HR21 freezing multiple times per day

1429 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by pikespeakhiker, Aug 28, 2008

pikespeakhiker

Discussion Starter · Aug 23, 2008

Help!

Our main HR21, which has been networked (and un-networked) and always attached to an AM-21 is now freezing multiple times per day. It always happens when:
1. You exit a recorded show and the channels are black...a few keypresses later and everything is frozen.
2. You go to turn it on and it is just frozen and unresponsive.

Sorry, I have looked through all the threads and there are unfortunately TOO MANY COMPLAINTS about these boxes to ever find any potential solutions that work.

Items that have been tried:
1. New eSata cable (running Antec MX-1 with WD 1TB black which works fine on another unit)
2. RBR/Menu Reset/everything under the sun
3. Networking on and off

It keeps getting worse and worse and worse. Probably froze 4 times today.

Any help appreciated...

Save

1 - 8 of 8 Posts

sonnik

· #2 · Aug 26, 2008

I had the same symptoms.

For me, it turned out to be the eSATA drive overheating. You may be able to tax the drive into re-creating the symptoms by recording two HD streams at the same time, preferably two MPEG2 streams (from the AM21) and playing back a third.

The temperature on the HR21 is only obtained from the internal drive. Sitting pretty much idle, the HR21 (at least prior to 0x255, not sure about the current version) is ignorant of how hot the eSATA drive may be working.

If you can cool the external drive somehow, you'll probably be set. For me, I installed the (same 1 TB that had been overheating) drive internally.

Save

pikespeakhiker

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 26, 2008

sonnik said:
I had the same symptoms.

For me, it turned out to be the eSATA drive overheating. You may be able to tax the drive into re-creating the symptoms by recording two HD streams at the same time, preferably two MPEG2 streams (from the AM21) and playing back a third.

The temperature on the HR21 is only obtained from the internal drive. Sitting pretty much idle, the HR21 (at least prior to 0x255, not sure about the current version) is ignorant of how hot the eSATA drive may be working.

If you can cool the external drive somehow, you'll probably be set. For me, I installed the (same 1 TB that had been overheating) drive internally.

Thanks for this suggestion. I will try it out. Right now I have one HR21-100 (AM21, networked - although I have tried it both ways) and one HR21-700. The former has all the hangs, but also is completely enclosed in a cabinet with decent ventilation. The latter does not have the problems.

Save

techrep

· #4 · Aug 26, 2008

pikespeakhiker said:
Thanks for this suggestion. I will try it out. Right now I have one HR21-100 (AM21, networked - although I have tried it both ways) and one HR21-700. The former has all the hangs, but also is completely enclosed in a cabinet with decent ventilation. The latter does not have the problems.

Sounds like a failing hard drive to me.

Save

pikespeakhiker

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 27, 2008

Well, this didn't solve the problem. Still had multiple freeze ups as well. Possible it is a bad hard drive, but it is only 2 weeks old and didn't have any problems when first checked.

(techrep - I also have a Denon 3808CI and absolutely love it! wish my hr-21 worked as well as it does....)

Save

techrep

· #6 · Aug 27, 2008

pikespeakhiker said:
Well, this didn't solve the problem. Still had multiple freeze ups as well. Possible it is a bad hard drive, but it is only 2 weeks old and didn't have any problems when first checked.

(techrep - I also have a Denon 3808CI and absolutely love it! wish my hr-21 worked as well as it does....)

Only 2 weeks old, still could be a bad harddrive but not quite as likely.

Have you tried to force a new firmware download? To do this, reboot the receiver and at the hello screen enter 02468.

The 3808 is a great receiver and is my third Denon in the 3800 series. I got this one for the 4 HDMI connections and the 1.3

Save

randude

· #7 · Aug 27, 2008

techrep said:
Only 2 weeks old, still could be a bad harddrive but not quite as likely.

Have you tried to force a new firmware download? To do this, reboot the receiver and at the hello screen enter 02468.

The 3808 is a great receiver and is my third Denon in the 3800 series. I got this one for the 4 HDMI connections and the 1.3

I had the same problem. I unplugged it from the network and no more problems.

Save

pikespeakhiker

Discussion Starter · #8 · Aug 28, 2008

Thanks, randude. I had tried the same thing with no luck. However, I did find a BBC that was overly warm to the touch (all the others ran cool/room temp). I swapped the BBC and haven't seen the problem since. Not ready to claim victory yet, but it could be...

Save

1 - 8 of 8 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month