Random Issues after updating to latest firmware 3.05.10

Community Archives WD TV Live Hub Firmware
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Hi guys, I got my WD TV Live Hub (1TB) a month ago. It’s been working perfectly well, but I’ve been facing some random issues with it after upgrading the latest firmware just a couple of days ago.

  •     Which firmware?

As said before, upgraded it to the latest one just a couple of days ago: 3.05.10

  •     What happened?

Two days ago, I was just watching TV and I noticed the white WD led in front of the hub turned on and started blinking like crazy and then went off again. I turned it on, and noticed it prompted me the option to upgrade to the latest firmware available (3.05.10). I didn’t really know why it had to blink that way, since the hub was off. Later that day, I was watching a video (.mkv file) and it suddenly stopped playing. It reset itself and when I tried to play the file again, it didn’t try to resume the file, but start from the beginning. Today, it happened again, the front lef on the hub was blinking a few times, and when I played another video (.avi file), it just stopped without any reason and reset itself.

It never happened before. I think it might be related with the new firmware, since it just started blinking right before I updated it and has stopped/reset with no reason after upgrading the firmware.

I also noticed that before upgrading the firmware, I was able to go through my videos and photos navigating through my folders, but after upgrading the firmware, I’m just able to see and navigate the folders on my video section. The photo section shows all the images, like they were on the root folder and not in subfolders.

  •     What were you doing?

As said before, the first time the white led on the front of the Hub started blinking randomly, I had the Hub off, watching TV. I turned it on, it prompted me the Firmware upgrade option, I upgraded the firmware, and since then, it has stopped/reset randomly whenever I’m watching a video file (.mkv, .avi, .mp4).

  •     Does this happen every time?

It’s a random issue, not an specific time (could happen after 30 minutes playing the video, 45 minutes or almost at the end of a movie). It never happened before, it’s been working perfectly well until two days ago (I’ve had it for almost a month).

  •     What hardware and media were you using?

No additional HD was attached to the Hub. It was just attached to the network. It has stopped/reset itself playing different video formats (.mvk, .avi, .mp4)

  •     Did this happen with previous firmware?

Nope!

  •     Does power cycling the unit solve this?

Nope!

  •     Does resetting to factory defaults solve this?

Nope!

  •     Have you tried this on other devices?
    I don’t have any other devices like this one at home.

Thanks in advance for your help and assistance!

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First, the blinking LED just means it’s rescanning the media library.

Second, your WD wasn’t OFF, it was in STANDBY.  And the media library can be rescanned during STANDBY.  Though, I’m not sure that the WD LED will blink during that time.

Third, if the WDTV crashes during playback, it doesn’t get the chance to update the RESUME database, so that’s why it didn’t ask you to resume and it just started from the beginning.

Have you played these files successfully before?  Or is it possible that they’re poorly encoded and thus the crash?

 The photo section shows all the images, like they were on the root folder and not in subfolders.

Make sure the FILTER is set to “FOLDER.”  It sounds like you have the filter set to ALL.

As a last resort, you can always reinstall the prior version of firmware…

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5860/

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Hi Tony, thanks for your reply and comment so quickly!

First, you were right regarding the folder view on my photos section. After upgrading the firmware, the filters were reset. Just filtered the photos view by folder and I can surf through my folders again. Thanks for the tip!

I didn’t know that my WD Live TV Hub isn’t off, but standby when I actually turn it off with the power button. It makes sense, since I still have access to my HDD through the network, even when the Hub is off. What doesn’t make sense to me is that it never happened before. Even when I loaded all my files, it never blinked that way. It just starts blinking erratically. As said in my first message, I just got it 4 weeks ago, and worked like a charm (best home entertainment gadget I’ve got so far!), but I never saw it blinking like this before.

I thought it might be the files also as you said, but I tried to play the files again right after it crashed, either 5 or 10 minutes before the mark it crashed, and it just kept playing until the end. Today, I played a file that I’ve played successfully a few times before, and it crashed with it too.

After it crashed this afternoon with a file I’ve watched successfully before, I just decided to follow the steps to rollback the firmware with the link you shared in your comment. I followed the steps carefully, but it didn’t work. After preparing the USB drive with the 4 firmware files saved in the root of the drive, I plugged it to the Hub being on. It was recognized and asked me to sync (I cancelled it as required) but the “New Firmware” option didn’t show up on the main menu.

According with the instructions, if the “New Firmware” option is not shown on the main menu after connecting the USB drive with the 4 files (I’m trying the previous firmware: 3.04.17), I have to contact the Support Team.

I guess I’ll have to do that and see what happens.

Any other suggestions out there? :slight_smile:

Regards!

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It appears that the 3.04.17 rollback firmware has not been tweaked to allow a rollback, in fact its just the normal 3.04.17 firmware. You will have to open the wdtvlivehub.ver file using notepad and change the VERSION=‘3.04.17’ to something like VERSION=‘4.04.17’ and then save it. The live hub will now see the firmware and rollback to 3.04.17. The ver file has to be updated to fool the hub into accepting the firmware. After successfully rolling back the new firmware tab will reappear but you can ignore this.

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FYI - If you press long enough on the  Power button on the remote it WILL power the hub all the way down. You’ll notice when it comes back on it takes longer to get to the Home screen. The Power button on the Hub reacts in the same manner.

I would attempt another update to the new firmware. Prior to the update do a full reset to the unit. Then update the FW. Then do another full reset. Sometimes this helps.

You can do the same thing to the new FW to fool the hub into accepting it that you do for a roll back…just edit the .ver file as you were instructed.

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Thanks guys for the great tips!

I called the support team this morning and they adviced me to perform a full reset (actually, using the reset button under the hub, not the option from the system menu).

I noticed what you said… I noticed that whenever I press the power button long enough, it takes much longer to start and load the menu.

I tried the hard reset as adviced and it’s been working ok so far this evening. I’ll keep an eye on it for the next 24 hours and see if this hard reset finally solved the issue, or if I have to work around the firmware and you guys adviced, before I call the support team again.

Regards!

p.s: Great community and support what I’ve found here!

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Hi, I would like to ask because i also have a new live hub. When you did the soft reset from the menu did it erase all the media on the on the internal 1 tb harddrive. How about the hard reset from the bottom of the hub would it erase the media on my internal drive also. About the standby and poweroff, what is the main difference besides faster booting time, during standby, do the harddrive on the hub keeps spinning or would it degrade the internal harddrive overtime when I put it on standby mode frequently or vice versa, Iam out to work during the day so the hub usually is used only from 6:30pm onwards then in the morning before going out I poweroff the device and pull the plug. Will it stress the internal harddrive if I continue doing this, poweron in the evening and pulling the plug in the morning. Will it be more stressfull for the internal mechanism of the harddrive if its constantly powring on and off. Thanks for the great community.

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Hi there,

No, none of the two resets will erase the content of your hard drive. I performed both, and none of them affected either my data or hub settings.

Great question about the difference between the standby and poweroff. I’d be interested in knowing the answer to that question also.

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As has been said the resets do not wipe the drive.

As to the power. If you press the remote off button for a second or so it will put the hub into standby but leave the hard disk on so that you can use the player as a simple NAS, it also allows a fast boot up time when you remote power up. If you press the remote off button for about 5 seconds then the player goes into a deeper standby and the disk is shut down. In this mode it will take longer to boot up when you remote power up and the hub disk will not be available on your network. I would use this mode in preference to constantly pulling the power, however to all intents and purposes its basically the same thing except the player takes a small amount of power.

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Thanks for your input, the reason why I pull the plug from appliances when I leave for work is because from an article I read before concerning that aplliances even if powered off would eat a small amount of current thus wasting energy. I have never really confirmed this nor am I an electrician so cannot really debate on this. Anyway, Im just concerned on the longevity of the internal harddrive on what is the best practice for the device, Thank you very much. Great community

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Jla888 wrote:
Thanks for your input, the reason why I pull the plug from appliances when I leave for work is because from an article I read before concerning that aplliances even if powered off would eat a small amount of current thus wasting energy. I have never really confirmed this nor am I an electrician so cannot really debate on this. Anyway, Im just concerned on the longevity of the internal harddrive on what is the best practice for the device, Thank you very much. Great community

When in deep standby the player does of course consume a very small amount of power, normally less than 1 watt.  Regarding the drive I don’t believe there is any real difference between deep standby and complete power off as in both cases it has spun down.

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I have a question regarding this deep standby when I press the power button for more than 5 seconds:

I noticed that once or twice per day, the front led starts blinking and then stays on (steady) until I either turn the hub on to access the menu, or shut it off again (the led goes off). As Tony said before, the hub sync its library when it is in standby, and it should be normal for the hub to turn the led on and start blinking, but if I press the power button for over 5 seconds to actually shut the hub and drive off, shouldn’t it remain in that state until I turn it back on again?

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Just an update on this issue…

After a full hard reset (not from the system menu, but actually from beneath the hub), it seems that has solved the stop/reset playback file problem. I’ve been for a couple of days watching some video files, and has been working on. Even though, I’m still intrigued with the fact that even being on deep standby state (after pressing the power button for over 5 seconds), the front led turns on and starts blinking for few seconds and then stays on until I turn it off again, after several hours being off.