I noticed last week that one particular recording of mine wouldn't play properly; just a black, blank screen came on with no sound. After restarting the box the recording played back OK.

I then deleted the recording and continued making new recordings this week, only to have a message come up saying one of my new recordings was corrupt! I tried playing it and it has the sound but a blank picture (ie black screen).

I can delete this and continue normal use of the DVR, but I'm wondering if I have some 'bad blocks' on my HD, and should I do a full restore of the machine to wipe the HD to ensure I don't get any further problems?

Any thoughts people on the best course of action?

Just a suggestion but try the following

In the engineering help/info menu (the one that shows the signal strength) type 1004 to enter the secret menu,once in there you can perform a short/long test of the Hard Disc
Last edited by Northern Soul : 06-11-2006 at 18:57

It doesn't do a wipe when you do the restore so that will not help. The fact that you could play back the recording after a reboot means it wasn't a disk error as that would have persisted over the reboot.

I did the hard drive tests, both short and long and both came up OK. However, on a few recordings there is just a blank screen with no sound, and I have to reboot the machine a few times to get it to play the recording back properly... is my Thomson dying?? Anyone come across this before?

Hi again

From the results you posted it seems the HD is OK so a reformat etc should not reeally be Necessary

I have not had this problem before but it could have been something as simple as a transmitter multiplex /poor signal problem .Also check for a loose scart,or loose bridge piece that feeds the other tuner (the little black thing with two RF inputs on it)

Disconnect then recheck all the leads and wait 30 mins or so before you power on again. I would then delete the effected recordings and see how it goes
Last edited by Northern Soul : 07-11-2006 at 15:36

Hi NS, thanks for the ideas. I think the first thing I'll do is ensure all my cables are connected tightly and then delete everything and leave it off as you suggest. Hope that fixes it as I don't really want to have to take it back to Argos as I've no idea what I'd replace it with.