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tvonics dvr-fp250 wont record ?

my tvonics DVR-FP250 wont record ive tried formatting the hard drive but this message keeps coming up (hard drive initialisation failed recording and playback functions are disabled ) any ideas please

Thanks Mark

mark, January 2010

home Fix label Video label_important DTT Receiversdone

See my reply in September 2013. Tonics message "needs reformatting etc. Solved problem with new power lead. Have same problem so bought new lead again. All works OK now

Carolyn Triscott, December 2016

Just spent 5.45 for a new psu.All my old recoding still stored
And problem fixed. Amazing easy solution.Thanks guys.!!!

Harry, 71 Devon., November 2016

My wonderful old Tvonics dvr 1600 wouldn't format either. I've bought another one (different make unfortunately) and remembered the tips on this site. The new one has the same power lead and is now sitting in its box unpacked as the TVonics is now working again and I have still got my library!! Thank you forum people.

Jane, January 2016

Did what was said changed the power sups and all Is well thanks to all

Graham, August 2015

My old tvonics stopped working and when I switched it off and switched it on again I got the message ' the hard drive has not initialised do you want to format it' THIS IS A NO NO' this will wipe your hard drive of all of your recordings. Thank goodness for this site as it was suggested the fault could be the power supply. I have a second model the same and used that power lead. Magic ... It worked. So going to buy a new power supply. Thanks to all who have contributed to this site

Robert, June 2014

Unplug from mains for at least a minute. Mines has just done same and when I turned it back on it had rebooted and now records perfectly. Hope this helps!

carol JOHNSTON, April 2014

My TVonics wouldnt play or record. message said i had to format the hd drive. My husband and daughters boyfriend search google for answers and said nothing could be done except formatting and losing all my recordings. i went on my pc and found this web site. Thank God! i bought a new power plug off amazon, plugged it in and it worked! Still have 120 hours of my favourite programmes. Thank you for all your help everyone.

carolyn triscott, September 2013

Just tried another power supply and bingo I now have my hard drive & (100 hours recordings ) back .thanks for the info

Martin, September 2013

Result! After replacing the power lead with one from another device the hard drive error message cleared and my recordings reappeared as if by magic! This has saved me £££s - many many thanks!

TVOnics owner, Scottish Borders, January 2013

Same appears to be true for the TVonics 500 which is also badged as the Toshiba HDR5010.

I've got the Toshiba, which also has this problem. Am currently awaiting delivery of a new PSU to see if that addresses it.

Alan, November 2012

I had a problem with my 150 not only soes the psu seem not to produce enough current the wiring and cpower connector onto the hard drive was playing about, tightened things up a bit and changed the psu and all was ok

Dave Barton, November 2012

Same here put a 12v 2.5A PSU and bingo all ok with my Luxor PV 320. DVR ...

Barry Gibson, September 2012

I have just bought a Maplin 12V 3A psu (part no.L48BQ) at £15 and fitted it. PVR now working OK.
Thank you to all.

piotrjm, August 2012

Sadly it didn't work for me. I had a spare 12v 2A and correct polarity but same result: it won't record or playback. It again offers to clean the drive but fails. Where do I go from here? I suppose I could bring the car battery into the living room and try that........

Piotrjm, August 2012

Another satisfied customer, my TVonics DVR-150 showed the hard drive initialisation error message and a £6.99 replacement 2A power supply from Amazon fixed it. Cheers

Don, August 2012

hey guys great work on finding the problem, when looking the devices power requirements on startup it takes over 2 amps to spin-up the hdd, so i suspect the 2A adaptor is being stressed over time leading to reduced current output, which eventually results in not enough ommph to startup !

another 2A adaptor should be fine but to be safe i'll be using a 2.5/3A

Jendor, April 2012

Thank you all, I had the hard drive initialization fault and was gutted that one of my favourite bits of kit was broken but a £5 replacement power supply of Ebay fixed the problem. So thanks for sharing solution.

And, March 2012

My free view box froze few days ago we switched it on and all the lights went on but never went on standby.
Tried to turn it on and off unplug it but still freeze and do not start at all only all the light are on and stays like that.
I can hear the fan and the hard disk running as usual.
According to the manual the only way to re-set it or format it is by using the remote control menu, but by the way the fault is the box does not start at all.
It is a TVONICS DTR-Z500
Anyone have any idea hw to get it sorted?

Robbie74, January 2012

The power supplies seem to get 'tired' and work on reduced power! I bought a cheap replacement rated at 5A and my box revived.[Others have had the same experience!] TVonics engineers have confirmed that reduced power will prevent HDD initialisation.

Aislingean, May 2011

New 12v 2A adaptor for £7 from eBay solves it. The disk now spins up and all my recordings are still accessible. Thanks guys.

Gideon Durakli-Grace, February 2011

My record facility, Library, Pause etc had been out for months. I was going to buy a DVD recorder with HDD for about £200, but found this thread & went here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/POWER-ADAPTER-IDEAL-POWERING-LIGHTS/dp/B0044EFO86/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1296600726&sr=8-2

Bought for £8.99 - free Del. Swapped the Supply out & IT'S ALL BACK!! Best £9 I've spent!.

Andy G, February 2011

as with all the other replys below. the message (hard drive initialisation failed recording and playback functions are disabled) suggests that a new 12v 2a
power supply is required. I have solved this problem
in the last couple of weeks with a new power supply. Now working ok with no loss of recorded material

Tony G, January 2011

Thank you everbody for the right answer
a new power repaired mine.TVONICS 250

Graham, December 2010

exactly the same problem here and solved with a new power supply unit. A good 12v 2a unit can be had from eBAY FOR £9 NO NEED TO PAY TVONICS PRICES FOR A POOR ONE.

Mike, December 2010

I had the same problem with my 250Gb TVonics - suddenly started to say the hard drive not initialised. I read this post and swapped the power cable with a spare one (really lucky had 12v 2a spare! from a maxtor drive that really failed - but thats another story) and hey presto. Phew!

Philster, November 2010

Update sent back to TVONICS: Have bought a new NetBit power adaptor from you and everything is working again with out loss of existing hard disk data.

Original Comment sent to TVONICS: Hi, I have a TVONICS DVR-FP150, Serial number TV0090033515 purchased from Tesco on 12/11/2007

All of a sudden the recording facility failed and I was confronted with a message asking me to format the HD y/n? I pressed the yes option the following message was shown on the TV screen after a short while - tvonics hard drive initialization failed.

From a google search it appears the possible cause is a malfunction of the NetBit power adaptor (INPUT 200-240v OUTPUT +12v 2.0A. I found it to be very HOT!

David Griffiths, October 2010

i know it might sound stupid but when you are all saying new power supply do you mean the black box that plugs into mains supply? im having the same problem, hardrive failed and playback and recording failed. so so annoying close to being thrown out

karen, October 2010

Many, many thanks to Peter and this website.

I had the same problem just over a week ago and was already researching replacement PVRs when it occurred to me to Google the issue. This website and strand came up, so like others I ordered a new power supply. It arrived today. I've just attached it and, hey presto, normal service is resumed, including the 68 hours of programmes I thought I'd lost. (Just need to find 68 hours to watch them all, now!!!)

Grateful doesn't go close to covering my feelings.

Once again, many thanks.

Mark

Mark Craig, September 2010

As a recently widowed technological novice with no-one to help, I'm so grateful to you - the new 12V power supply worked immediately. Thanks.

Patricia, August 2010

Hi All, I had the same problem where the DVR FP250 wouldn't record etc anf the drive wouldnt initialise, I tried a 12V battery and Yep It all works fine, Just need to get a new powersupply... saving loads Many thanks all for the help

Tony the UPS supplier, August 2010

Hi, I have the same problem-hard drive initialisation failed recording and playback functions are disabled ?? I tried the new power supply from tvonics, also tried to re-set box and format, but still keep getting same message! Help, anybody got any ideas or is it for the bin, thanks

marion, August 2010

The answer is that the power supply is failing (a common problem) and is not delivering enough power to supply the disk drive components. However there is sufficient power for the tuner part to continue to function properly.

I had this problem and tried reformatting the disk several times. I bought a replacement and found (to my relief) that my entire library of recordings was still intact.

Andy W., July 2010

We have the same problem did you get an answer to the problem?

Beryl, May 2010

Thanks very much for the tip - it worked brilliantly. Can't understand why it should be the cause of the problem though.

Guy, March 2010

Mark - I have exactly the same problem - can you let me know if the power cable solution works. Cheers mate. pauldotmuscroftatyahoodotcom - not sure I will ever find this site again!

Paul, March 2010

I had the exactly the same issue with this unit although mine was branded as a Logik LPV2250. I swapped the power supply as recommended by Peter and it worked fine.

Euan, February 2010

Hi,
It might be a problem with the power supply.
See here: http://www.fixya.com/support/t2864807-tvonics_dvr_fp_250_hard_drive_fault
I have 2 units and one started getting the same error this weekend. I tried the power supply from the other and it worked ok. I'm going to order another power supply from TVOnics (total £16 inc delivery) - cheaper than getting another one and I don't loose the recorded programs.
Cheers
Peter.

Peter, January 2010