721 Guide Woes

[snorkelman]

Hi all,

My PVR721 performed flawlessly for the first two weeks I had it, doing everything I asked of it and more. Sunday night, however, when under extreme duress due to my daughter's power-user channel surfing, the thing locked up. Wouldn't respond to remote or front panel commands.

After reboot, the machine looks generally healthy, but refuses to load the guide more than 60 minutes ahead. Browsing thorugh the guide, you see all the shows currently playing, but a sea of "Not available" to the right that extends out forever.

I've rebooted in the three ways I know how: power button, unplug, smartcard, and none have had any effect.

I spent an hour with Dish tech support, got escalated twice, to no avail. (Last guy wanted to get rid of me: "turn it off for 30 minutes so it has time to do the download.")

I've verified that I'm getting good signals from my three satellites: 61.5, 110, and 119.

What's left? I love the 721, and I'm willing to forgive it this one transgression if it is going to behave well in the future, but I paid full price and feel obligated to RMA it if it can't be brought back to a fully operational state.

Is there any way to remaster it to it's initial state? That would do the job, and I don't have anything on disk that I can't live without.

- Mark

[jannlinder]

This has happened to me too...**AND** to the Advanced Tech support in Texas (They duplicated the problem on their demo 721) ...it seems that they may not be downloading spools on 110 transponder 21 like they should. The reason you are getting about 60 minutes is that each transponder carries THAT PROGRAM plus the next one encoded in the signal. So, therefore you never get NO guide information, just limited guide information. I am awaiting a solution from tech support.

Jann

[JMocniak]

I am having this exact same problem on my 721 too. It started last night.

[snorkelman]

I am having this exact same problem on my 721 too. It started last night.

In the interest of working together, let me tell you what I've done in addition to the steps mentioned in my first message.

Naturally, when talking to tech support I've gone through all three types of reboot at least a dozen times by now. (Smart Card, hold button, power cord.)

We've verified my signal strength on 110 transponder 21.

We've verified my switch configuration to death.

And most exciting: we've gone to the secret diagnostic screen and erased my non-volatile-RAM! I had high hopes for a fix from this, but no joy. All I did was erase all my timers and customized guides.

I don't know what's on tap for tonight's exercise, but I'm glad to hear that the problem has been reproduced by ATR. That's a step in the right direction.

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have a feeling it has something to do with E8 getting ready to park at 110.

[snorkelman]

I have a feeling it has something to do with E8 getting ready to park at 110.

Hi Scott,

For the uninitiated, what does that mean?

- Mark

[jannlinder]

E8 is EchoStar Satellite # 8 and it is moving into postiion (behind or in front of) the same orbital slot as the current satellites parked in 110 orbit. this MAY mean that there are problems with them moving SOME data (like 110 transponder 21) over to that satellite and not on the older satellites currently there. This MAY mean that there are problems with transponder signal and/or data traveling over it during this transition. HOWEVER, i am having no problems with VH1 Classics which is on 110 TR 21.

Jann

[jannlinder]

Can anyone tell me why they placed the guide for the newest machine on their least powerful satellite postition? i mean, REALLY!!! I know FEW people who own a 500 and can get anything approaching a 119 signal strength on 110!!! ATR says they can position their 500 within 5 minutes and get a 125 signal on both 110 and 119 , but I never have been able to (live in California with no obstructions).

--me

[DmitriA]

Originally posted by snorkelman
And most exciting: we've gone to the secret diagnostic screen and erased my non-volatile-RAM!

How do you get to that screen btw?

[mistcove]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
I have a feeling it has something to do with E8 getting ready to park at 110.

:hi: do you think the 721 is worth the cost now with only the 119 sat , will it even work correctly?
(was burn't with the frist dishplayer)
bob

[snorkelman]

do you think the 721 is worth the cost now with only the 119 sat , will it even work correctly?

IMHO, most folks should wait another few months until some of these bugs are fixed. Right now you have to have a little bit of courage, a lot of patience, and a genuine love of new gadgetry.

It's a great box, but for existing customers like me it's still pretty expensive, and still a bit unstable.

But if I didn't already have the 721, and I had to buy a PVR today, no way would I settle for a 501 or 508!

- Mark

[snorkelman]

Originally posted by DmitriA


How do you get to that screen btw?

Hey Dimitri, I'll be happy to email you the steps - right now your profile is blocking private email, so just send a message my way and I'll respond.

I don't want to be the guy who posts the instructions in a public forum and is then responsible for a dozen goofuses a day blowing up their machines.

- Mark

[jannlinder]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
I have a feeling it has something to do with E8 getting ready to park at 110.

Maybe their guide updates are accidentally already being spooled at E* 8 even though it is only now (8:17 PM Pacific time) at 114°45' and not 110....but anyway..they are not supposed to take over spooling on E*8 until 10/10 when E*8 takes over 110 TR 21!!!

Oh well. Ce La Vie! (sp?)

Jann

[rolou21]

721 Epg update..........2am 10.3.02

Spoke w/Tech support. I complained my epg only goes up to Tues 10/8 7p. It does not go further. He acknowleged that there is a software problem with the 721 as far as only showing the guide up to the next 5 days. There will a software update soon to correct this problem....

[bfennema]

Mine was only going till Monday at like 10pm like 10 minutes ago, but I just checked again and now its going to a week from Friday. Very strange =]

I did reboot, and that didn't seem to solve anything.. but then I turned it off, so maybe that did it *shrug*

[Bill Mullin]

Originally posted by rolou21
I complained my epg only goes up to Tues 10/8 7p. It does not go further. He acknowleged that there is a software problem with the 721 as far as only showing the guide up to the next 5 days. There will a software update soon to correct this problem.... Mine cuts off at the exact same date/time. I'd be calling Dish support except it looks like a lot of people have beat me to it. Anyway, I'm looking forward to a fix!

[JMocniak]

Originally posted by Bill Mullin
Mine cuts off at the exact same date/time. I'd be calling Dish support except it looks like a lot of people have beat me to it. Anyway, I'm looking forward to a fix!

At least you guys have 5 days of the Guide. I only have the currently playing program and the one right after it.

[jannlinder]

721 Guide Problem Fixed. 110 TR 21 spooling issue is now corrected!!!! 4:24pm 10/3/2002.

YEAH!!!
Next 9 days are back!

Jann

[snorkelman]

Mine are back too! One bug down, a few left to go....

- Mark

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am told there was a data error in the guide data which caused to problem. I am also told that there has been a check put in place that should keep this from happening again.

Kudos to the 721 team!

[jcrash]

Mist Cove - weren't burnt? My 7100 is still going strong despite having its modem fried. I love my 7100 and would trade it for nothing except maybe another 721 - which is even cooler.

Sit on the sidelines all ya want - we are having fun!

[mistcove]

Originally posted by jcrash
Mist Cove - weren't burnt? My 7100 is still going strong despite having its modem fried. I love my 7100 and would trade it for nothing except maybe another 721 - which is even cooler.

Sit on the sidelines all ya want - we are having fun!

more like F,d :crying:

[LadyTalia]

 

[mistcove]

Originally posted by LadyTalia
I am a dish network employee (tech support) and I talked to one of you yesterday about this. (BTW- Christiansburg is in VA ;) ) I did pass the word on to advanced tech that it seems to be ok. I tracked down the person who figured it out and let him know. I can't wait to move up to advanced tech so I can work with these machines. I'm getting very tired of "Yes, you have a black screen with an info banner- do a smart card reset" and getting the "smart card?? what is that?" and "there is no door- and there's no card" answers. That and "where is the six button?" Thank you to whoever told me about this forum- it will help a whole lot at work to keep up with problems they don't tell us about!

WELCOME LADY T. :hi:
i sure wish the rest of tech felt the same as i just talked to one about the fuzzy pix on espn and he told me that i was having sun outage :lol: ,(it was 5.20 ak time) and he thought i was in Ark, not alaska!
bob

[LadyTalia]

 

[mistcove]

Originally posted by LadyTalia
Actually I had 3 calls on that yesterday (problems with the pic on just espn). I may UCT it sunday if y'all are still having problems. UCT=Uncommon Trend... how we track problems that are popping up when they dont fit normal tsing steps. I take my job seriously-- I don't mess around. If I can't find the answer, I'll put you on hold for 30 seconds and find someone who can. No point in wasting time. Wish other people bothered learning tho... it's the usual lazy person problem. They do what they must and no more. It's a typical problem for people who are underpaid. Unfortunately, Cburg is the main tech call center and they have so many people around this area that need jobs that they have ten people applying for every one they fire. Doesn't make for the best place to work...

great on the uct ,i will post here again on it if it continues, this id the frist time i have seen this , but think others here have inthe past, with large screens mine is 19" , hope you get a promotion but not to far!(don't want to lose a good one)

[jannlinder]

PS: Just so you all know, she IS great! I was the one who she spoke to about the 721 Guide Issues yesterday and she (if nothing else) did not make me feel like an idiot. She listened (and even 'ooh-ed' and 'ahh-ed' in the right places.

grin

Jann

[Bill Mullin]

I see that a lot of you were having problems with their 721 guides at one time but the problems went away. NOT so here! As of a few minutes ago (10/5, 8:30 am, ET) my 721 guide is still ending on Tuesday, 10/8 at 7:00 PM. There's no problem now but there will be shortly. Is there anything I can do, should I contact Dish, or what? LadyTalia, can you help?

Note that I leave the 721 on standby when not watching a program, but this hasn't helped.

TIA, Bill

Update: I had tried a reboot which did not help, so I thought I'd pull the card (the 1st time I've done this). I did this, but simply got an error message saying that my card was not in the 721. So while the card was out I held the button for about 10 seconds, then let go of the button and reinserted the card. I left the room for 15 minutes or so, when I returned the 721 was in standby. I turned it on and voila ~ my guide was back to 9 days. Was this a temporary glitch or am I going to have to go through this "pull the card, reboot" effort every few days to keep the guide current?

[LadyTalia]