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HR21 Pro; Keeps Rebooting

946 Views 16 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Ken S, 
R
We keep having a problem where our HR21 Pro will suddenly flash to a blue screen, say it's acquiring satellites again, and then sit there forever. I have to unplug it to get it back to normal. Probably happens once a month.

Has anyone seen this?
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R
arghhhhh, just happened again. Watching a show and suddenly it stops outputting signal, says "directv is starting up" I get to the "just a few more seconds" screen and it just sits there until I unplug it and force a full reboot.

Since this is now a daily occurrence, I'm very worried. Since nobody has responded I assume nobody has these units OR, I'm just lucky and got the one that is crap.

Any helpful tips from anyone? I fear I'm about to lose all of my recordings. :(

Oh, and the red recording light on the front is just flashing. And when I look at "internal temperature" it says 149. From what I understand, that's too high.
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rickeame said:
arghhhhh, just happened again. Watching a show and suddenly it stops outputting signal, says "directv is starting up" I get to the "just a few more seconds" screen and it just sits there until I unplug it and force a full reboot.

Since this is now a daily occurrence, I'm very worried. Since nobody has responded I assume nobody has these units OR, I'm just lucky and got the one that is crap.

Any helpful tips from anyone? I fear I'm about to lose all of my recordings. :(

Oh, and the red recording light on the front is just flashing. And when I look at "internal temperature" it says 149. From what I understand, that's too high.
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If I remember correctly the Pro is supposed to have two fans...are they working? Is there sufficient room behind the device to allow it to properly exhaust the heat?

I don't know the acceptable temperature range for the Pro...the hottest I've seen in regular use is around 127 with the HR20-700.
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R
it's in a cabinet with a fan, When I feel around the unit, I don't feel air coming out. I'll dink around with it tomorrow and pull the rack out to see, but venting isn't an issue -- it's also in a pretty heavily A/C'd room.
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rickeame said:
it's in a cabinet with a fan, When I feel around the unit, I don't feel air coming out. I'll dink around with it tomorrow and pull the rack out to see, but venting isn't an issue -- it's also in a pretty heavily A/C'd room.
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Rickeame,

I just looked at a picture of the unit there are two fans in the back...if they're not working that could be your problem.

If I recall the Pro was also recalled early on...do you know if your's had that fix done?

I'm sure there are some folks here better acquainted with the Pro that will toss in their thoughts in the near future as well.
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R
Talking to service today -- he wanted to reformat my hard drive so that any "corruption" would be fixed and take care of my fan issue.

Yes, that's what he said.

Seriously.

Come on, is there a better support number for the pro equipment? That answer insulted my intelligence.
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houskamp
Kinda have to "play the game".. call back and tell them you already did that.. then mention your temps..
by the way the fans should spin on initial startup, then shut become thermaly controlled..
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R
I eventually got them to send me a new box. Now if they were only cool enough to let me transfer shows from the box to another device or harddrive, I could get my stuff off.
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R
So I got the new box today -- what did they do to "fix" it? I feel pretty burned because there are a ton of recorded shows on the non fixed box that I can't move and can't watch now because it will just reboot in the middle of it. :(
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S
rickeame said:
So I got the new box today -- what did they do to "fix" it? I feel pretty burned because there are a ton of recorded shows on the non fixed box that I can't move and can't watch now because it will just reboot in the middle of it. :(
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There ought to be some third party (Weaknees, etc?) who would transfer programs, switch over hard drives, etc. from a failing box. Also, coming from a computer environment where "backup" is a way of life, how about some backup procedures to guard against a failed hard drive? If a hard drive statistic is 5 years MTBF, with all those HR20 and 21 units out there, hard drives are failing on a daily basis.

Stan
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When it comes to backup vs DRM DirecTV seems to weigh heavily on DRM on a machine by machine basis. Other providers allow for external drives to be shared within the same account though.
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R
So pulling the drive out and putting in the new one is ill advised?
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rickeame said:
So pulling the drive out and putting in the new one is ill advised?
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All of the content on the drive is attached to that specific receiver. If you put a new drive in the receiver it will format it completely.
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R
awesome. bye-bye content. anyone know what they did to "fix" the problem that caused the failure in the first place?
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houskamp
Ken S said:
All of the content on the drive is attached to that specific receiver. If you put a new drive in the receiver it will format it completely.
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close but not quite.. it will all be there yet but none of the programs will play. It will at least save your setings and series links..
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E
I've got an installation where 2 of the 3 HR21-200s are doing this exact thing. Fortunately, they are brand new, so I can get them DOA replaced by my distributor.

Mine at home is doing all sorts of weird stuff too. After watching about an hour of live TV, it will sometimes go into screensaver/no audio mode. This is annoying. I miss my HR20-700
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houskamp said:
close but not quite.. it will all be there yet but none of the programs will play. It will at least save your setings and series links..
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Yes, you're correct. Mine reformatted when I was playing with it...but that was my own doing.
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