Slight panic with HDX display hanging
Posted by: tonytronic on 27 October 2009
Got home last night and booted-up the HDX as usual(I leave it on standby mode when not in use for more than 8 hours, as the DAC is always powered up via an XPS2). Got changed, came back to listen to some tracks, then noticed the display on the HDX was still saying "Starting..." - no touch menu. Strange, usually ready within 60 seconds...
So I waited another 5 minutes but it didn't change. Tried powering it off and back on, but that didn't fix it...
Switched on the TV (which is connected to the VGA output on the HDX) - the Main menu was there! Hooray... using the remote, I selected a track via the TV display and it played OK... even though the touch screen still said "Starting...".
Very strange.. hmmm this isn't right.
So I tried to access the HDX from my PC in the usual way, but it failed to find the HDX on the network.
Went back to the HDX and, using the TV display and remote, looked at the System Status values.
Hmmm... the main controller IP address said "0.0.0.0" and masks not assigned (exclamation marks on them!). Still set to DCHP mode at least. And no address assigned to the display unit... then I remembered! I had read somewhere that the main controller and the display each must have their own unique address on the network... and more significantly, the display won't fully start up until it has one.
To cut a boring story short, I first disconnected the network cable and rebooted the HDX. The touch display then started working properly. So I reset the network router, reconnected the HDX to the network and rebooted the HDX.
Everything was restored to normal.
And the moral of the story?
I was was too quick to blame the HDX for the problems, when in fact it was the network router box that was the cause of the problems all along.
The network router had somehow got its knickers in a twist on that port and needed rebooting to restore sanity.
Now the only whinge I would have is that in this fault condition, the HDX display should say more than just "Starting..." forever !!
Something a bit more informative such as "Cannot assign valid IP address - Network fault" should be a simple thing to provide. It certainly would have made this little nightmare scenario a lot easier to resolve.
And to compound it, this particular fault scenario (where the router believes it is a banana on the HDX port) is NOT covered in any of the HDX manuals including the Network set-up manuals. It should be.
Oh well I suppose I learnt something useful from it. Just thought I'd pass it on.
Ooooh yeah! I always feel good after a nice whinge...
Tonytronic.
So I waited another 5 minutes but it didn't change. Tried powering it off and back on, but that didn't fix it...
Switched on the TV (which is connected to the VGA output on the HDX) - the Main menu was there! Hooray... using the remote, I selected a track via the TV display and it played OK... even though the touch screen still said "Starting...".
Very strange.. hmmm this isn't right.
So I tried to access the HDX from my PC in the usual way, but it failed to find the HDX on the network.
Went back to the HDX and, using the TV display and remote, looked at the System Status values.
Hmmm... the main controller IP address said "0.0.0.0" and masks not assigned (exclamation marks on them!). Still set to DCHP mode at least. And no address assigned to the display unit... then I remembered! I had read somewhere that the main controller and the display each must have their own unique address on the network... and more significantly, the display won't fully start up until it has one.
To cut a boring story short, I first disconnected the network cable and rebooted the HDX. The touch display then started working properly. So I reset the network router, reconnected the HDX to the network and rebooted the HDX.
Everything was restored to normal.
And the moral of the story?
I was was too quick to blame the HDX for the problems, when in fact it was the network router box that was the cause of the problems all along.
The network router had somehow got its knickers in a twist on that port and needed rebooting to restore sanity.
Now the only whinge I would have is that in this fault condition, the HDX display should say more than just "Starting..." forever !!
Something a bit more informative such as "Cannot assign valid IP address - Network fault" should be a simple thing to provide. It certainly would have made this little nightmare scenario a lot easier to resolve.
And to compound it, this particular fault scenario (where the router believes it is a banana on the HDX port) is NOT covered in any of the HDX manuals including the Network set-up manuals. It should be.
Oh well I suppose I learnt something useful from it. Just thought I'd pass it on.
Ooooh yeah! I always feel good after a nice whinge...
Tonytronic.
As fancy as an HDX is it still has a computer at its heart.
Did you try turning it off and on again?
Did you try turning it off and on again?