to loose time again. It has been ok now for the last two days. I think that the problem arises after a particular selection of channels but am unable to be more precise. At this stage I am paranoid. Every time I walk into the room I check the time on the 9200 against the 8000 which keeps perfect time always.

mfmf

You miss read my post, I never said their was an Auto Update going on, only the box was checking for an update. Even though their is no update available the box still checks, something could be going wrong (signal glitches) while it checks and causes the hardrive to stay on.
Theirs no harm switching auto update off as a test = no updates due in the next few weeks.

You could be right. The first thing I did when I got the box was to turn auto update off, so I've never seen this happen when I haven't turned the box on while recording.

I think I'm just paranoid after reading other forums where they get a fix that sorts 3 problems and introduces 5 more. I've decided to turn it off and wait until the first set of people get the update (whenever that might be) and if it seems more good than bad, I'll turn it on and wait (probably weeks) till they transmit it again. Or I'll just use a serial cable

It has only happened to me once, (that I am aware of) and I just switched the box off using the switch on the back.

It is possible that it is getting the wrong time from the last channel it was tuned to. If so then, say putting it on the same reliable channel before going into standby might do it.

Possibly! If so it is a question of establishing which channel outputs the correct time.