[AVPhan]

This is happening to my HR20-100 and have not been able to determine what's root cause of it yet. I am thinking the Calvary and as of now, booting unit sans Calvary and see how it goes.

After being away for two weeks, I got home last Sunday and found:

HR20-100 (w Calvary 1TB eSata attached) frozen, unresponsive to any button. Front light of Calvary flashing blue then purple. Also found that during two weeks being away, power lost and not sure of duration. Both were on UPS.

Cold restarted both HR20 and Calvary. Unit came back online for a day then started being Frozen. When Frozen, Calvary became flashing.

Took the Calvary to the computer, boot up using USB, format and used it and found no issue with the disk (via PC).

Hooked Calvary back to HR20, boot up Hr20, and re-added SL.
Two days later to find HR20 with no power, frozen, no response to any buttons. Calvary is also flashing. Cold boot only response after about three attempts (unplug, replug in). CSR said to eliminate UPS, plugged both things on Power strips by passing UPS.

After cold boot, unit appeared to be back going until another two days, then gotten no response again. Called D* (unfortunately after unit already starting to boot up). They said due to unable to diagnose problem, they would not be able to do much and have to wait till happen again.

This time, I am leaving HR20 running using internal disk and see what happens.

BTW, I guess I was on latest release "*251*" or something, During the trouble week, did get some of 750 issue with Local channel...

 

[finaldiet]

I have a seagate 750 on oneof my HR20's, but no problems with either on this CE.

 

[schneid]

I went through three Cavalry's and finally gave up having them replaced. I pulled the drive, a WD 1TB Green and ran it bare powered by a an old PC power supply. It ran solid for two weeks and I have now moved it into an Antec MX-1 case. It's still solid. The Cavalry cases have no cooling and the connectors are loose fitting.

Cavalry's are cheaply made junk IMHO. All the ones I got were had obvious signs of prior use.

You can pick up 1TB drives for $170 and MX-1's for $30 if you shop around.

 

[AVPhan]

Continue story on this......

Internal disk also froze. Both internal and external are on 0x0235. Since then, I had done the following:
1. Spoken with Retention with threat of cancelling account. He agreed to replace my unit (3 days ago) and placed the order. Since I need OTA, I asked to ensure to get HR20. He was not able to control it and said to call back in to get AM21 if HR21 is shipped.

2. Hooked up Calvary to PC, run a format. Hooked it back to HR20 and run a Reset to Default for hard disk to be formated again. It's been going on with no issue the past three days.

3. Received the replacement unit (HR21-700). Called in to request AM21, first girl started process of in-activating my HR20. Told her to ease up, not able to use the new unit yet since no OTA. Ended up being transfered to 6 different groups trying to order the AM21.

Last person in Tech support tried and still not able to order, then told me that to transfer me to Protection (I have) to see if I have to pay $50 for it.

I told her: Forget all that. I have a defective HR20 and I need an HR20 (no Local HD here in Tally), so order me a replacement HR20. I will send this HR21 back out to FedEx to come back to you. No need of ordering AM21 and try to charge me for it.

She said she could do that, heard typing something for 30 seconds, then "Thanks for Callind DirecTV", Phone hung up.... Huh ?

 

[rudeney]

My guess is that CSR was unable to help already on probation for spending too much time on calls, so she just hung up. She figured you’d just call back and get another CSR who will take the “hit” for her when spending too much time on the phone with you!

 

[hdtvfan0001]

Based on your symptoms, I suspect you have one of two problems - a defective DVR, or else a bad firmware release.

If you can, wait until the next firmware update and see if your problems go away. If not, I'd be on the phone to DirecTV getting a DVR replacement.

 

[AVPhan]

Man, D* is way down the tube with CS....... So [Mod Edit:Language] up.

So I waited till next day and check online account to see if there is an order. None.

Called in again spoke to Tech support. Gone through the whole thing again. She said she would place an order of HR20. She asked if I need installation. I said, no, I can hook up and walk through setup myself, especially you already sent me an HR21 here.

This morning, checked online, there it is. A PROFRESSIONAL INSTALL is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Install co just called and said they had an order to do installation..... I said no way you get in here tomorrow. I had other plan + I do not need someone to come in to do what I can do myself. Told them if they want to drop off the box, i'll take it, no one comes inside tomorrow.

WF??? with D*.

 

[AVPhan]

Well, on the phone with installer co and asked for appointment to be cancelled.

Guessed what, on install date, tech came. so they called and I told them what's going on. Tech said he got no HR20 at all in truck and inventory. I forgot to check if they have AM21 since I was driving.

How would D* only stock HR21 in Tallahassee area where NO HD LOCAL LIL and still looking at a year away minimum ? Unless they automatically add the AM21.
But I was talking to tech that I wanted HR20 cause of local OTA, if he got AM21, he could have said something.

 

[MIAMI1683]

First of all,

If the installer had a new unit for you why not let them in? As long as it was an exchange! You were almost assured of getting a "new unit". As far as OTA goes, go online and order the AM21 pay the $50. Then call them and politely explain why it was orderd. They would most likely credit you the $50. The tech doesn't get paid for coming out there unless he does the install. Why would he say something if you wouldn't let him in. I wouldn't have. Now it could be your firmware version x0235 caused this problem and the new one will fix it. (maybe).
Why threaten to cancell your acct? Are you unhappy with D*? If so move on and go to E* or cable, if not threatening isn't the way to get help. It has actually got people cancelled.

Since eSATA isn't a "supported" feature by D*. You should be patient with it, You are using something that thier CSR's haven't been completely trained on. Sorry to hear your DVR isn't working properly. If i were you i would take the HR21 and get an AM21. They work just as well as an HR20.

 

[AVPhan]

First of all,

If the installer had a new unit for you why not let them in? As long as it was an exchange! You were almost assured of getting a "new unit". As far as OTA goes, go online and order the AM21 pay the $50. Then call them and politely explain why it was orderd. They would most likely credit you the $50. The tech doesn't get paid for coming out there unless he does the install. Why would he say something if you wouldn't let him in. I wouldn't have. Now it could be your firmware version x0235 caused this problem and the new one will fix it. (maybe).
Why threaten to cancell your acct? Are you unhappy with D*? If so move on and go to E* or cable, if not threatening isn't the way to get help. It has actually got people cancelled.

Since eSATA isn't a "supported" feature by D*. You should be patient with it, You are using something that thier CSR's haven't been completely trained on. Sorry to hear your DVR isn't working properly. If i were you i would take the HR21 and get an AM21. They work just as well as an HR20.

Thanks for reading and respondng.

1. I did tell the install co that I was not going to be home. I was out of town when installer showed up and called. D* CSR told me that she would order an HR20, then scheduled an in home installation without telling at all. Only for me to find out by checking online account and a call from installer co the day before. I called installer co to cancell the work order and spoke to deaf ears. Not to mention, no communication at all between D* and Installer. They came with only HR21. Come on, this is also wasting customer's time and money too. I should be billing D* for the lost billing time at $130/hr.

2. Why do I (consumer) have to pay for something that is supposed to be made available and especially on a lease box ? I paid for the external disk but that's mine to keep if I leave D* and still usable. Why do a consumer have to shell out money when the provider can not even do a simple thing. Numerous calls, tons of CSRs, departments and can not even get one simple thing straight.

3. eSata is not the true cause of the problem. It froze on internal disk as well. At this point, I really guessed it was the new firmware (251) that messed it up. I am still doing this as an experiment on how far this will go and take D* to get the issue squared away. If it's this hard for a company like D* to get a replacement to a "Preferred customer" or whatever they called. They don't deserve to be in business.

4. If I am not currently on a commitment, I already walked. Very close to it though.

The thing that frustrated me is that as a 7+ year customer one of the first HD customer of theirs (paid my HR10 for 1200), average 160/mo in payment, Seeing D* going from top notch in Customer Service to a company that is so aggressive in making money and boost bottom line that IT FORGOT WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALL ABOUT.

5. Patient ? I have already been patient enough. The one time that I jumped was both Protection Department and Tech support would not do anything with the box, despite calling in three times in a week, machine froze 5-6 times during that week. They claimed that if the unit is not frozen at the time, they could not do anything about it.
If I had waited not to re-boot, they would have asked me to do same thing. I asked so how many times a customer have to call in when it froze for them to diagnose the problem ? Their claim, if it is not broken right now, they do nothing.

 

[harsh]

Did you disconnect your eSATA cable when you unplugged everything to change to the internal drive?

 

[AVPhan]

Did you disconnect your eSATA cable when you unplugged everything to change to the internal drive?

Absolutely.
Got programs leftover from Januany on it. Had to re-do all new SLs.

 

[MIAMI1683]

Thanks for reading and respondng.

1. I did tell the install co that I was not going to be home. I was out of town when installer showed up and called. D* CSR told me that she would order an HR20, then scheduled an in home installation without telling at all. Only for me to find out by checking online account and a call from installer co the day before. I called installer co to cancell the work order and spoke to deaf ears. Not to mention, no communication at all between D* and Installer. They came with only HR21. Come on, this is also wasting customer's time and money too. I should be billing D* for the lost billing time at $130/hr.

First I have always changed or cancelled appointments with D*. It can be done online so no phone call is needed,The CSR may not have explained it properly, also if you have the PP then you should go dirct to them.

2. Why do I (consumer) have to pay for something that is supposed to be made available and especially on a lease box ? I paid for the external disk but that's mine to keep if I leave D* and still usable. Why do a consumer have to shell out money when the provider can not even do a simple thing. Numerous calls, tons of CSRs, departments and can not even get one simple thing straight.

Well if you are talking about the AM21 it's simple. OTA is NOT offered in the HR21 any longer. It's been coverd here. You could order it and explain it politely to retention. I am sure you as a "preferred" customer would have gotten the credit :nono2: .

3. eSata is not the true cause of the problem. It froze on internal disk as well. At this point, I really guessed it was the new firmware (251) that messed it up. I am still doing this as an experiment on how far this will go and take D* to get the issue squared away. If it's this hard for a company like D* to get a replacement to a "Preferred customer" or whatever they called. They don't deserve to be in business.

If the firmware change caused the issue it will be fixed shortly. I believex0254 has begun to rollout. Problem solved.

4. If I am not currently on a commitment, I already walked. Very close to it though.

Very colse to it over 1 issue. You sgould go and see what cable offers in issues. A friend got a friendly reminder that thier (brighthouse) dvrs were being updated with frimware. It wiped his drive out completely :eek2: .

The thing that frustrated me is that as a 7+ year customer one of the first HD customer of theirs (paid my HR10 for 1200), average 160/mo in payment, Seeing D* going from top notch in Customer Service to a company that is so aggressive in making money and boost bottom line that IT FORGOT WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ALL ABOUT.

They know what customer service is about. Unfortunately in your opinion they 'forgot". You just don't like the choices you have been given.

5. Patient ? I have already been patient enough. The one time that I jumped was both Protection Department and Tech support would not do anything with the box, despite calling in three times in a week, machine froze 5-6 times during that week. They claimed that if the unit is not frozen at the time, they could not do anything about it.
If I had waited not to re-boot, they would have asked me to do same thing. I asked so how many times a customer have to call in when it froze for them to diagnose the problem ? Their claim, if it is not broken right now, they do nothing.

The reason why i would wait, is to see if x0254 fixed my issue.

 

[Carl Spock]

What is causing this?

First off, something caused your HR20 to die while you were out of town. None of us know what that was. You weren't there. It could have died two days after you were updated to 0x0251. You do not, nor do any of the rest of us, know. At this point, I would just leave it at that: a great mystery.

Beyond that, I have to think you have consistently made poor decisions. Let's review them.

(1) You were able to get your HR20 back up and running with your external drive. You had it working fine for 3 days. Why didn't you stop there? I would have, and after reading here about the problems with 0x0251, waited for the imminent release of replacement software. As MIAMI1683 points out, that may have solved everything. In fact, I assume you are still using your HR20. Have you gotten 0x0254 yet? If so, have you had problems since then?

(2) You now have a replacement HR21 in your hands with the promise of a AM21. Because you couldn't get the AM21 for free during your phone call, the saga has continued. Admittedly the communication has been poor beyond that, but again, part of it was because of you. Rather than calling DirecTV, the company that made the installation appointment, you called the installer to cancel it. Wrong move. If you have to change an appointment to get your teeth cleaned, do you do that by mentioning it to the hygienist when you happen to run into her at the supermarket or by calling the dentist, having the receptionist take care of the change?

At the worst, I would have paid the $50 and gotten $75 worth of credits on the backside. No install appointment. No more strum und drang. Problem solved.

(3) "I have already been patient enough." Oh, come on now. Because DirecTV, over the phone, can't fix an intermittent problem on a piece that was working fine when you called, you call that patience? How do you expect them to fix something that is working? Clairvoyance?

(4) The local installer should be carrying around a discontinued receiver (HR20) or a AM21 in their truck to take care of those in Tallahassee who want OTA? We don't get HD LiL here in LaCrosse, either, and my installer almost never installs an AM21. I've asked him.

Go. Find another service provider. Blow up a long term relationship over a $50 purchase that, if you have read these forums at all, you know you can get credits for. Fine. No sweat off of my nose.

What is causing this? To a large extent, you, AVPhan.

EDIT: Re-reading this thread, here are three other folks who managed to get a free AM21 from DirecTV. You're not going to like this, but if I knew they'd done it and I hadn't, I'd be even more inclined to see if I had created this whole snafu.

 

[AVPhan]

Thanks Carl and Miami,
How could you judge if you were not one being put on the situation.

Here are the scenarios for you.

1. You went and rent a car. The Rental car stalled and died on you multiple times. Every time you call, they asked you to try restarting the car, it restarted and run. After twice calling the rental co, they said, too bad it's still running, nothing they can do. So what do you want to do ?

2. Same scenario, this time they replaced the car for you but it came with three regular tires and one temporary spare. You can only go 50mph max. Oh, according to you, I should have just buy another tire, maybe they would credit me the money I spent.

Come on.

BTW, after a weekend trip, I returned to find out all USA recordings on HR20 are with a blank white screen with sound. Wonderful.

According to you,

A. I am just TOO UNREASONABLE to expect and demand the simple fact that the PVR needs to be reliable and record what I paid for. For the past three weeks, I have lost shows (wipe out disk), been unable to record or watch show reliably, not able to watch MLBEI HD games (which I paid full price for). My Panasonic Hard Disk recorder using VCR+, My Media Center, and HR10-250 are more reliable than that.

B. I am just TOO DEMANDING in requesting for a replacement for my defective RENTAL unit because as a paying Protection customer for the past 7+ year.

C. I am just TOO IMPATIENT to be on minimal of six phone calls to D* (explaining situation each time) including one that I was transfered a total of 7 times with explaination after each transfer, and three to install co for the SIMPLE NEED OF REPLACING THE DEFECTIVE UNIT WITH SAME MODEL AND CAPABILITY I need.

D. I am just too FAST to ready to severe a relationship with D* after all those years. I am just Asking for TOO MUCH from a company that I do business with. The programmers they have is a piece of work, no QA at all. Maybe they use same group to write their Help Desk system (incapable to taking notes regarding customer calls) and their Inventory system (incapable of tracking inventory of warehouse).

I am all that............

I am starting the ECCB now.

Miami, I guessed I was one that got on the 251 earlier. Looked like they rolled it back to 235 now. It had been stabled, no freezing, no power shutdown. Until the USA blank screen recording this weekend.

 

[Carl Spock]

Note: Some edits in AVPhan's original post were made to shorten this thing up.

Thanks Carl and Miami,
How could you judge if you were not one being put on the situation.

Oh, I see. We're allowed to read your diatribe but not comment negatively. OK. If I'd know those were the ground rules...

Here are the scenarios for you.

I don't see your analogies apply, but then, I didn't like mine much better. A better analogy is an absurd one. To use one of yours, you rent a car for 7 years and then have to drive on a spare for three weeks. Still, not a good analogy.

BTW, after a weekend trip, I returned to find out all USA recordings on HR20 are with a blank white screen with sound. Wonderful.

0x0235 wasn't much better than 0x0251 in my book. I still would have waited for 0x0254, but it's a free country.

A. I am just TOO UNREASONABLE to expect and demand the simple fact that the PVR needs to be reliable and record what I paid for.

No, you aren't. I just would have had more perspective. Machines break. It's the thing they do the best, much better than work well, in fact. I wouldn't have let 3 weeks of bad override 7 years of good.

In fact, you don't know this but I am more reliant on a working HR20 than you are. I have only one TV in the house. One DVR. One DirecTV tuner. When my HR20 goes down, I can't watch any TV. I really need a reliable DVR.

B. I am just TOO DEMANDING in requesting for a replacement for my defective RENTAL unit because as a paying Protection customer for the past 7+ year.

No you're not, even if you'd been a subscriber for just a month. I use and need OTA, and if my HR20 dies, I'll need a AM21 that I don't plan to pay for. I paid $299 for my HR20-700, and that was enough. But I can guarantee that I would have handled this situation differently. And I think I would have gotten success. Three other posters did. And if for some reason I didn't, I wouldn't have let stubborness get in the way. I would have paid the $50 and gotten credits on the back side.

C. I am just TOO IMPATIENT to be on minimal of six phone calls to D* (explaining situation each time) including one that I was transfered a total of 7 times with explaination after each transfer, and three to install co for the SIMPLE NEED OF REPLACING THE DEFECTIVE UNIT WITH SAME MODEL AND CAPABILITY I need.

No, you are foolish to call when your piece is working and expecting them to fix it. How about making just one call when it's actually not working? As for all your other calls, you have done an excellent job of taking a broken DVR and turning it into a crisis. Congratulations.

D. I am just too FAST to ready to severe a relationship with D* after all those years. I am just Asking for TOO MUCH from a company that I do business with. The programmers they have is a piece of work, no QA at all. Maybe they use same group to write their Help Desk system (incapable to taking notes regarding customer calls) and their Inventory system (incapable of tracking inventory of warehouse).

Now you're just riffing. How about staying with the facts?

Oh, and STOP YELLING. I think we have discovered one of the problems here.

I am starting the ECCB now.

The who? If that means you're moving on to a different service provider, then bye-bye. I hope you find satisfaction and happiness. A mod here once said it the best. You should be entertained by your entertainment, and obviously over the past few weeks, you haven't been. I wish you well.

 

[AVPhan]

Update, Finally after a few more calls AM21 was ordered and arrived. This was accomplished due in part to two CSRs who should be recognized for.

1. Called in four days ago and spoke to this CSR, explained to her what had gone through. She said would look into it and promised to get to the bottom of it. Promised that she would call me back to give me update.

2. Two days gone by, thinking it was another promise that were never kept.

3. Received call from D*, the CSR explained what needs to be done to get the AM21 ordered. If you have HR21, it had to be activated (replacement unit arrived but still sit on the floor) before AM21 can be ordered for it. So she activated the HR21 (without having to deactivate HR20, and I am now charged for two Leased DVRs for a few days), then ordered AM21.

4. AM21 arrived yesterday.