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Hi there,
I have just spent an hour or so reading this forum and using the information to fix my broken Foxsat HDR. I thought it only reasonable that in exchange for the information I should post my experience here in the hope that it will help another reader.
My HDR has worked flawlessly for around 4 years. Yesterday however it started giving trouble. Initially it would not view channels saying there was no signal. Recordings could still be accessed. After rebooting no channels could be viewed and the recordings could not be accessed either. The menu could be accessed which showed there was no signal being received. Boot time had dramatically increased to 60-120 seconds.
I carried out the following steps…
I performed a factory reset which was successful and upon reboot I got the set up wizard. It then still said there was no signal and it wouldn’t accept the postcode. I could not do anything else at this stage. I could not exit the wizard or access the menu. Rebooting, including via rear switch, only loaded me back into the wizard.
I looked at the dish and the cable. Dish looked in the same position and the cable appeared intact.
I dug out an old Sky box and hooked it up to the lnb feed. This worked fine with good signal strength and quality. I now knew the problem was with the Humax.
I opened the Humax (three PH2 screws at rear – unplug first as there is 230V inside!) and took a look around. I got a torch and carefully inspected all the capacitors for signs of swelling (denoting failure) and looked around the circuit board for any signs of burns or arcing. All looked good.
I then disconnected the two cables running to the hard drive. It’s easier to disconnect them from the board rather than the drive itself.
I switched on and booted the Humax. The wizard appeared but this time it found signal. I was able to complete the setup and tune.
Next I powered down and switched off. I reconnected the drive and rebooted. It recognised the disk with no problems and all the recordings were visible and playable.
Replaced lid, had a cup of tea and informed a much relieved wife that her collection of Neighbours and Home and Away was safe.
I know this is a very old post, but just wanted to say that I had the exact same issue today.
Tuner appeared dead, no signal, postcode wouldnt verify, opened it up, disconnected hard drive (power + sata, sata alone didnt work) and started up and all was good again.
“I dug out an old Sky box and hooked it up to the lnb feed. This worked fine with good signal strength and quality. I now knew the problem was with the Humax.”
An assumption – The Humax, after a reset, will look for frequency
11428 H and report no signal if it cannot receive it. A failing LNB could receive vertical frequencies but not horizontal and there have been many examples of this.
One thought – both posts could also be a sign of a failing power supply. Hopefully they looked good when the case was open.
Thankyou for this post, the very same thing happend to me the other day, I was watching as usual and changed channel and lost both lnb feeds. Checked the lnb with a borrowed box and was about to give up when I found this thread. Disconected the HDD rebooted and all came back. Thanks again!!
I have recently experienced a similar problem. I had a 9 year old Foxsat HDR which had worked perfectly up to a couple of months ago, when I got the ‘No/Bad Signal’ box on the screen.
I did all the normal checks/reset/ etc. but found there was no signal present on either inputs, so I put it down to box failure and purchased another used Foxsat HDR in near new condition. It worked perfectly until 2 days ago when I once again got the ‘No/Bad signal’ box.
I followed the advice above regarding the disconnect of the HHD with no effect whatsoever, so I’m back to square one as I know of nobody who repairs Humax Freesat HDR’s and have found no one who seems to know much about them.
I realise these are discontinued boxes but mine worked perfectly for many years, and I don’t like the menu system on the new boxes, so would rather stick to the Foxsat box, but it’s getting expensive.
Hopefully I have an engineer coming tomorrow from the company that maintains the communal aerial system, so I will see what he has to say.
I should have mentioned that I had the original 9 year old Foxsat HDR from new.
Can you get into non-freesat mode and do a search?
Foxsat HDR is Freesat only.
Troubledshooter – 7 minutes ago »
Foxsat HDR is Freesat only.
No it’s not – Graham can you post how to get into non-freesat mode I think it was simpler than the G2 units on one of the setup menus? (it’s an EEC requirement)
REPASSAC – 1 hour ago »
Troubledshooter – 7 minutes ago »
Foxsat HDR is Freesat only.
No it’s not – Graham can you post how to get into non-freesat mode I think it was simpler than the G2 units on one of the setup menus? (it’s an EEC requirement)
The Foxsat-hdr is a pretty advanced generic FTA receiver in it’s own right. In its early days coveted by owners in areas difficult to access 28.2E and also multi orbital point capable for those with offset lnbs or motorised dishes, thanks it’s very sensitive tuners that could could hang on to a weak signal that lesser boxes could not. It’s design is based on a advanced Humax Germany Icord model.
Firtly to get a non freesat mode you have to tune some channels using manual tune.
Might as well do a full FTA scan. This should find approx 477 channels (many regional variants).
https://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&pos=28.2E&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clear
Menu Setup – Manual Tune right -Leave Transponder at all. Change Network Network Search to Enable. This enable a blind scan of transponders that don’t currently have freesat channels so missing from the box transponder database.
Leave Channel Type at all
Down to search and press OK
After the search save the results and exit.
You are now in Non-freesat mode with a new menu option to return to Freesat mode. In non-freesat mode you now are able to view and manually record Channel 4-HD (missing from the Freesat epg).
The custom firmware channel editor can make channel 4-HD visible in Freesat mode with loads of other goodies
This also allows you to setup manual Channel-4-HD recordings without leaving Freesat mode.
Alexpearce I think you have fallen foul of the recent botched change of the forward error settings on the BBC-HD channels that royally screwed up the newer G2 boxes.
You Foxsat-HDR should have been immune, but only if if you do put your Foxsat-HDR in standby overnight. This box wakes up overnightto download these sort of changes (housekeeping boot). If you don’t put the box in sby every night your problems were self inflicted. I remember Repassac didn’t boot his G2 box till after Freesat corrected the problem so never saw the issue. As I leave my Foxsat-HDR in low power sby every night it it had no issues but my G2 box reported no signal. It was the fact that my Foxsat-HDR had no issues lead to the reason for the problem. Well reported on here.
There was nothing basically wrong with your Foxsat-HDR other than the fact it missed the required transponder database update.
Is your Foxsat-HDR put in sby overnight ? If not why not ?
If it’s not you will lose channels that move transponder progressively
Troubledshooter – 22 hours ago » I followed the advice above regarding the disconnect of the HHD with no effect whatsoever, so I’m back to square one as I know of nobody who repairs Humax Freesat HDR’s and have found no one who seems to know much about them.
I’ve replaced the PSU capacitors on several of these. They can often fail without showing any sign of bulging.
Had the same problem did as described …all works!! thanks a lot. Just wondering if all pro. installer know this, before selling you a new one?
I’ve just acquired one of these through our local Freegle group. According to its previous owner, the symptoms were a failed HDD.
It was very dirty inside, but once I’d cleared out all the dust and cat hairs, I set about testing the ESR of the mainboard capacitors. I found 17 that were well out of specification, 9 x 10uF @ 50V, 3 x 100uF @ 16V, 2 x 47uF @ 50V, 220 @ 16V, 100uF @ 25V, and 1uF @ 50V. I replaced them all, hoping that the HDD would burst back into life, but no such luck, so I replaced that too.
All is now working as it should.
Big thank you Alexis,
Had the same problem, unplugged the data and power for the HD from the motherboard, powered up, working fine, powered off and replace the power and data cable, everything including the HD working normally.
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