My Humax Forum » Freesat HD » HDR 1000, 1010, 1100S

My box crashes with latest firmware, old beta OK

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    rkl

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    I've been using the Nov 2014 firmware pretty well since it came out OTA for my HDR 1000S without any issues, but in the last several days, my box is regularly crashing (it's a strange one - the picture stays on OK, but the remote stops working and the GUI clock freezes).

    I've done all the recommended things - factory reset, drive format, power cycle with minutes between power off and on. The only thing that seems to stop the crashes is to downgrade to an old beta of the firmware from Jan 2013 downloaded from http://beta.humaxonline.co.uk/downloads/hdr-1000s

    If I then do a manual update back to the Nov 2014 release, I get the crashes again. Unfortunately, once the unit is in standby overnight, it does an OTA upgrade and I get the crashing issue when I wake up and check the box. Is there any way to prevent an OTA firmware update (short of power offs/disconnecting net/sat cables/not going into standby) when the unit is in standby?

    It is quite strange that rolling back the firmware stops the crashes - it suggests that the latest firmware has a bug that causes the crash. I'm getting tired of downgrading the firmware each morning and the box is out of warranty now - anyone got any suggestions to fix this?

    In the meantime, are there firmware versions available for download that are newer than Jan 2013 and older than Nov 2014? I'd like to try to bisect at which point the crashes occur at least (so I can get to the latest firmware that doesn't crash - the Jan 2013 firmware itself has bugs, some UI differences and a lot slower EPG).

    | Mon 15 Jun 2015 10:00:49 #1 |
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    JamesB

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    When you say the remote stops working - is it a problem with the remote, or is it that the box becomes (partially) unresponsive? Does it respond when you use the buttons on the boc instead of the remote?

    | Mon 15 Jun 2015 10:33:00 #2 |
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    rkl

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    JamesB - 10 hours ago  » 
    When you say the remote stops working - is it a problem with the remote, or is it that the box becomes (partially) unresponsive? Does it respond when you use the buttons on the boc instead of the remote?

    The freeze usually happens when in the GUI - nothing works at all: the remote (which lights up the STB button red on button presses, so the remote is transmitting fine) and front panel buttons do nothing and the GUI clock freezes at the time of the crash and never changes. The strange thing is that the in-picture channel video/audio in the GUI continues to run OK, but you can't change channel, mute, go into standby etc.

    If I power cycle, the fact that the latest firmware effectively goes into GUI on power up by displaying now/next on startup (I think this is a poor new "feature" that wasn't present in the old beta firmware - you have to press Back on every startup to get rid of it...all the TVs and recorders I've ever seen power up to full screen non-GUI mode for immediate viewing) means that the crash can happen quite quickly after power on.

    I do wonder if the filing system on the Humax is corrupt (e.g. maybe from a previous power cycle) - and not fixed by a drive format - but only in an area used by the newer firmware. For example, On Demand and Showcase don't work at all on the old beta firmware (yes, I have a working net connection), but I seem to be able to induce a crash quite often when selecting either option in the new firmware. However, it does crash with other (non-network-using) GUI operations too.

    | Mon 15 Jun 2015 21:24:05 #3 |
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    JamesB

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    If you search through this sub-forum you'll find many reports of this kind of freezing, probably not all due to the same cause. A couple of things to try:

    a) Give the box more time to wake up from standby. Showcase and On Demand have been restructured(*) and now seem to take quite a bit longer to become fully functional. During this transition period it appears the box may be vulnerable to being thrown into a freeze by something as simple as trying to change channel.

    b) At a time when the box isn't recording or soon due to start recording, try a factory default reset (make a note of any recording timers you have set, or take a photo of them, because this will wipe them.)

    c) Also at a time when the box isn't recording or due to record, put it into standby and then switch off at the wall, unplug, and leave it for an hour or so.

    See what transpires.

    (* ) The changes to Showcase and OnDemand are the reason they no longer work with the older software. Embedded URLs have changed, plus other changes.

    | Mon 15 Jun 2015 21:59:50 #4 |
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    rkl

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    None of 3 suggestions you made worked when I'm on the Nov 2014 firmware. Instead, I set all options not to power save, turned off the recording buffer to avoid disk activity when not actually recording and left the box always "on" (i.e. not in standby, even overnight). This was the only way not to upgrade the firmware and it worked, albeit obviously using a lot more power per day than I'd like.

    However, I decided to do a manual OTA software update just now and there's a new 2.02.34 (May 2015) firmware update that's also mentioned on another thread. To my surprise, this appears to have fixed my crashing issue (I say surprise, because it appears people say you need a factory reset to avoid rebooting every 30 minutes with the May 2015 firmware - I didn't need one ).

    I do *not* pair with the pointless Freesat app (that they now plug when you go into the Recordings section for the first time) because it causes a box wake up every 15 minutes or so when in standby - ludicrous!

    I still think that Humax should a) offer a way to turn off automatic firmware updates and b) have a set of firmware downloads so we can pick which one works best for us when we apply it manually via USB.

    | Sat 20 Jun 2015 1:04:52 #5 |
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    JamesB

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    rkl - 5 hours ago  » 
    None of 3 suggestions you made worked when I'm on the Nov 2014 firmware. Instead, I set all options not to power save, turned off the recording buffer to avoid disk activity when not actually recording and left the box always "on" (i.e. not in standby, even overnight). This was the only way not to upgrade the firmware and it worked, albeit obviously using a lot more power per day than I'd like.
    However, I decided to do a manual OTA software update just now and there's a new 2.02.34 (May 2015) firmware update that's also mentioned on another thread. To my surprise, this appears to have fixed my crashing issue (I say surprise, because it appears people say you need a factory reset to avoid rebooting every 30 minutes with the May 2015 firmware - I didn't need one ).
    I do *not* pair with the pointless Freesat app (that they now plug when you go into the Recordings section for the first time) because it causes a box wake up every 15 minutes or so when in standby - ludicrous!
    I still think that Humax should a) offer a way to turn off automatic firmware updates and b) have a set of firmware downloads so we can pick which one works best for us when we apply it manually via USB.

    Interesting.

    Glad to hear it's working for you now.

    | Sat 20 Jun 2015 6:17:05 #6 |
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    Ed Bell

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    My box is crashing numerous times per day since the last update. What is going on ? This happened some years ago and I gave the box away, vowing never to buyHumax again, but I did. What is the solution please?

    | Sat 20 Jun 2015 21:19:36 #7 |
  8. grahamlthompson

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    Ed Bell - 50 minutes ago  » 
    My box is crashing numerous times per day since the last update. What is going on ? This happened some years ago and I gave the box away, vowing never to buyHumax again, but I did. What is the solution please?

    Hi and welcome to the forum. I rather think thst this question is the subject of much research at Humax towers and Freesat HQ.

    The problem is that supposedly identical boxes have different symptoms. Finding the common denominator is very hard. As members of this forum we can all help.

    | Sat 20 Jun 2015 22:14:43 #8 |

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