Urgent help needed - machine is dead ;-(

[jerry2]

Hi there

I have gigablue quad plus and it worked till today, then it froze and when rebooted the VIX logo on the nice image when booting was shown but didn't want to continue to continue loading. I could telnet to machine.

So I decided to reflash and it reflashed succesfully and rebooted and there now comes only the VIX IMAGE main boot logo and loading stops.

I tried other images, other logo comes but doesn't want to load any further.

Is the machine dead, what could cause this? As the flash seem to be ok, I can reflash VIX but after reboot it is frozen on the main picture that comes after a second or two and the red light is on at the side.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Larry-G]

First make sure you have the latest bootloader flashed for your receiver from www.openvix.co.uk then flash the image again.

p.s my own GB Quad briefly froze during a online update from build 120 to 121 but a simple reboot resolved that issue.

[jerry2]

I have latest bootloader and I just flashed it again, same... I then flashed the image and same again. Stuck on first screen, doesn't want to boot.

How can a receiver die in this wierd way? I have now put out HD and tuners and same thing. Dead.

[Peterj]

The box isn't dead, only Enigma2 will not start.
You have removed all USB devices?
Did you disconnected the HD in box (put out HD)?

[jerry2]

Yes, I have removed all the USB devices (there were none except the key for flashing). I removed the HD. Same thing, I can reflash anything but after reboot the LED is read and stuck on whatever image I am at (Vix image shows VIX screen).

Are there any other options why Enigma would not start? First it frooze, then reboot got me to the VIX HD image and picture dissapeared for a second and came back to the same screen and telnet wos working. Rebooted again and I got stuck on main first screen after that all reflashed made any difference and the telnet is gone.

I am afraid the box is dead.

[Peterj]

You are sure you have no telnet? (ip number ok?)
In that case I ran out of options. Perhaps someone else knows what to do.

[jerry2]

I don't have telnet any more, as the receiver is stuck on first image that appears after 2 seconds of loading (on TV not on the LCD).

[judge]

What image build are you trying to flash? maybe try an older one with older drivers.

[jerry2]

I tried to flash image rom 31.12., the latest one also and the Open Mips image. In Open MIPS only the boot logo is different and the LCD also has boot logo (in Vix not), but the loading still doesn't continue.

[Larry-G]

are you sure your image is not loading correctly ?, I dont mean to come across as a prat but my own GB Quad briefly froze with the ViX splash screen on both the LCD and TV screen last night during a update, all it needed was a reboot and rescan of ABM to repopulate the channel list and it was going again.

Have you tried pressing any buttons on the remote to see if the meun's are coming up ?.

[Andy_Hazza]

Can you connect to the box via DCC?

[jerry2]

It doesn't even boot, it is stuck on the OpenVIX boot screen, there is no telnet, no channels and nothing ;-(

How do I connect via DCC, what is DCC, sorry I do not know., I'll try to borrow a Null modem USB to serial cable if I will see anything (but I would need instuctions how to try to connect via null modem cable).

[Andy_Hazza]

Google Dreambox Control Centre, look for version 1.96 and see if you can connect to your box that way. Its worth a try.

[chaser]

Can you unplug any of your internal tuner cards and try rebooting?
Also, have you tried flashing using other USB sticks, and reformatting your USB stick using the HP formatting tool?

[jerry2]

I tried to put out my tuners yes but the 2x DVB-S2 are soldered on the board. I tried other USB sticks, but flashing part seems ok, it flashes and reboots without errors.

I can not connect with DCC, as it seems nothing gets loaded on the first boot screen after 2 seconds.

[jerry2]

I connected with null modem and here is the error:

Found splash image - Width = 720 Height = 576

Reading flash0:lcdsplash: no valid image found in flash0.lcdsplash disabling splash
Failed: error

That is at the end then it stops loading

[Larry-G]

Hi there

I have gigablue quad plus and it worked till today, then it froze and when rebooted the VIX logo on the nice image when booting was shown but didn't want to continue to continue loading. I could telnet to machine.

So I decided to reflash and it reflashed succesfully and rebooted and there now comes only the VIX IMAGE main boot logo and loading stops.

I tried other images, other logo comes but doesn't want to load any further.

Is the machine dead, what could cause this? As the flash seem to be ok, I can reflash VIX but after reboot it is frozen on the main picture that comes after a second or two and the red light is on at the side.

Any help would be appreciated.

I think in your case it's time you contacted your supplier to see what they can do for you, you seem to have exhausted all reasonable options to get it working again without success. Although I am still puzzled how a previously working receiver could all of a sudden and by its self become none operational in this way.
For example did you install any plugins or skins before this happened or any thing you could think of that may not seem important but may help us to help you ?.

[jerry2]

Ye, I know, thank you. I am quite old in SAT TV so I am not newbie. It is a puzzle to me also... I didn't brick machine for sure. This happened when I was watching TV program the picture froze and first it rebooted to the VIX HD image and the rotating logo just reseted itself and after some few hard resets there was not even this any more. I have since "upgraded" different images, bootloader etc. nothing... RS232 port is sending even LOG but after getting splash screen the loading stops and the transmission of the serial is lost... I have never ever heard of such a "brick". I 100% didn't do anything, updated anything or put something new for weeks before this happened, auto updates are all off here because I don't like auto updates...

This is a puzzle, not only money matter... I posted to Gigablue support, someone contacted me to give him Team viewer and putty to check... I think he will not be able to help me but I would like to be 100% sure before sending receiver to another country and my family to be without for month or more :-(((

[chaser]

The fact that it failed during normal operation would certainly suggest a hardware fault, but I do still wonder if you're installing a corrupt image. Once the files are copied onto your USB stick, it might be worth doing a MD5 check of each file and comparing against the equivalent file on your PC. Can you also confirm that you are ejecting your USB before pulling it from your PC?

[jerry2]

I have flashed so many images... And yes, there is not even harddrive in my Gigablue, or external tuners...

Is it theoretically possible that some element fails in the motherboard and the machine is half working but doesn't have anough power to load the system or something like that?

[chaser]

It could be a ram or flash problem which might explain why it partly works. However as I mentioned, do you eject the USB stick before unplugging it? Failure to do this could cause all your image flashes to fail in the same way.

[Larry-G]

It could be a ram or flash problem which might explain why it partly works. However as I mentioned, do you eject the USB stick before unplugging it? Failure to do this could cause all your image flashes to fail in the same way.

I have not ejected a USB stick from any system prior to removing it in years without any issues what so ever. As long as you are not actually writing to the stick at the time there is no need to eject it for modern OS's.

[chaser]

As long as you are not actually writing to the stick at the time there is no need to eject it for modern OS's.Well, that depends on whether or not you've enabled or disabled write caching on the USB drive. On modern windows PCs it's disabled by default so you should normally be able to unplug safely without ejecting as you say. However, it can be enabled (sometimes by other software; not by the user), so it's always safer to eject - just in case. Bitter experience has told me so on a fairly modern Windows 7 PC :(

[jerry2]

I am SOOO HAPPPY, I have managed to solve the problem myself ;-))) I don't know what and why, but I will say how I did it if somebody get's stuck on the same...

I have connected via Putty and null modem cable and I saw after splash screen there says STARTUP and then it freezez and after like 5 minutes I get to shell of the terminal connection with command line. I have just deleted the ENV VAR startup and the receiver is booting again. It is a pitty I didn't examine the env var startup before deleting it to see what was in it...

I have to mention the ENV VAR's seem to be resistent to bootloader flash and image flash, that is why nothing helped. Seems they can only be changed using RS232...

If you get stuck, you are doing it on your own risk...

Take care and thank you for you help.

[lee74]

Ive got the same problem ! just unplugged mine and moved to another room, and stuck on openvix message. Ive removed hdd no display on box either any ideas???