Hi,

I'm having a problem that appeared today after having the unit for about a month. I have 2 units both the same model (Onn branded T816, 160 gig each).

Today, one of the units started acting up a bit. First of all, I was watching Virgin1 and it started to freeze intermittently although this did not at first affect the sound, then it froze completely.

I then looked at my other unit and it was working fine. I then changed channels on the affected unit and then back again and it was o.k. for about 10 seconds then started freezing again. I then put it on BBC1 and the same happened there.

I then started to watch a recording, and it was o.k. for about 20 minutes then it started jumping, at first only milliseconds then it started jumping several seconds at a time.

I decided to turn the mains off and reboot (I found a great way to do this by using one of those wireless mains sockets; Saves having to unplug the unit), and it was o.k. for about 10 minutes and then it started acting up again.

A few hours later and it is really is acting up on the channels as all channels freeze within a few seconds, but for some reason recordings seem to be playing o.k. now.

At first, I thought it must be overheating, but the other unit is o.k. and I have felt the heat on the top of the unit (very scientific !!) and if anything, the working one feels hotter !

Before I take it back to Asda and lose all my yet to watch recordings, has anyone any idea what is wrong with it; Is it a common problem, in which case I will take both units back, or is it something simple, as it needs a fan fitting (which I can do).

By the way, it is not a signal strength problem as they are fed by a very high gain distribution unit which feeds 6 items and all are working fine, and in any case, I checked the signal quality when this problem happened and it was fine.

Please can anyone help with this as I really don't want to take them back as I wouldn't know what to buy instead.

Thanks.
audio.fi

Can't really offer a solution, but I suggest just swapping the aerial feeds over at the machine end, keeping everything else the same, and see if the problem swaps with it. If so you can suspect the feed. If not suspect the machine.

And I would temporarily remove the wireless mains socket as well just to rule that out as a problem.

Thanks for the help.

I don't think it is either of the possible reasons you suggest.
The feed is also being fed through to the pioneer hdd/dvd recorder that is connected to it and has freeview also and this did not have the problem on it when it was on the ONN unit.
I have four of these wireless mains units connected to various items and none have failed and in any case, they simply supply mains and is either on or off.

What I did was power off the mains for about 30 minutes and this did the trick (for now) , but my feelings are that it overheated and since the other one didn't and is connected in exactly the same way, then I think it is going to fail in some way, so I am going to watch as much of my recordings as I can and get a replacement if I can get one (just looked where I bought it from and they have none left).

Has anyone else had this problem ?

Thanks.
Audio.fi

More information on this;
It obviously wasn't overheating as it did the same thing this evening after only being on a few minutes, however the first time it happened. it was after using the search facility to find some programmes to record, and I had just used it again this evening.
I turned the mains power off and on again and this made it work again, and I went through the same procedure but this time it did not freeze so it is obviously intermittent.

While all this is happening, the other unit hasn't froze once so I guess it must be malfunctioning.

I'm not sure if you are aware of this but using the Search facility has been suggested as the cause for picture freezing on live TV by a number of posters. Although I have not been aware of any direct correlation between Search and freezing. Also your problems seem much more extensive. The recommended action is to do a standby cycle after using Search.

Colin

I would not recommend these wireless mains switches, they can interfere quite badly with other receivers. Certainly, don't use the transmitter (remote) within a metre of the equipment. (As with DECT phones).
Standard fault finding would be to swap the two units to see if the fault moves with the unit.