AMIKO My A3 just did it again.

[mmewrench]

I would blame android (and google) before I would blame Amiko. Just look at the issues people have with their phones. As I stated before I have been lucky, but I don't push my luck either. I used to use an Azbox back in the day. I cant tell you how many times I had to wipe it and start over. Lets not forget the Micro HD ( the best satellite receiver since sliced bread). How many here have boot looped them?

 

[barleyguy]

I need to jump in here... I actually had the exact same issue that DeeAnn describes in this thread. I was scanning in a satellite when the receiver hard locked. After giving up on it recovering, I pulled the plug. The next time it came up it wouldn't boot. I tried a second time, and it came up with "Sorry, Spark2 has crashed" with an OK button. (What if it's not OK?)

After that happened, the satellite list was back to European, and the channel list was gone. I suspect what happened is that it booted up, detected that the satellite list was corrupted, and automatically reverted to a factory default. The factory default in this case is European, not US.

All I had to do though was go into the backup utility, restore my latest backup, and everything was fine again. I had to re-enter my timers, but other than that everything was dandy.

I stand behind my statement in another thread that the Amiko A3 is about 98% stable. The 2% of the time it fails it can really screw you over though.

Also, this is not an Android or Google problem. It's a problem with the receiver software that is a layer above that. As a case in point, look at the Amazon Fire TV, which runs the same version of Android. That thing is absolutely rock solid stable. It really comes down to Amazon having more and better software engineers than Amiko. (No offense to anyone; it's a hard standard to live up to.)

I actually really like my A3. But I'm a very high end user, so I can recover from problems without any significant downtime or sweat. I don't recommend this box for novices.

$.02.

 

[Jim S.]

Also, this is not an Android or Google problem. It's a problem with the receiver software that is a layer above that.

Then what's causing the need to reboot twice to get it running again? It happened to me again tonight -- locked up for no apparent reason, so I pulled the power cord, and when I plugged it in again the first time, it hung on the boot screen.

 

[primestar31]

Then what's causing the need to reboot twice to get it running again? It happened to me again tonight -- locked up for no apparent reason, so I pulled the power cord, and when I plugged it in again the first time, it hung on the boot screen.

What satellite and channel did you have it on at the time it locked up, maybe it has something to do with a particular one?

 

[barleyguy]

Then what's causing the need to reboot twice to get it running again? It happened to me again tonight -- locked up for no apparent reason, so I pulled the power cord, and when I plugged it in again the first time, it hung on the boot screen.

Because the Spark2 software is blocking the boot the first time, most likely. Then the second time it's detecting that it had a failed boot and running a recovery sequence. In my case (and DeeAnn's), this appears to be what made it revert to an old satellite list.

 

[Jim S.]

Mine has only once, many versions ago, reverted to a previous software version like DeeAnn's. Normally it comes up exactly like I left it -- it just takes at least one extra cold-boot attempt to do so.

 

[Jim S.]

What satellite and channel did you have it on at the time it locked up, maybe it has something to do with a particular one?

I don't remember the channel for sure, but it was something on 97W, something I'd watched many times before. Usually, it doesn't lock up while changing channels. All the other times lately have been while starting a blind scan. Also, it seems to lock up more often when using the web interface than when watching on a TV.