TT TV Plus Youview Box DN372T - Replacing Hard Drive

[mniven]

My old Huawei DN372T Youview recorder has finally packed up.  It was getting slower to respond to commands (e.g. anything up to 15 seconds to stop/start playing a recording) and playback would frequently glitch and/or hang up.  This suggested to me that either the external power supply brick was failing or the hard disk was on the way out.  Trying a different supply made no difference so it seems that the HD may be the culprit.  I did try all the various maintenance mode options but these failed to complete without error and I have ended up with the box now failing to get past initial start-up.

The unit is about 7 years old, so does not owe me anything, and I know that TT can no longer replace it with an equivalent recorder.  Hence, I opened up the box, checked there were no signs of bulging electrolytic capacitors and established that the HD is a WD AV-25 (WD3200BUCT) 2.5 inch part.  This seems to still be available quite cheaply but, before I take the risk, can anyone tell me if the PVR will do all the necessary formatting of a blank HD without recourse to setting it up first on a desktop PC, which I always find fraught with angst!  I only really want the Huawei running again as my Humax retail DTR-T2000 has not the Amazon Prime app.

Many thanks.

[ferguson]

Ace, glad it all worked out.  🙂

[mniven]

Success!  I ordered a new hard disk (WD3200LUCT AV WESTERN DIGITAL 320GB) for £13.  This is virtually identical to the original but seems slightly newer and with a slightly faster transfer rate.  I checked it on my PC and it came formatted as Ex-FAT.  Putting it into the DN372T, the box started and went straight into maintenance mode.  I tried the options available, but the last one (reinstall the software from the internet) is the one to use.  Nothing else was needed to get the box to start as factory fresh and do a full set up.  Again, thank you all for your time and feedback.  I now have a functional PVR again.

[ferguson]

Cool, like I said, keep us posted. For smart apps it is still worthwhile considering a separate device, especially if you are interested in 4K streaming. Personally I use a Roku, but Amazon Fire sticks are another option. 

[mniven]

Yup, I tried every reset option, starting with the 'keep recordings' ones.  None completed successfully.

[ferguson]

Just rewinding a wee bit, had you previously done a full factory reset of the box? This should restore and reformat the HDD. But you seem to know what you're doing, so let us know if you go ahead with the swap out and how it goes. 

[mniven]

I had an idea this morning - doesn't happen very often.  I have a USB adaptor that will hold a 2.5" SSD or HDD, originally obtained when I wanted to change my PC's main drive over to SSD and clone the original unit.  So I extracted the Huawei's disk drive, popped it into the adaptor and plugged it into the PC.  Windows recognised it as about 7 different drives, all needing formatting; but CrystalDiskInfo still was able to identify the drive and read its SMART information.  This indicated that there are a number of Reallocated Sector Count errors and hence confirms that the hard drive is indeed failing.  So I now have added confidence that a new HDD should get the PVR going again, hopefully without having to format and partition it manually.  Ebay has some new identical drives available for about £13, which seems quite reasonable.  So this seems the way to go.

[ferguson]

@mniven Cool, thanks for the extra information. 

[mniven]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.  Your feedback does give me confidence that replacing the HD may be worth a punt.  Obviously nothing is guaranteed and the HD may not be the problem, but the current cost of a replacement is not too exorbitant.   In reply to @ferguson, I run two different YouView recorders in parallel to minimise random crashes and failures to record.  I have found that these PVRs can be flaky at times, maybe less so with the Humax, and are subject to random lock-ups, crashes and failures to record.  Two different machines give me a level of diversity and backup that minimises failed recordings and keeps my Other Half happy.  This solution is not necessarily the most cost effective but it works for me.

On a side note, I did consider buying a current Freeview Play recorder but am surprised to find that no single model apparently comes with all three streaming apps for Amazon, Netflix and Now as standard.  Maybe I should consider one of the recent BT Humax YouView PVRs with 4 digital tuners, even if I lose a little functionality when connected to TT and not BT.

[ifanyonecan]

Hi

I fit an old 320gb HDD I had lying around into my DN372T. On start up it formatted, downloaded the latest firmware and installed it automatically. It's now been ok for over 12 months.

[ferguson]

If your main issue is access to Prime Video then there are far cheaper ways to achieve that with a variety of streaming devices available. Or you could ask the support team to replace your faulty box with a non-recording one and continue to use the Humax as a PVR. 

[John_G]

Yes, in my experience the box will do all the necessary formatting of a new disk.

This is what happened for me...:  https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/TV/Fixing-Failing-TV-Plus-YouView-Boxes/td-p/2732922