Foxsat HDR freezing.

[the whistler]

Yesterday and again today, my Humax Foxsat HDR has frozen on the programme guide. Only solution was to power off and on again. Any idea what would cause this?

 

[astreau]

This happens regularly on my machine. It only started happening after the last update which strangely, was to correct a problem with the EPG. Coincidence?

 

[grahamlthompson]

Try a freesat tune and don't save the results. You can also access the cached epg instantly by pressing the schedule button on the remote and then the red button.

 

[kevkbuk]

Mines never frozen once, could you have poor signal on the EPG transponder?

 

[Shady Deal]

Had mine for a few days and this has happened once. Switched off and back on again still frozen. Switched off and on again ok. Is this a bug that needs to be reported to humax? Still like the box though!

 

[grahamlthompson]

Had mine for a few days and this has happened once. Switched off and back on again still frozen. Switched off and on again ok. Is this a bug that needs to be reported to humax? Still like the box though!

If a bug it should affect everybody. Try turning off at the mains for 5 minutes. If still a problem make a note of your recording schedule and try carrying out a factory reset.

If it still happens get the box replaced (hardware problem).

 

[MartinPickering]

Yesterday and again today, my Humax Foxsat HDR has frozen on the programme guide. ... Any idea what would cause this?

Possibly the PSU capacitors. Care to guess who supplies the kit?

 

[grahamlthompson]

Possibly the PSU capacitors. Care to guess who supplies the kit?

It's a new box and not a Foxsat-HD.

 

[Shady Deal]

Possibly the PSU capacitors. Care to guess who supplies the kit?

Just slightly scary? You talking about sky boxes? I'm lost??

Mine did it not long after I put it in, I guess it is the same as it happens on the guide? As I say mines been fine since!

Got mine from currys with 21 day exchange/ money back guarantee so see how it goes but so far after I have posted questions and got info from here it seems great, BETTER than a sky hd box.

I am easily worried........!

 

[grahamlthompson]

Just slightly scary? You talking about sky boxes? I'm lost??

Mine did it not long after I put it in, I guess it is the same as it happens on the guide? As I say mines been fine since!

Got mine from currys with 21 day exchange/ money back guarantee so see how it goes but so far after I have posted questions and got info from here it seems great, BETTER than a sky hd box.

I am easily worried........!

Foxsat-Hd's have a history of capacitor failure around 18 months old, like the Thomson sky boxes and also Topfield 5800 models. It's a cheap repair, afaik Foxsat-hdr's aren't affected by the problem.

 

[astreau]

I've done a factory reset as suggested so I will now wait and see if it makes a difference. A plus point of doing the reset today is that now I have the new Channel 5 channels 5*, 5USA etc.

 

[hal8000]

This has not happened on my Foxsat which is about 1 week old. Next time it happens, see if you can telnet or SSH into the Foxsat

Example:
[[email protected] ~]$ ssh -l root 192.168.254.64
[email protected]'s password:
Foxsat-HDR~#


(The IP needs to be changed to your IP address and the command prompt is from my laptop running Ubuntu, it will look different from windows command prompt.)

At the Foxsat prompt:
Foxsat-HDR~#

You can type the command:
top

This will show you which processes are running and the load average on the Foxsat

Mem: 112220K used, 13316K free, 0K shrd, 37084K buff, 38196K cached
CPU: 14.9% usr 13.0% sys 0.0% nic 71.4% idle 0.3% io 0.0% irq 0.1% sirq
Load average: 0.42 0.34 0.16 2/133 681
PID PPID USER STAT VSZ %MEM CPU %CPU COMMAND
292 285 root S 306m250.2 0 11.0 /usr/bin/settop
315 285 root S 306m250.2 0 7.9 /usr/bin/settop
383 285 root S 306m250.2 0 2.1 /usr/bin/settop
681 669 root R 1632 1.3 0 1.5 top
--snip--

The colomn under CPU% should never be higher than 50%, you need to press "q" without the quotes to cancel this command.

If you see any line where the CPU % is higher than 50% copy it in your browser and paste result.

You can then try rebooting, enter:

reboot

and this will restart your Foxsat. Depending on the nature of the lockup these commands may not work and I am assuming you have media bundle 4.04 installed and either telnet or SSH plugin.

You did say in original post that this happens viewing the TV guide. There is a small delay in my box sometimes less than 1 second as it pulls down the TV guide but it never freezes. I'm not sure if a very slow network connection would affect this, some ISP's use traffic shaping at night and the broadband usage for all customers is slowed. This may have nothing to do with your problem though.

 

[Shady Deal]

Thats what happened on my lockup when it was pulling the guide from the sat. Touch wood everything has been fine since!!

 

[bob60]

how is your machine now?
mine has frozen tonight for the 1st time. i turned it off at the power and back on again, but it has frozen again. my machine is about 5 weeks old.

 

[Shady Deal]

Fingers crossed mine has been fine !

 

[MartinPickering]

Foxsat-Hd's have a history of capacitor failure around 18 months old, like the Thomson sky boxes and also Topfield 5800 models. It's a cheap repair, afaik Foxsat-hdr's aren't affected by the problem.

But it would be worth a quick look to see if the HDR has the same CapXon capacitors in the PSU and if any capacitors are bulging*.

*I wouldn't expect to see visible signs in anything much under 12 months old.

 

[Shady Deal]

I thought you said this didn't happen on the HDR ? (get me worried now!)

 

[Shady Deal]

how is your machine now?
mine has frozen tonight for the 1st time. i turned it off at the power and back on again, but it has frozen again. my machine is about 5 weeks old.

Did it freeze on the guide or when just watching the picture?

 

[bob60]

it froze only on the EPG guide

 

[Shady Deal]

it froze only on the EPG guide

Yes mind did first time I used it! There have been a few posts about it freezing on the epg. I personally think it's a bug not a hardware fault but others think different. Ring Humax to see what they say and tell them to make a note of it!
Might not happen again?

 

[grahamlthompson]

But it would be worth a quick look to see if the HDR has the same CapXon capacitors in the PSU and if any capacitors are bulging*.

*I wouldn't expect to see visible signs in anything much under 12 months old.

Mine's 3 years old, touch wood no problems. You would expect at least a few postings by now. I have a HD Foxsat that's older but since getting the HDR it was basically a spare box. Been in use at a friends for about 3 months now with no problems but I expect the problem will crop up eventually. Not frozen up either for at least 2 yrs. It did a few times back in 2008.

 

[astreau]

Na, mine still locks up after the factory reset. It seems worse if skipping quickly through the EPG. The tuner is still working but the EPG locks solid whilst displaying "retrieving programme information". This was part of the fix in the last update so my guess is that this is a bug and is related to that "fix".

 

[grahamlthompson]

Na, mine still locks up after the factory reset. It seems worse if skipping quickly through the EPG. The tuner is still working but the EPG locks solid whilst displaying "retrieving programme information". This was part of the fix in the last update so my guess is that this is a bug and is related to that "fix".

Could be down to a HDD problem or may be a signal related problem with the home transponder. If you tune to 999 and use Menu/System/Diagnostics what signal strength and quality do you get.

If you press the remote schedule button and then the red button do you get an instant and complete epg. ?

The constant retrieving programme info message is usually cleared by doing a freesat tune and not saving the results.

 

[astreau]

I think the clue here is that it didn't do it until the last update. Signal quality is 100% on both tuners and the unit has had a factory reset.

 

[Shady Deal]

I think the clue here is that it didn't do it until the last update. Signal quality is 100% on both tuners and the unit has had a factory reset.

I would agree with you. Phone Humax
Mark