Disk Drive Error - Your disk has failed

[Shasta]

Has anyone heard of a error on the 721 - Your disk has failed? No error number just a message to call the 800 number and some general text. The system will not boot and the drive does not spin up ( that is my quess on the drive not spinning up since the unit is considerably quieter now)

[jimcx]

This happened to me yesterday (6/25). It was also new to the Dish CSR - (What do you mean there's not a 3-digit error code?).

The screen that shows up is a transparent overlay, and you can use the remote to switch channels, but you only get the Dish information channels. The overlay tells you the disk drive has failed, explains what keys on the remote are still usable, tells you to contact Dish (gives phone number), and gives receiver/smart card info.

I'm pretty sure it had something to do with being too hot. After getting it RA'd, I added a muffin fan on the left side of the case, and left it off for about 15 minutes. When I turned it back on, it re-initialized the disk, and told me to reboot. Everything came up fine from there - except for the guide, and of course the 60 hours of saved programs. It looks like it tried to keep all my other settings because I kept the guide on my customized "List 1".
Of course I didn't know that at the time - my guide was totally empty - including channel numbers, but was tuned to CBS-W, which was probably the last thing it tried to record before dying (Letterman). After forcing a switch check, and still not getting anything in the guide, I did a search and came up with hits. Since I now knew the info was there, I went into the guide and toggled into the all channels, then all subscribed, and the info showed up. So the unit remembered what favorites list it was on when it died, but there were no longer any channels assigned to that list.

[pjm877]

This happened to me yesterday (6/25). It was also new to the Dish CSR - (What do you mean there's not a 3-digit error code?).

The screen that shows up is a transparent overlay, and you can use the remote to switch channels, but you only get the Dish information channels. The overlay tells you the disk drive has failed, explains what keys on the remote are still usable, tells you to contact Dish (gives phone number), and gives receiver/smart card info.

I'm pretty sure it had something to do with being too hot. After getting it RA'd, I added a muffin fan on the left side of the case, and left it off for about 15 minutes. When I turned it back on, it re-initialized the disk, and told me to reboot. Everything came up fine from there - except for the guide, and of course the 60 hours of saved programs. It looks like it tried to keep all my other settings because I kept the guide on my customized "List 1".
Of course I didn't know that at the time - my guide was totally empty - including channel numbers, but was tuned to CBS-W, which was probably the last thing it tried to record before dying (Letterman). After forcing a switch check, and still not getting anything in the guide, I did a search and came up with hits. Since I now knew the info was there, I went into the guide and toggled into the all channels, then all subscribed, and the info showed up. So the unit remembered what favorites list it was on when it died, but there were no longer any channels assigned to that list.

Sounds like It is time to add an external fan to the unit.. I will have to look up the specs on the USB port and see if I can get 12v for a little processor fan to blow through that grating.. Hope the USB port in active hardware wise and not there just to keep us guessing...

Dish... you listening... need another fan or grating on top if the case over the main heat source... send out retrofits.. this thing get hot... and I let my house get to 84 deg durning the day when I am not home... Texas starts getting hot around this time of year ;)

[Jacob S]

I try to keep an external fan blowing on all of the electronics and receivers to keep them cool. Wouldn't the hard drive fail again being it failed once already? Or is it just a crash that may have happened?

[jimcx]

Now that it's reformatted the hard drive and wiped out "old" recordings, I haven't seen ANY pixellation problems.
I'm not sure if this is because the disk has been cleaned up (defragged!?!?) or because of the extra fan...

I'm not sure if the hard drive will fail again, but DISH is sending a replacement unit, so they'll have to worry about it when they refurb it for someone else...

[Randy_B]

Sound like one I posted on a month or so back. It is a darkish grey box that doesn't take up the entire screen and you can sorta see through it. First you get a white X in the middle (looks like its about 40 font) and then the HD failure message. Power off reboot wouldn't work for us, had to unplug it, then when it rebooted it tests the HD and downloads a entire new image which wipes all recordings, timers, setting, etc...

[jbones]

Had the same problem about a month ago. It just kept reformatting the drive. A dish tech told me there were several others with the same problem. There is no fix for it, just replacement. I have had another unit for about a month now and it seems to be working fine.