Hi,

Was wondering whether anyone else has had any problems with lockups which are followed by the machine trying to start "welcome" message appears (but no other display items appear), then cycles down, then cycles up to the "welcome" message, gets no futher, cycles down etc etc. The only way to stop this is to unplug at the mains.

It is a recent problem - started in the last few 3 weeks or so, and has now started on both the 860's I am now unfortunate enough to own.

I don't believe Sony have done any software broadcast changes of late.

After returning to the retailer, the one box came back, and promptly redisplayed the exact same problem within days. Soon after this, box #2 exhibits same problems.

Second trip to repairers looks no more hopeful, as again, NFF.

If it transmission related, we are on Mendip.

Grateful to know if anyone else has experienced similar. The 860s are fast becoming very expensive door-stops.

Thanks!

Same prob was reported on here by someone after setting a series timer on a ch4 programme.. Did you do this?

I suppose formatting the harddrive by holding in the HDD button on the front panel when powering it up after unplugging will solve the problem, but it sounds like a serious software bug.

Hi there.

Mine has suddenly developed a "Disk is Dirty" error on the screen. The last couple of weeks it has been annoyingly juddery (Just enough for you to notice) on some recordings, especially scart recordings. Yesterday While watching a recording of The Simpsons, about half way though it kept sticking (audio stopped) then after about 3 seconds it resumed playing with audio for another few seconds.

This happened about 4 or 5 times before "Disk is Dirty" appeared on the screen, but again it tried to keep on playing. The annoying thing it did it for all the recordings until I pulled the power plug on it.

As these are from the HDD not a DVD Im assuming the core operating system sees the HDD and a DVD in the same way.

Im coming to blow my fuse with this as it isnt a cheap bit of kit and the standard features on cheap PVRs arent included, No rewind live TV, the 2 minute pause issue and slow remote control responce etc. Natrally Sony support just told me what I wanted to hear. "There is an over the air update in a couple of months". Call me synical but I think the machine has been on the market for about a year and as far as I'm aware they haven't had one OTA update in that time and just by chance Sony said they are broardcasting on in a couple of months, hmmm.

These have been niggling me for a while but the Dirty Disk error has triggered me to look on the web for ANY HDD recorder that has Freeview tuners and Scart recording.

There have been 2 updates - one before christmas and another 3 weeks ago (to V1.0.9).

Disk is dirty sounds like your HDD is failing though. If you have archived off your recordings then try a reformat. If that doesn't do it I'd get it swapped out.

I have been having similar problems with my 860 recently, ie. within the last week or so.

I have been watching Freeview and the programme displays normally and then just freezes. There is nothing I can do about it apart from switch the 860 off. I leave it to settle itself down and then switch it back on.

I then get the 860 starting up (fans, TV screen and "Welcome" message showing) and then after about 10-20 seconds it will shut itself back down again. It will then restart with the same as before and shut down again, permanently. I then have to switch it on again and it works fine, until it has another little spat.

The problem I have it that this seems to be with just Five Life, channel 36 I think. Last night I was watching other channels and it did not reboot once.

I have completed a soft reboot of the system (the 860's On/Off button for 30 seconds etc) and I have also rescanned the channels within the setup menu. I have also checked and I have the .9 version of the software loaded/installed.

Is this a faulty item and something I should take back to the shops, it is still under the 1 year warrenty, or am I missing something so obvious that I need a slap and someone can take the micky out of me for being stupid.


Help me please because otherwise the 860 is an excellent piece of equipment. I am pleased with it bar this little problem.

My 860, now 10 months old, has started doing a similar thing over the past three days.

It can be either recording or playing back when, after 15 minutes or so, it turns itself off. It then comes back on again after the usual 30 seconds boot up time. This means that I have now got a lot of 15 minute chunks of various programs recorded. When it happens during playback you have to bring up the title menu and go back into the program you were watching.

This all seems very suspicious that it's just started to happen to a number of people.

I have the latest 1.09 software. I contacted the company that I bought it from and they have advised me to return it to them.

I'll let you know what happens. It's a shame, as the recorder has been absolutely superb so far.

Hi misterg,

Sounds as though I have exactly the same problem as you. It only started a couple of days ago. I bought my 860 about six months ago and I too have the latest 1.09 software.

Do you think I should return my unit to the company I bought it from too? Or does anyone think there's a possibility that a future software download might fix the fault?

Hi Berno

I must admit I'm rather suspicious that the 1.09 software upgrade has got something to do with it, as mine has behaved impecably since I bought it 10 months ago. I'm not sure when it actually updated from 1.08 to 1.09, as it does it automatically at 4am in the morning. Perhaps someone can out there knows the exact date? My problem suddenly started on 2nd July.

I've returned my 860 today to the people I bought it from (RGB in Ilford) and they are sending it back to Sony.

As we all know, trying to get any sense from Sony direct can be a rather protracted process

Well my 860 was updated from 1.08 to 1.09 on the 14th May but the problem only started a couple of days ago.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Thanks for this Berno. I assumed that the update to 1.09 was very recently, and that it was the culprit. You would think that if it was the update then it would have started to display the symptoms straight away, rather than 7 weeks later. I'm now as confused as you!

I'm wondering if it could be something to do with the introduction of Freeview Playback.
But then again I'm just guessing.

I have a 1065 which is nearly the same machine which has been crashing over the last few days. it keep happening during recording. CSI, house and NCIS have all been split up into two or three parts because it crashed, recovered then started recording again. Im taking mine back to the sony store today.

Yep,

me to. I've had a 860 since Sept last year. It is running v 1.09 don't know when it was upgraded.

Problem started when it was recording CSI 3rd July on Ch5 , it stopped recording ~45 min in and then started recording again. Ended up with 2 parts.

Recorded Rome BBC2 on 4th July OK.

Same problem recording House & Shark on Ch 5 5th July, prog was split into 2 sections each.

7 th July F1 GP quali + Following film fine on Ch3

Split CSI NY on Ch 5 into 2 sections again, 7 th July

8 th July recorded F1 GP on Ch3 fine again.

Unsure if all the problems are related to Ch 5, can't see why to be honest.

When playing a recorded prog the box will sometimes power off completely, display goes blank and begins
the slow start up process.

Overall I like the box, a few quirks but nothing major.

I'll see if things get better but I think it will be going back.

Jim

I experienced the same lockups as described in this thread, in the same timeframe, on the same model PVR, with the same firmware version. Coincidentally the machine locked up watching CSI, but on Five US.

I've had absolutely no problems since purchase in Sep last year.

However, I've been watching the Tour de France coverage on ITV4 with no problems, while dubbing from HDD to DVD (3hrs+ continuous use). Could the problem be related to a combination of the firmware version and the channel being watched?

jock_b

As posted elswhere,I have the HXD560 and similar problems started about a week ago when viewing ch5.The problem has also occurred at switch-on with ch1.When the unit switches back on it has line 1 input so the input select button has to be pressed a few times to get back to tuned programmes.This is now happening daily!
Perhaps we should all return units under warranty and hope that Sony sorts this out,or gives us a refund !

My HXD1065 has just started the same blip - seems to only strike on Channel 5 at between 9.20 and 9.30pm so I get the same problems with House & CSI as everyone else. No problem on any of the other channels though... what has Channel 5 been doing lately to cause this?

Nick

I've been reading this topic with interest as I have only had my machine for a few weeks and the 1st week was okay. I have been trying to record the Fall Guy on Five US and been getting the same problems with split recordings. I haven't had this problem with any of the BBC or ITV channels and as my firmware is only v1.02 i'm sure it's not that. Seems to be something has changed with channel 5 programming as it used to be okay.

I have spoken to Sony but they seemed to be unaware of the problem and seemed to agree that is wasn't an error with the machine but a problem with channel 5. Not sure what to do as it is very frustrating!!

Just been experimenting on my 710 after it became stuck on channel 5. if i leave it on channel 5 for about 30 mins it sticks and i cant change channels and have to reboot. deffo think there is something going on with channel 5.

Yep, happening to me too. I bought my HXD860 about a month ago and it was fine for a while, but now it freezes/reboots in this way pretty much every night, and always on Channel 5.

Software version: v1.01.08 CE.

I'm waiting to back from Sony...I'm reluctant to send it back cos it smells like a software bug to me.

Yep, started about last week watching a recording and the machine reboots and selects L1 as the input. Also turns on the timer record light. If you go into manual timer it appears to want to record on L1 immediately for 30 minutes. Had machine since xmas with no probs up till now.

I've been getting this too recently on my 860, and I also use series timer quite extensively (Rome, Tour de France). It breaking up my baseball games is getting annoying. So far it's only shown up when I've also had a DVD in the drive, i'm now giving it a run without a disc in the drive.

Pity because other than that it's been a very nice little machine for me over the past few months...

Hi all,

I've only had this machine for a couple of weeks now, and it;'s due to be replaced this Friday.

For the first week all was fine, then about a week ago my 860 strted doing the same thing:-

shutting down mid recording, then powering up and resuming, switch on from standby and it's on L1.

I'm starting to wonder if it's somehow linked to the signal being received?

Looking back through all these posts there is obviously something seriously wrong here. I thought that it was just me, but not so.

My problems were with recording CSI on Ch 5 and then the box coming back on on L1 input. It would also keep switching itself off every 15 mins or so when playing back.

Mine's back with the shop at present, so I'll let you know what they say.

Our 860 is exhibiting the same problems, again they started about a week ago. The machine is powering off and on and coming up with Line 1 both while recording and when just watching via the digital tuner. We have also found that the problem seems to be with Channel 5, we have yet to experience it on another channel. Last night we experimented; the machine started resetting on Channel 5 within half an hour, we then switched to another channel, watched and recorded for two hours, no problems.

We are on software version 1.01.09.

Seems like a conflict somewhere. We are reluctant to send the machine back if a software update will sort things out. Has anyone had any sense from Sony?

Just managed to get through to the Sony helpline which appears snowed under, I mentioned the model number and said, "you probably know what I'm going to say" and he said, "its switching on and off." Apparently it is linked to something that Channel 5 have done to their transmission and is a national rather than a local problem. They are 'working on a solution.' I now have a case number and a promise that someone will contact me when there is a resolution to the issus (not sure how if there are this many callers.)

I did suggest that putting something on the website explaining the issue and where they were on a resolution might be a good idea and reduce the number of calls they are getting but I didn't seem to get through..............