Repair sequence for T1010 please

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Repair sequence for T1010 please

(11 posts)

joecool

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Hello

My machine failed after 3 years and a rather flippant tech support chap at Humax told me to buy another machine.

The thread below inspired me to give it a try, but I'm a bit confused in terms of what to do next:

https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/humax-dtr-t1010-cannot-enter-maintenance-mode

So here we go:

1) My T1010 has had intermittent 'won't switch on from the remote' for ever but this can normally be cured by a main switch off/on

2) Last week, the machine froze on 'white circle on' but totally frozen. The switching off resulted in a dead machine, save for the left power light (at the front) being on

3) None of the 'rescue' procedures indicated by Humax have worked. As far as I can tell, there is no fan noise, so I don't know if it's the HD power supply, controller, or the HD itself that is gone

4) I have now removed the HD, purchased a USB/SATA cable and attempted to check the HD: nothing. Won't mount/be seen by any software. However the cable manual says that 3.5" disks often need separate power supply. I may have to cannibalise another HD temporarily to find out but it involves swapping active drive caddies so I'm lukewarm.

Before I incur other costs, I have a couple of questions:

5) What is the repair order? If I have a fresh blank disk, will the Humax start? I.e does it have its basic instructions in RAM - enough to re-download what is needed to make it work?

6) If I get a fresh disk, what format should it be in? FAT32? Something else?

7) Once the HD is re-mounted then what?

If the HD doesn't work, how can I test the controller?

9) At what point to I give up ?!

Thanks!

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 0:58:40 #1 |
grahamlthompson

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Hi joecool. Welcome to our forum. Your post should be in the Youview DTR thread where you are much more likely to find a member with the same box.

Hopefully a friendly moderator will move it to the appropriate thread

Admin Edit: Done

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 10:50:12 #2 |
joecool

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Thanks Graham! Yes, I see it now: I was fooled by the '1010' and didn't see the Freesat root to the thread...

(meanwhile any suggestion welcome!)

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 10:56:07 #3 |
grahamlthompson

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joecool - 32 minutes ago »
Thanks Graham! Yes, I see it now: I was fooled by the '1010' and didn't see the Freesat root to the thread...
(meanwhile any suggestion welcome!)

Unfortunately I don't have any experience of the DTR models but in respect of connecting the disk to a PC I can probably help. Firstly you do need a powered device to use 3.5" disk on a PC usb port.

A drop in drive cradle/dock is easiest.

eg

https://blusas.co.uk/mho.php?loc=https://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-Docking-Including-External-Tool-Free/dp/B00IS7Y96I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&tag=blusas008-21&qid=1485945083&sr=8-1&keywords=sata+drive+dock

Then there is the file system used on Humax boxes which is invariably Linux EXT3. Without drivers a PC can't work with Linux EXT2/3.

The usual driver used is EXT2FSD.

http://www.ext2fsd.com/

Alternatively you can download a free linux image that you can create a boot CD or USB stick and boot your PC into Linux.

https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

All the Humax Pvrs I have used have the Operating System in NVRAM so a new hard disk can be simply added and the box will set it up.

Foxsat-HDR - 1TB max for auto setup

HDR1000s/1010s/1100S - 2TB works fine

HDR-FOX-T2/1800T/2000T - 2TB (and larger using the custom firmware in the case of the HDR-FOX-T2).

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 11:40:12 #4 |
Luke

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joecool - 10 hours ago »
4) I have now removed the HD, purchased a USB/SATA cable and attempted to check the HD: nothing. Won't mount/be seen by any software. However the cable manual says that 3.5" disks often need separate power supply. I may have to cannibalise another HD temporarily to find out but it involves swapping active drive caddies so I'm lukewarm.

Yes, a desktop 3.5” will require a separate power supply. Didn’t your USB/SATA adapter come with one? They are available with power adapter for under £10 from ebay.
Also as the format is Linux you would not be able to use a standard windows PC without extra software and as it includes an XFS partition you may have to pay for that. The software EXT2FSD does not cover XFS partitions, but …

MontesEvilTwin – 2014 hummy.tv reply concerning a T2000
I don't know of free software to do this. If you have a PC with a Linux based OS it is straightforward: I use Ubuntu. I don't have a dedicated Linux PC; I boot from a USB drive into Ubuntu. If you do a search it is easy to find instructions to do this.

.

joecool - 10 hours ago »
3) None of the 'rescue' procedures indicated by Humax have worked. As far as I can tell, there is no fan noise, so I don't know if it's the HD power supply, controller, or the HD itself that is gone

The lack of fan noise could be a red herring. I think the T1000 which is the previous incarnation of the T1010 only switches on the fan when it gets very warm. (Presumably you mean HDD and not HD!)

joecool - 10 hours ago »
5) What is the repair order? If I have a fresh blank disk, will the Humax start? I.e. does it have its basic instructions in RAM - enough to re-download what is needed to make it work?

When switched on with a new HDD it should go into maintenance mode. You will need to be connected to your router. There will be an option to format the HDD and use the internet connection to update the software.

joecool - 10 hours ago »
6) If I get a fresh disk, what format should it be in? FAT32? Something else?

In theory it should not matter as the T1010 should ask to format it along with the software update.
If you do fully format to a non-ext format (as opposed to a quick format) that will likely force any formatting by the T1010 to be full as well. I personally wouldn’t bother until I knew the new HDD was going to be accepted by trying it out first, and if it did work then I’d pay attention to a nice clean format by the T1010.

joecool - 10 hours ago »
7) Once the HD is re-mounted then what?

If it does not offer to reformat/update with a new HDD then I would give up.
Presumably you have checked the obvious connections on the inside just in case the added issue and your forced power off coinciding was just a coincidence?

joecool - 10 hours ago »
9) At what point to I give up ?!

A balance between money, time and a like of tinkering and your wife if you have one.

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 12:02:52 #5 |
joecool

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Awesome Luke, complements Graham's advice nicely.

So I will order both a cradle and an HDD and play around. Now talking about HDD, the one in the Humax was a Seagate Video 1TB (ST1000VM002), sometimes referred to as Pipeline. It claims to have 'video' characteristics and resilience (not great after 3 years of very occasional use!)

Now it's quite expensive and there seems to be younger models. What would be your recommendation? I assume Sata 3 wouldn't be compatible? (you can see the limits of my knowledge here) Happy with any 1TB drive, although something bigger for a tenner extra would also be welcome.

Thanks!

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 12:23:26 #6 |
grahamlthompson

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joecool - 18 minutes ago »
Awesome Luke, complements Graham's advice nicely.
So I will order both a cradle and an HDD and play around. Now talking about HDD, the one in the Humax was a Seagate Video 1TB (ST1000VM002), sometimes referred to as Pipeline. It claims to have 'video' characteristics and resilience (not great after 3 years of very occasional use!)
Now it's quite expensive and there seems to be younger models. What would be your recommendation? I assume Sata 3 wouldn't be compatible? (you can see the limits of my knowledge here) Happy with any 1TB drive, although something bigger for a tenner extra would also be welcome.
Thanks!

You need a drive specified for AV use. They are designed to have a low power consumption and deliver reliable AV stream storage 24/7. I recently dropped one of these into my HDR1000S. It's whisper quiet.

https://blusas.co.uk/mho.php?loc=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008B0RQ1C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&tag=blusas008-21&psc=1

If you have a spare sata PC drive knocking about no harm in confirming the box works with it before shelling out on a good AV design.

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 12:45:03 #7 |
Luke

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joecool - 19 minutes ago »
Awesome Luke, complements Graham's advice nicely.
So I will order both a cradle and an HDD and play around. Now talking about HDD, the one in the Humax was a Seagate Video 1TB (ST1000VM002), sometimes referred to as Pipeline. It claims to have 'video' characteristics and resilience (not great after 3 years of very occasional use!)
Now it's quite expensive and there seems to be younger models. What would be your recommendation? I assume Sata 3 wouldn't be compatible? (you can see the limits of my knowledge here) Happy with any 1TB drive, although something bigger for a tenner extra would also be welcome.
Thanks!

Do you not have a spare HDD that you could first try out on the T1010 just to check that it is the current HDD that is the issue?
Seams a bit expensive to buy a new HDD with no guarantee that it is the HDD that is causing the issue.

If not I'd be tempted to use Linux to
(1) Attempt to look at its smart data to see what sort of condition it is in
(2) then write all zeros to the current disk to blank it before retrying it in the T1010
"dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/xxx bs=1M"
You'll need to make sure yo set xxx to the correct disk and not your computers drive.

Also no need for a cradle unless you can fund one cheap, or particularly have a need for one.
I use an adpater+power that looks like this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-3-5-IDE-SATA-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-to-USB-2-0-Cable-UK-Fused-Power-Adapter-/320895175406

| Wed 1 Feb 2017 13:08:10 #8 |
joecool

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Update...

I got the cradle and the HDD powered up without problem.

I tried to run some tests on the existing Linux configuration but not much happened. So I reformatted it a couple of times, first Mac Journaled then FAT32. Tested then and everything appeared OK.

Reinstalled the HDD in the box, reconnected everything and exact same thing as before: Power light on the front is on, ethernet connection at the back is live and absolutely nothing happens.

So do I have an expensive doorstop, or is there anything else I can try?

| Sat 4 Feb 2017 2:17:26 #9 |
joecool

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Update to the update: first hope, then more disappointment!

I eventually managed to reformat the HDD using a Linux plugin for Mac. First I zeroed the drive, then formatted it.

Plugged everything back and not much happened: the ethernet lights were blinking slowly/intermittently. I moved back to the front, pressed the round button and presto! I got a white circle and the welcome screen popped up. I then got nearly ready... for 4 hours. OK, I decided to try something else, like force maintenance mode. So switched off, on again, and I now have a machine as dead as two days ago. The HDD seems to spin (I can feel a vibration when I touch the housing (the top of the unit is still open), and the two ethernet lights are fully on (no data transfer blinking).

Tether? End?

| Sun 5 Feb 2017 23:33:21 #10 |