View Full Version : Earthquake vs HR21
Heem(JimmyG)
05-04-08, 07:44 PM
It seems that the HR21 seems to be susceptible to seismic activity. We have been experiencing a major increase in earthquake activity over the last 7-10 days with some areas of our region having in the neighborhood of 300 quakes. Most of these quakes register is the 2.0 or less on the scale but a few have been in the area of 4.0-4.9. Everytime we "feel" a quake the boxes have to be reset because they wont turn on.
None of these quakes have damaged our house but just the quake activity is enough to cause issues with the box. There are home that have sustained mod-severe damage. Just an observation. Happy with D* so far.
litzdog911
05-04-08, 07:47 PM
Scary. Perhaps your AC power glitches during the shaking. Is your DVR powered by a UPS?
Pinion413
05-04-08, 08:31 PM
It wouldn't be a "safety" of sorts to prevent damage to the hard disk in the event of physical shock, would it?
(grasping at straws) :lol:
Perhaps what really has happened is that your dish moved a bit and needs to be re-aimed.
Interesting. I would think most hard drives would operate properly through a 4.9 or less earthquake, but a lot depends on where the epicenter is with regard to where you are (both lateral proximity as well as depth). A shallow 4.9 that is close would shake a whole lot more than a deep 4.9 25 miles away.
This earthquake business does seem to be pretty consistent in your area of late. Maybe you can rig up some type of cushioned way to mount the DVR (perhaps a soft pad with a hard board on top (so the DVR is on a hard surface and you don't block ventilation), but the soft pad would absorb stronger shocks.
I would guess that the hard drive read/write heads being shaken enough to move position could cause the unit to freeze and require reset. Power interruptions (or brief dips or surges) could also be a cause, but that doesn't normally accompany that level of shake.
Carl
Doug Brott
05-05-08, 12:46 AM
Do you have more than one HR21 that this is happening to? I really can't believe that it's an HDD issue due to ground shaking .. at least not at that level. Even the 5.6 we had here a few months back wasn't enough to cause disk problems. I'm with litzdog911 in thinking that it's power related.
ddrumman2004
05-05-08, 07:49 AM
Perhaps what really has happened is that your dish moved a bit and needs to be re-aimed.
My first thoughts too!
Carl Spock
05-05-08, 07:57 AM
^ That's it. No question. Alignment on the dish can go out with a shift of as little as a quarter of an inch.
Earl Bonovich
05-05-08, 08:48 AM
Given that I have a son... and often on the weekends, it is a mad house around here.
Running, jumping, playing... htting the cabinent which the drive is in...
I am sure the systems I have seen their fair share of "quakes"... and I don't recall any of the resetting because of it.
I have moved them around too while being on, and they don't reset.
My guess is that it has something to do with the signal strength, and the unit just freaking out because of a bouncing signal level.
JeffBowser
05-05-08, 09:05 AM
I know this is a DirecTV forum, and all, but nobody has even commented on how incredibly unusual this earthquake activity is. Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/05/03/MNKP10G2D1.DTL
Greg Alsobrook
05-05-08, 09:09 AM
I know this is a DirecTV forum, and all, but nobody has even commented on how incredibly unusual this earthquake activity is. Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/05/03/MNKP10G2D1.DTL
it is all very strange Jeff... we have a vendor that lives right outside of Reno... he said his house is less than a 1/4 mile from the epicenter... he said the 300+ quakes a day is no joke... :eek2:
tcusta00
05-05-08, 09:40 AM
I know this is a DirecTV forum, and all, but nobody has even commented on how incredibly unusual this earthquake activity is. Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/05/03/MNKP10G2D1.DTL
I would have assumed this was "normal" from the OPs tone. Having never experienced an earthquake (and hopefully never will) I wouldn't have known any different. Hope it stops!
I went through the Alaskan quake March 26th, 1964 @5:36PM, Good Friday (but who remembers:rolleyes:) .
That measured 9.2, second highest ever recorded.
Took me about 5 years to get over it.
After quake there were about 2000 temors/day. Then another major one about 2 weeks later almost to the minute that measured 6.
That's why I live on Cape Cod:hurah: Just hurricanes here, but they have names..
Good luck to all in NV...
Heem(JimmyG)
05-05-08, 12:28 PM
It does not appear to be an alignment issue because when I reset the boxes the picture is just fine, no problems at all. We have 2 HR21, one downstairs and one in the master bedroom. Both boxes have had to be reset after the quakes. It's not really an issue, just struck me as interesting.
We do not have any type of backup but I doubt it was anything electrical as nothing else in the house was affected. Things than will normally have to be reset after any electrical glitch were just fine. Have not "felt" a quake in about 5 days and the boxes have not had to be reset in that same time period.
Most of these quakes are occuring in a relatively new fault line that is quite shallow but runs in close proximity to two other fault lines that are well established and deep. Our house sits less than 10 miles (as the crow flies) from the epicenter.
smilller
05-05-08, 08:00 PM
I have a HR20-700 and live in northwest Reno. So far the quakes have had no effect on my Directv service. We've had a lot of stuff fall off the walls, but no problem with Directv
JLucPicard
05-05-08, 08:07 PM
If it could be signal related, a not quite tight enough fitting or something could get josteled during a rumble and maybe be fine when stable. just another thought from a Minnesota homeboy - the closest I've ever been to an actual earthquake was when the surround sound was blasting! :)
inkahauts
05-05-08, 09:27 PM
OP... Do your lights flicker a little during these earthquakes?
If it could be signal related, a not quite tight enough fitting or something could get josteled during a rumble and maybe be fine when stable.
Excellent idea/suggestion. And not limited to coax, but also possibly internal connections within the DVR, or power cable, or hdmi connection, etc.
Carl
inkahauts
05-05-08, 09:31 PM
I went through the Alaskan quake March 26th, 1964 @5:36PM, Good Friday (but who remembers:rolleyes:) .
That measured 9.2, second highest ever recorded.
Took me about 5 years to get over it.
After quake there were about 2000 temors/day. Then another major one about 2 weeks later almost to the minute that measured 6.
That's why I live on Cape Cod:hurah: Just hurricanes here, but they have names..
Good luck to all in NV...
First off... WOW.... 9.2 must have been an experience... That must have been really loud... I've had my 6 and 7's, but wow....
I think the part about this that is so unusual is not the amount of activity, its that they are all so close in size to the first.... Usually, they go way down in size, especially for one that was so small in the first place. Hey, I live in LA, and if its not bigger than a 5.2 around here, no one even cares... Britney would still be the lead news story... augh....
And I'll take earthquakes over hurricanes, although if I ever see a 9.2, I might reconsider.... :D
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