Sky+ mysterious crashing solved
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[Deleted User]
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'scuse the repeat... I wrote this is a slightly related thread but then thought it ought to be more visible as many of you may benefit from this
I've had problems off-and-on for more than a year now, with spontaneous crash / re-boots. (Sky+ v1 with Seagate 120GB, now with latest firmware).
Sometimes it would go for days without restarting, despite swapping HHD back n forth. Eventually I found that by dis-/re-connecting the flexible strip connecor between PSboard and mainboard would allow it to re-start. Yet recently even this wasn't working. It might startup but would fail again either later, or immediately and repeatedly.
In the last months this has become a real pain in the a$$. Just touching or jiggling the the flex strip connector would enable it to re-start.
I suspected that the flexible strip connector was faulty or the board sockets had dry solder joints - until I noticed dark marks on the contact area of the tracks on the ends of the flexible connector strip (oxidation?). I cleaned both ends of the flex-strip with a glass fibre cleaning pen, and then used the strip to clean out the two sockets by folding a strip of (unprinted) newspaper over the end and pushing in and out of each socket a few times (changing the paper position until it comes out clean).
Of course - box started up no problem, ran all night while I captured stuff to the PC.
I tested it finally by touching / pushing / jiggling the strip in the way I'd done before (which previously would have caused a power loss and re-start) but now, nothing !
Before, pushing the strip "all the way home" on the mainboard connector resulted in no power and no start... which I now realise is why it would be days before I got it working again, through removing and fiddling with the position of the power strip. What I'd actually done by pushing it all the way in was moving the contact point of the socket contacts directly onto the oxidised area of the conductor tracks on the flexible strip, which had built up around the original contact points when the strip was NOT pushed fully home.
So my CONCLUSION is that on older boxes, OXIDATION of the contacts points on the flexible power connector strip causes interuption in power to some parts of the board, resulting in crashes.
(I'd get it to the planner or Ch.998 and then it would 'go again' when starting to play a recording (surge in power demand ?)
IF YOU have problems with spontaneous crashing, open 'er up and check the ends of the main flexible strip. If they're not uniform in colour - clean them.
I found the glass fibre cleaning pen I used, worked a treat but you could also scrape carefully with edge of a scalpel blade or maybe even the edge of a new coin. "Lapping" paper would be OK too (but 600 grade wet n dry would be too rough).
The "Hi-Fi trick" of dis-/re-connecting a few times to clean away oxidiation clearly DOES NOT work in this case.
Steve
I've had problems off-and-on for more than a year now, with spontaneous crash / re-boots. (Sky+ v1 with Seagate 120GB, now with latest firmware).
Sometimes it would go for days without restarting, despite swapping HHD back n forth. Eventually I found that by dis-/re-connecting the flexible strip connecor between PSboard and mainboard would allow it to re-start. Yet recently even this wasn't working. It might startup but would fail again either later, or immediately and repeatedly.
In the last months this has become a real pain in the a$$. Just touching or jiggling the the flex strip connector would enable it to re-start.
I suspected that the flexible strip connector was faulty or the board sockets had dry solder joints - until I noticed dark marks on the contact area of the tracks on the ends of the flexible connector strip (oxidation?). I cleaned both ends of the flex-strip with a glass fibre cleaning pen, and then used the strip to clean out the two sockets by folding a strip of (unprinted) newspaper over the end and pushing in and out of each socket a few times (changing the paper position until it comes out clean).
Of course - box started up no problem, ran all night while I captured stuff to the PC.
I tested it finally by touching / pushing / jiggling the strip in the way I'd done before (which previously would have caused a power loss and re-start) but now, nothing !
Before, pushing the strip "all the way home" on the mainboard connector resulted in no power and no start... which I now realise is why it would be days before I got it working again, through removing and fiddling with the position of the power strip. What I'd actually done by pushing it all the way in was moving the contact point of the socket contacts directly onto the oxidised area of the conductor tracks on the flexible strip, which had built up around the original contact points when the strip was NOT pushed fully home.
So my CONCLUSION is that on older boxes, OXIDATION of the contacts points on the flexible power connector strip causes interuption in power to some parts of the board, resulting in crashes.
(I'd get it to the planner or Ch.998 and then it would 'go again' when starting to play a recording (surge in power demand ?)
IF YOU have problems with spontaneous crashing, open 'er up and check the ends of the main flexible strip. If they're not uniform in colour - clean them.
I found the glass fibre cleaning pen I used, worked a treat but you could also scrape carefully with edge of a scalpel blade or maybe even the edge of a new coin. "Lapping" paper would be OK too (but 600 grade wet n dry would be too rough).
The "Hi-Fi trick" of dis-/re-connecting a few times to clean away oxidiation clearly DOES NOT work in this case.
Steve
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