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nwood

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 8:09 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 334 Location: Bracknell, Berkshire

Hi all,

My TF5800 has been rock-solid for months/years (running MyStuff 6.2 and related TAPs), until this evening.

During playback the picture froze and the unit seemed to lock up. Rebooting and the hard disk just seemed to have disappeared. No TAPs were loaded. From the native menu I could see that the "Recording" menu item, and "Format Hard Disk" menu item were both greyed out. Same thing happened for two or three power cycles.

Then I left the unit turned off for a few minutes, and then tried again. After a VF&F everything came back as normal.

But I'm concerned it might happen again. Is this a sign that my hardware is about to give up the ghost? The box is probably about 6-8 years old (just a wild guess).

I did go through the retune a few days ago, so might have one or two extra channels in the line up (although I did make sure to remove all the dross using Channel Organiser). I also took the opportunity to upgrade to MyStuff 6.4 at the same time.

Has anyone experienced similar symptoms? Should I wait for it to happen again, or take preventitive measures?

Cheers,
Nigel

_________________
TF5800, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -FmSyVrXl+BmC0CbCfCtDDsEvFsIMPeWfZ
TAPs: EPG2MEI v0.96; TAP Commander 1.34; MyStuff 6.4; TF5000 Display v1.53; MyInfo B5.6; SecCache (UK) v0.4; Extend v1.7; EIT Sub (Game) v0.6; MHEG On/Off A3;
Sig generated by MyInfo on 10/4/12

juwlz

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 8:30 pm

MyStuff Team Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 9647 Location: Wokingham, Berkshire (Hannington transmitter)

As you're in Bracknell, PM andyfras in Fleet about getting the PSU repaired, and in the meantime, unplug The Toppy from the mains to prevent any (further) damage to the hard drive or other expensive components (even if it's only being used as a Freeview box).

You've done well if it's 6-8 years old. PSU failure is very common (but cheap to fix) in Toppies, and most don't last that long. Sometimes a retune is enough stress to tip a borderline PSU over the edge. Assuming this is the first sign you've seen of anything untoward, your hard drive will probably have survived, and once the PSU has been repaired, you should be able to access it again.

Edit: Never mind - I see you've already done it
Once it's back up and running, I would strongly advise updating to MyStuff 6.4 (which will also update some important associated TAPs), as this version includes some fixes that minimise the risk of a disk wipe under certain circumstances if signal quality is poor. The cause is not fully understood, but there's a system call in versions of MyStuff prior to 6.4 that increase the risk of triggering it.

Julie

_________________
5800, TS On, F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 -Sy+BmC0CfCtFsIMPePsR3UUuUxZ
5810, TS On, F/W: F/W: MS6 Recommended F/W 12/9/2009 +BmCfCtFsR3Z
MyStuff info; Help!
Harmony 885 remote. Sig date 8 April 2012

nwood

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:19 pm

Frequent contributor Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 334 Location: Bracknell, Berkshire

Julie, thanks for the advice.

You were right on the money. Andy said that the caps were shot, and as a consequence the rails were all over the shop. He's already worked his magic on a fast turnaround. I now seem to be back to normal operation, with hopefully no lasting damage to the HDD.

It's quite scary over the years, how dependent we've become on this little black box of tricks. But also quite wonderful that the Toppy support network is still alive and well.

Thanks again,
Nigel

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