HDX display says Starting.... - time to panic?
Posted by: CariocaJeff on 11 October 2015
HDX been working fine, went to select some music and now just says Starting all the time. Anyone any ideas?
We accept HDD failure as a matter of course because that is what it is. The best offset available is to buy a make/type with a long warranty. With HDDs it's a question of when not if. Which is why it is essential to back up and back up the backup. Naim will rescue your music in most cases, but why risk it? Storage is cheap and local copies and archives are easy to do and keep.
I remember the Granada TV man telling my father our first colour TV kept failing because that was just the way it is. He threw him out the house and made him take the TV away. Must be 20 years now since I had a TV broke. If we just accept it is the way it is, then why will the manufacturers bother trying to improve quality.
With regard to the HDX - at a selling price of c£5k I would hope Naim are using the best and more reliable disks available.
But harddrives are at the pinnacle of their capability, the fact is you have a bunch of disks spinning at 7200rpm, day in, day out. They last about five years, 7 if you are lucky. The only place this is not so is for 80 160 gig or less because there was in general just the one platter, less to go wrong.
Most drive manufacturers put a long warranty on so I presume they are trying their best to make them reliable.
It surely time for ssd prices to crash soon anyhow.
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?
I just had my Unitiserve upgraded from 1TB to 2TB for about 250 pounds sterling.
As I said in an earlier post, my HDX was snug inside its box while I was working away for most of its life to date. Probably only had 9 months use at c.5 hours max a day. That's only around 1400 hours use!
Agree re. SSDs!
Thanks Kiwi, that's useful to know.
Unfortunately it doesn't sound like a CMOS battery failure ... after discussion with the OP it sounds more like a drive failure.
Phil
Very good news about the backup then !
Usually we get most data back even off failed drives...
Phil
Usually, but not always! But then, mine was fried by a direct lightning strike. It's surprising how much destructive energy can be carried down a microscopically thin Cat5 cable. Backup (over WiFi) is good!
But harddrives are at the pinnacle of their capability, the fact is you have a bunch of disks spinning at 7200rpm, day in, day out. They last about five years, 7 if you are lucky. The only place this is not so is for 80 160 gig or less because there was in general just the one platter, less to go wrong.
For UnitiServes with hard disks and HDXs, is it better then to shut off the unit overnight to lengthen disk life, or does startup stress the disks as much as leaving it on all the time?
Jan - be interested to hear the answers to this. I asked the question in a similar way a few weeks ago but did not see any responses!
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?
Sorry to hear about the issues you have with your HDX. Since the unit needs to go to Salisbury anyway, why not consider replacing the hard drive with an SSD?
This is exaclty what I've planned to do in case any of my 2 400GB drives will fail...
Many regards,
Michel
It is my experience that HDD failures most commonly occur at start up. I doubt that my experiences are significantly different from the norm but I don't know. In fact, most things around here fail or blow at start up, which is most likely to do with the power surge associated with switching on.
The HDX / NS0x / UnitiServe products are intended for use as servers (in addition to local playback) and as such are intended to be left on all the time ...
Best
Phil
Too easy Phil. And it's printed in the manual - so that's a non starter. (Pun intended).
But harddrives are at the pinnacle of their capability, the fact is you have a bunch of disks spinning at 7200rpm, day in, day out. They last about five years, 7 if you are lucky. The only place this is not so is for 80 160 gig or less because there was in general just the one platter, less to go wrong.
For UnitiServes with hard disks and HDXs, is it better then to shut off the unit overnight to lengthen disk life, or does startup stress the disks as much as leaving it on all the time?
In the wonderful world of commercial IT departments, powering down disk based devices is something to be avoided if at all possible. The fewer startups, the longer the operational life of your disk device... up to the point where the mechanical device finally dies, so Naim advice follows industry good practice... leave 'em running Jan-Erik !
The NS series and UnitiServe are primarily servers that just happen to be able to give a local output (NS digital/analogue, UnitiServe digital only).
The HDX was marketed as "The world's first performance upgradable, audiophile hard disk player" not as first and foremost a server. In fact, in the brochure this functionality is only mentioned in passing.
This small but important point is significant as regards how the product is likely to be used by the end user and their expectations as regards development of software updates to keep the product relevant in line with market developments.
Must have missed it in the manual Harry as only ref I could find re. Power was that if you use in a network, the network and HDX need to be switched on. Obvious as could not work if not, but nothing to say ifcusing as essentially a stand alone device! only using the network for hi-res files off a NAS. Perhaps in another manual.
klout - yes I had wondered about the SSD version, so will look into that.
We had the HDX-SSD. It failed after five years with a corrupted boot sector. Fixed quickly but took a factory return.
Must have missed it in the manual Harry
Sorry Jeff. My mistake.
We had the HDX-SSD. It failed after five years with a corrupted boot sector. Fixed quickly but took a factory return.
Harry, I had the same problem being discussed here with a 1TB HDX. I consulted with Chris West, who led me through a procedure to reset the BIOS, but that didn't help. Like yours, my problem was a corrupted boot sector. I had to send the HDX to Chris for repair, but fortunately all my music was intact.
I've been wondering about shifting to the SSD model, but your experience indicates that the "corrupted boot sector" error might occur anyway.
Our SSD model refused to go past "Starting....". The factory fixed a corrupted boot sector, replaced a depleted (but not flat) BIOS battery and a bleeding logo. The cost was less than £200. Not that the HDX ever came home again. Having a NAS and NDS, I installed Minimserver as a stop gap until the HDX came back. Such was the improvement in sound quality that we decided to turn the HDX into money and let it go to a home that would better appreciate it. But that's another story.
The HDX / NS0x / UnitiServe products are intended for use as servers (in addition to local playback) and as such are intended to be left on all the time ...
Best
Phil
With electronics, the "leave on all the time" argument makes some sense - experience tells us that electronics are pretty reliable. Unfortunately, with HDDs, heat is one of the enemies. My HDX HDD failed after 4 years and, while replaced under warranty, worries me for future failures. The system software (on the HDD) is unavailable to end users from NAIM and must be installed by them for any drive failures, burdening the customer with unnecessary inconvenience and expense. Perhaps the system software could be made available to HDX owners so that out of warranty repairs can be made? (Please, no comments about "Microsoft licensing requirements" - computer manufacturers do this all the time)
Received HDX back from Naim today, just 3 weeks since I sent back. 2tb HD installed, and looks like all music rescued saving hours, if not days, restoring back-up. Thanks to Phil and all the folks at Naim for such prompt service!
Happy to hear that everything worked out fine!
Many regards,
Michel
When buying hard drives for servers, best buying HGST Deskstar.
Western Digital Red's failure rate averages around 10%.