FS-100 Freezing/locking up after just seconds of Rec.
 

Finally got the latest firmware... really hadn't played with it too much other than 10 mins here or there. Went to use it the other day to film some Sexy Ponce Man Xmas footage ( YouTube - Holiday Special Starts THURSDAY ) and it immediately started locking the whole unit up just seconds into recording. I would have to pull the battery to get it working again and it would immediatly freeze up again. I formatted it, no help... I ran a disk "repair" and that actually got it working for a while then it started again.

I did some searching and kept coming up with HD problem or FW cable issue... I can sit the unit perfectly still and it will still do it. I pulled the HD and put it in a laptop and ran Hitachi's fitness tool and it showed ZERO errors. I just wrote zero's to the drive and repartitioned it in the FS. Haven't really tested it yet... I'm just not very hopefull. :(

Anyone else have any experience with this? What can I do?

Well, I tested it out... plugged it in and recorded a few minutes of it and no problems... I started jiggling cables all around and STILL no problems!

Took it on a gig last night and trying to shoot the FIRST shot it locked up! GRRRRRR!!!

Over 70 views and no one has anything to offer. :(

Are you following the procedures? Here are some steps that may be relevant to your problem:


STEPS
***DO NOT HAVE ANY CONNECTION VIA FIREWIRE TO THE CAMERA.
***JUST CONNECT THE FIREWIRE TO THE "DV I/O PORT" ONLY, ON THE FIRESTORE.

Before trying the steps, make sure that the unit is in complete stop mode. Meaning the "TOP LINE" on the Firestore does not have:
1) E STOP
2) Y REC
The unit "must" be in STOP mode before attempting

FIRESTORE
1) Power unit ON.
2) By the SELECT button, press the RIGHT arrow key until you see the "HDD MODE" menu.
3) Scroll down to the recording option you want.
4) Once the option you want is "highlighted", press the SELECT button to choose that option.
5) Press the "LEFT" arrow key. This will take you back to the top of the menu.
6) Now press the "RIGHT" arrow key. You will be on the "FORMATS" menu.
7) Scroll down to the recording option you want.
8) Once the option you want is "highlighted", press the SELECT button to choose that option.
9) Press the "LEFT" arrow key. This will take you back to the top of the menu.
10) Now press the "RIGHT" arrow key until you get to the "FUNCTIONS" menu.
11) Scroll down and "highlight" FA SYNC.
12) Press the "SELECT" button to choose this option.
13) Press the "LEFT" arrow key. This will take you back to the top of the menu.
14) Now press the "RIGHT" arrow key until you get to the "CONTROL" menu.
15) Scroll down and highlight "TAPELESS" or “SYNCRO SLAVE”.
16) Press the SELECT button. (The unit will go back to home-screen with this display: E STOP (tape less) or Y REC (syncro slave))
**FireStore is now SET UP.

CAMERA
1) Power Camera ON.
2) Press your Menu button.
3) Look for a icon that says "DV CONTROL".
4) Turn the DV CONTROL "ON".
5) EXIT the menu.
6) CONNECT the other end of the FIREWIRE to the CAMERA.
**Camera is now SET UP.
7) Press RECORD on your camera. The FireStore's time code should be running




Just wondering because I recently changed my 60 gig drive to a 120 gig drive. I get over 8 hours of recording now. I tested it at a live event a few nights ago and it worked flawlessly for over 4 hours of recording.

Well, I don't even do syncro recording... I only do local... basically when I do a wedding I'll only want to run the tape when I want to but I'll run the FS constantly. So I've set all the stuff up like I want and I CAN record sometimes.

The only thing that I THINK might be consistant with it locking up is that I go from full stop to record too fast. I hit record to put it in record pause (ready) mode and then hit record again to start recording before I think it has time to really get into record ready mode. I locked it up the other day and then went REAL slow with everything and it didn't lock up. I usually have to repair or something before I will notice it working again... so far it's worked... but I haven't done a WHOLE lot with it.

So right now I've just been trying to remember to get it into record pause mode then wait a couple seconds then hit record again and then watch to see if it locks up again.

Thanks for the write up though, I'm sure it will be helpfull to others... one question, why do you set FA to sync? That's just a function button... I leave my sync in local and set FA to the backlight.

This write up was taken from a response to issues I was having. It came from Focus. I thought some of the steps might reveal a cue to your problems.
I am not sure why you are using "Local"? If you use "Sync" the DTE recorder will start and stop whenever you press your camera's record button. If you use Retro Cache Mode you'll catch any footage that happened before you pressed the start button on the camera.

By the way I do anticipate wait times when pressing start stop etc. That may be your problem?

I do local because I have 433 mins of record time with the FS... I can just let it record constantly... It will keep recording while I change tapes and everything... basically I won't miss a beat and won't waste tape if it's something that might not be worth filming but hey, I got tons of HD space so go ahead and shoot it on the FS. ;)

When you say you "anticipate" do you mean you wait for a second before hitting the botton or do you mean you don't assume it is immediately recording when you hit record or immediately stopping when you hit stop. I guess in the context of things I would have to assume the first.

Sounds reasonable. There is always a couple of ways of "skinning a cat". By anticipate I mean yes I do find that when making changes there is always a time lag.

Anyone got any suggestions for this issue... I've never got it to work with any consistency... basically almost always locking up no matter what I do.

Basically I have a fancy paper weight right now.

Any help/suggestions?