721 Very Buggy Again!

[Jason]

Over the past month or so, my 721 has pretty much been working as advertised. However, a lot of bugs have happened over the past 2 days.

Yesterday, I was watching a show and decided to tape the rest of it. I chose to record and then extend the event by 30 minutes to make sure I didn't miss the end. Well the 721 stopped recording at the normal time and ignored my request to record an extra 30 minutes.

Also, when I started a manual record I was unable to view any of my prerecorded shows. I had to stop the single recording in progress just to watch one prerecorded show!

Today, one of my 'Mon-Fri' timers failed to fire. I have had this timer set for about 6 months and this is the first time the timer did not fire.

Also, it seems like the dreaded 'Acquiring Signal' message is back once again and the 721 has trouble locking the signal from time to time.

After a month or so of not having any problems, I was hoping these bugs were fixed but they obviously aren't. This is very disappointing and I hope that L.110 will correct these problems!

[Bill R]

Jason,

Reboot your 721. That often clears up a lot of problems. To do that just hold the power button in for at least 6 seconds.

[Jason]

I always do a reboot whenever the system acts up. After I got all these bugs yesterday, I rebooted the system. I thought everything was okay until I missed a timer today.

I just checked and I missed a 2nd timer as well.

I just tried rebooting again and now it seems like the timers are working again.

This is really weird but it is like the 721 still thought it was Sunday and therefore it didn't fire the 2 timers today yet it still recorded a program last night at Midnight.

[SteveinDanville]

I was wondering if there were any other issues out there on the 721 hiccuping. Over the last 2 weeks I've continued to get the lost satellite 119 screen, mostly on my local channels. They'll work fine, I'll change a channel, then come back to where I just was, and I can't get to it because of the lost satellite screen. It then seems to act very schizoid (push buttons, nothing happens, etc.), until I finally do the power switch reboot, which cleans things up. What I'm not comfortable with on the power switch reboots is if I'm not around and a timer is supposed to fire, and all that it can record is the lost satellite screen. Again, our weather has been fine...I don't know what's wrong. Did a check switch again, and it's fine, good signal on all three sat's, both tuners. I must say, though, on the Check switch screen, if I'm showing 80 on Tuner 1 on Sat. 119, then switch to Tuner 2, a totally different transponder shows up, with almost no signal. I'll never understand this stuff...I feel like a moron explaining to my wife that "we can't get 60 Minutes until I do a reboot, but we're still recording the last 3 minutes of Six Feet Under, so I can't compromise that recording, so you'll just have to wait until Six Feet is done, then I'll reboot. Sorry that you'll miss the teasers of the three stories on 60 Minutes at the beginning of the show, but hey, look how excited we'll be when each segment comes on!"

[tm22721]

Today's massive software packages give true testimony to the old adage 'complexity breeds failure'.

I am part of the problem since I am currently a software engineer working in a large software effort. There is no solution to the problem except endless testing requiring a black hole of resources that sucks everybody in. Unless we find a solution, I predict that in fifty years time 90% of humans will be developing software.

[SteveinDanville]

I had a long discussion with a Dish Advanced Tech Rep, and then his supervisor last night after I lost Sat. 119 again, in the middle of a show. After a number of tests, it turns out, at least for now, that my problem is either a failed SW64 or LNBF (this will be the second failed LNBF, and now that I recall, the symptoms are exactly the same as last fall). All of the odd transponders on 119 have zero signal, so we switched inputs, and the other input lost all signal. While talking with the supervisor, while I still kept checking signal strength, all of a sudden I started getting 80-87 signal strength on both tuners on all the odd transponders on 119. The fact that it goes in and out--and I literally caught it as it was doing it--led the supervisor to rule out the cable, and figure either a port on the switch was bad, or it was the LNBF. He saw in my file that one had previously failed last October. Even in light of all this, prior to setting up a service appointment, he wanted to charge me $119 for the visit!!! He finally settled for $49, which still angers me. Do these LNBF's last 6 months? I'm in Northern California, and we have very mild winters compared to some of you folks around the country. Anyway, I'll let you know if this fixes the glitch.

[pacman]

I have had my original dish (with original LNBF) for over 6 years and have never had a problem. Just last year I added a SW64 with a dish 500 + dish 300 for locals - still using old LNBF. Just added a 721 two months ago and everything works great and I live in the SF Bay Area (gotta love the mild winters!!). The only question I have is do you have the dish, cable, box, etc. grounded properly? I've heard that it can cause problems if you do not have the system grounded.

[rcwilcox]

I just had my first bad LNB. Similar problem no odd transponders from one sat. I find the LNB's to be very durable. I have had dish for 6 years and at two locations plus do a lot of side work on Dish stuff and like I said my first bad LNB.

[SteveinDanville]

"The only question I have is do you have the dish, cable, box, etc. grounded properly? I've heard that it can cause problems if you do not have the system grounded."

Interestingly enough, there was NO GROUNDING on my Dish for over 5 years. Then they installed the Must-Carry 2nd Dish, the SW64 and my 721, and still didn't install a ground. When they then came out in October to replace the LNBF, I told them to install a ground and they begrudgingly did so.

[SteveinDanville]

As a follow-up, the Dish repairman showed up, and once he got up on the roof and checked some things out, the answer for my problems was: a bad SW64 and a bad LBN on Sat. 119. He replaced them both, and put weather boots on the couplings on the switch, and finally replaced a couple of the RG6 crimpon connectors. I still had to pay $49 for something that only lasted from Oct. 30th until mid-April. I'm going to fight that, and I'll let you all know how it goes.