[DarinC]

About two months ago I got "upgraded" to MPEG4 with two HR21s. One is an HR21-200 in the den, and the other is an HR21-100 in the kitchen. the -100 doesn't get used nearly as much, but it seems to have constant problems. Sometimes I'll walk in the kitchen, and notice the circle of lights doing the rotating thing like it does when you turn it on or off. Often times the unit will have been off to start with, and somehow will turn itself on with the lights circling. When I turn on the TV, there is no video, so I have no idea what it thinks it's doing. It is unresponsive... can't turn it on or off with the remote or button on the front. I have to do a RBR to get it out of it. Last night I came home from work, noticed the rotating lights, tried the usual power buttons, and turning on the TV, ultimately hit RBR (at which point it started to reboot), walked out of the room, came back later, and it was back to rotating lights.

The -200 in the den occasionally reboots itself while it's being used, but I assume that's just typical HR2x instability. But it has never done this "no one is using me so I think I'll just lock up on my own" thing. Anyone know what's going on when this happens?

 

[say-what]

The HR2x's shouldn't reboot spontaneously and shouldn't lock up.

I have 4 and don't have those problems.

Going to need to know a lot more about your setup.

How long are the cable runs?
Are the cable runs new, or did they use existing lines?
Any multiswitch?
Do you experience power fluctuations? Are the HR2x's on a UPS?
What are your signals for each transponder on both Sat tuners?
Are the units networked? Some network configurations seem to cause problems, if networked, how and what else is on the network?

I'm sure others will have more questions and can help more.

The one in the kitchen may be defective, you might want to call DirecTV and explain that it constantly locks up and won't even reboot without locking up.

The one in the den sounds like an electrical issue, but it could be overheating. Where is the den unit located and how is the ventilation?

 

[DarinC]

I can't quote my signal numbers (not at home), but I can say they are decent (most everything in the 90s). I don't get 110 & 119... lost my dual dish install with the upgrade. Generally tune in to the MX channels often enough to avoid any guide issues. There's about a 20' run to a multiswitch, then maybe another 15-20' run to the DVRs. They put up the new slimline dish, used the existing RG6 from the previous dish to the multiswitch, as well as from the multiswitch to the den. The lines to the kitchen are new (I didn't have a DVR in there before). Power fluctuations haven't occured during the issues, and both DVRs are on UPSs. The one in the den is hard wired to my network (along with several computers, PS3, HD-DVD player, print server, VoIP adapter, a couple wireless routers maybe stuff I'm forgetting?). I haven't yet run a network cable to the kitchen DVR. The one in the den also has an AM21, and a 1GB Calvary esata drive. Nothing extra connected to kitchen DVR. As far as ventellation: the kitchen unit sits on top of my fridge, with an A/V receiver on top of it. So it's fairly "in the open". The den unit is in an armoire with all my other a/v stuff, sitting on top of my HR10, and below the AM21, which also has a small sub EQ on top of it. The doors of the armoire are almost always open (since you can't see the TV if they're closed), and their is a fan drawing air out the back 24x7.

The few times I've seen the den DVR reboot, it really seems like a software glitch... it has generally coincided with doing "something" (one time I hit delete on a recorded show, and it instantly rebooted). It's certainly not something that happens every day... maybe once a week. I'm also not sure that I can say I've ever seen the den unit lock up... occasional spontaneous reboot, but not lock up. The kitchen DVR is the one that worries me most, since it will do it on it's own, so I never have any clue what triggered it, or what it's doing since I get no HDMI output while it's locked up. It did it a lot several weeks ago, but MOST of it seemed around the time of the new firmware that came out around the time that D11 got to 99°. Since it's been relatively quiet, BUT there have been times when I've gone to turn it "off" when it didn't respond to the power button. But it seemed that it often eventually would shut down, so it just seemed that for whatever reason, that unit was occasionally slow to power requests. Often times, I'm just playing music in the kitchen, and the display isn't even on, so I don't know what the screen is doing, if anything, during the delayed power downs.

Thanks for any input!

 

[hdtvfan0001]

Reboots can be caused by power fluctuations as well. I happen to know (and feel for you) that power in the Atlanta market can be suspect in places.

Even a brief "blip" outage can force a reboot. That might be one source.

Is the unit on a surge protection or UPD device. I'd recommend a UPS. I have one on all 3 of my HD DVRs and see no such effects.

There may also be other reasons, but that might be a good place to start, and also to protect your from power changes/surges/outages.

 

[DarinC]

Yes, I'm sure you posted before seeing my last reply, but they are both on UPSs. The one in the kitchen wasn't at first... it took me several weeks to get one installed there, but it's been on a UPS for the past month or so. I've had ALL the stuff in the den except the subs and shakers on a massive UPS ever since I lost my a/v receiver to lightning about 8 years ago.

 

[say-what]

Often times, I'm just playing music in the kitchen, and the display isn't even on, so I don't know what the screen is doing, if anything, during the delayed power downs

So the kitchen unit is just on an XM channel? If so, I wonder if it's experiencing some sort of problem with the screen saver popping up and being up for an extended period of time.

Anyway, I'm prety sure they'd replace the kitchen receiver if you called and said it was freezing up regularly and sometimes would freeze up while rebooting causing you to have to try several times. It just shouldn't lock up so regularly.

 

[DarinC]

I use it for xm quite a bit, but this last time around I'm pretty sure it was left on the local NBC channel (via LIL, since I don't have an AM21 on that DVR). I'll have more time to look at it this weekend... I caught it briefly between getting home last night and going back out, then again this morning before going to work.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[DarinC]

Well, the mystery is partially solved... I got the kitchen DVR back up, and it tuned to one of the Spanish channels. My partner is Latin, so he was probably watching it yesterday morning. So that means it wasn't on a music channel, and it also means it was turned 101 (I believe). It also means that it didn't necessarily turn itself on to lock up... he may have left it on. So there's really nothing unusual about the content to have caused a lock-up.

Another interesting tidbit. This time around, when I did a RBR, I left the display on. I never turned the display on yesterday when I noticed that it appeared locked up, just hit the red button hoping to bring it out of it. When it went through it's fits of locking up several weeks ago, I noticed the same thing... if I did a RBR without the display on, it seemed to lock back up after it's reboot. But turning the display on and leaving it on until it's gone through it's entire "please wait" process, allowed it to successfully get running again. Almost as if it just doesn't like rebooting without an HDMI handshake. But I've only gone through that process a few times... could be coincidental. :shrug: