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3060 and dropout problems

123 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by PRMan, Oct 11, 2000

jimbob

Discussion Starter · Oct 9, 2000

I'm the proud owner of a new 3060 - and I'm having a lot of fun with it. However, some of that fun is being tempered by glitches I'm seeing on playback of previously recorded shows. This usually manifests itself as a screen freeze/audio dropout for approximately 1s, after which it carries on. Most of the time if I press the instant replay, it plays back the same info without a hiccup. On a two-hour show, I noticed this about 10 times. Is this common? Also noted was a second dropout of about 5 seconds which was not cured by a rewind. So there appears to be recording dropouts, as well as playback dropouts. ( The signal strength is fine, and there are no blue screens around...). Finally, every once in a while I hear what sounds suspicially like the disk heads being deenergized/energized - two plinks about 0.5s apart. Have other 3060 owners had any of these problems? OR should I start thinking about a replacement?

Any/all replies would be most welcome!

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jimbob

Discussion Starter · #2 · Oct 9, 2000

Hey Mike,

The last time I noticed the pronounced skipping (i.e. the 10 times in 2 hours) there was in fact a show recording in the background. But I have also seen the skipping, albeit far less frequently, when no background recording was taking place. Please let me know if there is any specific trouble-shooting you'd like me to do on this.

The 3060 is a great product, and kudos should go to everyone at replaytv, and if, in some small way, I can help make it better (i.e. not skip http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif ), I'd be happy to.

Does that sound obsequious enough? http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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ijprest

· #3 · Oct 10, 2000

Quote:

Originally posted by jimbob:
Finally, every once in a while I hear what sounds suspicially like the disk heads being deenergized/energized - two plinks about 0.5s apart.

Is this a "plink" or more of a "knock?"

I have had the hard drive on my 3060 knock a couple of times, usually just after spinning up.

The knocking worries me. I've had five Western Digital drives. Every one of them started knocking after a time (ranging from immediately to a couple of years). Four of these drives died on me. One drive, in particular, just started knocking continuously (you could still read the data, albeit *really* slowly---it took over 24 hours to copy 4GB of data). I don't trust the one WD drive I have left (which knocks 15-20 times a day).

According to WD tech-support, the knocking is usually caused by the drive head knocking against the side of the drive (not crashing into the platter, as I had feared).

I've never had a Maxtor drive, so I suppose it could be something different. Still, it worries me.

Anyone else?

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jimbob

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 10, 2000

Thanks Mike, for the quick fix! http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif As I'm a squeaky wheel, do I get 3.0 first? http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

As for ijprest's question - mainly it's a double plink about 0.5s apart (maybe more of a plonk-plink - or is that plink-plonk - I can't remember). However I've also heard a few bangs, including one that seemed way too loud for a hard drive - more like something dropping 6"! Maybe I'm just too hypersensitive to my new toy!

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Michael Gwynn

· #5 · Oct 10, 2000

Welcome, jimbob! Have fun, but don't spill anything on the carpet.

Can anyone tell me if you really can hear heads mag/demag? I'm talking not only RTV, but PCs, too?

Really?

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riker

· #6 · Oct 10, 2000

The "bad" noise is commonly described as the sound of a marble dropping on a wooden table. If that is the kind of sound you are hearing, nothing good can come of it ... http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/frown.gif It usually is a precursor to a gradual or total hard drive failure. If that is not the way you'd describe that sound, then you might be ok.

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Jon J

· #7 · Oct 10, 2000

I experienced this exact problem when watching a recording of Austin City Limits made last Saturday night. I watched it Sunday and there were at least 10 dropouts and tiling glitches in the hour show. First time I've experienced this problem and I haven't seen it since.

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ijprest

· #8 · Oct 11, 2000

Quote:

Originally posted by riker:
The "bad" noise is commonly described as the sound of a marble dropping on a wooden table. If that is the kind of sound you are hearing, nothing good can come of it ... http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/frown.gif It usually is a precursor to a gradual or total hard drive failure. If that is not the way you'd describe that sound, then you might be ok.

Yes, this is how I'd describe it. And yes, in my experience, it usually results in hard-drive failure (see my post, above). This is why it worries me.

Quote:

Originally posted by photoman:
Those plinking sounds that sound like

a marble dropping could mean that the drive head is going through a calibration process. (I've worked in the computer industry for over

20 years)

I've only heard the knocking when the drive is spinning up, so maybe this is it (and I've never had a Maxtor drive before to compare with). I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But if it starts knocking during regular use I'm going to be really worried.

What happens if the Replay fails when I'm out of the country? I've got an extended, 4-month trip to Canada coming up. Would I have trouble with the warrantee?

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PRMan

· #9 · Oct 11, 2000

Can anyone at Replay confirm whether the Maxtor drives are shipping with WVSET and AMSET turned off? Have they had a bad block scan run on them?

See this thread courtesy of the TiVo hackers:

http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/Forum6/HTML/001383.html

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PRMan

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