I posted a similar write-up on an older forum at
SatelliteGuys.US too.
I have a Dish ViP612 with a failing hard drive. I'm guessing that's the problem as playback of some recorded shows would freeze making the receiver unresponsive to any remote or front panel buttons, recordings stuttering, channel changes taking 20-50 seconds before the current program started to play. And, an error 311 screen displayed upon turning the TV on in the morning.
I found in this forum, information about hidden DST-1 and DST-2 diagnostics, short and long HDD SMART diagnostics tools accessible via super secret remote key combos ala
Konami. DST-1 showed no error detected. Yeah! Well maybe my HDD is okay after all and its some other software bug causing the receiver to freeze upon playback.
Remote Buttons to Access Memory Dump Screen and from there the HDD DST-1 and DST-2 diagnostics tools:
Press Menu, 6 (System Setup), 3 (Diagnostics). (but on the ViP612 Diagnostics is 2 not 3)
Within 5 seconds press Info, Browse, Theme.
Google search "Secret Squire DISH receiver master reset" for more codes. Or, you've already past them in this forum thread post #5 by
gherna1.
The memory dump screen shows up, a 7x4 grid most all are filled with numbers (most in decimal with a few in hexadecimal), a box on the bottom of the screen filled with 00000000 and a "Done" button.
![Font Gadget Technology Electronic device Display device]()
After displaying the Memory Dump screen, DST-1 (HDD Short SMART diagnostics) is accessed from here by pressing Pause, 1; and DST-2 (HDD Long SMART Diagnostics) by pressing Pause, 2.
First, I ran the short diagnostics without a problem, diagnostics on the HDD showed no error after 2 minutes. Next, I ran the Long diagnostics for 145 minutes, which resulted in an HDD_READ_ERROR . I did a hard reset via pulling the power plug to exit, I'm guessing a front panel reset would have done the same thing by holding the power button until the receiver resets.
My hard drive must in fact bad. Oh, no!
My problems started after the reset, a flashing
RED record light (only 1 TV output not 2 as on a ViP622, etc. thus no TV1 and TV2 red flashing here), a blank screen and an unresponsive remote and front panel buttons.
Some users said to wait 12 hours while still connected (streaming data from you dish) and powered on and it'll stop flashing on its own. Well I did that, waited and waited, it did finally stop one time <12 hours and another >12 hours then I was able to watch TV until the system rebooted for system updates. Back to the red flashing record light, wait again. 12 hours passes still flashing, Others have suggested sticking a USB stick in front panel port - nothing happened for me, so i continue to wait. Finally, at the nightly download time, the TV screen shows the popup stating that the receiver is about to shutdown for nightly downloads. Asking if you want to do so by selecting Yes or cancelling with Cancel or No. I exited that screen. I'm not sure if used Cancel or No, but I pressed the remote's Menu button and was finally back to seeing the receiver's menu screen and had video playing.
I'd read a post that stated to clear the NVRAM to fix the problem. Thereby, you'd not have to wait forever watching a blank screen and
red flashing record light(s). I went to the Memory Dump screen (Menu, 6, 2 (maybe 3 for you to get to diagnostics), Info, Browse, Theme then I pressed Input aka TV/Video button on the remote to clear my receiver's NVRAM. A popup window shows up indicating that the NVRAM is corrupted and will be cleared on front panel reset (holding power button) or hard reset (remove power plug and wait a minute).
Voila, no more flashing red record light.
But, as the acquiring signal screen (should not take more than 5 minutes to complete) was displayed a different problem arose.
The receiver displayed popup windows indicating partial signal loss and complete signal loss that alternated over and over again. Another reset (via power button hold), once the Acquiring Signal screen showed up I pressed Menu on the remote, nada no response just back to the signal loss screen cycling
Reset again but instead of the using the remote's menu button, I pressed the System Info button on the front panel. I noticed the remote status showing as 'ir' and Rem Addr 1, but didn't think anything about it.
I did a Menu, System Configuration (6), Installation (1), Point Dish (1), Switch test by using the front panel buttons to scroll up and down to the correct menu item then pressing the Select button.. I'm not sure if this setup step was required but as the NVRAM settings had been cleared and signal loss errors showed, it seemed to be the logical thing to do. After the next RESET, a signal was received -- no more signal loss error screens.
No working remote!
Back to the System Info screen, it shows the remote is IR on Rem Addr 1. Hmm, my remote, a 21.1 IR/UHF Pro, was set to UHF not IR before clearing NVRAM. I had to reconfigure the receiver to use UHF instead of IR. (Clearing NVRAM had reset the receiver to an IR remote!)
Re-configure DVR for UHF Remote instead of IR Remote
Press and hold the SAT button on the remote until all lights flash red for the device selects across the top and the SAT button flashes. Press the # button to see the SAT button flash 3 times. Press RECORD button on the remote to update the Rem Addr.used by the DVR. The remote should now be able to control the DVR, When I paired my remote to my DVR, I was displaying the System Info screen and saw the box 'i' change to IR/UHF Pro Band B/Rem Addr 14. (your addr may be different!)
![Communication Device Screenshot Font Gadget Display device]()
My remote now works. Yeah! (but wait...)
Rem Addr Update: There be strange goings on here. When the remote is used to call up the
System Info screen by pressing
Menu 6,1,3 the screen displayed is titled
System Info - One which is different than when using the front panel
System Info button where the page is simply titled
System Info. When I change the UHF channel with
System Info - One screen displayed the Rem Addr changes but the DVR
does not respond to the remote. If I use the front panel
System Info button to bring up the System Info screen and change the remote's UHF channel, the DVR does respond to the new UHF channel number shown on it shown as
Remote Address xx IR/UHF Pro Band B. (where xx is the new channel I set the remote on)
System Info - One seems to change the DVR's channel but the remote is not changing. I had to go through holding SAT and waiting for all the other lights to flash red leaving the SAT button flashing green. Now, press in the channel number you thought both devices should have changed to followed by #. But do not press
RECORD. Pressing RECORD sets the DVR's Rem Addr. Without pressing RECORD only the remote's channel number will be updated after the SAT button completes flashing green three (3) times in a row.
Rem Addr Update 2: Second attempt to update remote and DVR's UHF address so the remote controls the DVR once saved (RECORD button is pressed). Use the remote buttons;
Menu, System Configuration(
6), Installation(
1), System Info(
3) to display the screen titled
System Info - One. Press and hold remote's
SAT button until all the other device selection buttons across the top of the remote flash red. Release the
SAT button to see it continue flashing green. Use the number pad to enter a channel number from 1 to 26 followed by the
# button. The
SAT button will flash green three (3) times. Now, press the
RECORD button on the remote. The Rem Addr on the System Info screen should change. The remote and DVR should now be paired. Yes! It's a timing issue, you have to wait for the
SAT button to finish flashing green three (3) times before pressing the
RECORD button. (You don't have to press the
RECORD three (3) times as indicated earlier, just wait until the
SAT button stops flashing!)
Summary
First, wait until right before the receiver's nightly download time arrives to see the blank screen change to display the system shutdown notice. Second, exit/cancel the shutdown. Third and foremost, using the secret remote key combo command codes by way of the memory dump screen clear the receiver's NVRAM. And finally, to finish it all off, use every support technician's goto - the ever necessary power cord hard reset.
Hopefully, this write-up will help someone with a stuck /
RED flashing front panel indicator / HDD failing / non-responsive remote /
#$%^&@ DVR, like their Dish ViP612/622/722 DVR or equivalent Bell DVR.
KaosEngineer
P.S. All my timers were still present as were my old recordings (they were no longer grouped as they had been but easily correctable settings change found in My Recordings/Group/Group by Title fixed the grouping) along with, to my amazement, new recordings scheduled during all the time of seeing a
RED flashing record light and a blank screen.
A few other custom settings were lost but nothing major, inactivity shutoff/standby changed from my 4 hours of inactivity to 2 hours and the daily updates time went back to 3:00am instead of my custom 5:00am setting. TV enhancements were Enabled so I Disabled them again. Re-enabled ERD,etc. I'm sure there are other settings and histories lost when NVRAM was cleared. As I have no idea what's saved in NVRAM, I'm not sure which settings, histories were set back to system defaults.
