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View Full Version : Help! 2 Dead HR20's!!!


ZaphodJoe
01-18-07, 06:00 PM
Arg. Help!

I am getting reallllllllllly sick of DVR's! None of mine work right :(

First some background: I have 1 S3, 2 HR10-250's, and 2 HR20-700's. First I had the HR10-250 and DirecTV is my main TV service. Problem was I could only get 1 HD channel and I am to far away for OTA. I tried for over a year to get Waivers and had no luck so finally I got a S3 with Comcast with just basic for the 4 major networks in HD.

My S3 has at least 1 or 2 partial recordings a week and my ABC feed breaks up contstantly.

My HR10-250's started rebooting and locking up constantly about a month ago so I decided to get the HR20 upgrade.

They installed 2 HR20's on the 12th. On one of them I installed an external HD using Thecus N2050UD and 2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD4000KD 400GB HD's.

It was all fine until last night. The one with the 800GB external HD started flashing the big blue light bright then dim like when you pause but this was non stop even when watching a movie. Then when we got done watching the movie the system wouldnt power off. So I reset it then it seemed fine. It would then power on and off and movies played fine.

Tonight I went to turn it on and it wouldn't power on. So I had to reset it again, this time I unplugged it for a few seconds then plugged it back in. Then after booting the video freezes after a few minutes but the volume coontinues on for a while then if you try to stop it you eventually get a message that says DVR service is not purchased and to call a number.

No other buttons on the remote would work so I had to reboot. Same thing happened again. So I tried doing this a few times with no luck. I was beginning to think maybe the external hard drive was broken so I unplugged it and disconnected that. Then I powered up again but the same thing. This time there was no programs in the list but watching live TV it eventually freezes within a few minutes.

I tried restarting several times and trying different channels. Sometimes it would lock up durring the boot process at step one or right after step 2 and then I would reset it again and it would finally get to live TV but still lock up after a few minutes.

I came in my bedroom to check the forums for simmilar problems then decided hmm let me check the second HR20 I have in here and see if that works. I turned it on and all the channels where black and none of the programs would play. I restarted this one and now it seems to work fine.

I checked both systems and they both have the software that was installed on the 12th 0x10b. I finally just unplugged the one in the living room since it won't run at all with or without the external HD.

Any suggestions? It is raining here today and I have a new dish and 2 new switches but all my other receivers are working fine so I don't think it's that. Is there anything I can do or does it sound shot?

ZaphodJoe
01-19-07, 03:44 PM
Odd, I plugged the bad HR20 back in today and its been running for the last few hours with no problems at all. I watched a few recorded shows and some live HD tv and it seems ok today.

-Joe

veryoldschool
01-19-07, 05:18 PM
Odd, I plugged the bad HR20 back in today and its been running for the last few hours with no problems at all. I watched a few recorded shows and some live HD tv and it seems ok today.
-Joe
When unplugging, it is good to wait 10 min. before plugging back in.

macEarl
01-19-07, 05:46 PM
When unplugging, it is good to wait 10 min. before plugging back in.

Interesting - how come 10 minutes?

veryoldschool
01-19-07, 06:03 PM
Interesting - how come 10 minutes?
The time isn't exact. Everything can store a charge even after powered down. Five to ten min. is normally enough time for most of this to bleed off.

wmschultz
01-19-07, 06:43 PM
Interesting - how come 10 minutes?

Because a study found that after 10 minutes the consumer forgot why they unplugged it in
the first place and was always happier when it was plugged in again.

That and consumers are often uncomfortable waiting on the phone 10 minutes with a CSR and often say
they will call back later, thus letting the CSR off the hook. :D

macEarl
01-19-07, 06:49 PM
I was offline for 10 minutes while I rebooted my computer and network. I forget why I had to do that, but it's all working now and I'm raring to go.

Uh .... what were we talking about? :D

macEarl
01-19-07, 06:53 PM
btw, Zaphod - I had almost no use of my HR20s first few days - 4 hours tops. Then, they came on, and worked much, much better - and it was due to a software update while I wasn't looking....

Maybe same thing happened on your side and things will be much better now? Hope so and many good lucks!

ZaphodJoe
01-19-07, 10:12 PM
Nope no software update, I checked the version before, durring, and after. I did just manually update to Ox11b now and hopefully this will fix some of the weird problems. I'm betting something happened in the box and I didn't leave it unplugged long enough but over night was plenty of time to let it go back to normal. I just hope this isn't a regular event.

-Joe

hdtvfan0001
01-20-07, 07:21 AM
Nope no software update, I checked the version before, durring, and after. I did just manually update to Ox11b now and hopefully this will fix some of the weird problems. I'm betting something happened in the box and I didn't leave it unplugged long enough but over night was plenty of time to let it go back to normal. I just hope this isn't a regular event.

-Joe
It may have just been unfortunate timeing with the firmware updates. If you got 11b, I suspect you'll love your HR20 before your all done playing with it.