RIP 921 : It died suddenly and peacefully

[ibglowin]

Came home from work yesterday and one of my 921's was flashing red (record light). Turned on the TV and had a nice PINK screen saying my hard drive had crashed (call Dishnetwork.....)

Man was this ever a surprise! NO warning whatsoever. One day it was fine, the next all my recordings were gone. This was my original 921 that was just over 2 years old Yep paid $1000 for the doorstop). So heads up people if you have one coming up on 2 years old as well don't leave anything on it you want to keep! Dump it to something.

Luckily I have the extended warranty plan and am grandfathered in at the old $1.99 rate so I will be getting a replacement 921 sent out today. I tried my hardest to get them to give me an early $99 deal on a 622 but no go. I whined just enough to get the tech support person to wave the $14.95 shipping fee as I told her I was just going to ship it right back to them in a month anyway.

So question is now what to do with the other 921 Keep it until it dies or bite the bullet and purchase one 622 now at full list and then get the $99 lease deal on 4/1 for the other 921. At least that way I would have all the HD channels on both receivers (sooner) rather than later. I wonder though about having a mix of owned and leased receivers on the same account and how that would work as far as the phone line connection thing? I don't have a phone line close so I will have to do the wireless thing.

I sure hope the 622 has a Hard Drive spin down routine at night to save some wear and tear!

[Jim Parker]

!Devil_lol Now here's an evil idea... Take the hard drive out of the 921 before shipping it to them in exchange for a 622. I could use another drive in my computer. Do you think they will notice? :D

[topom]

WOW , this is bizarre because your story above is EXACTLY what happened to me - and last night as well. RIP 921 on 2/22/06. I turned it on and got the pink hard drive failure notice and then rebooted and just got a repetitive clunking. Just like you I also had the DHP grandfathered at 1.99 and they are sending out a new one (I tried the 622 thing as well!) I ALSO have had mine for more than 2 years (1/2004) and have had almost no trouble from the little guy (unlike many on this forum).

Well, this makes me wonder if there is an auto self-destruct sequence for this unit just on the off chance that it actually works for more than 2 years.

Best of luck with your replacement, Ibglowin, I am holding out some hope that they send me a 942 instead, but we will see. In the end it doesn't make a big difference, sine I will be getting a 622 come April 1.

[Rogueone]

hmm, so dish is sending out nuke codes trying to get us to upgrade now instead of waiting for the $200 rebates, IT'S A CONSPIRACY!!

first the epg's drop to 2 days then HD's die ack!! I better hurry up and watch 24 then ;)

[ibglowin]

That is too weird!

If they won't activate 921's or 942's after 4/1 I smell a class action suit brewing. We purchased a $1000 peice of equipment that by their actions is now totally worthless and we are basically stuck with or forced into the new lease model in order to get rid of it. And what about people (suckers) like me that bought not only one but two!?

Since we are hearing they will only do one upgrade/lease per year that means we have to hold onto this thing at least for another 12 months if not longer. If they start rolling out more and more HD channels this year like they propose that means more and more that we can't watch on the now worthless 921/942 receivers.

[bobukcat]

I had the "Pink Screen Of Death" on mine in November - just under a year since I bought my first one (I paid the "reduced" price of $499 for mine) so it was still under warranty and they replaced it. It's a real bummer that you can't rip the data off to another HD and then watch it - I lost a lot of good stuff on that HD! I looked around at it appears that they actually encrypt the data when writing it to the HD - what a waste of processor cycles!!!

[Rogueone]

thankfully my epg started working correctly again yesterday :) as long as this sucker makes it until roughly May, I'll be happy, that should be enough time for a 622 to show up :)