R15-300 Freezing and rebooting

[rbpeirce]

I thought I was having problems with the DVR, and maybe I am, but maybe I am not.

A couple of weeks ago my locals were very weak and breaking up badly. The regular cable channels were 94-100.

Most of the stuff I record regularly is on the locals. I found that trying to record two shows at the same time would often lead to the recorder freezing and rebooting. I have not been able to duplicate this with the locals at full strength.

I am wondering if anybody knows the software in the DVR well enough to say if it monitors the signal to decide whether to reboot. I was thinking that perhaps having really bad signals on both inputs might cause the DVR software to think something was wrong with it rather than the signal?

[ThomasM]

I am wondering if anybody knows the software in the DVR well enough to say if it monitors the signal to decide whether to reboot. I was thinking that perhaps having really bad signals on both inputs might cause the DVR software to think something was wrong with it rather than the signal?

DirecTV DVR's do not reboot if the signal is marginal or having a problem. They can "pixelate" the image or even terminate recordings before the end of the show but never reboot.

I would suggest trying to reformat the hard drive. You can do this yourself but you will lose all your recordings and you will also lose your favorites lists and the "satellite setup" which is actually quite easy to reprogram.

If you are interested, drop another message or search around this messaging system. Detailed instructions can be found how to do this-just search for "reformat".

[rbpeirce]

I searched for reformat and found many references but no instructions. How does one reformat the drive?

Also, the thing has been working fine under condition of full signal strength. Why should that be if it doesn't notice signal strength? That has me baffled.

[mhayes70]

To reformat your hard drive. You will want to select menu, Parental, Fav's & Setup, System setup, Reset, and select Reset Everything. *Warning* This will delete everything you have recorded on your hard drive.

If that doesn't work. I am thinking that your hard drive is going bad and your R15 will probably need to be replaced.

[ThomasM]

OK here's the reformat procedure:

1. Back up anything you ever want to see again!!!!! Everything will be gone- favorites list, shows, and most significantly the problems.
2. press "Menu" on remote/front panel
3. choose "settings" from the menu and press select
4. choose "setup" from the menu and press select
5. choose "reset" from the menu and press select
6. choose "reset everything" from the menu and press select
7. press the "-" (dash/minus symbol) on the remote until system resets. If you don't have a remote, push the down arrow button on the front panel of ird.
8. when the message "Almost there just a few more minutes" comes onto the screen, on the front panel of the receiver press the down arrow and the record button/light until 15 seconds after the screen turns black/blue/snowy.
9. Verify that the record light is light after you release the buttons. If it is not, repeat steps 1-8 until the record light/button on the front of R15 is light after releasing buttons

[rbpeirce]

Thanks. I never would have known about those last couple of steps!

I will make sure I have everything important off, favorites noted, etc. before trying this. I hope it works.

[jerryb33]

OK here's the reformat procedure:

1. Back up anything you ever want to see again!!!!! Everything will be gone- favorites list, shows, and most significantly the problems.
2. press "Menu" on remote/front panel
3. choose "settings" from the menu and press select
4. choose "setup" from the menu and press select
5. choose "reset" from the menu and press select
6. choose "reset everything" from the menu and press select
7. press the "-" (dash/minus symbol) on the remote until system resets. If you don't have a remote, push the down arrow button on the front panel of ird.
8. when the message "Almost there just a few more minutes" comes onto the screen, on the front panel of the receiver press the down arrow and the record button/light until 15 seconds after the screen turns black/blue/snowy.
9. Verify that the record light is light after you release the buttons. If it is not, repeat steps 1-8 until the record light/button on the front of R15 is light after releasing buttons

To reformat your hard drive. You will want to select menu, Parental, Fav's & Setup, System setup, Reset, and select Reset Everything. *Warning* This will delete everything you have recorded on your hard drive.

If that doesn't work. I am thinking that your hard drive is going bad and your R15 will probably need to be replaced.


I have been having reboot issues with my R-15 ( about 5 times in a month), so been assuming my HDD needed to be re-formatted.

Following some of Mhayes instructions (getting into the setup screen) and ThomasM's I got to step 7. I pressed "-" and it filled the the first box of 3. Waited and nothing happen. Filled the other boxes with "-" and it went directly to HDD and started formatting. took over 2 hours to complete the format. When it was done I had to do a complete setup. I lost my recording priorities list, have to reset all my shows to be recorded.

My questions are:


1. Did I do the format correctly?

2. Is there a shorter version to format the HDD? (Read a post where they said it formatted in less then 2 minutes)

3. Is there a way to format it without losing your settings?

4. With the new firmware, did the format procedure change?


Thanks

[ThomasM]

My questions are:


1. Did I do the format correctly?

2. Is there a shorter version to format the HDD? (Read a post where they said it formatted in less then 2 minutes)

3. Is there a way to format it without losing your settings?

4. With the new firmware, did the format procedure change?


Thanks

1. Yup. If the box went directly to the format routine after entering the three dashes, it detected either a blank HDD, damaged HDD, or a problem it couldn't recover from and boot normally.

2. No. Just like Windows does with floppy disks there is a "quick format" and the full one. If your HDD is in good shape and you do the format procedure, it only takes a few minutes because only the tables are being cleared and rebuilt. If there are major problems (or a blank HDD), the COMPLETE format procedure (all sectors) is done. People report this takes about 2 hours.

3. Nope. Formatting a disk of any kind on any operating system generally erases all information, not just on DirecTV DVR's.

4. Yes. In the past, a DirecTV DVR required a "prepped" HDD so you couldn't just go to your computer store, buy a new drive, and install it. A complex procedure was detailed here on DBSTALK.COM involving putting the drive in a PC and booting it with Linux and then a lot more stuff I'm too lazy to type about! ;)

Also, the unit wouldn't automatically go into the reformat procedure (like yours did) if it detected a major HDD problem.

[jerryb33]

Thanks for the info. I knew I would lose my recordings, but didn't realize I'd lose my recording schedule and history.

First Run was not working at first. Had to clean my schedule again "default" First Run, as I was getting every Law and Order CI.

Hopefully the re-format will keep my R-15 going for awhile. It is a lease unit and probably replacing the next time.