Hmm, my thinking was that if it behaves exactly the same with the HDD out as in, then the HDD is not making itself known, because it has some fault, and so the box is forever looping i.e. trying but failing to make any communication with the HDD.

DTR-T2100 RM Series Replacement Remote Control for Bt YOUVIEW-DTR-T2100

Your Box should still work ok even without having a subscription to BT. When you refer to software updates, which version are you on at the moment? Your BT T2100 should currently be on around 32.141.0 / 3.8.50 as per this link: I tried your first suggestion of trying the PVR with no HDD and it behaves EXACTLY the same as it did with the HDD in! The same looping logos forever, the recovery menu comes up but as before none of the option will do anything. So I think from this we can conclude the HDD is almost certainly dead as the box works just as well (not at all) with it as without. And it follows that as the OS (in effect) of the device is on the mainboard it should be able to format a blank new hard drive without any problems. The problem is that your box doesn't appear to want to boot up properly even without the drive installed. So swapping the drive may not get you any further forward. I would have thought that the box would boot up without the drive but display a message that it can't find the drive rather that sit there continually attempting to detect it. It would be a pretty poor bit of software coding that didn't have a limit on how many attempts it makes to detect a drive before giving up and continue to the main screen. It turns out that Humax have ported their freeview boxes' multiple transmitter issue to their Youview boxes. It doesn't impact everyone within range of more than 1 transmiatter but it does impact some. For recording radio programes all youview boxes are unreliable. This is due to the youview boxes having no manual option for setting up timers. Even when I was trying to use my DTR-T2100 as my prime device I had to keep my HDR-FOX T2 fully running in parallel for radio programmes.The only other thing I can think of is if you get any problems due to BT ISP subscription/menu maybe slightly different software then you need to do a software reset via Maintenance mode setup. Try unplugging the HDD and see if it will boot, it will likely protest about not having a drive but you should get some response out of it. All youview boxes provide 5 different resets. The easiest to access is via their menus, but that will also delete all your recordings and you would also need to setup everything again.

YouView Support BT software update 32.53.0 / 3.7.54 - YouView Support

The new box is now complete with BT branding front and centre, which BT is probably rather pleased about and you most probably don't give a hoot about. The design matches that of the latest generation Home Hub 5.The TalkTalk boxes are at least slightly slower in their operation. I have the fastest of the talk talks (DN372T v1) and find it only just tolerable but that is a very subjective view. At the moment that's all the app will do. There's potential to make it far more exciting by offering controls over the network, for example, so you wouldn't need to grab the remote, or to offer wider second-screen choices. Sadly, at the moment it's just about scheduling recordings. There are no fans, so it’s virtually silent except for the exceptionally quiet whirring of the laptop-style hard drive. Unless you’re right next to the box, this is inaudible, so it’s ideal for bedrooms as well as the living room or kitchen. Note that the Ultra HD version does have a fan, which can be a little irritating in a quiet room. First impressions. I can believe why Humax didn't want to put their name on the outside. It's rubbish. It's slow, the remote needs a hard press to make it work and the TV tuner on the TV is much superior. Initially I tried it without it being connected to the internet and it seemed fine. As soon as I got it connected using a sky WiFi adapter it updated the software and now I have a much darker screen and is clearer and brighter using the TV tuner. Tested on two TVs and it's the same.

Humax DTR-T2100 500gb BT YouView Recorder Unit (Dual Tuner)

When any youview box, including those not previously associated or obtained from BT, will do within a few hours of being connected to BT as an ISP, will change themselves to have BT livery, including the BT epg clutter. As there are two Freeview HD tuners inside the box, you can record two separate channels at the same time. Depending on which these are, you may or may not be able to watch a third, different channel while recording two others. You can always watch recorded shows during recording, though. Retail wise, a smaller option to the Humax DTR-T2000 but still available through normal retail channels with a normal guarantee is a DTR-T2110, but that does not have the Humax 2nd year guarantee as it is BT badged. I have left the HDD out of the box and might try it in the PC but I'd be surprised if it will be able to see it either.

I stand to be corrected but my understanding is that the hard drive is just a storage device for recordings. The firmware that runs the box is stored in memory on the mainboard. So in theory the box should be able to boot with or without the drive present. It's not the same as a PC where the OS is stored on the drive so obviously can't boot without the drive present and correct.

Humax BT DTR-T2100 | AVForums Humax BT DTR-T2100 | AVForums

It may well be that the new box is slightly less sensitive and therefore COM7 is just below the digital threshold of its reception capability. (Does it permit manual tuning to frequency channel 31? If so that may show up as a poor signal level and/or quality readout. You could also compare it to the readings given on your box that works OK.)

If you do not have a BT TV subscription but your box is still connected to the internet then updates will still go ahead as you are used to. BT do still have some control over when updates take place on your 91-00438 but there is no differentiation between one using a BT TV subscription, one using BT as their ISP but no subscription, and one using a different ISP. It could be the HDD, but it could be the PSU as well - often high ESR capacitors in the PSU produce such symptoms, but also often cause other damage - including killing the HDD. Personally think dead HDD is getting more likely as apart from the beeping I mentioned it is 100% silent, no HDD noise at all and usually there is a little HDD noise on these boxes. I have a slightly newer Sony Brava TV and can't recall a single issue with handshaking (unlike my HDR-2000T). HDMI handshaking for me is as sold as with my HDR-FOX T2s (1.03.12 and 1.02.20).