Extender Refuses to Connect. Major Problem.

[Target]

Howdy all,

I am having a rather difficult time right now. Starting 4 days ago I was unable to control my media extender through the etnernet port (I use CQC). In an effort to fix things today the problem has gotten significantly worse.

Starting about 2 hours ago the following happens every time I turn my HD100 on.

1. I turn the Extender on and it acquires and sees my Sage server.

2. The Extender tells me to press enter to cancel connecting to the server.

3. If I press nothing at the end of the 5 seconds the screen goes blank. The activity light on the Extender is still on until I turn it off.

4. I have cancelled the automatic login about a dozen times and tried every conceivable combination of settings from static IPs to automatic to component to HDMI.

The extender is simply not working.

Any help would be much appreciated. I have one month before prime time begins and if my wife can't watch Grey's Anatomy... let's just say I need to get it working.

Target

[Target]

Once the screen goes black the only way to get the service screen to come back up is to shut the Extender off in the back and turn it back on.

Target

[Opus4]

Check the extender's property file in the 'clients' subdirectory of the SageTV install dir on the server. (It uses the HD100's MAC address in the filename.) If the properties file is corrupt, it could do what you describe. You can delete the properties file. If the .autobackup copy is corrupt, delete it too, or else use it as the new properties file.

- Andy

[Target]

Will try that now.

Thanks,

Target

[Target]

First thing I did was delete the properties file within the clients folder of Sage. As you said it was Mac address.properties. I then renamed the .autobackup, .properties. I then turned the Extender on. It initialized as it always does, and then went black upon attempting to load the GUI.

Next I deleted the autobackup (at this point named macaddress.properties) and tried again. Same result. The properties file did autogenerate.

How will I know if the file is corrupted? Is there any other way to erase all traces of the Media Extender on my computer and reset things as if I'm unboxing it for the first time? The firmware is up to date, but no betas have been installed.

Is the Extender under warrantee? I Purchased in February of 2008.

Thanks for any help. I love this thing when its working, but this is fairly frustrating.

Target

[Opus4]

The only other thing I can suggest is to enable debug logging on the SageTV server (in sage.properties) & see what its log says after trying to connect with the HD100.

- Andy

[Narflex]

I'd check the server; it sounds like it may not be accepting the connection for some reason. (just restart it) If it still doesn't work then enable debug logging like Andy said to see more details.

[Target]

Ok, so I've fixed about 2/3s of the problem!

The inability to connect was caused by an extremely slow network connection. My network had slowed to a snails pace and I finally got around to rebooting all the networking equipment. Things are now snappy and the Extender is turning on.

I am still left with the original problem however. The Extender is no longer controllable by CQC. It just ignores the commands. Any suggestions on this?

Target

[beelzerob]

Is it still not controllable by nielm's webserver too?

Also, are you using the very latest sage beta? I've heard from someone else that they're suddenly experiencing the same kind of problem, and they're on the latest sage beta....just wonder if it's something in there.

[Target]

I am not on the latest beta. My version number is 6.3.5.159. I did very recently (perhaps when the problem began) update the firmware on the Media Extender.

Is there a quick guide anywhere to using the Nielm Webserver?

Target

[Target]

IS there any way to roll back to a previous firmware?

Target

[Target]

Just rolled back the firmware and that didn't help either. Still trying to get this working.

Target

[Target]

In addition to not being controllable, the box has decided to only obtain an IP address about 1 in 10 times that I reboot it from scratch. This is starting to feel more and more like some form of hardware glitch.

Target

[Apap]

Originally Posted by Target

In addition to not being controllable, the box has decided to only obtain an IP address about 1 in 10 times that I reboot it from scratch. This is starting to feel more and more like some form of hardware glitch.

Target

I had an intermittent problem like that and it turned out to be the ethernet cable I was using. It might be worth swapping yours out if you have an extra one.

Just a thought.
Apap

[Target]

I've swapped a total of 3 cables at this point so I'm pretty sure that isn't it. Its up and running now, so I'm just going to leave it, but Sage is pretty much useiess as I don't have the box in the same room as the TV. I'm going to try controlling with the Nielm server as Beez suggested in order to figure out if the problem is with CQC or Sage. Any suggestions however would be most appreciated as to possible fixes.

Target