Need YouView Settop Replacement

[RussTrue]

Hi there, just turned on my YouView settop box (DN372T.01.02.P) and it makes a clicking noise for 5 seconds or so then gets stuck on the "Waking Up" screen. I have tried leaving it for over an our with no change as well as disconnecting the power, waiting and then retrying. Again, no change.

I have looked online and discovered that the clicking noise means that the hard drive in the box has likely failed. If someone from TalkTalk could send over a new box for testing that would be greatly appreciated!

[Stephen-80]

OK, so earlier this year my set top box played up - hard drive 'rattling' - so had to use an older BT box, then last week father-in-laws TT box 'died'.

Saw this page, understood the instructions ( 6 screws on bottom, 3 on back, there are then 4 holding a 'caddy plate' holding the hard drive in place, NOTE - there was some sort of 'heat glue' holding the data and power cables in place - but this was easy to remove), there were then 4 screws holding the drive to the caddy - and that was it 1 broken hard drive in my hand.

Only issue was his hard drive serial number ended LUCT not BUCT as others, so found a guy (Zephyr_Global) on Ebay selling the BUCT ones at £11. I couldn't find any web page that stated the difference between the different part number so thought 'It's only £11 - what the hell', ordered and it arrived 3 days later.

THEN saw the post about the 'internet download' page not being there - as these devices have been END-OF-LIFE for 4 years or so, so I'd imagine at some point the link might be taken down - but then it's probably going to be the same link for the newer devices as well so not sure as to what is going to happen long term.

Anyway expecting the worst with the webpage not being there, replaced the drive, powered up (you'll need an internet connection as well as the aerial connection).

Didn't need to do any button pressing - went straight into Mgmt mode, used remote to move to the 'Internet/remove recordings' option as this was a brand new hard drive.

Got a message 'Connecting to the internet' - download bar appeared, and left it, thinking it would take 1 to 2 hours.

Checked back after 15 mins to see a 'Youview' page - pressed a few buttons for the options it was asking - tv area etc and within another 15 mins we were back 'online'. Did a test realtime recording and woo hoo back in action.

So all in all not a bad process to follow - now just have to order a new hard drive for my set top box and I'll be back in action.

[Futaura]

@RussTrueIf you have recordings on the box you haven't watched yet, or want to keep, @ferguson offers a good tip. Starting with gentle taps when to the side of the drive with the box off and if it still doesn't power on, do the same with the box on. If the heads have gotten stuck, sometimes this will unstick them. If it does work, also assume the drive is likely to fail again (perhaps permanently) sooner or later. Unfortunately, there is no way to transfer any recordings to a new hard drive, so any recordings are lost once the drive has failed or you replace the hard drive.

Should the above prove fruitless, you may now be able to replace the hard drive to get your box working again, as the update servers have been fixed. If you've not taken the box apart yet, it is quite easy - 6 screws on base (one under warranty sticker) and 3 along the top of the back panel. Check the model number on the hard drive label. In my case, the 4 boxes I've seen have Western Digital WD3200BUCT drives. Search the model number on a well known auction site and you'll find a company called Bipra selling "re-certified" drives (usually means repaired drives from warranty returns to the manufacturer) with this model number for £9.95. I can't vouch for the longevity of these, but the one I received was packaged professionally and passed 2 hours of diagnostic tests. Normally "re-certified" drives direct from a manufacturer have a label saying so, but this one did not. The date on the drive label was years old, but the SMART data on the drive suggests it hasn't been used.

To replace the drive, disconnect the 2 cables from it, unscrew the caddy, unscrew the drive from the caddy, put the new drive in and repeat the previous steps in reverse. When you power the box on, you will get an error message and then from the following maintenance menu, select the "Internet/USB Recovery, delete recordings" option - after a little while, it'll reboot and should be working again. It'll then be reset to factory default.

[ferguson]

@RussTrue 

If all else has failed you could try our old friend "percussive maintenance." Sometimes a firm whack on the top of the box with the palm of one's hand has been found to jog the needle on a recalcitrant hard drive back into life, you have nothing to lose by trying!

[ferguson]

Not if the software isn't available anymore. You have made your points eloquently on your own thread., let's leave it at that.

[Futaura]

It certainly sounds like the hard drive has failed. It should be the case that you could buy an exact replacement drive from eBay for £9, but unfortunately this is not currently an option as TalkTalk's update servers are offline, which means the box will not be able to download and install the required software once you've put the new drive in and therefore it won't be able to boot up 😠

[Karl-TalkTalk]

Hi

This sounds as though the box has reached the end of it's life and has now failed.

TalkTalk stopped providing these boxes 3 years ago and this cannot be replaced.

You may be eligible for one of the new 4K TV Streaming boxes, but if out of contract you would be asked to renew.

Give our Teams a call and they can discuss options and offers available for one of the new TV Boxes.

Thanks  

Karl. 

[RussTrue]

Hi fr8ys, Thanks for the quick reply and the advice. I just tried what you suggested and unfortunately it had no effect. It still just gets stuck on the "Waking Up" screen and makes a ticking noise when starting up.

[fr8ys]

have you tried a YouView Maintenance Reset (https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Articles/How-to-find-maintenance-mode/ta-p/1429347)?

Try the Factory Reset keep recording option.

You will then need to reset your personal settings (such as parental controls / Set antenna Out to On in Settings: Picture and Sound / Surround Sound etc.) and also reset your scheduled recordings (might be worth taking a note of future recordings before doing this so you don’t miss any).

If all else fails then try a full factory reset from the settings menu. You will lose your recordings but as TalkTalk now only supply non recordable ones it's best to try all alternatives if recording is important to you.

Hope it works but if not then please let us know and support staff will get back to you.