Windows based DVR problem, (Speco DVR - PC8)

[captainvi...@gmail.com]

I installed this unit for a friend about 12 years ago. It is a windows based 8 channel security type DVR. It uses XP as an operating system. This was made by Speco. They no longer support it. My buddy said that it started to become intermittent.

It had about 14 bulged electroltics on the mother board. It was a job but I managed to remove and replace them all, (plated through holes). Also the insulation on the IDE cable that connects the CDrom to the mother board was flaking off and it looked like some of the wires in the cable could have been shorting to each other or perhaps ground. I replaced the cable also.

After the machine has been off for a few days initially I get the following blue screen:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps: Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers.Check your hard drive to make sure that it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK/F to check for hard drive corruption and then restart your computer.

Technical information:
OX0000007B (OXFA2C3640, OXC0000534, 0X00000000, 0X00000000).

I don't know what this "Technical information" means, bit if I shut down as it says and then reboot, the unit seems to "sort of" boot, and as it's booting when the Windows logo comes up briefly it says "Windows Embedded" whatever that means. It progresses and eventually shows the following message:

"Low disk space.You are running very low on disk space, DiSS (C:). To free space on this drive by deleting old or unnecessary files, click here". I click that and I get the following message:

"Windows cannot locate the disk cleanup program. The file may be corrupted or may have been deleted from your computer. To reinstall disk cleanup run windows setup again".
If you ignore this message the machine goes on to eventually boot to a screen that shows a "control panel" with a grid of 4 video monitors showing. The mouse moves but will not select anything to change what is presented. There is no video supplied for this test.

My son loaned me a couple of old XP discs that he had. One lets me get into a screen with choices that you can make but it apparently goes nowhere. The other does not seem to work at all. If this unit originally came supplied with a disk it is nowhere to be found.

This machine was never connected to the Internet so I can't imagine that it could have a virus. Also there was no replacement or additions to any hardware, so that could not be an issue. I was hoping that perhaps some of you computer savvy guys might have some suggestions for me. My friend doesn't have a lot of money and truthfully I really hate to give up on this thing at this stage of the game. I've come so far and now I feel like I may be so close. I apologize for the long winded post but I wanted to present all the information. Thanks for any assistance. Lenny

[Adrian Caspersz]

On 23/01/17 15:42, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:
I was
> hoping that perhaps some of you computer savvy guys might have some
> suggestions for me. My friend doesn't have a lot of money and
> truthfully I really hate to give up on this thing at this stage of
> the game. I've come so far and now I feel like I may be so close. I
> apologize for the long winded post but I wanted to present all the
> information. Thanks for any assistance. Lenny
>

Keep any consumer XP CDs well away from this, you don't want to install
a new OS! There will be specific driver files and applications for the
hardware that you won't want to lose.

OX0000007B is 'inaccesible boot volume'. Your HD is close to end of
life, I guess.

Get that drive out and backup a whole disk image of it. Plenty of tools
around for this.
Install a new hard disk and restore the image. If this is a larger
drive, you could resize the partition.
Otherwise do a manual disc clean up. Probably some adhoc video files
have been created than you can delete.

--
Adrian C

[Mr. Man-wai Chang]

On 1/23/2017 11:42 PM, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:
> After the machine has been off for a few days initially I get the following blue screen:
>
> "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps: Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers.Check your hard drive to make sure that it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK/F to check for hard drive corruption and then restart your computer.
>
> Technical information:
> OX0000007B (OXFA2C3640, OXC0000534, 0X00000000, 0X00000000).

Unplug all USB devices except keyboard and mouse, and turn on the PC again.

What version of Window$?

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[Paul]

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/dcEAAOSw~oFXImvd/s-l300.jpg

Take the hard drive, over to your Technician machine.

Examine the jumper on the IDE drive, and make sure you select
a setting consistent with whatever is on your IDE cable already.
)Master/Slave or Cable_Select/Cable_Select and so on).

You can use Macrium Reflect Free to clone or image it. Clone is
useful, if you have a new drive, and want to move the contents over.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

I would have a spare drive ready, to take a copy of the drive
the first time you power up the Technician Computer. Just in
case the drive is nearly dead or something.

You can use a utility to check the S.M.A.R.T. I use the Reallocated
Sectors raw data value as an indicator of health. (zero equals good)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

The drive can also be benchmarked with HDTune, as bad spots in the
drive, read out slowly. And a read benchmark (not a write benchmark)
can spot this condition.

*******

The back of the unit, the I/O area looks like the
I/O plate on a microATX board. There could be a
microATX motherboard inside the unit.

And such a PCB could have a CR2032 CMOS coin cell, for maintaining
the time setting, as well as the BIOS settings. The coin cell
should measure about 3.1V or so, from the top surface of the cell,
to any metal ground structure you can use for a ground connection.

The coin cell is a nuisance to get out of the socket. Do not
use too much force. I told one poster to check the cell,
and he comes back later and tells me he has ripped the
CR2032 socket off the motherboard. Don't do that...

If the company who designed it, did a good job, the "BIOS defaults"
established by "Load Setup Defaults", should match the normal settings
used to make the PVR boot. It really should not require programming
after a battery replacement, to make it work. An item of that vintage
is likely IDE (ribbon cable only), and only the boot order could screw it
up. It isn't likely to support RAID (the motherboard maker can shave
$3 off the cost by using the lowest cost SKU for the Southbridge chip).
And I don't know what else could be preventing it from booting.
While it could be corrupted, it does seem to have a readable
MBR and IDed itself at boot time. Some portion of the disk, must
load, in order for that message to print on the screen. I'm favoring
the CMOS coin cell at this point, but it's still possible to
stop the boot, with only a single bad or missing file on C: .

Certainly the dilapidated condition (rotting ribbon cable),
that doesn't sound good. There are plenty of root causes for
something that "ripe". I have ribbon cables here that are
18 years old, and they're mint. It's even possible the unit has
operated with a high internal temperature for a while (cooling
failure maybe). Cooling fans, might have an average 24/7 life of
3 years. The power supply on that unit does have a grille, and
there is probably a 40mm fan on the PSU. Something that old,
probably does not have a "low power" CPU in it, so could cook
whatever sits inside the box with it, if the fan goes out.

I'm surprised with 14 bulging caps, that it even survived
without burning any MOSFETs or toroids. If you managed to
repair that without ruining the motherboard, you really
are CaptainVideo :-) If I did 14 caps in a row, the board
would be toast. On these computer motherboards, it's easy
to lift the foil. I changed out a voltage regular (14 pins),
and managed to lift one pad on it. And I was being careful.

Paul

[captainvi...@gmail.com]

I was able to boot into safe mode and I got to a Dos prompt. The hard drive is partitioned into two sections C: and d:. I did chkdsk on both and no errors were found on either one. On D: I found the "cleaner" file that was originally being asked for on boot and I ran it on D:. It deleted all the old surveillance files that were stuck there for whatever reason and now it goes right to the virtual DVR screen. I still do get that blue screen message on initially booting up but then o subsequent boot attempts it goes away and doesn't come back again unless the machine has been off for awhile. Can't figure that out. It doesn't seem to bother anything though. There is also a "factory default" file too. I don't want to run that unless any other weird problems should happen to show up.

There are files on this computer that are 15 years old. This drive looks good now but I fear that it may be on borrowed time. And if it should crash I'll never be able to get a replacement DVR program. So what I would like to do if it's possible is make an exact copy of this drive onto a second one. Truthfully though I'm not that good with computers anymore. I've forgotten a lot of Dos and I think this has to be done under Dos, right? Anyway you mentioned a utility Paul, but I'm sorry to say I don't full understand what you were describing. Could you please elaborate on this a little more? Thanks again for the help. Lenny

[jurb...@gmail.com]

In the old days when you bought a new HD you could download a utility to clone the old drive to it. If the current errors are due to intermittent reads this may clear it up. You might try putting the old drive in a freezer before the clone. Hopefully the OS etc. will be among the first copied.

Of course there are no guarantees.

I will say this much, rebooting stuff like this is overrated. Once you got the thing up and running just never turn it off.

The problem I see is finding a new IDE HD. I am not sure if an adapter exists from IDE to SATA, never looked. (mainly because I am too cheap to buy anything)

Before the freezer trick though, see if maybe it boots more reliably hot, if so then clone it hot. The freezer thing is something I got off the net and used once and it kinda worked.

[jurb...@gmail.com]

After rereading your last post i think you might be better off cloning it while hot.

[captainvi...@gmail.com]

On Monday, January 23, 2017 at 10:42:39 AM UTC-5, captainvi...@gmail.com wrote:

How hot are you talking? It would sure be a pity to kill it before it's "reborn". Lenny

[jurb...@gmail.com]

Hot as in running for a while, I don't mean put it in the oven. You want the heat generated from the components inside.

[jurb...@gmail.com]

Hey Lenster ! How did that thing ever turn out is it behaving (well) now or what ?