[RyanX]

HR20-700 running 0x254

For the past week and a half my dvr has been giving me periodic problems. When I am watching live, I have no problem, but when watching even a few seconds behind "live" the picture and sound sputter and skip. It can be fine live, give me problems if I pause or rewind, but then be fine if I FF back to live or switch the channel. This problem also happens to some recorded programs.

A few times the unit will freeze up and take a minute or so to respond.

If I restart (through menu or RBR) the problem usually goes away for a while but then is back the next day.

Any thoughts? I was thinking it was a hard drive going bad, but I wouldn't think the reboot would matter if the drive was going out.

Thanks.

 

[RyanX]

OK, so I decided to call tech support to see what they would suggest. After going through a menu restart it seemed to correct problem for the live buffer but not for at least one of the recorded shows. He then said to try a reset everything but I did not want to lose all of my recorded stuff just yet. Any other suggestions?

 

[houskamp]

try unplugging it for 15 minutes.. sometimes this clears more problems than just a restart..

 

[rudeney]

This could be caused by a failing hard drive.

 

[Rich]

This could be caused by a failing hard drive.

Ever have a hard drive fail on an HR? I haven't. Used to be common on TiVos and UTV DVRs, but doesn't seem to happen on an HR. So far.

Rich

 

[rudeney]

No, I haven’t had one fail, but those are the exact symptoms I had when one failed in a UTV (and I had several of those experiences).

 

[Rich]

No, I haven't had one fail, but those are the exact symptoms I had when one failed in a UTV (and I had several of those experiences).

I have all my HRs hooked up to eSATAs and I have had those symptoms occur on several of them. Usually ended up getting a replacement and hooked the same eSATA up to it and had none of the symptoms reoccur. Because of that, I think I can say conclusively that I have never had a HD failure on an HR.

I did have one 20-100 that I started the first time with an eSATA attached and it ate the eSATA. I unhooked it and rebooted on the internal drive and that one got eaten too. And I don't think either of the HDs was bad, that was an evil DVR.

Don't forget, the UTV DVRs and the TiVos both had the OS on the hard drives. And I had plenty of HDs go bad on both platforms.

Rich

 

[RyanX]

I unplugged it for a while last night and it seemed to be working after that, but it usually works after a reboot. One thing I did notice is that the recorded show I was watching played fine after the unplug even though it still had problems after a reboot. I'll see tonight when I try to watch Heroes.

 

[Rich]

I unplugged it for a while last night and it seemed to be working after that, but it usually works after a reboot. One thing I did notice is that the recorded show I was watching played fine after the unplug even though it still had problems after a reboot. I'll see tonight when I try to watch Heroes.

Need a clarification. Are you distinguishing between a "reboot" and an unplug? If you are, for any serious problem, pull the cord.

Rich

 

[RyanX]

Yeah, by reboot I meant either a menu restart or pushing the button next to the card slot.

 

[CT_Wiebe]

RyanX -- As houskamp said, you have to leave it unplugged for at least 15 minutes. If you don't wait long enough, you won't give the unit time to discharge all the capacitors and could still have some residual code saved in the internal RAM.

houskamp -- My cat's reaction to your avitar {courtesy of our cat boarding house}:

 

[rudeney]

RyanX -- As houskamp said, you have to leave it unplugged for at least 15 minutes. If you don't wait long enough, you won't give the unit time to discharge all the capacitors and could still have some residual code saved in the internal RAM.

Our UTV's used to have problems with brief power outages (before I put them on UPS's). They must have had some pretty good sized capacitors in them because I once had to leave one unplugged for several days before it would even boot back up. (Hmm, maybe it used a flux capacitor... )

 

[RyanX]

Well, I unplugged it for a second time this evening and it was off for 20-30 minutes. When I restarted everything appeared to work fine but then I kept having problems with recorded shows.

I am thinking it is not a hard drive problem because the shows are recording properly, it is the playback that is a problem. The "glitch" doesn't always happen in the same place in the recording either.

When the playback is having a problem I can still get the menus to work (yellow button, guide, etc).

 

[rudeney]

Are you having any other problems, like sluggishness? Is it connected to your Ethernet network?

 

[RyanX]

When it it working, it is fine. No problems changing channels or running through the guide or menus.

It is hard wired to the network router (and has been since December).

I had to restart it twice last night while watching Chuck and Heroes so having it unplugged did not seem to help.

 

[Rich]

When it it working, it is fine. No problems changing channels or running through the guide or menus.

It is hard wired to the network router (and has been since December).

I had to restart it twice last night while watching Chuck and Heroes so having it unplugged did not seem to help.

Would have been nice to know that you have it hooked up to the Net. Try it without the Net. And stay away from that red button. For serious problems, pull the plug. That is the hard reboot that will work. If you just want to restart to do something like reset the clock use the menu restart.

Get everything off the DVR and try it. If you experience no problems, you will have found the problem.

Rich

 

[Rich]

Well, I unplugged it for a second time this evening and it was off for 20-30 minutes. When I restarted everything appeared to work fine but then I kept having problems with recorded shows.

I am thinking it is not a hard drive problem because the shows are recording properly, it is the playback that is a problem. The "glitch" doesn't always happen in the same place in the recording either.

When the playback is having a problem I can still get the menus to work (yellow button, guide, etc).

It is not a hard drive problem, if you can do that. As I have said, I have never experienced a HD problem with an HR.

Rich

 

[Rich]

Our UTV's used to have problems with brief power outages (before I put them on UPS's). They must have had some pretty good sized capacitors in them because I once had to leave one unplugged for several days before it would even boot back up. (Hmm, maybe it used a flux capacitor... )

Or perhaps a capacitive grabistan. :lol:

Rich

 

[RyanX]

Would have been nice to know that you have it hooked up to the Net. Try it without the Net. And stay away from that red button. For serious problems, pull the plug. That is the hard reboot that will work. If you just want to restart to do something like reset the clock use the menu restart.

Get everything off the DVR and try it. If you experience no problems, you will have found the problem.

Rich

Thanks Rich (and everyone else) for your help.:goodjob:

I'll pull the net cable out tonight and see if that helps.

 

[RyanX]

Ok, here is an update from a month later. I am still having the problems with the recordings freezing. Not everything, but maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of them. Sometimes a reboot (either through the menu or pulling the plug) will take care of the problem, but some recordings can't be saved.

I pulled the network plug a month ago and it seemed to help, but not solve the problem 100%. I have the newest update (0x0290) and that did not solve the problem. A couple of weeks ago we deleted a bunch of stuff off the drive and got it to about 50% free and the problems seemed to go away. Now it is back between 25 and 35% free and the problems are getting worse.

Could it be a bad spot in the hard drive and when I get to that spot it causes trouble? I have not tried wiping the drive yet but that is coming as soon as my wife gets caught up on a few shows.