Thought my HR20 was bricked. What happened?

[spartanstew]

Downloaded the newest CE on Saturday night (don't know if this makes a difference and will post in the CE thread as well). Everything went fine and I played around with it for about 30 minutes after the download.

Turned off everything in the HT with my Harmony 880 (which places the HR20 in standby).

Went in tonight and fired everything up with the Harmony. The HR20 didn't start up. Hit the help button on the Harmony until I got to the "is the DVR on" screen. Hit NO. Sent command and asked "Is it on now?". It still wasn't on. Did this a few times and no change.

No lights on the HR20 at all. Grabbed the D* remote from another room and tried turning it on. Nothing.

Pressed the power button. Power button illuminated for about 2 seconds and then went out.

Hit the RBR and the same thing happened (power button on for about 2 seconds, then nothing).

Unplugged the unit and plugged it back in. As soon as it was plugged in, the power button lit up for 2 seconds, then went out.

Unplugged the unit for 30 minutes. Plugged it back in to the same result. Tried the RBR again and the same result.

Called D* to report the problem (and see about getting a replacement). While I was on the phone with the rep, she wanted me to try a couple of things (even though I told her I had already tried everything). I went into the HT to appease her and to my surprise when I walked in, there was a picture on the screen and the HR20 was working.

All recordings are there and everything else seems to be fine.

What happened? Could this be the beginning of a HD failure or something else?

[Ken S]

Personally, I'd guess it's a bad power supply...but without tearing it apart it would be very hard to diagnose.


Downloaded the newest CE on Saturday night (don't know if this makes a difference and will post in the CE thread as well). Everything went fine and I played around with it for about 30 minutes after the download.

Turned off everything in the HT with my Harmony 880 (which places the HR20 in standby).

Went in tonight and fired everything up with the Harmony. The HR20 didn't start up. Hit the help button on the Harmony until I got to the "is the DVR on" screen. Hit NO. Sent command and asked "Is it on now?". It still wasn't on. Did this a few times and no change.

No lights on the HR20 at all. Grabbed the D* remote from another room and tried turning it on. Nothing.

Pressed the power button. Power button illuminated for about 2 seconds and then went out.

Hit the RBR and the same thing happened (power button on for about 2 seconds, then nothing).

Unplugged the unit and plugged it back in. As soon as it was plugged in, the power button lit up for 2 seconds, then went out.

Unplugged the unit for 30 minutes. Plugged it back in to the same result. Tried the RBR again and the same result.

Called D* to report the problem (and see about getting a replacement). While I was on the phone with the rep, she wanted me to try a couple of things (even though I told her I had already tried everything). I went into the HT to appease her and to my surprise when I walked in, there was a picture on the screen and the HR20 was working.

All recordings are there and everything else seems to be fine.

What happened? Could this be the beginning of a HD failure or something else?

[armophob]

What happened? Could this be the beginning of a HD failure or something else?

Sometimes you have to just wait. I have had 3 or 4 episodes similar in a year or mores time. I use the pull the access card in and out while powered as as last resort and it usually does the trick. Not sure if it is because I also went through your steps as well or not. But I wait 5min after each action to see if it "took"

Had it happen on the latest CE and did report it.

[veryoldschool]

I've "seen this" a few times while in the Chat room [A quiet room]. There were a couple this week that were a bit more troublesome than normal.
If a RBR doesn't do it,
next is the pulling the power cord for ten min.
This week one still didn't respond, went through an other RBR. [no luck]
Gave it another few [five?] min of doing nothing to it. Then pressed the front panel power button and it booted up fine.

While this might seem strange, in fact it is just a combination of several things that have happened before [just not all of them needed at once].

"I think" it's power supply related, but not necessarily a sign of failure. There are some "protection" circuits in it that sometimes need just a bit of encouragement to work.

[houskamp]

I've seen the "rbr, power light on and off" thing a few times in the past.. usualy hitting the power button right after it goes out will revive it..

[inkahauts]

I've seen the "rbr, power light on and off" thing a few times in the past.. usualy hitting the power button right after it goes out will revive it..

Actually, I think after the power light turns on and off really quick, its just doing a reboot, and the system just won't let you turn it on to see it go through that process, so it appears your unit is dead. Then when its finally done rebooting, it will then register the press of the power button that you did 20 mins ago and turn on....

My guess is that the box was frozen in a power off state, and thats what started all this...