Things that make you go HUH???!!!

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by JustFred

There needs to be just ONE stp300.bin and ONE (corresponding) stp300.ver file present. This is true regardless of whether the pair of files is on the server or on the USB stick. All other filenames are ignored.

If I want to upgrade the HD300 firmware from my SageTV server, what directory does the stp300.bin and stp300.ver files need to be placed in? I am running the SageTV docker on an unRAID server.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

If I want to upgrade the HD300 firmware from my SageTV server, what directory does the stp300.bin and stp300.ver files need to be placed in? I am running the SageTV docker on an unRAID server.

I just successfully did an update from the server on a couple HD300's and the files were in the same directory as SageTV.exe, etc.

[waynedunham]

My problem is with one particular server. I have 2 servers, as mentioned before, one running on WIn10 32 bit, and one running on Win8.1 32 bit.

The HD300's have no trouble connecting to the Win 8 machine. The ones that are having trouble are only having connection issues with the Win10 machine. My HD200 extender has no trouble as well as one (so far) HD300.

Now the one in my living room was connecting just fine up until last night. Now it won't connect and when it does try (it sees the server and will go through the motions) you just get a blank screen and after a period of time the extender will shut off. Connect that same extender to the Win8.1 machine and no problems.

Since this seems to be "propagating" through my HD300's after some period of time I"m wondering if there's something on that Win10 machine written out by SageTV for a particular extender that is somehow getting corrupted causing the issue? I know that each extender has its own file, but is there anything else in one of the .properties files which might hose an extenders ability to connect to a machine?

I'm really scratching my head here. I'm also having trouble with them losing the network config, but that is only once every day or so. The not connecting to the Win10 machine is something that is happening all the time.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Fred is correct - just one version named stp300.bin

Thanks to you and Fred. I took a shot and put just a single version on the server without the date/version in the filename, just stp300.bin and .ver. They worked fine.
I had been hoping to be able to put them all in there and just select which one to try. That way I could see if any of them would suddenly connect to my Win10 machine again.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I just successfully did an update from the server on a couple HD300's and the files were in the same directory as SageTV.exe, etc.

The Linux version of SageTV does not have a SageTV.exe file. There is a sage.jar file, I can place the firmware files in that directory, if that’s where they belong.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Thanks to you and Fred. I took a shot and put just a single version on the server without the date/version in the filename, just stp300.bin and .ver. They worked fine.
I had been hoping to be able to put them all in there and just select which one to try. That way I could see if any of them would suddenly connect to my Win10 machine again.

PS - this is using the "unplug-unit/plug-unit in-holding 'back' button" method, and then selecting "From Server", right? If I could get my unit to boot this way, well that would be something...lol

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by KeithAbbott

The Linux version of SageTV does not have a SageTV.exe file. There is a sage.jar file, I can place the firmware files in that directory, if that’s where they belong.

Answering my own question: I just tried it and that is, in fact, where the firmware files need to be located.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

PS - this is using the "unplug-unit/plug-unit in-holding 'back' button" method, and then selecting "From Server", right? If I could get my unit to boot this way, well that would be something...lol

You aren't doing it wrong like I did the first half dozen times I tried it are you?

I was holding the left button (i.e. up/down/right/left cursor pad) instead of the back button which is just to the left of the cursor pad. Once I did that and made sure I held the button down while plugging the unit in and all the way until the service menu appears. A switched power strip might be handy here rather than trying to plug the power plug in with one hand while holding the back button with the other.
Be patient too, it can take almost a half minute or so until the service menu appears, so hold that button down.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

You aren't doing it wrong like I did the first half dozen times I tried it are you?

I was holding the left button (i.e. up/down/right/left cursor pad) instead of the back button which is just to the left of the cursor pad. Once I did that and made sure I held the button down while plugging the unit in and all the way until the service menu appears. A switched power strip might be handy here rather than trying to plug the power plug in with one hand while holding the back button with the other.
Be patient too, it can take almost a half minute or so until the service menu appears, so hold that button down.

A minute?!? Ok, guess I better set a timer.

[KeithAbbott]

So after I figured out how to reload/upgrade HD300 firmware from the SageTV server, I decided to make sure all six of my HD300s were running on the 20110124-2 version. After a bit of experimentation, here are the steps that I followed for each unit:

1. Make sure that you have a stable wired network connection from the HD300 to the Sage server (no wifi, network extenders, etc.). Also make sure the appropriate stp300.bin and stp300.ver files are located in the appropriate directory on your SageTV server.
2. Follow the "Configuration Reset Procedure" from page 11 of the HD300 manual. Select "Factory Reset", then "From SageTV Server". The HD300 will go thru several update steps, and will automatically reboot once the factory reset has completed.
3. Once the HD300 has rebooted, it may not be able to connect to the network (no ip address assigned via DHCP). If that is the case, follow the steps to re-establish a network connection (disconnect power and network cables, reconnect power cable, and then reconnect network cable immediately after the SageTV splash screen disappears).

Following these steps, I was able to get all six HD300s upgraded to my preferred firmware version, and was also able to resolve network connectivity problems with the units that were having problems. I now have six fully functioning HD300s (some of them are spares).

But here's the interesting part: the units that were having network connectivity problems before the procedure had no trouble connecting to my network and locating the Sage server to perform the firmware upgrade during the factory reset.

I also should mention that I only use my HD300s as media extenders, I do not use any of them in stand-alone mode. So I can't speak to whether this procedure would work for that use case.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

My problem is with one particular server. I have 2 servers, as mentioned before, one running on WIn10 32 bit, and one running on Win8.1 32 bit.

The HD300's have no trouble connecting to the Win 8 machine. The ones that are having trouble are only having connection issues with the Win10 machine. My HD200 extender has no trouble as well as one (so far) HD300.

Now the one in my living room was connecting just fine up until last night. Now it won't connect and when it does try (it sees the server and will go through the motions) you just get a blank screen and after a period of time the extender will shut off. Connect that same extender to the Win8.1 machine and no problems.

Since this seems to be "propagating" through my HD300's after some period of time I"m wondering if there's something on that Win10 machine written out by SageTV for a particular extender that is somehow getting corrupted causing the issue? I know that each extender has its own file, but is there anything else in one of the .properties files which might hose an extenders ability to connect to a machine?

I appears that there is some kind of corruption of the properties file in the Sage Clients folder for my HD300's on the Win10 machine. I just moved the properties and backup files for my living room HD300 to a "test" subfolder and low and behold my living room HD300 connected to the Win10 machine just fine. Of course I had to go through the entire SageTV configuration process for that HD300 and the Win10 machien again. Next attempt on another troublesome HD300 is to see if maybe I can just copy/rename a working HD300 file form the Win10 machine to the troublesome HD300s properties file.
We'll see if, and how long, this "fix" keeps working.

Fingers crossed, since updating to the last Beta HD300 firmware I also haven't lost network config in a couple days.

[KeithAbbott]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I appears that there is some kind of corruption of the properties file in the Sage Clients folder for my HD300's on the Win10 machine. I just moved the properties and backup files for my living room HD300 to a "test" subfolder and low and behold my living room HD300 connected to the Win10 machine just fine. Of course I had to go through the entire SageTV configuration process for that HD300 and the Win10 machien again. Next attempt on another troublesome HD300 is to see if maybe I can just copy/rename a working HD300 file form the Win10 machine to the troublesome HD300s properties file.
We'll see if, and how long, this "fix" keeps working.

Fingers crossed, since updating to the last Beta HD300 firmware I also haven't lost network config in a couple days.

It would be interesting to use a comparison tool to compare the properties files from a working and a non-working HD300, to see if we could identify what the key differences are. We might be able to find the culprit of what is causing the network connectivity issue.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I appears that there is some kind of corruption of the properties file in the Sage Clients folder for my HD300's on the Win10 machine. I just moved the properties and backup files for my living room HD300 to a "test" subfolder and low and behold my living room HD300 connected to the Win10 machine just fine. Of course I had to go through the entire SageTV configuration process for that HD300 and the Win10 machien again. Next attempt on another troublesome HD300 is to see if maybe I can just copy/rename a working HD300 file form the Win10 machine to the troublesome HD300s properties file.
We'll see if, and how long, this "fix" keeps working.

Fingers crossed, since updating to the last Beta HD300 firmware I also haven't lost network config in a couple days.

Yeah, this is starting to make more sense. Would that Clients folder be in the same place on a W7 install? Remind me what the “entire SageTV configuration process” is again? If this is the problem, excellent sleuthing. It seemed illogical it was a network router problem.

Update: I removed the properties file for one of the trouble HD300’s from my ‘clients’ folder. Unfortunately, same problem: won’t connect to network, yet, and hadn’t recreated a new properties file either.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Yeah, this is starting to make more sense. Would that Clients folder be in the same place on a W7 install? Remind me what the “entire SageTV configuration process” is again? If this is the problem, excellent sleuthing. It seemed illogical it was a network router problem.

Update: I removed the properties file for one of the trouble HD300’s from my ‘clients’ folder. Unfortunately, same problem: won’t connect to network, yet, and hadn’t recreated a new properties file either.

I probably should break that ".properties" part of this thread off into its own thread. Originally I thought the two were related problems, but now it appears that the .properties issue is separate from the network issue. It is a single machine issue between SageTV and the HD300 extender(s), not a network issue. And just the other day I caught it messing up the properties file. The computer locked up so I couldn't get to the SageTV control app, nor even task manager (Windows) to shut down SageTV. Not even the 3 fingered salute would work, so I had to hold the power button until the computer shut down. When I fired it back up the HD300 in question had a 'tmp' file in addion to the properties file. Sure enough, that HD300 wouldn't connect to that SageTV server. so I had to delete the properties file and start fresh again to get that HD300 to connect.

BTW, since installing the last beta firmware on my HD300's I have yet to see any of them "forget" the network configuration. It's been a few days now, so fingers crossed! Of course having said that out loud now I'm sure they will forget the next time I use them.

[KryptoNyte]

That corrupt properties file situation is starting to sound like bad memory or hard drive on your SageTV server. If things don't level out for you, do you have an extra PC laying around where you could install SageTV to test?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I probably should break that ".properties" part of this thread off into its own thread. Originally I thought the two were related problems, but now it appears that the .properties issue is separate from the network issue. It is a single machine issue between SageTV and the HD300 extender(s), not a network issue. And just the other day I caught it messing up the properties file. The computer locked up so I couldn't get to the SageTV control app, nor even task manager (Windows) to shut down SageTV. Not even the 3 fingered salute would work, so I had to hold the power button until the computer shut down. When I fired it back up the HD300 in question had a 'tmp' file in addion to the properties file. Sure enough, that HD300 wouldn't connect to that SageTV server. so I had to delete the properties file and start fresh again to get that HD300 to connect.

BTW, since installing the last beta firmware on my HD300's I have yet to see any of them "forget" the network configuration. It's been a few days now, so fingers crossed! Of course having said that out loud now I'm sure they will forget the next time I use them.

One more thing to try when it starts going pear-shaped: see if you can switch between DHCP and Static IP in the HD300’s setup. When I have trouble, the HD300 will never respond to the DHCP setting.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

That corrupt properties file situation is starting to sound like bad memory or hard drive on your SageTV server. If things don't level out for you, do you have an extra PC laying around where you could install SageTV to test?

I've already run both a memory test and deep scanned the HD(s) (boot and SageTV drivers). Nothing found. It always seems to start acting up due to running out of Java heap (32 bit limitations). I've already got it maxed out in the registry.
I have removed some of my plugins that I rarely if ever use and it seems to be playing much nicer the last few days.

Something either in Windows or SageTV has changed recently because even my other SageTV server on win8.1 (32 bit) is having java heap issues now and it rarely had issues over the last many years since I rarely use that server for viewing. Mostly it is just there as a backup in case the Win10 machine misses something. Why 2 servers? Long story involving Windows Home Server on the "new" machine and issues with that initially. So I just kept the old machine running with extra recording devices I had/purchased. Later I switched from WHS to Win7 and then upgraded it to Win10 (free updgrade) early this year.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

One more thing to try when it starts going pear-shaped: see if you can switch between DHCP and Static IP in the HD300’s setup. When I have trouble, the HD300 will never respond to the DHCP setting.

Yes, I've done that before. But as I said, so far after upgrading the HD300's to the last beta firmware I haven't seen the network config issue.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Yes, I've done that before. But as I said, so far after upgrading the HD300's to the last beta firmware I haven't seen the network config issue.

From what I remember, all my problems started around the time the forum went down for maintenance in July. Doesn’t make sense. I’m rebuilding a system this week. I’ll see if that works. Also, when the properties file rebuilt itself, it was 1/2 the size of the one I deleted. You?

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

From what I remember, all my problems started around the time the forum went down for maintenance in July. Doesn’t make sense. I’m rebuilding a system this week. I’ll see if that works. Also, when the properties file rebuilt itself, it was 1/2 the size of the one I deleted. You?

Are you talking sagetv.properties, or the client properties for the extenders? My client extender properties files all run between 12 and 20kb.
I haven't let SageTV rebuild my sage.properties file in MANY years. I'm sure there is so much fluff in there that a newly built properties file would be much smaller. Same with my wiz.bin file which stretches back pretty much since I started using SageTV. Version 4 if I recall my first version.