721: 4th day- info from Adv Tech support

1722 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by somebode, Sep 4, 2002

steveT

Discussion Starter · Aug 28, 2002

I'd posted yesterday about some major problems, the main one being PVR events were only recording randomly. Some info from Advanced Tech Support last night cleared some things up for me. Prior to that, I had tried:

- Reboot by holding the power button down until the green light flashed.

- Unplugging the unit and plugging back in (the guy in regular tech support had told me this would do a full reboot.)

But what the ATS guy told me last night is that there are only 3 ways to do a full reset:

1. Pull the Smartcard
2. Hold the Power button down until the *RED record light comes on*. (The part about the RED light is NOT in the manual!)
3. A more complicated procedure through the menus (I assume this is the NVM reset).

What really made this call different though, was this was the first time it sounded like I was talking to a true Software Engineer. This guy went through and explained to me just what happens when it resets, how it checks the information on errors for packet data transfer after the software loads to the HD and then flashes to memory. If there's any errors, it should reflash from the HD, to correct them. And that will only happen using one of these 3 methods. The first Tech Support guy had it wrong, and unplugging the unit will not accomplish that, which is why I still had problems.

Of course, I feel a little stupid for not just pulling the Smartcard myself, but at least I learned something...

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Big D

· #2 · Aug 28, 2002

Hold the Power button down until the *RED record light comes on*. (The part about the RED light is NOT in the manual!)

This is new, has anyone else seen or heard or this? Who wants to be the first one to try it to see how long you hold the button down and if it seems to work differently then just holding the power button for 5 seconds? If this indeed works, it is far better then pulling the Smartcard in my opinion.

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SParker

· #3 · Aug 28, 2002

I just held mine down for 60 seconds and the red light DID NOT come on.

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steveT

Discussion Starter · #4 · Aug 28, 2002

Well, I specifically asked the guy from ATS if he was saying, the "Red Record" light, not the green power light. He said yes, and that they knew alot of info wasn't in the manual yet. (Dish REALLY should consider starting an FAQ on their website for 721 issues...)

He sounded very sure about that, but after 60 sec, sounds like it might not be correct...

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LarryH

· #5 · Aug 28, 2002

Originally posted by steveT
Well, I specifically asked the guy from ATS if he was saying, the "Red Record" light, not the green power light. He said yes, and that they knew alot of info wasn't in the manual yet. (Dish REALLY should consider starting an FAQ on their website for 721 issues...)

He sounded very sure about that, but after 60 sec, sounds like it might not be correct...

The ATS guy must have been thinking of the 501. That is the expected behavior for the 501, but not for the 721.

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wildzeke

· #6 · Aug 29, 2002

I also had a problem of wierd random recordings that I finally figured out was the remote from my 501 was controlling my 721 and vice versa. The easy way to fix this is to configure the 721 remote to use a different channel number.

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TerryC

· #7 · Aug 29, 2002

I don't see how rebooting will solve a missed recordings problem. Sounds like a software bug to me, one that could only be solved with a s/w upgrade.

Did it work? Are you getting all the recordings you programmed now?

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steveT

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 29, 2002

Well, for me the rebooting made everything work for a day and a half. I got all timer recordings yesterday, but then last night it recorded one and missed one. I also noticed another symptom of the problem. If you set Mon-Fri PVR events, they all show up in the PVR list with the date of the next scheduled recording. After it successfully records the next scheduled occurrence of that event, that date then shows up in the list as the following day, which makes sense. However, once it misses a recording, the date on that event doesn't increment to the next day; it remains showing as the date of the one it missed. Maybe that then screws up all following recordings.

The last two times this happened, it then wouldn't even allow me to delete the missed PVR event from the list. You'd highlight "erase", but when you'd try to select it, it just wouldn't do it. I'll have to check tonight to see if it'll let me delete it this time.

DISH needs to get the next bug fix version out ASAP!...

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TerryC

· #9 · Aug 29, 2002

It never ceases to amaze me how different people can have such different problems with the same software version.

Hey, steveT, did you notice your user number? Maybe it was an omen.

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steveT

Discussion Starter · #10 · Aug 30, 2002

TerryC, I hadn't noticed that! That's just too bizarre; I was waiting for the 721 for so long, almost a year since they originally announced it, that my wife was getting sick of hearing me talk about it... Must just be destiny that I got that user number. Now if I can only get the 721 to work consistently!

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somebode

· #11 · Sep 4, 2002

I've had the same problem with timers not recording then being unable to delete them. I finally managed to delete them by first editing them to be at a future time. After that, I was then able to delete them. I still have problems with timers not always recording what they should. Sometimes they work, other times not.

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