HD Box Crashed?

southpaw

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Hi

My HD box crashed lasted night while watching a recorded program. It stuck for a few seconds then switched off to standby.

It was also recording a program at the time and had recorded 55 mins with about 5 minutes and the planner showed it had failed (which peed me off!)

Initially I thought I'd phone Sky and get an engineer round with hopefully a new box (I have a Thomson box)

BUT after looking at a few threads on here I'm wondering whether its better the devil you know OR is this a sign of things to come?

What would you suggest?
 
This happened to me this morning. It's happened a few times but not a regular occurrence. I wouldn't report it unless it starts to happen every week. The last thing you need is the box packing up when a prograsmme is being recorded and you are on holiday! (which has happened to me in the passsed). Keep an eye on it, if it happens again next in a 2-3 days then get Sky to replace it
 
This happened to me this morning. It's happened a few times but not a regular occurrence. I wouldn't report it unless it starts to happen every week. The last thing you need is the box packing up when a prograsmme is being recorded and you are on holiday! (which has happened to me in the passsed). Keep an eye on it, if it happens again next in a 2-3 days then get Sky to replace it

It's an occasional event, just like your pc when it encounters a temporary problem. Keep an eye on things, tho'. A Planner Rebuild regularly helps.
 
I've had the box 5 weeks and have done a planner rebuild a few times. (the crash was a first)

What exactly does a planner rebuild do?
And how often should it be done?
 
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Happens to me usually once a month, including Thurs AND Sunday last week (Bones & Fringe recordings on HD channels got trashed). Been doing it for years ever since I got this crappy HD box. And always (for me) with exactly the same circumstances - i.e. exactly on the hour when a recording is finishing and it is due to start another. I have auto-padding before/after turned off (in an attempt to minimise one of the other long standing problems of the Sky box of frozen recordings as mentioned elsewhere on these forums with mixed success).

Would be interested to hear whether this shutdown issue is an indication of the infamous crappy power supply - perhaps a surge of activity of finalising the recording on the HD while starting two more causes it to give up. Would an upgrade of the power supply help at all?
 
the last few mornings the box has refused to switch on resulting in a couple of overnight recordings "failed", ive got a launch sky hd box with the power supply rebuilt and a 1tb hard drive, all has been well for about 3 months but all of a sudden we are back to this again, it always seems to be when new channels are launched that the box gets these problems.

i have a load of recorded progs with only 8% free should this cause a problem for the box? ive tried a planner rebuild and it hasnt made no difference, ive also checked for failed recordings.

ive also had the same as the 1st post, the box locked up playing a recording then went on to standby,

its only done this once though
 
i have a load of recorded progs with only 8% free should this cause a problem for the box? ive tried a planner rebuild and it hasnt made no difference, ive also checked for failed recordings.

I've read somewhere that a lack of free space can cause these problems, yes. Sorry, can't remember where.
 
Had a similar problem the other day - I was recording 2 HD channels, both finishing at 10pm, followed by another prog on one of those channels starting at 10pm.

I had taken the precaution of setting padding to zero to eliminate the problem of the 10pm start not being playable.

I was in at the time and noticed the box switched itself off exactly on 10pm causing both or the original recordings to fail and the 10pm start one to miss the start.

This has nothing to do with the amount of free spaced on the drive.

I would suggest that the problem is the processor cannot cope with the number of tasks it is being asked to do at 1 time - ie close down 2 recordings and start a third.
 
Happens to me usually once a month, including Thurs AND Sunday last week (Bones & Fringe recordings on HD channels got trashed). Been doing it for years ever since I got this crappy HD box. And always (for me) with exactly the same circumstances - i.e. exactly on the hour when a recording is finishing and it is due to start another. I have auto-padding before/after turned off (in an attempt to minimise one of the other long standing problems of the Sky box of frozen recordings as mentioned elsewhere on these forums with mixed success).

Would be interested to hear whether this shutdown issue is an indication of the infamous crappy power supply - perhaps a surge of activity of finalising the recording on the HD while starting two more causes it to give up. Would an upgrade of the power supply help at all?

This is interesting as I experience exactly the same, it happens at least once a week and does happen on the hour when 2 recordings are finishing, hadnt twigged until i read your post!

I think a call to sky is on the cards as I do weekly planner rebuilds, I also think the idea about the processor not being able to cope with closing 2 recordings and starting the next.

Ive only had my box a couple of months so should get a brand new replacement.

Is there really any way to definately know if the box being fitted is brand new? apart from the installers word for it ? :rotfl:

EDIT : for those experiencing this exact thing, what make of box do you have? I have a Thomson btw
 
Had a similar problem the other day - I was recording 2 HD channels, both finishing at 10pm, followed by another prog on one of those channels starting at 10pm.

I had taken the precaution of setting padding to zero to eliminate the problem of the 10pm start not being playable.

I was in at the time and noticed the box switched itself off exactly on 10pm causing both or the original recordings to fail and the 10pm start one to miss the start.

This has nothing to do with the amount of free spaced on the drive.

I would suggest that the problem is the processor cannot cope with the number of tasks it is being asked to do at 1 time - ie close down 2 recordings and start a third.


Sadly this is true. I have learned never to risk recording two things at once as this tempts fate with the HD box. Possibly over cautious but if you want to avoid these crashes now and then it is the only way.

The zero minutes padding solution is another essential workaround. Not just to prevent the second in the chain recording but refusing to play (like the above dual record crash this is not a constant but an intermittent bug). But it also usually stops crashes when you are recording back to back and at the same time watching a recording. Without zero padding doing this you do risk a crash.

The reason it helps is that it creates a couple of seconds break between the first recording ending and the second beginning meaning that the box only has two things at most to handle at once (one recording and one playback). Padding (even auto) will cause it to maybe need to do three things at the overlap point (when the padding kicks in) and this is where the struggles can happen.

This is why you so often see these things reported just a few minutes before or exactly on the point where one recording ends and another begins. Try zero padding. It really does help.

Not a 100% solution but pretty good until Sky resolve these issues - if ever.
 
Sadly this is true. I have learned never to risk recording two things at once as this tempts fate with the HD box. Possibly over cautious but if you want to avoid these crashes now and then it is the only way.
I can almost always record two HD-programmes and play a 3rd!! On rare occasions the STB does struggle with this load but a reboot (afterwards!) always clears it for the next few weeks!
 
well the planner rebuild cured the morning lockup for me, its also made the box a hell of a lot faster browsing the planner :thumbsup: even though i have over 100 progs recorded!! finally i can enjoy the 1tb hard drive again without having to worry about it not turning on in a morning!

ive never had a problem with recording two progs at once though :rolleyes:
 
Unfortunately happened to me yet again last night - the same culprit again of Fringe on Sky1 HD. As soon as that recording finished the box "died". The "simultaneous activity" at the time was a recording of the NFL in HD, and watching an SD recording. It would appear there is some sort of burst of activity of when it tries to finalise the recording that the box cannot cope with - whether it is processor or power supply related would be nice to know.

Freaking annoying though - no harm done last night as Fringe was on Anytime and I was here to turn the box back off/on, but if it happened when you were on holiday you are so screwed...

And to second a comment above - it is not space related, I have loads free. And yes it is the dreaded Thompson box...
 
well blow me it happened on my box last night, I was recording 2 late movies, casino and a western. Not seen them for a while and gutted when I sat down tonight both part recorded.

I wonder if changing the PSU would cure this problem?

gbnitie:mad:
 
I've changed the psu and the lnb and it happened again last night.Just get used to it ....one of SKY's software/hardware bugs:mad:
 

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