[Bug] C200 image flicking and won't detect internal HDD

[dfeng]

Hi,
My C200 behaves strangely after my recent update to the new firmware (probably shouldn’t blame the firmware).
1) Screen flicks
The screen image is fine when C200 starts up with “Popcorn Hour” logo in black and white. The image starts to flick as soon as the logo disappears and menu starts. I’m using 50” Panasonic plasma TV bought in 2008 (supporting 1080p), connecting with C200 using HDMI. Other HDMI connected devices work normally. I’ve set the display in C200 to 1080p 24hz.

I tried to reset back to factory yesterday but it won’t make any improvement.

2) Won’t detect my internal HDD
I have an internal 750G HDD installed in C200 from the time I bought it 2-3 years ago when it first came out. All works fine till now. The night before a movie was frozen during playback so I pressed the front on/off button (not the power switch at the back) to shut it down. Yesterday after I reset back to factory setting trying to fix the image flicking, C200 won’t detect the internal HDD. The HDD was fine before the factory reset.

I tried to plug in a USB drive to C200 and it was detected fine. From C200 setting->maintenance, the NMT option is gone.

I have tons of stuff on that HDD, it will be a nightmare if I lost it. I don’t have an HDD docking station to test the HDD. Is there any other way?

Many thanks

[Pain]

1) Flickering could be that there's something wrong with the HDMI cable.
Try to unplug and plug it in again in both ends, then test.
Try another HDMI cable.
If that doesn't help, lower the video output to 720p and see if that helps.

Get in contact with Popcorn hour support if you can't solve it. It could be that your C200 has a fault and you need to get it repaired.
I haven't read about others getting this problem after the firmware update, so I don't think it's related.

2) If you have a stationary PC (not a laptop) you can install the PCH hdd inside it, and then use a GParted Live CD to check and repair it. Or you can buy a docking station and do a GParted check on it that way.

[dfeng]

Thank you, Pain.

I changed HDMI cables a few times, but no luck. At the end, I changed video output to 1080i/24Hz. That fixed the problem.

In terms of my HDD. I mounted it in a docking station and connected to the PC. Booted the PC using GParted Live. The system couldn't detect the HDD at all. I replace PCH HDD with another HDD, detects ok. This proved the docking station works fine. The problem lies in my PCH HDD. Looks I lost all data on that drive 8-(((. But still, thanks a lot for your help.

Another annoying problem after recent firmware update was the volume. I know it was one of the fix in this update. To increase the volume, I tried -1 then back to 0 trick from remote while a movie is playing. No luck. Tried factory reset. No luck. I will raise this in a separate thread.