721 "dish failure"

[pjmrt]

Had my 721 undergo a "dish failure" (that was the error message presented on the tv by the receiver. Call Dish tech help, walked thru the normal stuff - power on/off followed by smart card out/in. The receiver recovered but later we noticed that all the programs and timers previously stored on the PVR were wiped clean. None left.

Anybody have a idea what actually caused the problem and does anyone know if there is any way to recover the programs actually stored on the hard drive prior to the crash? Thanks

[Jason]

NO, there is NOT any way to recover the deleted programs. If it happens again, I would contact dish and have your receiver RMA'ed and they will ship you a refurbished unit in return for your defective one.

[Bob Haller]

I think your hard drive is on its way out. I think you should have it replaced under warranty NOW

[Jacob S]

I would agree. I do not hear of the 721 hard drives losing all of their programs nearly as much as I do with the Dishplayer and 501/508. It cannot be a good sign if a 721 loses all of its programs, although I hear of some every once in a while lose all their programs and it works just fine after that.

[pjmrt]

thanks. The 721 did it again last night. Was PVR'ing a show and watching a different show. Screen froze then reset with system failure message. Went through the usual reset procedure - got the programming back, but disk was wiped clean again, all timers wiped. Called Dish got a return authorization. But still strange. The pause TV still works - which writes to the hard disk. But something definetly wrong - getting it replaced.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sounds like some major bad sectors.

Getting it RMAed will have you enjoying TV again. :)

[4apex]

Ok, this morning I woke up to see the "Hard Drive Failure" message on my screen. This happened to me once before, about a month and a half ago, or so. Without calling Dish, I reset the system (hold down the power button for 5 seconds) and it went through the validating disk thing, then it came up with the message that it was reloading the image.

The receiver eventually came up and now I can use it again. Naturally, I lost everything. I don't have a lot of faith in it as I'm not sure if it's hardware or software.

My first thought was that it was software because the first time this happened to me was right after the 115 release, I mean right after. And, having had a lot of experience with computers, the hard drive doesn't sound like it's going (no unusual whine or chatter). It was suggested that I RMA it immediately as this will happen again (which it did, today).

Ok, so here's the point of this post;
I called DISH tech support today and explained what happened and that this has happened before. The girl told me to pull the smart card, wait then unplug it, yadda yadda yadda.
I told her that I had already reset it and that it had reloaded the image, so in essence I was ahead of her. She asked me if it came back up, which I answered that it did.

She then told me that this is a known software problem with the 721 and they are working on it, and that the tech bulletin she had has explicit instructions to NOT RMA the unit if it is able to restore itself. I told her this was twice and that I'm aware of many people with the same problem who have had their units replaced. She said that they were aware of this problem, specifically this problem, and they are working on a fix, and the fact that I was able to get the unit back up meant that the hard drive was fine.

So now deep down inside I *WANT* to believe that it is a software issue, because I can accept that, so long as there is a fix coming. What I hate is the uncertainty of it being a software or hardware thing.

She also mentioned that they had no ETA on a software fix, she just said they are trying to find one. So I'm wondering if they even know where the problem is, or if they're already working on it. Anyone know what the real story is? When can we expect the upgrade?

[md_paul]

Not sure if this relates, but I have had the "Hard Drive Failure" message appear once on my 721 last spring. It was related to consecutive power failures. I was working in the basement and turned the power off at the circuit breaker panel while forgetting the 721 was plugged in an recording in another room. Once I finished my work, I turned the power back on for about a minute before remembering I needed to complete one other task. I then turned off the power again mid 721 boot process (I still hadn't remembered the 721 was on the same circuit I was working on). Once I was done and the power was back on, I walked through the room with the 721 and noticed the red and amber lights on the front were both blinking. Turning on the TV, I saw the "Hard Drive Failure" message. Doing a smart card reboot caused it to re-load the image. All existing PVR recordings were lost as well as most custom setups (including channel favorites lists).

Since that time, the 721 has worked normally and the "Hard Drive Failure" message has never been displayed again.

I mention this because it is possible that rapid on/off power failures could cause the issues described above. I haven't really wanted to test my theory, and have since purchased a small UPS to allow the receiver to ride out brief outages.

- Paul

[pjmrt]

The problem I had from the summer repeated itself within a few days - the second time for sure there was no power failure. The unit (power and cable) is on a surge protector. I returned the 721 for another unit and have not had the problem reoccur. But given the sensitivity of hard drives to sudden power loss, I wouldn't be too surprised to see some link to the drive failure.

[Bob Haller]

With UPSs so cheap these days every PVR unit should be on one espically the 721 whos reboot takes 4 minutes.\


Doing this elminates the possiblity of power glitches causing the trouble.

[bunkers]

This kind of thing happened several times with my 501 ... and I found that by actually unplugging it from the wall, plugging it back it ... and then doing the smart card out & back in -- the PVR shows were mysteriously restored and all was well for another 3-4 months.

In every case, DISH told me to RMA the 501 with this error (serious hard drive failure), but in every case I could recover with this (undocumented?) procedure. Finally after the 4th failure, I decide to accept the RMA offer from DISH and replace it.

I doubt it also works for the 721, but since it was such an illogical procedure which seemed to always work on the 501, I thought I would mention it here.