HD200 powers off randomly

[coolpup32]

Its been doing this for a while but tonight it seems really bad.

Tonight its crashing / powering off when i channel down in the guide. Its done this at least 6 times this hour while i was searching for something to watch. Unplugging the hd200 does not help.

I restart sage services every night for backups, but i believe it improves if i reboot the server. Nothing is in the event logs.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

The details:
Windows server 2003 (domain controller, dns, dhcp)
HD200 with latest firmware (20090702 0)
Sage version 6.6.2.218
Java 1.6.0_10
Sage MC 6.3.9a

[freedml]

Some days are really bad, some days are much better. No idea why.

I have found that just stopping the server and restarting it rarely helps. I always just reboot the machine and sometimes it seems to help, at least for a while.

[Clift]

I was having random crashes while playing back and it ended up being one of my hard drives was going bad. Luckily I was right inside the 3-year warranty so I get to RMA the thing. Just some food for thought.

[flavius]

I found that the HD200 tends to get quite hot. Could it be temperature?

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by Clift

I was having random crashes while playing back and it ended up being one of my hard drives was going bad. Luckily I was right inside the 3-year warranty so I get to RMA the thing. Just some food for thought.

+1 for look at your SageTV server harware.

I had problems where my HD200s would power down randomly for over three months. I kept sending error logs (and java hs_err_??????.logs) to Sage support. Most didn't yield anything usefull, but eventually there was a Java error log that indicated a memory access problem: dimm, DMA controller etc.

Sage support suggested I swap out my memory modules or change my motherboard.

I swapped out my 2gb memory modules the next day and have not had an issue with my HD200s since.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

I had problems where my HD200s would power down randomly for over three months. I kept sending error logs (and java hs_err_??????.logs) to Sage support. Most didn't yield anything usefull, but eventually there was a Java error log that indicated a memory access problem: dimm, DMA controller etc.

I've been having problems with my HD200 (but not my HD100). It used to occasionally power down. But, now I get more instances where I'll wake it up and it won't be able to find my Sage server. Or, sometimes it connects, but it won't play any files back (I get a PlaybackException message). Unplugging the HD200 and plugging it back in is the only thing that's fixed it. (and, the HD100 works fine when the HD200 doesn't).

I'm hoping it was a firmware bug in one of the older beta's. I updated it last night, and in that single day of testing it hasn't had either problem. I don't really know how to reproduce either problem on-demand, but the PlaybackException problem tends to happen after the HD200 has been on but sitting idle for a while.

Is your suggestion that I start up a java console and see if I get any java error messages on my server? I'm not aware of any other kind of java error log.

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Is your suggestion that I start up a java console and see if I get any java error messages on my server? I'm not aware of any other kind of java error log.

The java error logs I found were in the server's Program Files\SageTV\SageTV folder (where the sage.properties file is located). They all seem to start with hs_. Here's an example: hs_err_pid684.log.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by HelenWeathers

The java error logs I found were in the server's Program Files\SageTV\SageTV folder (where the sage.properties file is located). They all seem to start with hs_. Here's an example: hs_err_pid684.log.

That's what those are! Thanks!

[coolpup32]

hmm for some reason i didnt get an email notification of responses... I'll check for error logs.

Ps I just installed todays FW for the hd200

[freedml]

Has everyone with problems tried going back to 20090505? Still the only one that works reliably for me.

[coolpup32]

seems more stable on the latest release than the previous, but still having issues.

[reggie14]

Mine is more stable now with the latest release than its ever been. But, my HD200 did just lock up on me while I was watching TV. No java error logs were created.

I could submit a bug report, but I can't reproduce it on command at all, so I don't see what good it would do.

[_Demo_]

Originally Posted by freedml

Has everyone with problems tried going back to 20090505? Still the only one that works reliably for me.

Could you check your private messages and try the test I have suggested or give me more details on the issue you are having?

Thanks

_Demo_

[_Demo_]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Mine is more stable now with the latest release than its ever been. But, my HD200 did just lock up on me while I was watching TV. No java error logs were created.

I could submit a bug report, but I can't reproduce it on command at all, so I don't see what good it would do.

Please enable debug logging on the HD200 and see if you can still access the logs when playback locks up.

Thanks

_Demo_

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by _Demo_

Please enable debug logging on the HD200 and see if you can still access the logs when playback locks up.

I'll give this a try- I see the HD200 has a nicer logging mechanism than the HD100. Does messages miniclient log get saved to nonvolatile memory? If so, then it seems like even if I can't access it immediately after a lockup I could access it after a restart.

There are some things I can try that can bring about crashes that (hopefully) won't make the logs get terribly large. Playing back long files for hours at a time might do it, as does just letting it idle for extended periods (e.g., overnight) sometimes.

[_Demo_]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Does messages miniclient log get saved to nonvolatile memory? If so, then it seems like even if I can't access it immediately after a lockup I could access it after a restart.

The debug logs are stored in ram so they will be lost if you restart the unit.

_Demo_