L331 problems

swamper · 03-14-07, 08:54 AM

The past year of fairly trouble free operation seems to be over with the L330 and L331 downloads. I went over six months without having to reboot until L330 came along. The system slowed to a crawl with every press of a remote key until it finally locked up. A reboot was the only way to fix it. Since getting L331, I now have another problem. Once a recording has started, I can't stop it. The first recording I tried went over an hour past the end time until I rebooted the system. I tried just a few minutes of recording this morning. Same problem. Once started, it won't stop.

Anyone else seeing this?

penguin44 · 03-14-07, 01:51 PM

Actually yes, I had this on Saturday! I taped a program on NASATV for 45 minutes. I set it manually, it recorded for 32 hours! No kidding. I was not home at the time but I tried to stop, erase etc... nothing. Booted it, recording stopped and then it erased fine. This was with L330. Didn't know about 331.

jmraider75 · 03-14-07, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by penguin44

Actually yes, I had this on Saturday! I taped a program on NASATV for 45 minutes. I set it manually, it recorded for 32 hours! No kidding. I was not home at the time but I tried to stop, erase etc... nothing. Booted it, recording stopped and then it erased fine. This was with L330. Didn't know about 331.

I am having the same problem.

swamper · 03-15-07, 07:52 AM

Further update. I contacted technical support yesterday. At first the rep told me no one else had reported this. I told him there were others reporting it at DBSTalk and he agreed to look further. Lo and behold, he came back and said there IS a problem that the software guys know about and are working on. The workaround is to reboot your 921 when you want to stop recording. The solution is expected within eight (!) days.

If it wasn't for DBSTalk, I doubt I would have received a straight answer. I understand software can be buggy but you'd think they would have done some testing before releasing it. The time change started this whole mess but they've known about that for well over a year. Maybe next time they'll fix one problem at a time.

mwgiii · 03-15-07, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swamper

The workaround is to reboot your 921 when you want to stop recording. The solution is expected within eight (!) days.

I guess that is a new added feature. I wonder if they are going to start charging $4.95/month for the ability to automatically stop timers?

tthomps · 03-15-07, 03:10 PM

Last night my son recorded Mythbusters. Eight hour later it was still recording. My only choice was a power button warm boot to stop it. Interestingly, all of my old timers that were set before 330 and 331 are working fine.

penguin44 · 03-15-07, 04:51 PM

I had this problem again today. I guess it wasn't fixed. Yeah, some of my timers fire and stop when scheduled. Some, for some reason don't and a reboot is the only way to stop. I also pvr'd mythbusters last night. Mine did stop though. Hmm...

SteveB · 03-15-07, 05:55 PM

Haven't had recording problems, but I will protect the existing recordings as soon as I get home. But, just like L330, L331 boots on its own several times a day, drops a black screen covering 90% of the picture several times a day and every morning at about 8:20 am Pacific, requiring a soft reboot or hard power plug reboot. Sometimes the controls become sluggish. Off-air drops out more often. AND of course the OTA guide data is now missing (I do not subscribe to locals).

penguin44 · 03-15-07, 06:18 PM

Oh and to add one more thing to my post, the recoding i had going, once re-booted, is deleted. As if it never happened.

Zarom · 03-16-07, 07:01 AM

I'm also having the problem of unending recordings that only stop when a power cord reboot is done. With my 921 on its own power strip, it's easy to do a power cord reboot. I added the strip since rebooting seems to be frequently required.

I've had two instances of recordings running for over eight hours, one with a recording manually selected with stop at end, and once on a timed recording. After rebooting, the recording is gone.

I'm also having some recordings that are selected for M-F recordings not record at all. I've deleted and reset one of them, but so far it's still missing the recording.

PVR921 S/W L331HECD-N
Boot ver 120B
Flash F052
HD34

SteveB · 03-16-07, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zarom

With my 921 on its own power strip, it's easy to do a power cord reboot. I added the strip since rebooting seems to be frequently required.

I did that a year ago. Still a little inconvenient since moved the unit into the garage below my TV to get rid of the &*^%$@ fan noise.

penguin44 · 03-16-07, 02:31 PM

Guys, found a way to stop the recording and still keeping it on the drive. Do a dish point, menu 6 2. it will say the usual 'dish point has stopped becuase there is a recording, do you wish to stop the recording and continue?" I told it yes, then the same message came up again, i said yes again. It stopped the recording. No rebooting.

I hope they fix it. It seems to be doing this for recordings that are set manually, ie, i am watching a show, then i press record. Anything else pre-set, works fine.

BarryO · 03-19-07, 03:19 AM

Thanks for the tip. I had the same manual-recording bug happen today. Just did a hard reboot to stop it.

SteveB · 03-19-07, 12:36 PM

I complained several times to E* about many many problems I have had since 330 & 331, they decided it must be my box, they are replacing it free! Now, we have to watch all the stuff we have on the hard drive or copy it at real-time rate. I wish they had a system to transfer the data from an old system to a new system.

crashman · 03-19-07, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swamper

The past year of fairly trouble free operation seems to be over with the L330 and L331 downloads. I went over six months without having to reboot until L330 came along. The system slowed to a crawl with every press of a remote key until it finally locked up. A reboot was the only way to fix it. Since getting L331, I now have another problem. Once a recording has started, I can't stop it. The first recording I tried went over an hour past the end time until I rebooted the system. I tried just a few minutes of recording this morning. Same problem. Once started, it won't stop.

Anyone else seeing this?

I'm getting the same thing. The only differents I got from L330 to L331 was the added recording issue (Not Stopping) and the very slow performance, not to mention OTA HD recording very jittery and pixelating.

Wife is going to call in to tech support and issue the complain to make it official.

Michael P · 03-19-07, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by penguin44

Guys, found a way to stop the recording and still keeping it on the drive. Do a dish point, menu 6 2. it will say the usual 'dish point has stopped becuase there is a recording, do you wish to stop the recording and continue?" I told it yes, then the same message came up again, i said yes again. It stopped the recording. No rebooting.

I hope they fix it. It seems to be doing this for recordings that are set manually, ie, i am watching a show, then i press record. Anything else pre-set, works fine.

I called E* three times since 330/331 came along (I found out about 331 at the time I made the second call). My first call was because i could not manually stop a recording of an OTA station (I do not subscribe to LIL's). The tech suggested changing to another OTA channel, lo and behold I got the same message that penguin44 got with menu 6 2.

My second and third call was due to the 921 locking up and then rebooting wile watching a live OTA broadcast.

330/331 adding insult to injury - they take away the OTA guide and made the 921 even more buggy than ever. My wife rants at how E* equipment is all a P.O.S. This is my 8th 921 - so I had about as much luck with hardware as software.

[RANT ON]
Hey E* - give it up and do us poor 921 owners right! We pay a DVR fee and get this greif. We should get a free OTA guide, don't make us sub to your overcompressed LIL SD garbage. BTW: it's not really free, you get the DVR fee after we BOUGHT the 921. Now you want us to give the 921 back for a leased 622

and charge us an "HD Enabling fee" on top of that

Your "bean-counters" are going to destroy what good name E* has left after this fiasco! [RANT OFF]

If you wat to nickle and dime us to death, at least get the frickin' box to work right :P

TvilleBee · 03-20-07, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael P

Hey E* - give it up and do us poor 921 owners right!..... we BOUGHT the 921. Now you want us to give the 921 back for a leased 622

I'm almost to the point that if they want to take my owned 921 & give a leased 622 (with no upgrade fee at all), I think I'd be better off.....

Rob

Michael P · 03-20-07, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TvilleBee

I'm almost to the point that if they want to take my owned 921 & give a leased 622 (with no upgrade fee at all), I think I'd be better off.....

Rob

There actually is a deal that effectivly doees that, via monthly credits to your bill. An advanced tech told me about it. There is even a deal where you can buy a 622 for $300+ (forgot the exact amount), again you would have to give up your 921 to get that deal (plus the HD enabling fee if you don't sub to HD programming).

penguin44 · 03-20-07, 10:09 PM

just to add to list, pvr'd 2 shows last night (monday) When recording was completed, they disappeared! No delete, they weren't even on the list. But they were there as being recorded, red light on the box and even confirmed this by going into the dvr list and it showed it with the little red dot thingy on it, and in guide. They must fix 331. This is getting annoying now. I managed to re-record but should not have to. Nor do I want to upgrade as a 622 is useless to me since I am unable to get 61.5 due to a big honking building. I don't want anything. I like what I have.

Michael P · 03-21-07, 04:03 PM

Last night when I came home from work (I work an afternoon-early evening shift) my daily recording that was scheduled for 7-8 PM did not record. Additionally when I turned on the 921 only the green light came on, neither the amber or blue lights lit. I though to myself {they must be pushing a software update to rid us of 331}. No such luck. I had to do a front panel reboot and stinkin' 331 was still there. Fortunately my 7 PM show repeats at 9 and midnight, I caught most of the 9 PM rebroadcast and recorded the 12 midnight "last chance".

So now to add to the OTA freeze-ups, 331 now also misses scheduled recordings. It's probably all realated to the same issue. I just happened to be watching on OTA station on 3 seperate occurrences of the lock-up and now a missed recording because I was not home at the time the scheduiled recording failed to fire (I bet there was no red light).

Oh how I miss L278!

dougj6502 · 03-21-07, 09:34 PM

I have seen the same thing. However after a reboot my 921 no longer can tell the model number of my switch. (sw64) So now I can not get any local channels and many of my other channels are gone. I have tried several things including a switch tests without the cables plugged in and then with them plugged in. I have two other recievers and I have used them to test the cables and the switch they both work just fine. Any one else seeing this? Is this just something have happened independent of the new software? Software version is L331.

Michael P · 03-22-07, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dougj6502

I have seen the same thing. However after a reboot my 921 no longer can tell the model number of my switch. (sw64) So now I can not get any local channels and many of my other channels are gone. I have tried several things including a switch tests without the cables plugged in and then with them plugged in. I have two other recievers and I have used them to test the cables and the switch they both work just fine. Any one else seeing this? Is this just something have happened independent of the new software? Software version is L331.

This sounds like a problem with the power adder of the SW64, and not a problem with the 921. As a former user of the SW64 I have experienced a lot of greif with that switch.

AnubisPrime · 03-23-07, 05:10 PM

My 921 is having the same "manual record forever" bug since L331.

Edit:

I just spoke with a tech rep from Dish regarding an ETA for a fix. The rep said that it has been a known problem since 3/14, but had NO ETA as to when a fix would be available. They endorse the Dish/Point menu option to stop manual recordings. I was assured that a fix is in the works.

penguin44 · 03-23-07, 06:44 PM

Actually got the same answer here, no ETA but hoped it would be soon, as he was tired of all the calls. (he said it jokingly) very nice guy. Chris R. or something like that. I told him i was doing the dish point option, it seems to work.

Michael P · 03-24-07, 02:05 PM

I made 4 calls to tech support since 330/331. In addition to the problems noted above, my EPG will slow down (take sever seconds to respond to a request to display, and then when it does display it slowly appears from top to bottom, similar to an older PC running on a newer version of Windows that it was not designed to run). The latest problem involves the picture blacking out (except for the sides). Only a reboot fixes the blackout.