Zgemma H7s Guide

Yep I thik you may be right about the file system becoming corrupted. Where to next?

I have lost storage media on boxes before and powering off for a few minutes then on it came back as listed and still working.

There shouldn't be any system stuff on the ssd. Just your epg and the recordings.

Yes did that several times. Also deep standby and power off. No luck.

I gave you the answer in post 2176. You can even remove the ssd from box and plug in as a usb hdd. If it still not recognised by USB method then you know the ssd has failed. Did you put the ssd in box yourself? because if it came pre installed it may not be an ssd and more likely to fail but as i SAID above there are problems with older versions and how they are connected. Is it still under guarantee? All that will be on the HDD is epg, recordings and backups and any images that you downloaded. Trust me you have to open the box and check the hdd connections.

I guess what I find confusing is not knowing where stuff is stored. So where EPG data and ViX image stored? I assumed these were stored on the SSD. So what I don't understand is that if the system can find these files why not my recordings which are also on the SSD? Also if you look at my post 2164 there is a pic showing the parent directory and it also shows 1946 MB free space so where is the system getting the information about the free space on the SSD? Again my small knowledge of computer systems would tell me this is in the file system on the SSD. But maybe I've got all this wrong? Grateful if somebody could talk me through this. Thanks.

Thank you. Now that looks like a normal HDD but I cant see the spin speeds on photo. These were good and silent but can fail.

As with all things computers cables can be a bugbear, so you need to unplug the cables from the hdd, and the sata cable from the PCB board, have a good look and reseat them. You can also take out the HDD installed and replace it with the one you are using via USB unless its USB only. Also when you bought the box it may have come with a HDD adapter so you could use that to check that internal HDD.

Those sata cables can be poor so if you have a spare you can try that.

The box has 4 partitions where it stores the OS. The space you see on your pic is the partition. The EPG is read into memory but when turned off it reads it back to storage.

NB if you did not set it up to store memory on the HDD then that can cause problems. You should always store the epg on a USB hence the usb ports but … that's another story.

How did you revert to another image??

The fact its failed before is a worry.

You don't need an internal HDD for box to work well. By the time you have finished fixing this you will know where all the files are stored!! Do you know how to FTP to the box and are you using windows OS?

Well then. All back and working again!!! I unplugged cables to the internal HDD and re-connected. Then turned on again and lo and behold everything back to normal. So even though I never moved or touched the box when it froze perhaps there is an issue with the cables. Or it was something else altogether. Watch this space!

Thanks @greasepalm and @Gerry Wicklow for all the help and to @CalamariFritti and @swoofer for help and tutorials on the inner workings of this box. And @CalmariFritti I also remember the days when… (I did a degree in computing in 1983 and my final project was writtten on a BBC2 computer in 6502 assembler with I believe 64kB RAM and 32 kB ROM. Ah those were the days!).

@swoofer I reverted to the other image from Main Menu|Standby & Restart|MultiBoot Image Selector as in the following pic by rebooting after selecting the Vix 5.4 release just to see if that overcame the glitch. Didn't work so I rebooted with 6.2. I wonder if I need to see if there is a newer version and flash that?

Anyway thanks again and now back to watching the snooker and rugby!

Glad you are sorted but just to recap this is from post 2176 "Yes the box has lost the SSD so you have to turn off box and press that white button at rear. then open box to take out the SSD you will need to check the cable in the box as I have seen reports the cable is too short. make sure sure the sata cable is fully seated on the board. then put back in ssd after you put cover back on, then power on with white button and wait. " The rest was superflous.

But you are not finished yet, you did not say where the EPG is stored and that is probably your problem. The EPG should never be stored in internal flash, however the default is … internal flash. Getting these boxes is a steep learning curve and the EPG one is the hardest because every time you do a reboot, a reflash, change image YOU ALWAYS have to check where EPG is located. Now to make your box work correctly you should do this.

1. Dont use the image that says KODI and if by any chance you are using KODI then that's the problem, getting KODI to work on enigma 2 is a task and not worth bothering unless you have more than one box, even then its a pain. 2. Use the image that says PIP.

3. Get a USB stick 4GB is fine plug it in and store the EPG on there. They rarely fail and if you swop images EPG is ready.

4. Check where EPG is stored at he moment, go menu, setup, epg, settings and 3 lines down, EPG location see what it says and if it says INTERNAL FLASH you should change it by toggling to HDD until you get a USB or USB if you have one already. Green to save . And remember to check location periodically.

5. Box should be well ventilated

6. If you know how to use FTP like filezzilla you can check partitions

7. Don't get caught up in the syndrome of updating for updating sake, because these boxes are basically for watching tv a new image is not required and never be tempted to put the latest on it usually has bugs. I'm on 6.3.

8. If you want to update then use 6.4 but put it in slot 3.

Please say where EPG was stored when you checked.

I hope you read this post😊

Thanks again for the latest info. But some more questions from me now!

The epg is stored on /media/hdd not on internal flash and I assume that /media/hdd is on the internal hard disc? Do I need to move it to a usb? Screenshot showing the options I get for EPG location even though I currently have an external HDD connected via the USB port but it's not showing? Not sure how to get this to appear on the locations list?

Do I need to Mount it or something. Below is the Mount manager screen which shows bot the iternal HDD and the external one connected vai the usb port.

I didn't even notice that about Kodi until pointed out. Anyway I've switched to the image that says pip.

Yes box is well ventilated.

Sorry I don't know how to check partitions. Is this important to do?

I learned about no using the latest software versions many years ago! But should I update to 6.3?

Cheers

Thanks. Yes it's the external HDD. I usually leave it off I was just checking the usb port. When I've lost the internal HDD connnection this becmes a fall back storage device.

So I was trying to check the hdd and from this screen I pressed the green button

and I got this and then it dropped out of the Menu altogether

seems like some issue with a variable? So I don't seem to be able to get the system to check the internal HDD. And the same thing happens when I try and check the external HDD.

Here's a screenshot showing what I think is the flash memory. Or is this something else?

This is correct but it's not the whole story because it is the entire flash memory. You have several slots for images in that flash memory. Each of them 1GB and each can house an image. Once a articular image is booted it only uses this particular slot, 1GB.

Your screen doesnt seem to look at the current slot but at the whole flash memory. Which means your current slot still may be full.

With the slyk skin this screen looks different, it really shows the detail of the slot currently in use..

You could use Terminal in webif/Extras and run the 'df' command. Logon as 'root' no password then 'df'.

When I do this I get the 37% from above, 365MB vs 696MB. And its clearly only the current slot, not the whole 4GB of flash.

Click on Terminal under Extras. Login name is 'root', it wont ask for a password. Then when you're at the prompt enter 'df' and hit return.

Joe slow down and anyone who says EPG is fine on a HDD that is giving trouble is not helpful. That error message is a worry. I'm a bit busy but can you say the image you are now using, go menu information about and do a screenshot. But the fact EPG was on HDD is good news.

A lot of stuff you dont really need to bother with and delving too deep can cause problems. Ask the bits you are curious about.

What you should do is flash a new image of vix ie 6.4 to a new slot but build it from scratch and that means from scratch, ie setting language, screen resolution, the 2 tuners, and the dtt tuners, then ABM and then the epg and network but can you say are you happy you can do that? Its called a clean install and makes box like new.