HDX display says Starting.... - time to panic?

This happened to me. I seem to remember naim telling me to power down, switch off for a minute or two and remove the Ethernet cable.

Switch back on and when it says starting plug the Ethernet back in.

I can't swear that was the sequence though, but naim can advise.

G

Thanks Graeme. Will try it, and if not work will try naim or my dealer.

Afraid did not work. Does not sound like it is even trying to read the HDD. Just a very short noise when first put power on then silence. 

OK - You might be surprised and it's just a glitch.

Let us know how it goes.

G

Hope so....as always I suspect the hard drive. Thanks for your help.

Thanks John - no joy I'm afraid so it will be Naim tech support.

You'll be in great hand with Naim tech support. Been there, seen it, done it with my HDX too. All will be sorted! 

Thanks guys - just emailed Naim support, so fingers crossed!!

One thing you can perhaps do now and Naim Support may ask you if you can do anyway, is to connect a computer display screen to the display port on the back of the HDX. This would allow you to see how far you get along the start-up process, essential information to judge whether anything can be done remotely or it's a back to Salisbury situation. if you have a keyboard to plug in too, then you are all set to deal with whatever you find. Eg one scenario is that the CMOS backup battery needs changing....

good luck

Best

David

David thanks, sure I have a monitor somewhere, so will give that a try.

If you try that you are most likely to see a Naim graphic or a blank screen.

When our HDX did this, and could not be hard booted past it, it went back. I expect yours is heading that way with a boot sector or CMOS fault. The HDX is essentially a PC and it won't last for ever. The repair cost for ours including a bleeding logo was reasonable. Less than £200 IIRC.

Good luck with it.

Hi,

I had exactly the same problem a couple of months ago, and tried removing the network cable, as suggested above, with no success.

Fearing that a return to Salisbury was likely, I took the unit into my local dealer, who connected an external monitor, and was able to determine that some of the settings in the BIOS had been corrupted.

They were able to restore the BIOS there and then, with a recommendation to replace the CMOS battery.

We didn't do this at the time, though plan to do so at the earliest opportunity.

The unit has been working fine since, and I think the problem was caused by an incorrect shutdown, as I power down the system whenever I'm away from home.

So, assuming you have access to a local dealer, the solution may be simpler than expected, and won't require a return to Naim.

Regards,

Dave.

If ever you get a server that doesn't start up correctly (HDX saying "Starting" on the front panel or UnitiServe with constantly flashing logo) then if you can get a VGA monitor plugged into the back of it then it will give us a lot more info to go on for diagnosis.

There is also an s-video or composite video output on the back panel too...

Phil

Phil contacted me today. As David said he got me to connect a monitor, which I did when got in tonight, and get a boot disk failure message. Contacted Phil but fearing the worst.

Can I ask (just being nosey) -how old is your HDX ?

And is it a single disk or twin disk unit ?

And also, do you have your music files from the HDX backed up ?  (Ouch  or  sigh-of-relief)

Will be interested to hear how things work out for you CariocaJeff  (will also cross fingers for you).

It is single 1TB unit about 4.5 years old which had little use over the first 3.5 years due to me working in Rio, and only being home for holidays, until returning for good in May. Came back from Naim quite recently after having the digital output upgraded for a known issue when working with non Naim dacs and they replaced a logo which suprised me after so little use.

Yes it is backed up. After my qnap NAS in Rio failed twice I am much more careful now.

Good news about the backup, then, if the worst happens.

Fingers crossed it can be fixed locally rather than go on holiday to Salisbury. 

Let us know how it goes, please.

My crystal ball is a bit cloudy, but I reckon it will turn out to be that the CMOS battery has failed (as the HDX was presumably switched off and therefore relying on the backup battery for 3.5 years) and the CMOS is therefore pointing it to the wrong place for the boot disc. if so a Naim dealer ought to be able to fix it.  The battery is probably something like a CR2032 (Ie not rechargeable). Anyway I too will be fascinated to hear what the problem actually turned out to be.

best

David

Hi David,

Unfortunately it doesn't sound like a CMOS battery failure ... after discussion with the OP it sounds more like a drive failure.

Phil

I shall have to give my crystal ball a better wash then! Thanks for letting us know anyway.

Best

David

Usually we get most data back even off failed drives...

Phil

Thanks for your help guys, and many thanks for the speedy response from Phil. Looks like a trip to Salisbury unfortunately. 

Guess I could get the HDD upgraded to the 2TB now, saving the repair of the 1TB. Not blaming Naim for the failure of the drive, but in general we seem just to accept the failure of hard drives as just a fact of life. Perhaps the manufacturers should start putting more resources into the reliability of storage, than to increasing the capacity, which to a non engineer like myself seems to make already frail products even more risky.

Anyone know the cost of the 2TB drive upgrade?