not too sure if humax simply sold more 1TB’s, but they seem to come up more often as having problems. Unfortunately if you want to play it’ll just take twice as long to move data around if at all possible.

Some people have had problems with sata III drives and have had to put a jumper on to drop it down to sata II, not too sure if this is still a problem.

docking stations come relatively cheap, most handle up to 2TB, this one can handle >2TB at around £15. not a recommendation, just an observation as to what’s out there and I’m 99.9% certain >2TB won’t work directly/internally anyway with the humax.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/dodocool-USB3-0-5Gbps-3-5-2-5-SATA-Vertical-Hard-Drive-Docking-Station-UK-Plug-/131102621569?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e86533f81

let us know how you get on, it’d be interesting to see what can be rescued

Well folks, bet you thought I’d never come back but here I am, and the saga continues. Sorry to bump an old thread but this is a continuation of the same problem so I think it’s valid.

To try to cut a long story a bit shorter, I bought a brand new Western Digital WD20EURX 2TB drive. I installed it, the box saw it, prompted to format it, did so successfully and everything worked*… for about a week. (* I say everything worked but apparently it did restart itself without warning at least a couple of times – it’s difficult for me to give more detail there as I work away during the week so I’m reliant on what my fiancée can tell me, and she doesn’t notice much of that sort of thing, as long as things seem to work most of the time.) The latest symptom was that the box would not power up – not even after an extended period without mains power – and not even with the red standby light illuminated.

Then we went on holiday for a couple of weeks and have been v busy since then, so have just been managing without satellite/Freesat. During the past couple of weekends I’ve taken a bit of time to try to look at it again. What it is doing now is, when first connected to mains, it soon says STARTING on the built in display but then seems to get stuck in a loop. The power supply and something on the board are making audible noises, in synchronisation. Note that I have the drive disconnected again, so it’s not that. In fact I have virtually everything disconnected, including all external cables apart from power supply, the drive, the SATA cable power and data connectors disconnected from the board, and even the fan disconnected from the board too.

It’s difficult to describe the noise. It’s not too loud, but still distinctly audible. I suppose it sounds a bit like one of those flapper things you used to have against the spokes of a bike wheel – percussive, perhaps. The green LED on the power supply also flashes seemingly in synchronisation with the noise (never goes off completely but goes dim/bright/dim/bright in sync). I’ve also noticed that the red SPDIF port light/laser seems to flash/illuminate in sync with the noise and PSU LED also.

So I am now wondering whether the power supply is faulty and perhaps that was it all along (especially as I could find no fault with the original 1TB drive when connected to my computer). It is a Ktec ‘switch mode power supply’, 12v, 1.2A I think from memory. (I don’t have it with me at the moment.)

I’m thinking my next step should be to try a different power supply, but I’m not sure what I need, and I don’t really want to spend more money and buy one if it turns out not to be that (e.g. if there is a fault on the board itself). I will look for a local electronics specialist where I can ‘try before I buy’ but I don’t know how much luck I’ll have.

Can anyone help explain what sort of power supply I need? Obviously it needs the correct shape and polarity of connector but does it just need to be able to supply up to 1.2A at 12v or is there more to it than that? Does it *need* to be a switch mode power supply or is that just a power saving (efficiency) thing and has no effect on the satellite box?

All help will be much appreciated as always…

It does indeed, and I did do a few searches, including on Amazon UK too. It’s not just about the cost, but if I order online I will have to wait for delivery (which will also cost a bit extra and probably take a bit longer, because I’m in Ireland) and it would be a right PITA to wait for that only to find that it didn’t fix the problem, not to mention the annoyance of the wasted money. So that’s why I want to try before I buy, and that in turn is why I’m asking what spec of power supply I need, because I don’t consider myself well informed enough about DC power supplies to know the answer myself.

Another quick update. I found a local supplier who was willing to let me try before I buy (try a new power supply). Before getting in the car to go there, I thought I’d better make sure I could reproduce the fault with the old power supply. To my bemusement, the Humax started up fully with no signs of the restarting or strange noises from the unit or power supply! I didn’t have a TV plugged in (as I was running the test on my desk at work) but the unit went through the STARTING and <freetime> displays and continued on to display a channel name (Channel 4).

Hence, I abandoned the trip to the electronics supplier as it was pointless, and would have eaten up more than an hour of my time.

I will run the unit this weekend and see whether the problems return and, if so, whether I can determine any pattern, e.g. after a period of being switched on, or if the unit or power supply seems to get particularly hot.

Incidentally, REPASSAC, thanks for posting that link to that power supply but in both the photo and the text it says it is 2A. Not only is my existing power supply marked as 4A, the power input on the back of the Humax is also marked as 4A. (I do appreciate your help though, and I can see it is their mistake.)

Didn’t this happen before? (Your post #37 in this thread)

Can you try the box with a different TV?

Yes and yes, but please read on…

Yes it did happen before, but that was in different circumstances. It was before I had opened up the unit and with the original 1TB drive still connected. Once I opened it up and disconnected that drive, the box would start ok, and would also start ok with other drives connected internally. That’s why I plumped for a new 2TB drive, although I could find no fault with the 1TB drive when connected to my computer.

Last weekend though (the last time I looked at it before yesterday’s power supply retest) the box was failing to start up even without ANY drive connected.

Yes I can try a different TV. We only have one at home but I can try the box with a relative’s TV if necessary.

Note that last weekend the box would not start, including when neither the TV nor the internal hard drive was connected. Yesterday, the box DID start, with neither a TV or the internal hard drive connected. So the TV is out of the equation there. The box appeared to stay ‘up’ for a couple of hours until I had to leave, although being in the office, I did not have a TV to connect to it to see whether its display was normal or not. The built-in display appeared normal though, displaying a channel name: Channel 4

No, didn’t try changing channel. Note that of course there were no satellite cables plugged in either.

Further tests at home this weekend will be more extensive and, hopefully, more revealing. (Remember, I work away during the week.)

I did notice the power supply got *very* hot to the touch, such that it was too hot to hold. I am suspicious of it.

SOLVED

Short version: New power supply cured latest problem (box wouldn’t start up at all) AND old problem (box wouldn’t start with original 1TB internal hard drive connected).

Longer version: As mentioned in previous posts, I suspected a faulty power supply, or at the very least, I wanted to rule it in or out. I didn’t have a beefy enough 12v power supply (4A or more) but I had a brainwave to connect it to my car battery (not with the engine running, when the charging voltage might be more like 13v or 14v!)

First I carefully checked the car battery voltage, engine not running, and it was ~12.5v, so I thought I’d give it a try. The box started normally… although I didn’t take the TV into the garage to check it fully.

So I ordered a new power supply for about £17 inc. delivery and when it arrived it cured the problem – the box started normally again, both without the 2TB hard drive connected and with it connected.

I then went and dug out the old 1TB drive and tried it with that connected, and it started fine. Note that when I first replaced the drive a couple of months ago, the box started fine with the new drive, but simply would not start with the old one. But we can now see the problem wasn’t the drive, it was the PSU. I presume the old drive must draw a higher current on spin up and that was enough to tip the PSU over the edge at that time.

Let’s hope the thing is stable for a good period of time now.

imparvo – 1 hour ago  » 

Mine wont start past the splash screen without looping.

The only way is to leave the top cover unscrewed, pull out the white plastic 4 wire square power supply for the HDD, let it boot until the picture comes on and plug the HDD power back in.

To me that sounds very like an issue with the HDR-FOX T2 which after a lot of work was traced to a small capacitor on the motherboard. You can read about it at https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/start-up-fails-when-hdd-connected.10164/