SpencerKat
11-01-04, 12:38 PM
About 5 weeks ago I posted questions about buying and installing a 721.
This post is about the current status.
I received and installed my first 721 (thanks to everyone here who helped with their suggestions), and it worked fine for 3 days until various problems began occurring.
Eventually, because of hard drive problems (“Hard drive has failed”), lost recordings and timers, etc., I returned it and received a second 721, which had worked fine for 1-2 weeks.
This morning, while the 721 was turned off, I noticed consistent hard drive noises being emitted by the 721. Since the machine is near my computer … where I spend much of the day … I couldn’t ignore the noises, so I turned on the TV and was greeted with the “Hard drive has failed” message. Eventually it did a complete re-installation of the system and copied a new drive image, after which it seems to be operating normally, except that all of my recordings and timers were, of course, deleted.
Because of suggestions on this board, I decided to call Dish Network and go on record as having a problem with this 721, so that if the problems continue, I should be able to get a THIRD 721.
While the E* tech would not admit that my problem is a known problem, he did say that “hard drives fail”, and E* plans to download an update that will defrag the hard drives and “put the bad boxes at the end”. He said that the release is 1 or 2 updates down the road.
When the 721 works, it is a good machine, but it definitely has reliability issues.
As I write this, I am listening to the 721’s hard drive making a lot of noise.
Even with all its quirks, my old DP7200 is looking better and better.
Richard
This post is about the current status.
I received and installed my first 721 (thanks to everyone here who helped with their suggestions), and it worked fine for 3 days until various problems began occurring.
Eventually, because of hard drive problems (“Hard drive has failed”), lost recordings and timers, etc., I returned it and received a second 721, which had worked fine for 1-2 weeks.
This morning, while the 721 was turned off, I noticed consistent hard drive noises being emitted by the 721. Since the machine is near my computer … where I spend much of the day … I couldn’t ignore the noises, so I turned on the TV and was greeted with the “Hard drive has failed” message. Eventually it did a complete re-installation of the system and copied a new drive image, after which it seems to be operating normally, except that all of my recordings and timers were, of course, deleted.
Because of suggestions on this board, I decided to call Dish Network and go on record as having a problem with this 721, so that if the problems continue, I should be able to get a THIRD 721.
While the E* tech would not admit that my problem is a known problem, he did say that “hard drives fail”, and E* plans to download an update that will defrag the hard drives and “put the bad boxes at the end”. He said that the release is 1 or 2 updates down the road.
When the 721 works, it is a good machine, but it definitely has reliability issues.
As I write this, I am listening to the 721’s hard drive making a lot of noise.
Even with all its quirks, my old DP7200 is looking better and better.
Richard