filmfreak Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 I was filing in a friend of mine on a feature today and used his 788T , CL-8 setup. Went through some test runs yesterday night, before today's shoot and while I was trying shortcuts and routing options a message about the recorder connecting through USB and Firewire poped up without dialing anything in by my side and I was unable to access any of the recorder's menus or controls for some seconds. Didn't pay attention to it and after a couple of minutes the same message came on screen which also blocked me from any access to the recorder. Called up my friend and he told me that on the last couple of weeks the same thing happened to him after upgrading to the latest firmware featuring Mix Assist but after a manual restart it was all back to normal. Didn't pay attention and I finished the routine check prior to the shoot. Today, the same thing came up a good 4-6 times, fortunately between rolls but on one instance I also missed one take as I could not start the recorder due to not having access to it ! The shoot was a very fast paced one and after changing location, script asked me for some specific details about a take which I rolled on the previous location. By trying to access the HDD and CF I could not find any of the takes I previously recorder on both media !! Quadriple checking that I wasn't doing something wrong, I manually restarted the recorder as a final resort solution and on startup, all takes appeared again !!! Observing this peculiar incident,I intentionally left on the recorder non stop, so it would remain on for the whole location. A few minutes later on the second take, not only I managed to not roll because there was simply no access on the recorder on the crucial time frame I had to roll but even after the 2 messages ended and I had the opportunity to press record, this time the recorder was not seeing any of its recording media Again ! but this time I was prompted to a message that I could not record due to not existing media on the recorder !!! The msg was suggesting that I would insert a new CF card while the 16GB SD recommended Transcend CF card was barely used. Fortunately enough and for my extremely good luck there was a lunch break after the total failure to roll and I had time to start figuring out how I can deal with the problem. I tried restarting several times, restarting without a CF, restarting with a CF, Hot swaping a CF while the recorder was on, Using only the external power supply, using only the battery power supply. No matter what I did there was no media recognised by the 788T and I was clearly left without a recorder in the middle of nowhere ! Weirdly enough, everything seemed to be working as I could monitor all tracks and see the signal coming in through the meters but there was just no way I could record !! After 6 + of recording in the digital domain this was the first ever time that the backup I am always carrying with me saved my butt and my trustworthy 744/302 combo saved the day and my name as I was able to record the end titles closing scene of the film, featuring a well known actor on an extremely tight schedule and on a very limited time frame light wise. After all these years of carrying a backup with me boy I am glad I kept practicing this habit and even if I won't ever need it again, this scene alone payed everything off. As soon as I returned back to base, I switched the 788T once more out of curiosity and it could see the HDD and CF drives without the slightest issue !!! I am going to backup all takes and reformat the recorder from scratch as this is the best solution that comes in mind but I just wanted to share my experience and ask if anyone else had the same experience with mine. I am formatting the recorder tomorrow, so there is time to try out things if anyone is interested. Best Aris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan H. Chang Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 While I've never encountered that kind of error before, always to carry ALL firmware with you just in case you need to roll back to an existing working version. This is especially true when you are in the middle of nowhere with limited access to backup gear on a skinny run'n gunner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Blankenship Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 If you have access to the internal hard drive, I'd pull it out and re-seat it. Connectors are often the weakest point in equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 (edited) I hesitate to respond, of course with anything with digital processing, the "disconnect power completely for a minute or more" and "restore factory defaults" or finally "reset:" options are eventually part of the problem solving process... While the issue is a bit intermittent, it seems to recur pretty frequently, and thus should make troubleshooting by the appropriate qualified folks pretty effective. Backup is good! Edited December 5, 2011 by studiomprd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pindrop Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 Thanks for the detailed symptom description. As a 788T owner this is worrying although I've used my 788T with CL8 intensively about 5x since updating to 2.16 without any problems except mix assist not keeping the last open mic open. Somebody on the Sound Devices forum has started a thread '788T not seeing any drives' Not sure if it might be the same thing as there's no more info given than that minimal question. If this is a 'latest firmware problem' I expect Sound Devices will be very fast to address it. With an intermittent fault I guess It'll be hard to know if anything has made any difference What is menu No2 connection mode set to? Have you tried changing it? In menu No1 there's a 'load factory settings' have you tried that? Have you tried reloading the firmware? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Mayer Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 With an intermittent fault I guess It'll be hard to know if anything has made any difference What is menu No2 connection mode set to? Have you tried changing it? In menu No1 there's a 'load factory settings' have you tried that? Have you tried reloading the firmware? Yes, the connection mode menu would be very important. That is the message that comes up when the 788 is connected to host system taking the drive offline, so something is making the 788 think that it is connected to a host system through USB or Firewire. Are there any cable connected to any of these ports? Factory reset is a very good idea as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 No matter what I did there was no media recognised by the 788T and I was clearly left without a recorder in the middle of nowhere ! What a nightmare! I'm very sympathetic. This kind of thing only happened to me once, when I had a Fostex PD4 jam up with humidity on a cold October evening here in LA. By the time I had left the set and grabbed a replacement recorder, my assistant managed to get the DAT going again. That was the last time I ever went on a shoot without a backup machine. I am going to backup all takes and reformat the recorder from scratch as this is the best solution that comes in mind but I just wanted to share my experience and ask if anyone else had the same experience with mine. Did you ever recover the previous lost takes? I'm curious how and why this failed. I agree with Matt: at some point, a factory reset/power cycle might help. No doubt the ports were confused. I had my 744t crash when prematurely disconnecting it from a Firewire cable attached to a Mac. It crashed so bad, I had to physically remove the battery before it would reboot -- but everything was still there. The only similar Deva 5.8 crash I've ever had was when it had a nervous breakdown while connected to a Mix12, but that was more the Mix12's fault; the Deva itself recorded fine, so I was able to continue the shoot, losing only the first take of the day. I've used computers for more than 30 years now, but more than ever, I gotta say: computers suck, they're not always reliable, and you have to constantly keep an eye out for them so they won't screw you when you least expect it. The 788 is no different, as is any non-linear recorder (audio or video). It's amazing that they work as often as they do. --Marc W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_bollard Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 SD seems to understate the 2.16 processor overheads. Small print recommends UDMA CF card and not "recording mono tracks" which after thinking realized it was poly WAV they are suggestion. Was Mix Assist running? Writing to all three media adds to overheads too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmfreak Posted December 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 The gig was not a one man run and gun type. If I would not have a trust worthy boom op on the front end I would never even have the peace of mind to get a chance to problem solve an error like this one. Everything had to be kept in the bag due to extremely tight setups and bad weather which just made a bad rig more mobile than a cart setup and a CL-9 controller which was available in the van. The connection mode menu is set to CONNECT AS MASS STORAGE and mix assistant was not on. What boggles me is that there was no external HDD or other device connected to any of the ports, except the CL-8. I checked the menu and the media recording option is set to record to the INHDD - CF and External HDD. I don't know if that caused a breakdown to the recorder but it seems over the top that such a setting could cause it. All the takes are there and they are safe. Whatever was recorder could be copied by the DIT from the CF but I just had to merge the takes from the 788t and the 744T into a single CF for delivery which was not a major task. I will format in a few hours and consider the internal HDD re-seat. If you got any further questions about the setup, keep them coming. Thanks ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan H. Chang Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 Considering that your CL8 was also connected in a "port", have you tried disconnecting it and record again without the use of CL8? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmfreak Posted December 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 I did not try to disconnect the CL8 and also the occurrence of the problem is unstable as everything was working fine when I switched on the recorder after the shoot. I understand what you are saying here, that the controller was the only physical external device connected to the recorder but the reason I didn't opt for this solution was more from a practical point of view as it is very difficult to try and mix on the 788T without a controller and just didn't want to add this on my problem solving list . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmfreak Posted December 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 After checking the settings once more before formatting I wanted to post a Correction : Mix Assist was ON Thanks to everyone for your feedback Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VM Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 I had a similar problem 2 weeks ago. But easier to solve. I think it came from a bad SD card. It was not my 788, but one coming from a rent house. With 2.15 firmware. SD788 was off, I put the production SD card in the slot, power ON, and... the 788 said to me to wait because it was doing an update !... I waited a few minutes, it did not stop. So i put off all the batteries. Power on again. This time the SD788 started normally, BUT it didn't recognize nor the hard drive, nor the SD card. I turned off the 788. Put off the card, put another card. And it works perfectly all the day long. I think the card was bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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