442 locks up/reboots during playback

[Luckychunk II]

Help!

My 442 recently became very sick. I updated the firmware to 1.2.4 with no problems. I then updated to 2.0.0, and now the unit does not work when outputting to TV or fast-forwarding through video. Every time I attempt to output to TV or fast-forward video viewing directly from the unit, the output does one of two things:

- the video freezes, and repeats one word over and over, requiring a push of the Reset button
- the 442 reboots, either instantly or after ~1 minute of playback

The same thing happens when I fast-forward through a file, except worse. The unit reboots to a field of vertical white/yellow/gray lines. I have to reboot the 442 again to restore the normal display.

Attempts to fix:
I've cleared every file off of the HD, and then formatted the HD using the 442's "Format Disk" option found under the "Files/File Management" selection (Select "Files"-->press "Play"-->press "Menu"-->select "Format Disk"). I re-copied the video I was trying to play, and the same thing happened--reboot city.

Video Type:
-MP4 file, 320x240, 139 MB. Original file was an MPEG-2 transferred from my ReplayTV PVR, edited in a program called Womble MPEG-VCR, then transferred to MP4 format using a program called 3GP Converter (ver. 034). File specs: QVGA/29.97fps/768kbps Stereo/128kbps.

I have been using this method to create video for playback on both my PlayStation Portable (for this past year) and the 442 (since I purchased the 442 from the Woot sale). I create MP4s specifically for playback in both the PSP and the 442, and do not wish to use DIVX/ASF/WMV/ETC. as a solution/workaround. I have had literally NO problems with the 442 using this method until updating the firmware to 2.0.0. Please help! I use my 442 very often, and the downtime is hurting me inside.

[rastyk]

I had a terrible time with trying to play .mp4 files (Mine were downloaded from http://www.archive.org) -- a great site which I have given kudos to in the past -- I didn't share the TV playback problems, but I had many times where the unit locked up while trying to play mpeg4 files.

My fix :
I had to re-encode them all to DivX format to get rid of the 20-30 minute lockups that you mentioned.  I still bring a safety pin along with my headphones, although my playback problems were solely with the .mp4 format and I haven't had a problem since I stopped watching the mpeg4s...  the .asf files that the 442 creates and the .avis that my plextor convertX makes have all worked with no problems whatsoever.

[Luckychunk II]

Thank you for your input rastyk, but my problem runs deeper than just Mp4s.

After reading your post, I decided to test other video files. And as it turns out, ALL forms of video that I've tried to watch after the firmware update to 2.0.0 crashes my 442. It's unusable in its current condition.

The list includes:
- Mp4s
- AVIs
- AVIs properly prepared by the 442 "how-to" wiki
- ASFs d/l'ed from the internet
- ASFs recorded STRAIGHT TO THE 442 from a TV source and from a DVD source.

When I try to fast-forward through any of the above files, the 442 crashes, reboots, and all I see is a screen of garbled white and gray.

If I don't hear from anyone off this forum soon, I'll contact Neuros Support directly -- probably something I should have done in the first place. But I posted here first to see if anyone knew anything about this problem, and are using the new 2.0.0 firmware. I think my problems are directly related to the firmware, since I had zero problems before the update.

[rastyk]

Wow, yeah, I thought you meant mp4s and thought you may have the same problem.  Everything else worked for me (and these files work ok for me) so I'd call support

[JEFFH]

Load the prior version of Firmware back into the 442 and see if the problem goes away.

[FJ]

Sorry for the belated answer on this. I would simply reinstall 1.2.4 (make sure you follow the upgrade instructions). We can not reproduce it here yet. I believe JEFFH is right, if you reinstall the firmware version 1.2.4 the problem should go away. Before you do it though, I would try to record a movie with the new firmware and see if the playback is OK (if you have not done so already). If it is the case, you probably have headers issue. Reincoding the files would probably solve this, but it is quite time consuming.

Let us know how that works out.

FJ

[Luckychunk II]

Thank you JEFFH and FJ -- my 442 seems to be fine now. I successfully reverted back to the 1.2.4 firmware. I fast-forwarded through some files, viewed some video output on the TV, and it didn't reboot. I'll cross my fingers over the next few days, and I'll report back here if I have any more problems. Thanks again!

And FJ -- per your request, I recorded some TV programming (using the 2.0.0 firmware) and then played it back on the 442, and as soon as I fast-forwarded (up to 16x), the unit shut down completely. Powering it back up resulted in the white/gray screen again. So to summarize, none of the video files listed in my posts above worked properly for my 442 using the 2.0.0 firmware.

Which leads me to ask the question: is 2.0.0 flawed, or is my unit flawed? I'd hate to miss out on future upgrades if it means I stay at 1.2.4 forever.

[hitman]

Having the same lock up problems with 2.0.0 - went back to 1.2.4 and it's better, but not perfect.
[!]


LeaveMeAlone

[andrew]

quote:Originally posted by Luckychunk II

Every time I attempt to output to TV or fast-forward video viewing directly from the unit, the output does one of two things:

- the video freezes, and repeats one word over and over, requiring a push of the Reset button
- the 442 reboots, either instantly or after ~1 minute of playback

Just wanted to say that I have intermittently had this issue on mine as well (firmware v2.0.0).  Not often, probably 10 times since I have had it (I wooted mine) but it is rather annoying.  I had not noticed that it had anything to do with FF or TV out, for me it does it just playing videos.  It does those same lockups including the screen with vertical stripes, but I have not found a pattern of what causes it.  

It appeared to me to possibly be heat related because when mine locked up it was after playing for a while (last time was about 20 minutes), and if I try again immediatly it locks up again, but if I wait a while (I waited an hour or so this last time) it will play that same section of the same file just fine.

I will pay more attention to what I am doing when it happens in the future.

l8rZ

[FJ]

Try to update your video playlist and see if that has any effect. We have not been able to reproduce this locking problem yet, but I will keep you posted.

FJ

[andrew]

quote:Originally posted by FJ

Try to update your video playlist and see if that has any effect. We have not been able to reproduce this locking problem yet, but I will keep you posted.

I didn't actually try this, I forgot when I went to use this.  However, it appears that is now a non-issue.  My hard disk appears to have gone out.  I am not sure if that has anything to do with the strange issues with reboots and lockups, but it may be something.

The other day I was watching a video and after about 20 minutes my 442 just rebooted, usually mine locks up when it has a problem, but this time it just rebooted.  After that it played fine for the next 10 minutes or so until I had to go do something else.  Then, the next day I went to turn my 442 on and it wouldn't turn on.  Although I have read that other people have experienced that I have not.  I went and found a paperclip and reset it and it started up.  However, when I went to play a video there wasn't anything under Video Player.  I went under Files management and all that was there were lots of files with strange 3 character filenames.  They were extended characters as well as a semicolon at the end of many of them.  I figured that the partition table went weird when I reset it, so I figured a format would probably fix it.  

Before I tried that, I thought to see what would happen if connected it to my computer.  I plugged it in to my OpenBSD box and

Code:

mount -t msdos /dev/sd0i /mnt

as I have done before.  This time however it said

Code:

mount_msdos: /dev/sd0i on /mnt: Inappropriate file type or format

 

So I thought to try it on a Windows XP box.  On Windows, the 442 shows up in Explorer but when clicking on it it claims the disk is not formatted and asks if I want to format it.  For now I said no, stopped the device and unplugged it from the computer.  

I then decided to try formatting it.  I browsed to the Files management -> menu -> format disk, and answered Yes.  It said "PLS Check with PC".  

So, I plugged it back into the Windows box and allowed Windows to attempt to format it.  Windows XP will only format that size disk NTFS so that is what I tried.  Windows went at it for a while and then said "Windows was unable to complete the format".  So I tried it again using a quick format and it came up with that error immediately.  

So, I stopped the device, unplugged it and rebooted.  This caused it to ask if I wanted to format the disk.  I said Yes and it said "PLS Check with PC".  

I then tried a few things with fdisk and disklabel on my OpenBSD box and didn't get anywhere.  So, back to the Windows box and Disk Manager.  I noticed that when I plugged in the 442 it showed up as a 167Gb drive and wouldn't let me do anything to it.  So I stopped it and plugged it back in and it showed up as 37.? gigs as I expected and it would let my try to format it.  However, I ran into the same issues as above.  I unplugged it and plugged it back in a few times and it would sometimes say 37G and sometimes 167G.  At this point I am pretty convinced it is just broken :-)

I did try some stuff again today and I was able to use the 442 to format the disk.  This created the PFR and VOICE directories and I was able to mount it on my OpenBSD box and copy files to it.  When I browsed the file listing in Files management I noticed that there were now spelling errors in the filename so it did not get copied over correctly.  So, I formatted it again and tried to create a directory with the 442.  It ended up named "dm`".  I created another one and again "dm`".  Two directories with the same name!  And I can't change into them.  Plus, I now have files "aedall.m3u" and "fidall.m3u".

I am now emailing this to support@neurosaudio.com in hopes of getting it replaced.  I wish I could just send it in for the 442v2, but it isn't ready yet :-(  


l8rZ