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11. 

    humry
    

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    My box is out of warranty.

    Today (out of desperation) I tried unplugging the HDD. The box did exactly the same, and wouldn't boot to the normal GUI. I then connected a new HDD. They are standard SATA, BTW. The drive spun up but the box showed the same problem.

    I intend to phone Humax up tomorrow, FWIW. There has been a recent software update and I just wonder whether there is any chance it has bricked my box? I will also see how to get the software to get the box to boot/re-flash from a USB. I suspect I will run into a brick wall but its worth a try.

    | Mon 16 Nov 2015 0:03:12 #11 |
12. 

    MontysEvilTwin
    

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    The only way this model will boot fully and give you access to the GUI is if a properly formatted drive that is registered to that particular unit is connected, and there are no faults. A properly formatted drive has numerous partitions, with some of the partitions encrypted. If you replace the disk with a blank one you will have to go into maintenance mode and select one of the options that wipes the disk, e.g. 'factory reset, delete recordings'. If this is successful you should get to the set up wizard. If you are having trouble getting in to maintenance mode you can boot into maintenance mode with the data cable disconnected. You then need to reconnect the cable before running one of the options. The procedure may still fail, but you could be lucky.
    If you have no luck with the factory reset option you could also try internet/USB recovery. If the unit is connected to your router with an Ethernet cable when you do this it will download the necessary software and install it during the procedure.

    | Mon 16 Nov 2015 14:21:37 #12 |
13. 

    gomezz
    

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    Replacing the PSU may be the real answer. Check for bulging / leaking capacitors and measure for outputs within spec.

    | Mon 16 Nov 2015 14:32:49 #13 |
14. 

    JamesB
    

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    humry - 22 hours ago  » 

    I intend to phone Humax up tomorrow, FWIW.

    Be interested to hear if Humax made any helpful offers.

    | Mon 16 Nov 2015 22:41:52 #14 |
15. 

    humry
    

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    Hello. I have an update (also posted to another Humax forum).

    I opened the Humax box, removed the internal HDD (1Tb Segate Pipeline HD), which was in a nice caddy, reminiscent of the one used in the original TiVo (for those of you who remember),

    I connected it to my Linux PC. The drive was correctly recognised by the BIOS, but after Linux had booted there was no sign that it had been mounted. Looking in the system logs (dmesg) it appeared that there were read errors, suggesting that the drive is ****ed.

    I then connected up a spare 160Gb SATA HDD to the existing SATA connector of the box. I went into maintenance mode, and when there selected the option to "Factory Reset - Delete recordings". After some time (I went away) the tuning screen came up. I was able to tune Freeview channels and see BBC1. I forgot to check the available HDD space before switching off.

    Summary. The main CPU/control PCB is NOT broken. It appears that the 1Tb Seagate Pipeline HD hard disk drive had failed. Together with poorly written firmware, this resulted in the box getting stuck at the "nearly ready" screen.

    WARNING. DO NOT open the box and have it switched on as the power supply can be lethal if accidently touched. I am an electronics engineer and had a good idea what I was doing, and I have a very healthy respect for uncovered power supplies.

    A new drive (the exact same one) from the usual sources costs around £50. Googling suggests this drive is designed for AV purposes, but I also found a very interesting link to a web site which gave some uncomfortable news about the reliability of Seagate drives.

    As I don't like the user interface, I will probably not use this box again. I know that there is a new Humax FreeView box, and I will think about getting one, but first I will try to get a demonstration of the user intrerface/experience.

    I hope the information posted by myself and others helps anyone searching about this topic in the future.

    BTW, I emailed Humax, gave the full story, but no reply so far.

    | Wed 18 Nov 2015 22:41:06 #15 |
16. 

    JamesB
    

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    Very interesting. Thanks for the info.

    | Wed 18 Nov 2015 22:53:13 #16 |
17. 

    humry
    

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    I have now been in contact with Humax via email. Summary - a complete waste of time.

    I would be very interested to see how many people have suffered from the "nearly ready" hang-up problem. If you have a box that has failed, please add details such as the length of time that you have used the box.

    | Tue 24 Nov 2015 22:18:11 #17 |
18. 

    JamesB
    

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    The official YouView position:

    53. Q: Keith (Forum Champion): Is it true that the Humax T1000 boxes have a high failure rate? Do you think this has proved detrimental to the YouView brand?
    A: Sunit Kotecha (Head of Operations): The short answer is “no”, and there is no subsequent brand detriment. The Humax T1000 has proven to be a reliable product, with a failure rate that is well within the industry norm and comparable to similar products from Humax and other manufacturers. In general, YouView has ten different devices models in the field, and this number grows year on year. They are all built to the same technical specifications and are manufactured, quality-assured and tested in the same way, and YouView continually seeks to improve features, performance and reliability of all devices, through regular software updates.

    (from the Sept 2014 "YouView Forum Q&A, http://videos.youview.com/support/QuestionAndAnswer.pdf#page13)

    But the thread at https://community.youview.com/youview/topics/dtr-t1000-reliability gives a less rosy assessment.

    | Tue 24 Nov 2015 22:54:05 #18 |

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