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3 kinds of black screen bugs, a entomological discussion

917 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  chrisfowler99, 
btmoore
I think there is a lot of confusion about "black screen' bugs so I thought I would lay them out for review.

As far as I can tell I know of 3 bugs and 2 of them are documented in the Catalog of HR20 bugs If there are more varieties or better descriptions please add that info to this post.

I have added the Black Screen Bug AKA BSB to the bottom of this post (number 3) and if we can come to consensus on the description, I will add to the catalog of bugs. I don't have much background on this Black Screen Bug, I have not experienced this one yet (knock on wood) so if anyone can help document it might help others.

If there is agreement on these bugs and their description I would recommend that we use one name to reference each unique bug to reduce confusion.

I propose:

1. Black Screen of Death (BOSD) or Black Death

2. Unwatchable Bug

3. Black Screen Bug (BSB)

Here are the descriptions:

1.
Bug Name: Black Screen of Death (BSOD), AKA: Black Death, Black Screen, Black Screen Lockup
Black Screen can happen at any time, typically caused when triggering an event but the HR20 can be found to just have a black screen and completely locked up, no interaction from the remote or front panel will restore functionality.

Prognosis: Fatal, Requires Rebooting

History/Status: Currently active in 0x10b, Black death has been experienced in every release of code, the frequency of the occurrence of this bug has appeared to vary depending on the release and perhaps active users reporting the defect.

First Identified Report: Unknown Many early lockups were not clearly documented, First Called BSOD 10-04-06, 05:53 PM by LameLefty to describe the Unwatchable bug but later became adopted to describe a black screen with a total lockup of the HR20. There are reports of total system lockups and freezes going back to Aug 06, for example

Postings of interest on the subject:
Symptom: Black Screen no response from remote, HR20 unusable.

Treatment: Requires rebooting
__________________________________________​

2.
Bug Name: Unwatchable Bug or negative number recording, Older names include BSOD and Black Screen, these older usages of the names did not describe lockups in the HR20, rather just a black screen associated with playback and the death of that recording. These older names should not be confused with the newer more lethal bug now called the black screen bug these usages are listed here for historic reasons.

First Identified Report: 08-30-06, 05:17 PM by Wally_Gator

Prognosis: Loss of recording, no recovery

History/Status: Currently active in 0x10b has been in every release of code, bug may be on decline, fewer reports noted. For a period of time some users called the unwatchable bug the Black Screen of Death

Postings of interest on the subject:

Symptoms: When a recording is selected for playback, user will experience a black screen. User can use trick plays but there will be no change in video status, if the trick play has a counter, it will increment but screen will continue to be black. Users may notice that the time code may contain a negative number but it may also contain just zeros, example 0:-59 or -1:-29 or 0:00. Click here for many examples of the negative time code. If a recording is currently in progress and trick plays do not work, it is highly likely that this recording will suffer the Unwatchable Bug, this same symptom was also experienced with the Partial Bug (potentially eliminated under latest versions of the code). A reboot will remove all recordings with the Unwatchable bug


Example post of the Unwatchable Bug in 0x10b
http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=757695&postcount=145
http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=757765&postcount=150

Treatment: Delete the recording or reboot the HR20, your recording is lost.
__________________________________________​

3.
Bug Name: Black Screen Bug aka BSB

Prognosis: Fatal, Requires Rebooting

History/Status: Currently in 0x10b may of been in 0xFA

Symptoms: HR20 menus, guide, channel change, signal stength of the satellite, all work normal but every channel is black video​

If you have more data or recommended changes to the description please add your posts below.

Additionally if anyone can provide a screen shot of the BSB, please attach a photo to this post and I will merge it in and move it to the Catalog of HR20 Bug post.
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Tom Robertson
Good set. For comparison and completeness, I'd suggest we include the:
Bug Name: Frozen Screen of Death - FSOD

Prognosis: Fatal, Requires Rebooting

History/Status: At least since 0xbe

Symptoms: Screen freezes on an image; no responce to front panel buttons, remote control buttons, or power button. Holding power button does not restart the unit. And unit does not flash lights acknowledging remote control buttons.​

Cheers,
Tom
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btmoore
tibber said:
Good set. For comparison and completeness, I'd suggest we include the:
Bug Name: Frozen Screen of Death - FSOD

Prognosis: Fatal, Requires Rebooting

History/Status: At least since 0xbe

Symptoms: Screen freezes on an image; no responce to front panel buttons, remote control buttons, or power button. Holding power button does not restart the unit. And unit does not flash lights acknowledging remote control buttons.​

Cheers,
Tom
Click to expand...
I think that is the same as the 1st one, BSOD. But you can't expect much someone from Rose. Hail Purdue.
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L
:lol: I HAD NO PROBLEM WITH MY HR20-700 RECORDER. DirecTV advised not to UNPLUG the unit. When you move your unit around, you do unit in. BLACK SCREEN.. For the past few days, NO BLACK SCREEN. :hurah: I did not get a LEMON..:new_smili :jump3: I DID A :goodjob: FOR MY DIRECTV unit.... HAPPY NEWS YEARS...
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Tom Robertson
btmoore said:
I think that is the same as the 1st one, BSOD. But you can't expect much someone from Rose. Hail Purdue.
Click to expand...
Got no complaints about Purdue. Had a lot of friends go there after they couldn't handle Rose... ;) (And had a good friend start at Purdue for a year, finish at Rose then go straight from BS to PHD at Berkley, in three years.)

At some level, I'm thinking BSOD and FSOD are different; perhaps early in the sequence of the lockup. That said, I expect that this is defect has a common basis as the fixed DD bug, all the lockups, and maybe channel change speed (that might be a stretch.)

Anyway, you've done a great job documenting all these.

Cheers,
Tom
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btmoore
tibber said:
Got no complaints about Purdue. Had a lot of friends go there after they couldn't handle Rose... ;) (And had a good friend start at Purdue for a year, finish at Rose then go straight from BS to PHD at Berkley, in three years.)

At some level, I'm thinking BSOD and FSOD are different; perhaps early in the sequence of the lockup. That said, I expect that this is defect has a common basis as the fixed DD bug, all the lockups, and maybe channel change speed (that might be a stretch.)

Anyway, you've done a great job documenting all these.

Cheers,
Tom
Click to expand...
Ah, got ya, I guess I need to read more carfuly, frozen image, not frozen black screen. I had black screen on my mind, I haven't seen that one, just frozen black. Good one, I will add it later. I would still like to get better documentation of #3 BSB.
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Doug Brott
I think your #1 and #3 are basically the same bug with slightly different symptoms. However, I understand your reasoning for wanting to split them. Either way, I have been using the term "Black Screen Bug" interchangeably between the two.
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btmoore
brott said:
I think your #1 and #3 are basically the same bug with slightly different symptoms. However, I understand your reasoning for wanting to split them. Either way, I have been using the term "Black Screen Bug" interchangeably between the two.
Click to expand...
Number 1 is a total lockup with a black screen, number 3 is every thing is functional just the video is black.
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ZELLIS
Bug Name: Black Screen Bug aka BSB

Prognosis: Fatal, Requires Rebooting

History/Status: Currently in 0x10b may of been in 0xFA

Symptoms: HR20 menus, guide, channel change, signal stength of the satellite, all work normal but every channel is black video


i have had the HR20 for about 2 weeks now and finally got my HD content and new dish put in tonight so im fully up to speed. within the 2 weeks ive had the box ive reset 5 times. 3 for the BSB bug. all three times happened after the box was shut off for the night and turned back on in the afternoon.
setup condishions
hdmi 1080i /optical audio out
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chrisfowler99
From my experience with #3 the other day, it seems like #2 may be a symptom of a recording that happens during a #3.

Also, the channel changing only kinda works. You can change the channel, but the show data in the info bar doesn't actually update. Not that that particularly matters, just another part of #3 that I experienced.

Also, playback of "good" recordings still worked.
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