Topic: Anyone experienced lockup with MT?

[sml42]

I recently experience a lockup with my MT2496. Here's the short version: I had recorded the support act, stopped the recording, and the MT was hung "writing file" (the hourglass was frozen). With no way to reset the device I missed out recording the main act.

Had a quick search on here and I found this: http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=53464.0 (mods - any reason this is not stickied like the jb3 faq?)

[192]  My MT2496 sometimes locks up when I try to start or stop a recording.  What's going on?

It appears the MT2496 is sensitive to its start-up and file-stop conditions.  If the MT2496 is not receiving a live S/PDIF signal when powering up or stopping a recording, the MT2496 will sometimes freeze, i.e. lock up.  The only resolution to the freeze seems to be a re-set (hold down the power button until it powers off, then start over again).  Workaround:  ensure your MT2496 is receiving a live S/PDIF signal before powering on or stopping a recording.

I was recording via the 1/4" inputs, NOT via s/pdif. Does anyone know whether the above faq entry would still apply? I can imagine how the MT could get confused if you were recording s/pdif and the signal went away... but that's not what I was doing.

A little more info on what I was doing. I was running dpa4060>mps6030>mt2496, phantom power switch set to 'off', l/m/h set to 'l'. I was recording the support act, hold switch was set to 'hold'. After the support act I decided to just stop the recording without powering off the device. This is different to what I normally do: normally I go hold->off, record->stop, wait for 'writing file', power->off. This evening I went hold->off, record->stop, hold->on WITHOUT waiting for 'writing file'. It was literally 3 quick presses of switches/buttons, took less than a second and I popped the gear back in my pocket and waited for the main act. Of course when I came to restart for main act, I found out the unit was locked-up (and of course house lights were down at this point...) Ended up waiting for the damn thing to power itself down overnight

Now I've tried to repeat what I did, try to make the damn thing lockup here at home... with no success. I'm wondering if this was a fluke? This was only my 6th outing with the MT.

I've read some other posts on here, people wrote to say they managed to get it to power-off by holding the power button for like 20+ seconds. Of course since I couldn't repeat the lockup I couldn't test this. I also read on some other website, someone had luck with power+del, but again, cannot confirm this.

So I thought I'd toss this out to y'all... anyone else expereinced a lockup? If so, how did you get round it?

(I'm running firmware 1.4.3 and bootload 1.02.)

Seriously considering hacking the device to put a reset button in... has anyone opened up their MT, and would be willing to walk me through opening the case?

Or maybe I should just go back to my trusty jb3... hmm...

Oh yeah, I'm using n 8Gb SanDisk Ultra II cf card, if that is relevant.

best regards,
stephen


Edit to add: one more note about the CF card. On this outing I had NOT formatted the card. On ALL previous outings I had formatted the card before hitting the venue.

Edit again: despite the unit being stuck 'writing file', after the device powered-down overnight, the recording of the support act WAS there, intact.

[jtessier]

I personally haven't had it lock up with 1.4.3 but have seen it lockup on earlier firmware versions. And yes I can confirm that holding down the power button for an extended period (like 20 seconds) does force it to power the MT down (it must be hard wired to do this even if the firmware crashes).  You can test it yourself by putting the hold switch on and then holding down the power button. Even the hold switch can't stop it from being forced to go off.  And like you when I've had a lockup the file was actually saved anyhow.  The worst case I had was that  I once had to open the file up with an editor to tell ii the proper sample rate.  I've also heard about running chkdsk /f on the volume if it saves it as a file that looks like it's only 0 seconds long but I haven't had to do this myself.   I've not actually lost any recordings myself. Glad to hear that you didn't either.

J.T.

[sml42]

well I sort of did lose the recording, on account of how I couldn't restart the MT for the main act

+t for the extended press tip though. It does look to be a hard power-off - turned off without going through the 'powering off' splashscreen.

Knowing my luck I'll probably never see a lockup again... but if I do I'll report back here.

cheers!
stephen