Since this morning my Digifusion FVRT100 has shown "Hold" on the 
display.  I've had this before, and leaving it off for a short while 
sorted the problem out.  However, I have tried all day to leave it on 
and off for varying lengths of time with no change in the situation.

Is this "hold" caused by the box unsuccessfully checking the hard disk? 
  Does anyone have a solution to the problem?  It's 15 months old, so 
now just out of warranty.  It was bought for £180 back then, and now 
they are around £120.

A new hard disk won't cost £120, so can anyone advise as to whether 
these problems are always hard disk related?  I don't want to buy a new 
disk for it to still have the same problem.

when this happened to mine , it was unplugged for approx 5 mins and then
re
plugged
"Cuzman"  wrote in message
news:dsqd1c$5st$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>
> Since this morning my Digifusion FVRT100 has shown "Hold" on the
display.
> I've had this before, and leaving it off for a short while sorted the
> problem out.  However, I have tried all day to leave it on and off for
> varying lengths of time with no change in the situation.
>
> Is this "hold" caused by the box unsuccessfully checking the hard disk?
> Does anyone have a solution to the problem?  It's 15 months old, so now
> just out of warranty.  It was bought for £180 back then, and now they
are
> around £120.
>
> A new hard disk won't cost £120, so can anyone advise as to whether
these
> problems are always hard disk related?  I don't want to buy a new disk
for
> it to still have the same problem.
>


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In message <dsqd1c$5st$1@news.freedom2surf.net>, Cuzman 
 writes
>
>Since this morning my Digifusion FVRT100 has shown "Hold" on the 
>display.  I've had this before, and leaving it off for a short while 
>sorted the problem out.  However, I have tried all day to leave it on 
>and off for varying lengths of time with no change in the situation.
>
Try a hard reset. Details can be found on the web or you contact 
Digifusion.

Failing this, you'll need a new power supply. Apparently some units 
don't have beefy enough supplies. Is the power light a little dimmer 
than before? A software update a few weeks back pushed a few units over 
the edge.

Digifusion know about it and are issuing new supplies upon request. I 
suggest you contact them even if you are out of warrenty. They have 
caused the fault themselves so you are entitled to a new power supply.


-- 
Marcus Durham

As someone else has indicated, this is probably a power supply fault. 
However, I had three of these boxes: box #1 lasted an hour, box #2 lasted 
364 days and 11 hours, box #3 lasted a day.  The store had no more of these 
in, so replaced it with a FVRT200 and gave me a refund of £50 too.  It is 
still OK (fingers crossed), however I bought a second box just before 
Christmas which lasted about three weeks and then wiped all my recordings 
without question, so it went back, and I exchanged it for the Humax PVR9200T 
which seems good so far and has one or two useful functions the Digifusion 
didn't have, although it does lack the ability to replay a recording from 
the beginning that is currently being made.  I'm afraid my faith in 
Digifusion isn't as great as it was.

It's also quite likely that the hard drive has become corrupt and will need 
reformatting at the least.  This could be due to excessive heat as the 
FVRT100 is quite a compact box with not too much room for decent airflow, 
and whilst most hard drives do get quite warm, they don't really perform too 
well if they consistently get a little too warm.

In article ,
   NickM  wrote:
> It's also quite likely that the hard drive has become corrupt and will need 
> reformatting at the least.  This could be due to excessive heat as the 
> FVRT100 is quite a compact box with not too much room for decent airflow, 
> and whilst most hard drives do get quite warm, they don't really perform too
> well if they consistently get a little too warm.

That depends on the hard drive and whatever is making it warm. There is no
need for such boxes to get more than just a little warm.

-- 
	John Cartmell	john@ followed by finnybank.com	  0845 006 8822
	Qercus magazine	FAX +44 (0)8700-519-527		www.finnybank.com
	Qercus - the best guide to RISC OS computing

In message , John Cartmell 
 writes
[snip]
>That depends on the hard drive and whatever is making it warm. There is no
>need for such boxes to get more than just a little warm.
>
[Snip]

I just want to add that barring the power supply problem, in a year of 
use that is the only problem we have had with the box. However I did 
make sure (as you should with any electrical equipment) that it has 
sufficient airflow in all directions when I installed it.

-- 
Marcus Durham

"Cuzman"  wrote in message 
news:dsqd1c$5st$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>
> Since this morning my Digifusion FVRT100 has shown "Hold" on the display. 
> I've had this before, and leaving it off for a short while sorted the 
> problem out.  However, I have tried all day to leave it on and off for 
> varying lengths of time with no change in the situation.
>
> Is this "hold" caused by the box unsuccessfully checking the hard disk? 
> Does anyone have a solution to the problem?  It's 15 months old, so now 
> just out of warranty.  It was bought for £180 back then, and now they are 
> around £120.
>
> A new hard disk won't cost £120, so can anyone advise as to whether these 
> problems are always hard disk related?  I don't want to buy a new disk for 
> it to still have the same problem.
>


critcher said...................
same happened to mine in the last 2 weeks, sometimes it would start ok after
pulling the plug,
other times it would start up ok and let me see the menus etc.
Mostly it would start and go to channel 1 and stay there, then HOLD started
appearing on the front panel
and a clicking could be heard which sounded like the old "click of death"
from years ago on computer hard disks.
Ive had it since August 2005 so took it back to Dixons, they plugged it in
and up comes the HOLD and nothing else happened.
Dixons were a bit reluctant to give me my money back, but after a while,
when they didn't have another box in stock they relented.
It's a common problem but Dixons had never heard of it.


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critcher wrote:
> "Cuzman"  wrote in message 
> news:dsqd1c$5st$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
> 
>>Since this morning my Digifusion FVRT100 has shown "Hold" on the display. 
>>I've had this before, and leaving it off for a short while sorted the 
>>problem out.  However, I have tried all day to leave it on and off for 
>>varying lengths of time with no change in the situation.
>>
>>Is this "hold" caused by the box unsuccessfully checking the hard disk? 
>>Does anyone have a solution to the problem?  It's 15 months old, so now 
>>just out of warranty.  It was bought for £180 back then, and now they are 
>>around £120.
>>
>>A new hard disk won't cost £120, so can anyone advise as to whether these 
>>problems are always hard disk related?  I don't want to buy a new disk for 
>>it to still have the same problem.
>>
> 
> 
> 
> critcher said...................
> same happened to mine in the last 2 weeks, sometimes it would start ok after
> pulling the plug,
> other times it would start up ok and let me see the menus etc.
> Mostly it would start and go to channel 1 and stay there, then HOLD started
> appearing on the front panel
> and a clicking could be heard which sounded like the old "click of death"
> from years ago on computer hard disks.
> Ive had it since August 2005 so took it back to Dixons, they plugged it in
> and up comes the HOLD and nothing else happened.
> Dixons were a bit reluctant to give me my money back, but after a while,
> when they didn't have another box in stock they relented.
> It's a common problem but Dixons had never heard of it.
> 
Are you surprised that Dixons have never heard of the problem? They're 
box shifters, so anything technical just passes them by.


Clem

> Dixons were a bit reluctant to give me my money back, but after a while,
> when they didn't have another box in stock they relented.
> It's a common problem but Dixons had never heard of it.
>
 It just goes to show that every Dixons store isn't the same.  My local 
Dixons store at Broughton Retail Park near Chester, exchanged every 
Digifusion box that I had without any quibble.  They had definitely heard of 
the power supply problem and just took my word that the units were faulty 
(which they were).  They even gave me a full refund after my third 
replacement failed (just a couple of days after the 12 month warranty had 
run out on the original purchase) - and without my asking.   This particular 
Dixons store is unlike any other I've come across  over the years in respect 
of customer relations, and it's not the first time they've responded with no 
quibble.

The replacement for the third FVRT100 was a FVRT200 which is now priced at 
£50 less than the FVRT100 was when I bought it.  This particular FVRT200 is 
still working fine upstairs, but unfortunately the one I got for downstairs 
from Currys just before Christmas failed and has gone back.

The FVRT100's do get quite warm in comparison to the Humax I've now got - 
even with good airflow.  I have not opened any of them up, but I think they 
use a slimline 40GB Maxtor drive in the FVRT100 and although I quite like 
Maxtor drives for general computer use, on the whole, from hands-on 
experience they tend to run quite a bit hotter than some other makes, and 
one of my clients recently had two 250GB Maxtor drives fail because of too 
much heat.  The click of death became apparent after about 13 months of use 
on both drives at almost the same time.  Probably a batch fault.  Maxtor 
replaced them of course, but nevertheless the new ones whilst a lot cooler 
in operation still get quite hot to the touch.

Nick

We had the same problem I removed the hard drive and did a low format
on it with a utility disk down loaded from Maxtor's site
put it back in the digifusion and that did the trick.
You will loose the latest software as it sets it back to factory default
but the next over the air update you get the latest software.
If you haven't got the facility to do a low level format get a mate to do it
or buy a new 40 gig disk for about £ 30.

bobo


"Cuzman"  wrote in message 
news:dsqd1c$5st$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>
> Since this morning my Digifusion FVRT100 has shown "Hold" on the display. 
> I've had this before, and leaving it off for a short while sorted the 
> problem out.  However, I have tried all day to leave it on and off for 
> varying lengths of time with no change in the situation.
>
> Is this "hold" caused by the box unsuccessfully checking the hard disk? 
> Does anyone have a solution to the problem?  It's 15 months old, so now 
> just out of warranty.  It was bought for £180 back then, and now they are 
> around £120.
>
> A new hard disk won't cost £120, so can anyone advise as to whether these 
> problems are always hard disk related?  I don't want to buy a new disk for 
> it to still have the same problem.
>

NickM wrote:
> I'm afraid my faith in Digifusion isn't as great as it was.

I had a 150 for 9 months before the fan decided to play up and quick run 
back to argos and I got my money back. I would have just asked for a 
replacement as the box had performed perfectly before that. However the 
200 had just been released so I decided to have that one instead. The 
200 again behaved perfectly for 8 months before the power supplied to 
die. A quick phone call to digifusion and a new one was dispatched. 2 
days later the box was back to normal. My library was intact, and it has 
behaved itself again.

My experience is one of complete satisfaction ... if only they would fix 
the widescreen issue.

On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 19:06:34 -0000, "Bobo"  wrote:

>We had the same problem I removed the hard drive and did a low format
>on it with a utility disk down loaded from Maxtor's site
>put it back in the digifusion and that did the trick.
>You will loose the latest software as it sets it back to factory default
>but the next over the air update you get the latest software.
>If you haven't got the facility to do a low level format get a mate to do it
>or buy a new 40 gig disk for about £ 30.
>
>bobo
>
>>

I have a similar problem with a Digifusion 150 which has recurred
after upgrading the power supply as many people recommend. I was on
the verge of giving up, but before I do I'll try your suggestion of a
low level format.

One question though. How do you remove the unit case? Do you need a
bespoke tool to do this and if you do, where can I find one?

Thanks,

HM

It was my son in-laws  that I did a low level format on I can't remember 
what pins
hold the case together it might have been a star tool or allen key or posi 
drive
 but you can get these for a few pence, there are about 6 pins holding the 
top on.
Just try and avoid any static with a wrist strap or ground yourself  by 
touching a
radiator or other earth before you start.
Remove case
Unplug the IDE and power cables on the hard drive, remove the fan and a 
couple of
pins holding the disk in.
reformat on your computer , and pop it back in the case , it should boot up 
from there.
Let us know if it works OK.

bobo

 wrote in message 
news:014hv1truo15h4si1rtn6vp6142kg7h2ng@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 19:06:34 -0000, "Bobo"  wrote:
>
>>We had the same problem I removed the hard drive and did a low format
>>on it with a utility disk down loaded from Maxtor's site
>>put it back in the digifusion and that did the trick.
>>You will loose the latest software as it sets it back to factory default
>>but the next over the air update you get the latest software.
>>If you haven't got the facility to do a low level format get a mate to do 
>>it
>>or buy a new 40 gig disk for about £ 30.
>>
>>bobo
>>
>>>
>
> I have a similar problem with a Digifusion 150 which has recurred
> after upgrading the power supply as many people recommend. I was on
> the verge of giving up, but before I do I'll try your suggestion of a
> low level format.
>
> One question though. How do you remove the unit case? Do you need a
> bespoke tool to do this and if you do, where can I find one?
>
> Thanks,
>
> HM