Help - T2 unresponsive regularly.

[AvB]

Hi - since I replaced the HDD with a new SSD drive last week, when our Beyonwiz T2 has been sitting idle for hours, and each overnight, it seems to go into a coma. It has a black screen and is unresponsive. The red light blinks in response to the remote, but nothing happens. I have to unplug it and leave it for a few minutes and then it will restart and work fine from then. Sometimes when it restarts it comes up with the message "The timer file (timers.xml) is corrupt and could not be loaded).

Any ideas??

Thanks.

[AvB]

Could someone acknowledge whether my posts are being read? This is the 2nd time that I've posted a query and had no response. I hope I haven't transgressed some unwritten rule and been ostracised?

I could really do with some help on this. Apart from going unresponsive at times, the T2 is also losing the manual timers ... I use one to tape the local ABC news and it disappeared. I added it back on again, but it keeps losing it.

So the message about the corrupted file is no doubt related. But I don't know how to fix it.

Cheers, thanks, Andrew.

[Gully]

Give people a chance this was up for less than a day and you need someone who caan provide an informed response not just to say I read this but cannot help surely?

And your last topic yiu answered yourself and said it's all fine.

[peteru]

Best bet would be to use the RS-232 serial console of the T2 to collect the output during the time this problem occurs. There's a good chance it would include some useful messages.

[AvB]

Hey guys, please understand that I’m not in any way complaining. The support you guys give is astounding, way beyond the call of duty, and a lot of guys like me would not have been able to persevere with the Beyonwiz units without your amazing technical support, and I absolutely do not take it for granted. I thank you sincerely again for it.

I did genuinely wonder whether there was something hiding my posts because:

1) In the past, ie years ago, I got very rapid responses back … (understanding however that I don’t expect that that’s always going to be the case,

and:

2) When I looked at my posts in the list, the icon to the left was greyed out and I don’t know what that means, and wondered whether the posts were pending or something.

It was back into hibernation again this morning.

I don’t know what to do with the RS232 port? I barely know what it is.

Thanks again, Andrew.

[prl]

This is the 2nd time that I've posted a query and had no response.

In the previous topic you created, viewtopic.php?f=50&t=15398, you first posted at 12:30, and then 27 minutes later, you posted that "it seems to be working fine!". I (and perhaps others) assumed that you no longer had a problem, though I was a little surprised that formatting the recording HDD had fixed a the problem in the timers.xml file, which is on the firmware flash storage, not on the HDD.

For your current issue, I suggest that you reinstall the firmware from USB, and restore settings from backup, if you have made a settings backup. That will give you an old copy of the timers.xml file, but it should be in the correct format, unless you did a settings backup after you started getting the error message about the corrupted timers.xml file. Because the restored timers.xml file is old, you'll need to add/remove timers to bring it up to date with your current recording needs.

[prl]

This is the 2nd time that I've posted a query and had no response.

In the previous topic you created, viewtopic.php?f=50&t=15398, you first posted at 12:30, and then 27 minutes later, you posted that "it seems to be working fine!" I (and perhaps others) assumed that you no longer had a problem, though I was a little surprised that formatting the recording HDD had fixed a problem with the timers.xml file, which is on the firmware flash storage, not on the HDD.

For your current issue, I suggest that you reinstall the firmware from USB, and restore settings from backup, if you have made a settings backup. That will give you an old copy of the timers.xml file, but it should be in the correct format, unless you did a settings backup after you started getting the error message about the corrupted timers.xml file. Because the restored timers.xml file is old, you'll need to add/remove timers to bring it up to date with your current recording needs.

[AvB]

Yes when I posted that first message I didn't want to touch anything while it set itself up with, and formatted the new disk. I was alarmed at the "timer.xml corrupted" warning but eventually after a long wait I tried pressing OK and the warning just disappeared and then said the unit wanted to reboot.

After reboot, it worked fine. But then we noticed the ABC news wasn't taping, and the timer wasn't there, and then we also found that it goes unresponsive. I reset the timer but when I reboot it after being unresponsive I get the "corrupted" message again and then find that the manual timer has gone.

Unfortunately no, I didn't do a settings backup. But the ABC local news timer is the only manual timer that I have. Everything else is via IceTV.

I've found the instructions for firmware upgrade and will follow that. I don't think I've ever upgraded it before except maybe at purchase.

Thanks again,
Andrew.

[prl]

I suggest that you use the firmware installer for the T2 listed here: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=14964. That is the most recent firmware for the T2.

Use the link under the Alternative locations heading. The other links won't work.

After doing the firmware upgrade, you'll need to go to your IceTV page, and in My Account>My Recorders, click on the Settings button for your T2, and then click on Resend all recordings for this device. Then on your T2, from live TV, MENU>IceTV>Fetch EPG and update timers now. That will restore all the IceTV timers lost in doing the firmware update, and bring the T2 back in sync with the timers that the IceTV server believes are on the T2.

[AvB]

OK, thanks, will do.

[AvB]

OK done. It didn't work then I realized the USB stick I had was USB3 so I found an older one and it worked. Let's see if it's stable now.

Thanks enormously for the assistance.

[AvB]

It was all working this morning! First day it has not gone unresponsive. And the manual timer is still there.

I just want to give a huge THANK YOU for the MASSIVE VOLUNTARY SUPPORT AND ADVICE that you guys give.

It's just fantastic really. I'm sure there are others like me who don't understand much about the detailed technical stuff but we are able to follow instructions and without your advice we would not have been able to persevere with the Beyonwiz T2. We really like the unit, and have got completely used to it and don't want to change to something else, so this has been great.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[prl]

Great to hear!

Did you get all your IceTV timers back after doing the upgrade?

[AvB]

Yes, no problems, they all came back.

My Beyonwiz seems to take a fairly long time to boot up ... maybe it's always been that way, not sure. If I power it off, then plug back in it comes up with the intro screen, then goes black for a fair while then the next screen ... then another wait anyway, seems to take a few minutes. You get used to things booting up fast these days.

[prl]

When I start my test T2 from "off at the mains" it's 7 seconds from power on to show the "Beyonwiz button" screen, 20 secs from power on to the "bubbles" screen and 90 sec from power on to fully on.

That's with the network attached, but no network shares mounted on the T2.

If you power off to standby instead of shutdown, startup from standby is almost instantaneous, but much of the system stays running. The A/V outputs are off, the recording for timeshifting stops, and if nothing is using the HDD, that spins down after (default) 5 minutes. Recordings will work in this state (and the HDD will spin back down after the recordings finish). But, of course, it will still use more power than shutdown.

[AvB]

Peter, I compared my startup speed and the overall time to start is similar but mine has a long time with black screen before the "bubbles" screen comes up.
5 seconds to Beyonwiz button (blue circle).
15 seconds screen goes black
77 seconds "bubbles" screen appears
90 seconds it blinks briefly
99 seconds fully on.

[prl]

15 seconds screen goes black
77 seconds "bubbles" screen appears

That seems a long time between them, but oddly, your total time to start is only about 9 sec longer than what I measured.