4001 help please? (A new 'Stuck in Tune' problem)

[Goosh]

I know there are a million Stuck in Tune guides but I've gone through them all lol

Hi, this is a brief history of this box.

I received it when it was Stuck in Tune and I changed a few of the tiny capacitors and that seemed to fix it for a few weeks.

It got Stuck in Tune again and I replaced the 6 capacitors around the tuner. (Appendix B 'Stuck in Tune'). This got it working again although it would only boot if the Up arrow button was held in whilst powering up.

I decided to try to change the other capacitors from the Appendix B Stuck in Tune guide that would fix the booting up problem. There are 4 capacitors there that are advised to be changed 2 of which are 330uf and 2 are 680uf. Maplins only sell the 330uf so I thought I'd change those 2 anyway as it would be better than changing none. The first time I booted the box after changing the 2 330ufs it booted fine without having to hold any arrow keys. Then it wouldn't boot normally, I had to use the UP arrow again and it booted fine about 5 times after that.

But then just went back to stuck in Tune and it won't even boot whilst holding the UP arrow key now.

Basically what happens is this: Holding the UP key I wait till it says BOOT then let go, the black Virgin screen appears for about 10 seconds like it's booting up good, then it goes to TUNE and it sticks on the screen that says NTL please don't turn off your box we're updating it. It just hangs on that though. If I try booting up without holding the UP key it just goes straight from PACE to TUNE (no 'BOOT' appears) and neither the Virgin screen or the NTL screen appear, the screen just stays blank.

I have tried removing the Jumper, changing the frequency and then rebooting but no change to the problem. If I change the signal rate from 6.887 to a random number and then attach the signal cable whilst the machine is still powered on then it says the signal is POOR and 23db. It also says on another screen the Last TDT was updated after I connect the cable so I know the box is 'seeing' the cable, when I change the signal rate back to 6.887 with the cable still in it just flicks from the Engineers menu back to PACE, TUNE and the 'NTL don't turn off your box while we update' screen.

So basically it booted normally for one time after I changed the 330uf capacitors and then I had to 'UP arrow' boot it again but now it's back to Stuck in Tune.

What's annoying me is the fact it looks like it's trying to boot up sometimes when the Virgin screen appears, then it flicks to the NTL screen.

NVRAM Bad CRC also appears in the Errors page.

Does anyone have any ideas about this?

Thanks for any advice

BTW the Card is fine, it sees it ok and there are no problems with it.

 

[Goosh]

Hey there, I made this thread just before Virgin went Casanova on the cards so I hope you don't mind if I bump it up to see if anyone has any ideas on how I might fix this?

The only thing I've tried since then is to use a hairdryer to heat the board up a bit but that didn't work.

 

[danez]

Try unplugging then hold top and bottom button in, plug in whilst still holding the buttons in, but before it goes into any menu, release the buttons, with bit of luck it will come up with "updating"

This worked on two boxes i had that said "Tune"

Good luck

 

[Goosh]

Hi thanks for replying, I tried doing that and releasing before it went into Eng Menu but it just went into TUNE again after trying to BOOT.

If I keep hold of the top and bottom buttons until it goes into the Eng Menu then it will stay there for a couple of seconds before going back to TUNE again.

 

[cosso1]

Hi thanks for replying, I tried doing that and releasing before it went into Eng Menu but it just went into TUNE again after trying to BOOT.

If I keep hold of the top and bottom buttons until it goes into the Eng Menu then it will stay there for a couple of seconds before going back to TUNE again.

i would try pulling the red jumper for a few seconds then replace it, plug in and leave over night and hopefully it will be on by morning having taken updates.
make sure simm contacts are clean and simm is fitted correctly

 

[Goosh]

Would it really take that long to update sometimes? I'll give it a go, I'm sure the SIMM is clean as I haven't taken it out since it was working ok

 

[cosso1]

Would it really take that long to update sometimes? I'll give it a go, I'm sure the SIMM is clean as I haven't taken it out since it was working ok

yes, i have had a couple that have took hours to boot, also check where the cable feed goes into the box that the solder hasnt cracked, stopping you receiving a signal. cant remember what its called, but the the part where you would of cut talkback

 

[Goosh]

Hi, I left it on all night and it was still in 'Tune'.

Where would I look to see if the solder might have cracked? Should I look inside the metal box that the signal cable connects to?

 

[cosso1]

Hi, I left it on all night and it was still in 'Tune'.

Where would I look to see if the solder might have cracked? Should I look inside the metal box that the signal cable connects to?

yes thats right
also did you pull the jumper

 

[Goosh]

Yeah I pulled the jumper, I've tried it both with and without the jumper.

I'll have a look inside the metal housing later and hopefully all I'll have to do is a bit of soldering.

 

[cosso1]

Yeah I pulled the jumper, I've tried it both with and without the jumper.

I'll have a look inside the metal housing later and hopefully all I'll have to do is a bit of soldering.

always replace the jumper

 

[viamphie]

i had this once...

disconnected the cable feed and rebooted ( power on whilst holding up and down) went to eng menu... checked settings ok. rebooted box ( up + down) until boot. mine then came on with a msg no channels. I then attached the cable feed when the box was on channel 0.

I hope this brings you luck if i explained it ok. you never know it worked for me

 

[faiz]

Try unplugging then hold top and bottom button in, plug in whilst still holding the buttons in, but before it goes into any menu, release the buttons, with bit of luck it will come up with "updating"

This worked on two boxes i had that said "Tune"

Good luck

what area are you in and have you cut the talkback?

 

[Goosh]

I managed to get the box working but it was a strange and simple solution. Basically the box won't work if it's all screwed back together. I realised that the box only stopped working after I fixed it so I thought I would just try plugging it in after I took it apart.

It seems to be that the back metal housing that all the cables go into doesn't like to be connected to the main board. The only thing I could screw onto it was the plastic power cable connection. I can't screw the signal cable connector on so that it's snug with the metal, the signal just goes blank. I'm guessing it's something to do with metal? Although I can screw the top of the box to the back plate. I just can't connect it securely to the mainboard/bottom plate.

So it's working fine, just in a weird way lol

Thanks for your replies btw