HR10-250 crashes/blackouts

[Funky_K]

Hello all,
I have 2 HR10-250's that have recently started to give me trouble, and I'm curious if this is related to the season pass, guide data issue that many people are reporting.

I had no problems with the units for 1 1/2 years... but for the past month, both machines periodically crash. I get nothing but a black screen, can't pull up the guide, menus, etc.
In order to correct the problem, I have to physically remove the power cord and plug it back in.
This happens at lease twice a week... both units are affected, but they never both "crash" at the same time.

Is this related to some kind of recent update? Any way to fix the problem?

BTW, I am also having problems with the season pass recordings/todo list.

Thanks

BTW, sorry for the double post... went to the wrong forum first time.

[jerrylin]

Many people have had this problem recently, including me. It's not clear if this is 6.3 or bad guide data. I recently cleared my guide data and I've been trouble free, but it's only been 4 days.

[shelland]

Sounds like the upgrade problems people have been reporting for a few months. My telephone line remains unplugged for this reason...

[Funky_K]

I spoke with a DTV tech support rep today about the problem.

My machines are currently running 6.3a software. He suggested I wait for the 6.3b update (sometime within the next week). If the problem continues he said I should do a full clean and delete on both receivers because my HDDs probably have bad sectors, which is causing the crashes.

If that doesn't work, he said they would send out a repair tech, who would probalby replace both units.

Does this sound like good advice?

He also told me DTV is working on a fix for the bad guide data problem which will be addressed with a software update as soon as the problem is solved.

When I asked for compensation for my trouble, he gave me $5 off my bill for the next 3 months... woohoo!!

[bellbm]

I sat down at about 10 tonight to watch Law & Order CI and Law & Order SVU, and found my HD Directivo unit frozen. Only to get it started was to yank out the powercord.
Nothing recorded all day, so who knows when this happened.

I have to go out of town tomorrow, I never thought I would need a babysitter for my Tivos/ Perhaps I should fire up the VCR just in case.

[curbside]

I came home from work today and found my unit frozen as well. I had to unplug it and reset it. Worked fine all evening.

[paciorek]

Just to add to the chorus -- mine has been freezing off-and-on since October. The past couple days it's been freezing multiple times per day. It's getting annoying.

[bpratt]

I spoke with a DTV tech support rep today about the problem.

My machines are currently running 6.3a software. He suggested I wait for the 6.3b update (sometime within the next week). If the problem continues he said I should do a full clean and delete on both receivers because my HDDs probably have bad sectors, which is causing the crashes.

If that doesn't work, he said they would send out a repair tech, who would probalby replace both units.

Does this sound like good advice?

He also told me DTV is working on a fix for the bad guide data problem which will be addressed with a software update as soon as the problem is solved.

When I asked for compensation for my trouble, he gave me $5 off my bill for the next 3 months... woohoo!!
I did a "clear and delete everything on 6.3b to hopefully fix problems I was having. It seemed to work for about 4 days, then more lockups, reboots and missed recordings. At that point I restored both my HR10-250s back to 3.1.5f and they have both worked flawlessly since.

[Funky_K]

I did a "clear and delete everything on 6.3b to hopefully fix problems I was having. It seemed to work for about 4 days, then more lockups, reboots and missed recordings. At that point I restored both my HR10-250s back to 3.1.5f and they have both worked flawlessly since.

Is there any way to restore back to 3.1.5f on a stock HR10-250 without opening the boxes and taking out the HDD?

[thepackfan]

Is there any way to restore back to 3.1.5f on a stock HR10-250 without opening the boxes and taking out the HDD?


No

[TX21]

Been haveing the same problem also, mine says

"activate your dvr service" before I spend more money on a new box I wanna fix mine HELP!! Once I take it appart and get the HDD out what do I do?

[dbuchthal]

I had lots of hangs and deletes with 6.3. Rolling back to 3.1.5f using InstantCake fixed my problems 100%. Now if only Season Passes and Wish Lists would work properly...

[sand1968]

I'm in the same boat. I just picked up a 10-250 off eBay. It worked fine for the first two weeks, but the last few days it's frozen up about every 36 hours.

I've been reading about InstantCake on this thread - can anyone direct me to a FAQ?

[JimSpence]

I don't believe there is an FAQ about InstantCake, but I'm sure a search would find a thread that is appropriate.

[bpratt]

I'm in the same boat. I just picked up a 10-250 off eBay. It worked fine for the first two weeks, but the last few days it's frozen up about every 36 hours.

I've been reading about InstantCake on this thread - can anyone direct me to a FAQ?
Try this site:
http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/instantcake.cfm

[HolyRoses]

Hello all,
I have 2 HR10-250's that have recently started to give me trouble, and I'm curious if this is related to the season pass, guide data issue that many people are reporting.

I had no problems with the units for 1 1/2 years... but for the past month, both machines periodically crash. I get nothing but a black screen, can't pull up the guide, menus, etc.
In order to correct the problem, I have to physically remove the power cord and plug it back in.
This happens at lease twice a week... both units are affected, but they never both "crash" at the same time.

Is this related to some kind of recent update? Any way to fix the problem?

BTW, I am also having problems with the season pass recordings/todo list.

Thanks

BTW, sorry for the double post... went to the wrong forum first time.


Odd, i have that exact same problem with mine. I just went to this site today to see if a new update was pushed out because I noticed i am running 6.3b. Maybe this will stop the freezing. But ya I have been experiencing the EXACT same problem. Very annoying.

-HR

[sebman]

My HR10-250 was working great w/6.3a, the upgrade that provides folders for storing multiple episodes of the same show. It was also much more responsive than the previous version. :)

Now, however, with 6.3b, I am getting momentary freezes, slow response to commands entered on the remote, and even occasional reboots. :mad:

I guess I should have unplugged the phone cord right after the 6.3a upgrade... Is there anyway to rollback?

[Cubfan]

I just wanna kick all these people that were constantly whining about wanting 6.3. Here it is, and look what they've got. I had years of trouble-free service until this.

[Klips]

While I posted this in another thread, I just have to mention this agian.

Never had any crashes of the system until 6.x.

Now, the only time that this system locks is between the hours of 12:00PM and 4:00PM.

Very weird indeed. But it is true and has been this way every single week for over 3 months. Never crashes at night. Never crashes during a weekend. I was off the week between XMAS and New Years and didn't crash.

A hard drive doesn't know or care what time or day it is. So this IS software! Even if it is guide data, it's still software

[TX21]

While I posted this in another thread, I just have to mention this agian.

Never had any crashes of the system until 6.x.

Now, the only time that this system locks is between the hours of 12:00PM and 4:00PM.

Very weird indeed. But it is true and has been this way every single week for over 3 months. Never crashes at night. Never crashes during a weekend. I was off the week between XMAS and New Years and didn't crash.

A hard drive doesn't know or care what time or day it is. So this IS software! Even if it is guide data, it's still software

I give up. I don't know how to load a new updates or check my hard drive. I have 6.2 and Direct Tv is gonna fix my crap on Sunday. :(

[bwaldron]

I just wanna kick all these people that were constantly whining about wanting 6.3. Here it is, and look what they've got. I had years of trouble-free service until this.

Yep, blame the users. Many of us have had trouble-free use of 6.2 on the SD units, and didn't find it unreasonable to request a similar speedup for the HR10. The problem was D* releasing the upgrade supplied by Tivo without doing enough testing first. Nobody asked for the bugs.

If you don't want software upgrades, it's easy to unplug the phone line. If you've received one and want to revert to 3.1.5, you can do that as well via InstantCake. Then make and keep an image of your software.

[Tony Chick]

I too am having crashing problems now with 6.3b. Oddly I didn't see any with 6.3 or 6.3a. I was watching a recorded OTA program last night when the screen pixelated just like a reception problem had occurred and then it rebooted. When it came back up, I fast forwarded to just before where it crashed and resumed watching, and there were no problems where it pixelated before. I was able to watch the rest of the program without a problem.

[Janice805]

I do not have 6.3b yet but lately have been experiencing problems with my HR10-250. (Of course the SEASON PASS issue which now seems to have straightened itself out.)

Today I notice no RED light when it should have been RECORDING. Grabbed my remote and the box was completely unresponsive to the remote, which has been happening more and more lately, but worse, ........

a black screen. Nothing. No picture. Couldn't get ANYTHING on the TV. Had to pull the plug on the HR10-250 and restart the recorder. This is twice now.

What's going on???? I think it's a conspiracy to push their HR20'S ... LOL. Of course this is NOT funny. Having so many problems with my reliable TIVO DVR is very aggravating because that was my workhorse (couldn't count on the HR20).

Aarg !!!!

[toddpayne@sbcglo]

It happened to me while watching the Saints/Eagles game last night with about 6 mins left....bad timing. I had to pull the plug and reboot. Also was recording last the game last night and it stopped recording just over 2 hours into it...what is that about?

[dbex]

Me too...
I was having freezes during '24' last night. Nothin worse than watchin Jack chase a terrorist and Chloe is tracking him on the satellite and...pooof your DirecTivo first pixelizes then locks up. I had to switch to the OTA so I didn't miss anything.

[gbubar]

I recently got 6.3b and had nothing but problems last night. I am having partial recordings, basically to the first "tick" and then the program stops recording. It happened with Rome on channel 70 and then with 24 on channel 89. I checked my other recordings and it seems it also happened on the movie Firewall (recorded on Sat). The scary thing is my 2 HR20's have now become more stable than my two HR10-250's

[RexB]

I had freezes, restarts, and a balky guide on 6.3a around Christmas time. Unplugged a couple of times and it has been fine since, no probs at all (sans Fox ota dropout, don't watch Fox much.)

Phoneline is unplugged, don't need 6.3b or its potential problems. Unless 6.3a starts messing up again.

KoW

Edit 1/17: Bit the bullet, plugged the phoneline in and dl'd v6.3b. It didn't skrew anything up yet, season passes are still recording, and all is good so far after a day and a half.

[Klips]

Maybe this is DirecTV's way of getting use to move on and away from our Tivo based systems. How better to taint our feelings about the unit.

Just a thought....

[Benji69]

I am having the same problem running 6.3.b. I do not have my phoneline plugged in but it still got the upgrade. Why is this happening. I dont want to go to a h20