HR20 Continuous restarts during update

[okachobi]

I've had directtv for a while now (couple years) with no problems. I have an HR20-700 and an H20-something-er-other. The H20 seems to be working great, but the other day I changed to a channel and got the 771 error code when it couldn't tune. I switched around some and eventually it tuned, but I got some picture corruption from time to time. The H20 had tuned the same station with no issues at all. No breakup, nothing.

I checked the cables, tightened them. And then today I noticed that the lights were spinning on it, so I turned it on and it was updating the software. Fine...I let it run, 30 minutes later, it was still updating. So I go and reset it and it boots up just fine and tunes a channel. I then force a reboot/update with 0-2-4-6-8 and it gets to about 90% each time and then restarts at 0%. Each time, the numbers on the top left change...right now it displays 3/3/20.

Does anyone have any hints at what I should look at? I didn't do my own installation and am somewhat unfamiliar with aligning, but I guess I would expect the H20 to be giving me problems too if this were an alignment problem, no?

I'm going to let the update cycle run a bit more. It looks like I'm on version 029b and its trying to grab 02af. I had hoped that this update might help with the signal quality issues it seems I am now facing.

I've had these problems once in the past, and they mysteriously went away on their own. I don't know what that indicates. Could it be a bad BBC? How would I test for that? with 2 tuners, I'd expect that the BBA's could be tested independently but I'm not sure where to begin.

thanks...

[Stuart Sweet]

I would unplug the receiver for at least 30 minutes and then plug it back in. You can try removing the BBCs but I'd be surprised if that were the issue.

[curt8403]

I've had directtv for a while now (couple years) with no problems. I have an HR20-700 and an H20-something-er-other. The H20 seems to be working great, but the other day I changed to a channel and got the 771 error code when it couldn't tune. I switched around some and eventually it tuned, but I got some picture corruption from time to time. The H20 had tuned the same station with no issues at all. No breakup, nothing.

I checked the cables, tightened them. And then today I noticed that the lights were spinning on it, so I turned it on and it was updating the software. Fine...I let it run, 30 minutes later, it was still updating. So I go and reset it and it boots up just fine and tunes a channel. I then force a reboot/update with 0-2-4-6-8 and it gets to about 90% each time and then restarts at 0%. Each time, the numbers on the top left change...right now it displays 3/3/20.

Does anyone have any hints at what I should look at? I didn't do my own installation and am somewhat unfamiliar with aligning, but I guess I would expect the H20 to be giving me problems too if this were an alignment problem, no?

I'm going to let the update cycle run a bit more. It looks like I'm on version 029b and its trying to grab 02af. I had hoped that this update might help with the signal quality issues it seems I am now facing.

I've had these problems once in the past, and they mysteriously went away on their own. I don't know what that indicates. Could it be a bad BBC? How would I test for that? with 2 tuners, I'd expect that the BBA's could be tested independently but I'm not sure where to begin.

thanks...

sadly it sounds like your hard drive may have problems. do you have anything you do not want to lose on it?

[okachobi]

Thanks for the responses. I have programs on it that I'd prefer not to lose, but its just TV after all.

What is the process for doing a full hard disk reformat? I read somewhere that there was a seperate reset from the factory reset that did the full hard disk reformat, but I don't see it on that menu. I have Restart Receiver, Reset Defaults, Reset Everything...

Also, the directtv is usable after a reboot, but then after a few minutes it tells me that its going to download data and I can delay it...but then it comes back and wants to download data again... If I let it, it restarts with the software download and never finishes. So for the time being, it would be nice if I could cancel the updates permanently for my unit so its usable. Otherwise, I'll turn it on and it will be cycling away in the update download. Unfortunately this makes the DVR useless because if I go away for a while, it reboots to download the new software and never finishes...and then never records the program I wanted.

I've noticed a few other things- oddly, the Access Card option is greyed out on the system setup menu. And the information under Access card says "replace your access card when you receive a new one." That's a bit odd.

If I run the system test, everything (Except the phone, which isn't connected) is ok. The signal strength on one of the tuners is pretty low (49%), but its raining out now. I thought perhaps that low signal strength might have something to do with the software updating failing to download, but it gets 90% completely before restarting.

I'd try the hard disk reformat, but there is a good chance that if the problem is something else that I'd end up being left without any service through the holidays. So it would be nice to just cancel the software upgrade for now...

UPDATE: Pausing live tv didn't stop it from rebooting automatically to update, and this time it made it through the whole update. I'm guessing you are right and that there is a bad sector on the disk, or that this is temperature driven (the temp was like 121F earlier, and now shows as around 115F). I'd still like to know what the procedure is to trigger a disk format, and whether this might scan for bad blocks...

[BattleZone]

Press and hold REC and DOWN ARROW on the front panel for about 5 seconds. The REC light should come on as it formats the drive.