Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Form? (strange boot message on CP650)

This is topic Form? (strange boot message on CP650) in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 03-12-2015, 06:01 PM:

[Confused]

/M.E.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-12-2015, 07:13 PM:

One of ours does that during the boot process as well, but after a few seconds goes to the configured wake-up format and behaves normally thereafter.

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 03-13-2015, 02:44 AM:

This one behaves exactly the same. After the "form" thing it boots up normally and does what it is supposed to do.
What bothers me is that this location is not on the Swedish mainland, it is on an Island in the middle of the Baltic sea [thumbsup]

/M.E.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-13-2015, 03:53 AM:

My question is why the concern of the language that is displayed on the screen if the unit is operating normally after the boot process?

We just want it to operate as needed, that is the main goal to achieve.

Back of the unit should have a plate which country the unit is assembled.

These units are definitely used worldwide.

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 03-13-2015, 05:17 AM:

"Form" spells exactly the same in both Swedish and English [Big Grin]

I´m not worried about language here. What I don´t want is a dead processor on an island half way to Russia next friday night.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 03-13-2015, 08:54 AM:

Did this occur only now after a period of operation without that issue? Was there a softwareupdate or other change?

- Carsten

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 03-13-2015, 09:44 AM:

The processor has been sleeping for a year or so before I installed it yesterday. History unknown.
It was quite hard to communicate with (I used an older laptop with built in RS232) and disconnected several times for unknown reasons. It was running 2.3.4.4 on arrival. After install/tuning I upgraded it to 2.3.6.3 but the "form" thing didn´t go away.
And today it´s friday the 13th and I´m on the ferry bound for home [Eek!]

/M.E.

Posted by Mike Renlund (Member # 4675) on 03-13-2015, 12:23 PM:

A video of the boot up process might be the best way to try and see what is not working correctly. A set of logs from the CP650 might also be useful. If you can get those, you could send them to customersupport@dolby.com and we'll take a look.

Mike Renlund
Dolby Laboratories

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 03-13-2015, 12:39 PM:

Thanks Mike.
This is a very remote site. But I will try to get the projectionist to hook up a computer and investigate through Teamviewer (or whatever). I guess the "event Log" is the place to look.
Btw: Renlund, that sounds like a name from my hoods.
/M.E.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-13-2015, 01:38 PM:

quote: Magnus Eriksson
The processor has been sleeping for a year or so before I installed it yesterday. History unknown.

Interesting - exactly the same applies to the one of ours that does this!

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 03-13-2015, 04:16 PM:

I also have random disconnections on my PC, I reckon it's the combination windows/adaptor. Usually after a while the communication gets stable. I usually put some pink noise on for a few minutes before running an upgrade, to make sure it's stable.

Never seen the "form" thingy [Smile]

Posted by Mike Renlund (Member # 4675) on 03-13-2015, 05:56 PM:

It is possible that after sitting for so long, the super capacitor inside the unit has been drained. After that, the unit may be suffering some issue related to the drained super cap.

Most CP650s are used constantly and the super cap doesn't have the opportunity to drain, so this is something that I haven't encountered before.

Magnus, it is true that my family does come from Sweden and Finland. I haven't been back in many years...but love it there.

Mike Renlund
Dolby Laboratories

Posted by Magnus Eriksson (Member # 6085) on 03-14-2015, 09:22 AM:

@Leo. For how long has your CP650 "forming" itself?
@Mike. You are welcome up North anytime [Smile]

/M.E.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 03-15-2015, 10:56 PM:

As long as we've been using it. The machine was bought at one of the Hollywood lab liquidation auctions and installed in our smaller screen at the Egyptian in September last year. We only use it for optical film sound (analog and Dolby digital) - everything else goes through an AP20. I'd guess that the machine had been out of use for at least 3-4 months before installation, and it's displayed the "forms" at every boot since we started to use it. As noted above, it doesn't seem to have any other issue and has behaved completely normally after the boot process has completed.

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 03-16-2015, 02:36 AM:

Is it actually trying to tell you it is 'forming' this super capacitor mentioned above?

That's something I remember doing with flashguns back in the day.

Even after all these years the venerable CP650 is still giving up secrets.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 03-16-2015, 02:41 AM:

This looks like some piece of random memory gets loaded into the few bytes of memory mapped to the display.

It could be tons of things, but maybe it's something like the boot loader not being entirely compatible with the current software image.

If it is an emptied out supercap and the thing isn't entirely dead, the problem should rectify itself, shouldn't it?

But as long as the system boots up normally afterwards and works as expected, it's probably harmless. It couldn't hurt to drop Dolby an e-mail though, it seems you're not the only one to have this issue, so it might as well be a known issue to them.