V2 lost a tuner, now getting "Notification of failed timer" notifications

[asteele]

Hi Folks,

My trusty V2 has lost the use of its 3rd tuner.

The external USB tuner has failed somehow. The V2 can see it, but there is no signal strength. It used to work fine, cable still has a nice connection and have I tried re-seating and have power cycled the V2, but it doesn't work any more.

So, I am now running with the two internal tuners - which should be fine, but the V2 is reporting timer issues to IceTV - so I am getting lots of "Notification of failed timer" email notifications, and they do not make sense to me as it looks like my recordings are easily managed with just the two tuners.

Does anyone please know if there is something I should be resetting?

My V2 tuner config shows 2 tuners, and the preferred tuner is set to Auto - and the preferred tuner for recording is also set to auto.

IceTV doesn't know/care how many tuners I have, so is just relying on the V2 to report if there isn't sufficient tuners to meet the recording schedule.

I think the V2 is incorrectly reporting a problem that doesn't exist!


Thanks,

Antony - Canberra

[MrQuade]

Is the V2 running the latest firmware? (October 2021)

19.3_20211010 viewtopic.php?f=45&t=14964

The external USB tuner has failed somehow. The V2 can see it, but there is no signal strength. It used to work fine, cable still has a nice connection and have I tried re-seating and have power cycled the V2, but it doesn't work any more.

Have you tried un-plugging the antenna connection from Tuner A/B, and plugging it directly into the USB Tuner as another test?

Another user recently reported problems with tuner conflicts, despite there being available tuners. In that case, a reboot did sort it out, so not sure what may be happening in your case.

Can you definitely verify that there aren't other conflicting timers hidden in different bouquets? Any Autotimers that don't show up on IceTV? Any zap timers set?

[Paul_oz53]

Assuming no timer conflicts, if a reboot doesn't fix it, put it in deep standby, then turn off power at the switch, wait 20-30 secs, and then power it up.

Sometimes I have found my other machines get in a hardware lockup state that requires a power cycle to clear it. If that fails, reflash the firmware and try again.

Good luck!

[asteele]

Thank you both most kindly for suggestions.

I auto-updated to 19.3 last year, and I have tried the deep power cycle multiple times during experimenting.

I have now just tried running antenna only into tuner 3 (USB) - but no joy with it working on its own.
The USB tuner is being recognised as a device, so it's alive - but there is no signal being processed.

One item I have just started to try within tuner setup is for the preferred tuner to be auto and the preferred tuner for recordings being set to disabled. I think that is the default setting, but I did change preferred tuner for recordings from disabled to auto as part of recent playing.

Maybe there is a feature/bug/quirk if preferred tuner for recordings is set to "auto".

If this doesn't make a difference, then I could try deleting all timers and getting IceTV to resend recordings and see if that helps.

Thanks again for your quick suggestions,

Antony.

[Gully]

I auto-updated to 19.3 last year.

Hi Anthony

19.3 isn't the firmware version, more like the series of releases so you might want to check and confirm which firmware you are currently using.

MENU > Information > Build/Revision

should give you the actual version.

[asteele]

Thanks Gully, confirmed I am on 19.3_20211010

[IanL-S]

I assume that you have confirmed that the USB tuner is set for either T or T2 mode and not sat mode (I think indicated by C). On my T2 from time to time the USB tuner ends up with the wrong configuration. Do not recall having that problem with V2 (but is uses a Sony Play TV dual tuner which is very reliable on both theV2 and U4).

It is also possible for the region of the USB tuner to have a different regional setting - cannot remember how this manifests itself (log time sice I have seen it - may have been firmware specific artifect) but it can cause problems.

Ian

[asteele]

Hi Ian, thanks - there are no user adjustable settings on the tuner itself or it's own specific configuration within the V2 other than being enabled or disabled. The tuner has worked since Jan 2021 without any issue, I think a hardware component has self-destructed.

I appreciate your suggestion - I am hoping that the IceTV errors will resolve and that I can manage with the internal twin tuners!

[Paul_oz53]

Over the years I have learnt that when strange behaviour appears it is time to reflash the firmware. Tiny corruptions can occur that give seemingly intractable problems.

Take a backup first. Reflash the V2 but DON'T restore settings. Set it up as a new machine. Test if the usb tuner works. You don't need to have ICETV setup to do this.

If it's still broken the likely culprit is the USB tuner has a fault.

If it's ok then do a restore settings. If it breaks then the problem is a corrupt setting. I don't expect that though.