Start up loop for 4 or 5 minutes, then works.

O

Oliver

New Member
Hi, my box has suddenly started behaving oddly. When switching on from standby (when its been off for a time) it displays START SYSTEM then CUST FW 3.13, then switches itself off and back on and goes through this loop for around 4 to 5 minutes. Then it stops and switches itself off. If I then switch it on, it starts up fine and I can hear the disk start up!
The looping seems to happen when the box has been switched off for a long time, overnight for example.
Any ideas how I can fix this odd behaviour?
 
Thanks Black Hole. I read through that and ran fixdisk as this seems easy to do. Looking at the logs its fixed a number of orphaned inodes but everything else seems to be in order.
However it still has the problem. Does this mean duff capacitor do you think? I don't think I have the skill to fix that. Anything else I can try?
 
Oliver said:
Does this mean duff capacitor do you think?
Click to expand...
If the unit reboots the moment the front panel display stops showing the custom firmware revision, yes. That's when power should get routed to the HDD, and a reboot occurs because the system detects a fault.

I don't think anyone has previously been patient enough to let it keep trying for several minutes, but it could be that the capacitor "improves" as the system warms up, and eventually improves sufficiently to boot without triggering a reboot.

Oliver said:
Anything else I can try?
Click to expand...
I doubt it.

It is reported that a capacitor can be added rather than having to remove the existing component, which would be a lot easier to do so long as you have a soldering iron.
 
Last edited:
Thanks again. Are there specific instructions to adding the capacitor, including which capacitor to add and where to solder it in, and where to source it?
 
OK, so I need to change the 4u7 capacitor. Seems fairly straightforward at least, but I've got to find my soldering iron somewhere in the loft! Can you point me to where I can source a good replacement? I'm unsure with all these different voltages, values and manufacturers (are there any to avoid?). Is there one on ebay?
 
Other relevant posts are these:

https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/start-up-fails-when-hdd-connected.10164/post-158648

https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/start-up-fails-when-hdd-connected.10164/post-159129

https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/start-up-fails-when-hdd-connected.10164/post-166340

https://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Hardware_Fixes

I've reviewed the information in your behalf (since you don't seem prepared to read it for yourself), and see that the advice is not to leave the old capacitor in place although that will probably work. A very fine soldering iron will be required to remove the cap without damaging the board.
 
Black Hole said:
It is reported that a capacitor can be added rather than having to remove the existing component
Click to expand...
It depends what the fault is. If it's leaky then you have to remove it (in the same way that you can't bypass a leaking pipe just by adding a non-leaking one in parallel), due to the potential divider effect dragging up the voltage on the gate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top