U4 stutters and freezes during playback

[IonSurfer]

Hi all,

I have had a U4 for about a month now (I bought the one with the 4TB hard drive). Since that time I have only successfully watched recordings about four times.

I use the autotimers to record with no problems but when I try to play it back it stutters and freezes with almost no sound. Also I get a spinning 'wheel' icon (this also happens before I try to play back a recording when the media button on the remote control is pressed as the recorded shows populate the list). The unit's front display also shows what appears to be a white vertical battery icon filling and unfilling while I unsuccessfully try to play the recording back (I don't know whether this icon shows when I successfully play a recording back as lately I haven't succeeded in doing this).

My usual response is to switch the U4 off with the switch on the back of the box and then switch it back on and then let it reboot but then when the media button is pressed all the recordings will be absent and the hard drive space will either show up with a question mark or less than a gigabyte of space left. I will then be forced to reformat the hard drive for recordings to resume.

I have tried to disable timelapse and stop active recordings before playing back but to no avail (it still stutters and freezes).

Is this problem due to a lack of RAM or a fault with the hard drive or is there something I can do about it? (I don't want to have to return the device)

Thanks for your advice!

[MrQuade]

The stuttering playback is definitely not normal and points at either software corruption, a hardware fault of some kind or potentially some kind of external interference via the network.

You should try to avoid just switching off power to the unit while it is running if you can help it. While that shouldn't *normally* cause the sorts of problems you are seeing, it does have the potential to corrupt data and do some harm. If the problem happens, try to stop playback of the recording, and perform a reboot via the main menu, or by long-pressing the POWER button on the remote.

To rule out potential software corruption, you should probably consider flashing the latest firmware from USB. This can be downloaded from here.

This will clear your settings and give you a fresh start with the latest version of firmware (your HDD won't be touched by the procedure, so your recordings will remain intact).

Maybe also try testing with your network unplugged temporarily and see if that resolves the issue.

If that doesn't fix the issue, then the problem is likely hardware related and you should get in touch with Beyonwiz.

[Paul_oz53]

Hi all,

I have had a U4 for about a month now (I bought the one with the 4TB hard drive). Since that time I have only successfully watched recordings about four times.

I use the autotimers to record with no problems but when I try to play it back it stutters and freezes with almost no sound. Also I get a spinning 'wheel' icon (this also happens before I try to play back a recording when the media button on the remote control is pressed as the recorded shows populate the list). The unit's front display also shows what appears to be a white vertical battery icon filling and unfilling while I unsuccessfully try to play the recording back (I don't know whether this icon shows when I successfully play a recording back as lately I haven't succeeded in doing this).

My usual response is to switch the U4 off with the switch on the back of the box and then switch it back on and then let it reboot but then when the media button is pressed all the recordings will be absent and the hard drive space will either show up with a question mark or less than a gigabyte of space left. I will then be forced to reformat the hard drive for recordings to resume.

I have tried to disable timelapse and stop active recordings before playing back but to no avail (it still stutters and freezes).

Is this problem due to a lack of RAM or a fault with the hard drive or is there something I can do about it? (I don't want to have to return the device)

Thanks for your advice!

Definitely seems to be an issue with the HDD mount being suspect. You can contact Beyonwiz support if you are uneasy with the steps below. They will probably take you through the same steps before deciding if it needs to be returned.

The problem is possibly a loose SATA or power connection inside the case. You can open the box and reseat the cables as a first step. The U4 is safe to open. It runs on 12V so the risk of shock is very low - touch the plug pack connector with the back of your finger - you'll probably feel a light tingle if all is well with the plugpack. A jolt is bad but extremely rare! (Always use the back of your finger to prevent your hand closing onto a live wire so you can't let go.)

If the fault persists I would also reflash the unit with the latest firmware too. It will ensure that the problem is definitely not a corrupt firmware installation.

[prl]

The unit's front display also shows what appears to be a white vertical battery icon filling and unfilling while I unsuccessfully try to play the recording back (I don't know whether this icon shows when I successfully play a recording back as lately I haven't succeeded in doing this).

The icon isn't intended to depict a battery (though I can see where that's coming from). The tiny text inside the frame at the bottom of the icon says "HDD", though that, too, is a bit misleading.

It isn't actually an indicator of HDD activity. It indicates that the video currently being viewed is seekable (i.e. comes from a file rather than from something like a stream). It flashes at a fixed rate, not in any way corresponding to actual HDD activity. The firmware is coded to show 7 progress steps, each step lasting ~1/5 sec, but the hardware indicator is either all-on or all-off for the stripes (all off when the counter is 0, all on otherwise).

It's an indicator of a characteristic of media is being played rather than showing actual disk activity for the media. It would also display if you played the recording from a network share (which would normally not cause any local disk activity).

[IonSurfer]

Additional details:
•Beyonwiz said they would update the firmware to the latest version before they shipped it to me when I bought the U4
•the hard drive wasn't recognised and had to be initialised when I received it
•when I need to reformat the hard drive (because pressing the media button on the remote control shows that the recordings have disappeared and the hard drive capacity and available space are both listed with a question mark or listed in kB capacities) when I go to setup and File System Check in the Storage menu it usually shows there being two identical 4000.786 GB internal hard drives. I can then format one of the listed hard drives and then upon rebooting it will only show one internal hard drive (as it should) and the media button will show the correct capacity and available space.
•the problem with stuttering and freezing doesn't seem to occur when there are only a very limited number of recordings listed when I press the media button

[Gully]

Additional details:
•Beyonwiz said they would update the firmware to the latest version before they shipped it to me when I bought the U4

The posts are saying to redo the firmware regardless of which version you are on as a possible solution or at least to eliminate that as a possibility.

But saying "latest firmware" is rather meaningless as there are potentially a few it could be, you really need to post the version number/date if you want to share that information.

[prl]

Additional details:
•Beyonwiz said they would update the firmware to the latest version before they shipped it to me when I bought the U4

"Latest version" is too ambiguous to be of much use. The actual firmware version is in MENU>Information>About>Revision.

•the hard drive wasn't recognised and had to be initialised when I received it

On first startup with an unformatted drive, the firmware should detect that the drive isn't formatted and offer to format it. Is that what you meant?

•when I need to reformat the hard drive (because pressing the media button on the remote control shows that the recordings have disappeared and the hard drive capacity and available space are both listed with a question mark or listed in kB capacities) when I go to setup and File System Check in the Storage menu it usually shows there being two identical 4000.786 GB internal hard drives. I can then format one of the listed hard drives and then upon rebooting it will only show one internal hard drive (as it should) and the media button will show the correct capacity and available space.
•the problem with stuttering and freezing doesn't seem to occur when there are only a very limited number of recordings listed when I press the media button

All that points toward a hardware problem, as others have suggested. The likely candidates are an out-of-spec power supply brick, on-board SMPS power supplies (to provide voltages other than 12V), the HDD cabling or the HDD itself. Corrupted firmware is also a possibility, and re-loading the firmware from USB is worth a try.

None of those symptoms are expected on a properly functioning U4.

[IanB]

I guess a question that should have been asked and eliminated as a possible cause :-

What are the tuner Strength and Quality values for all your broadcasters?

Recording a junky signal results in very junky playback.