pvr721 reboots in bad weather

[Tony M]

We had rain the past two weekends, and my PVR721 rebooted no less than 3 times.

Then the timers weren't functioning, so I had to so a front panel reset to get the PVR working properly again.

This weekend, it only rebooted once all by itself. But I still had to do a front panel reset to get the timers working.

ANyone else experience this strange behaviour ?

I send Dish Tech an email and got this stupid response:
Thank you for your reply. Signal loss due to the rain fade is causing the reboot because it needs to rewrite to the hard drive.

What kind of crap is this ?

[Bill R]

Tony,

As you said, the response that you got was stupid. Rain fade should not cause your 721 to re-boot. Give DISH tech support a call and ask to speak to an advance tech. They will help you troubleshoot the problem and if they find that the receiver is faulty they will authorize an RMA for a replacement receiver.

[Tony M]

Tony,

As you said, the response that you got was stupid. Rain fade should not cause your 721 to re-boot. Give DISH tech support a call and ask to speak to an advance tech. They will help you troubleshoot the problem and if they find that the receiver is faulty they will authorize an RMA for a replacement receiver.

I will certainly do that. Thanks

[Neil Derryberry]

Mine has done the same thing on only two occasions, but it never affected my timers firing. I never bothered to call it in, though..

[Bob Haller]

I saw it too, and figured it was ANOTHER wierd bug, one not critical to operation most of the time.

Wonder what causes it? Before I put my UPS on the receiver I thought is was power bumps that often go hand in hand with heavy weather.

Has anyone noticed most of the wierdness occurs at the top of the hour when the receiver is downloading the trickle guide updates. I heard it was caused by a memory shortage, kinda sad on a $500 box.

If I got all stressed over every little 721 problem I would have no time for other things, like complaing about DVR fees:(

[johnsbin]

Sounds like the equipment outside has an insulation break somewhere and is getting wet and sending a short back through your line causing the machine to reboot.

Or,

Satan could be doing it too.

You never know.

[Bill R]

Sounds like the equipment outside has an insulation break somewhere and is getting wet and sending a short back through your line causing the machine to reboot.
An problem with outside wiring (or LNBs) should NOT cause a receiver to re-boot.

[johnsbin]

Why not? You have 12, 18 or 19 volts running through there for the switch and if you short that voltage or cause any number of other problems with that voltage, why isn't it going to cause a problem?

It's obvious that grounding plays a very important part of the 721 operating properly. Caller ID, reboots, signal degredation and several other problems noted in this forum have all been dissapated or solved by properly wiring, grounding, and insulating the cables connected to the outside equipment.

The 721 doesn't even have its own ground wire, its just a two pronger.

[Bob Haller]

Well I did a experiment. Intentionally shorted tuner 2 while tuner one was recording a show I didnt want.

No reboot occured.

NEXT

[Bill R]

Why not? You have 12, 18 or 19 volts running through there for the switch and if you short that voltage or cause any number of other problems with that voltage, why isn't it going to cause a problem?
John,

You are correct that a short will cause a problem (you won't be able to get a signal) but a short or any other problem should NOT cause a re-boot.

If you have ever written any system software or had any training in system design you would know that one of the "rules" of design is that an outside force (a short) should not cause a system problem (a re-boot). The system (receiver) hardware and/or software should be able to detect the problem, tell the user, and operate "normally" (NOT re-boot) until the problem is fixed.

[johnsbin]

Thanks Bill, that makes sense.