Occasional startup issue

[afc_rich]

Hi All,

Every so often I get a problem when the Duo powers up. The LCD display shows "Starting..." - apart from this the box comes up as normal. When the duo has booted it is unresponsive via the remote. I can telnet/FTP fine and the only way to resolve the problem is to power cycle at the rear of the box.

Any ideas? Or at least a workaround to "hard reboot" remotely?

Cheers

[mickyblueys]

Hi All,

Every so often I get a problem when the Duo powers up. The LCD display shows "Starting..." - apart from this the box comes up as normal. When the duo has booted it is unresponsive via the remote. I can telnet/FTP fine and the only way to resolve the problem is to power cycle at the rear of the box.

Any ideas? Or at least a workaround to "hard reboot" remotely?

Cheers

I have this problem also, the duo has a memory leak problem. A way around this, to an extent is to enable a swap file. Go into you're vix menu then swap manager create a swap file on either a USB or a hdd. Then start it up. Mine is 96 megabytes.

This will help you're system but it is not prefect.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[afc_rich]

That for the quick response. I will make the change and see what results I get.

[afc_rich]

Sods law...

Made the change suggested and on next reboot had the same issue. doh!

I will continue to monitor, however does anyone know of a command to hard reset the duo? When using the reboot command it doesn't clear the "Starting..." error

[judge]

Do you have in internal HDD, where are you storing EPG?

[afc_rich]

EPG stored on internal HDD. I also have a USB flash drive for picons.

[judge]

EPG stored on internal HDD. I also have a USB flash drive for picons.

ideal set up so, do you have any other HDD related issues?

[afc_rich]

No, box seems pretty stable these days. It's an intermittant problem and not the end of the world -just a tad annoying. It means having to get up off the sofa to fix it!

[judge]

Pain in the ass having to get off the sofa to hard reboot...
Did you initialize the HDD using the image?
Or have you tried removing all epg, and starting it again from scratch?

[afc_rich]

Yes, done everything you have mentioned. I had this problem with earlier versions of VIX and always do fresh installs/setup on the major updates. It would be interesting if users of other images (blackhole etc) also experience this issue.

[judge]

No idea so, enable debug logs & upload them when you have issues.

[mickyblueys]

As I said earlier most people with a duo have suffered from this at some point. It is a low memory problem. You are not alone. Enabling the swap file is the best way to counteract it. That is exactly what I was asked to do by the mods. But it will always happen just hopefully not as often.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[judge]

I don't use a swap file on my Duo & it's still extremely stable.
Could be a low memory problem, but not here.

[mickyblueys]

I don't use a swap file on my Duo & it's still extremely stable.
Could be a low memory problem, but not here.

Looks like, You're one of the lucky ones.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[judge]

Looks like, You're one of the lucky ones.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

One of the lucky ones?
I'd guess most VU users are happy with their purchase 2 years later.
Only a handful of users experiencing issues...
Saying that, some testers here have issues, others don't.
I'm delighted I don't.

[mickyblueys]

I have this start up issue, but not very regular, now. The positives of the box far out weigh the negatives.

And glad to say with all of the constant image upgrades the negatives are becoming fewer and fewer.:thumbup:

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[zappahey]

As I said earlier most people with a duo have suffered from this at some point. It is a low memory problem. You are not alone. Enabling the swap file is the best way to counteract it. That is exactly what I was asked to do by the mods. But it will always happen just hopefully not as often.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

I get this issue too and I don't understand why it would be a memory problem as it happens at start up, even from a cold boot. My suspicion is that it's something to do with the usb stick as I've only had it happen when there's a usb stick inserted.

Sometimes the display gets a bit garbled showing a mix of letters from "starting" and "Reading usb". The only resolution is a power cycle.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Rob van der Does]

For the low-mem boxes (Solo/DUO/ET5000) the attached plugin might be helpful.

[Rob van der Does]

I don't use a swap file on my Duo & it's still extremely stable.
There are always those who have all the luck of the world. It is however a widespread problem with DUO's.

[mickyblueys]

I'm not at my PC or box at the moment, so was wondering if you could briefly explain what this plugin is/does?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[guff daddy]

Yes, done everything you have mentioned. I had this problem with earlier versions of VIX and always do fresh installs/setup on the major updates. It would be interesting if users of other images (blackhole etc) also experience this issue.

I've had this issue intermittently with the Duo for as long as I can remember (bought in March 2010). I'm pretty sure it is nothing to do with the image and is more than likely to do with the electronics of the box itself. I've generally found that powering off and leaving for about 30 seconds or so means it is less likely to happen (giving time for capacitors etc. to discharge).

That being said, I've moved to Black Hole (actually BlackPole - PLI based BlackHole) recently so if I don't see the problem again I'll report back...

[Rob van der Does]

Those DUO problems are kernel 3.1 related; all images show these problems.

[pooface]

Those DUO problems are kernel 3.1 related; all images show these problems.

I hope you're not talking about the "Starting..." error message rob?! This has been evident since the old 2.6x kernels. Had this problem virtually ever since I owned the duo!

As guffdaddy says, only way to resolve, is to power down for about a minute, and then restart. Interesting though, it still used to work fine using webif, as if the front panel of the box was the cause. So, to me, I'd say it's a hardware issue...

Also, the issue was apparent with all images. When first got the box, used black hole, VTi, ViX, PLi etc, all showed the same symptoms!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Rob van der Does]

I hope you're not talking about the "Starting..." error message rob?!
Correct .