video freezing constantly

[jp233]

my Hughes SC-DVR40 now has a constantly freezing picture. It started this past weekend, out of nowhere.

The unit was not on a UPS for 6 months after i bought it (refurb from ebay), but only once do I recall the power going out. For the last month or so, it has been on a UPS.

Now I had recently upgraded the drive again to a 500gb (2 weeks prior), so I thought it might have had to do with that.

I had left the 160gb drive on a shelf just to be sure the upgrade went well, so I put that back in the unit and it is doing the same thing (read: two known-good drives are both exhibiting the same problems).

The video freezes constantly, and i just turned it back on to see if anything had changed from yesterday, and it will go in and out of saying "searching for signal on sat 2"...

I checked the s/w and its still on 6.2, so it hasnt gotten the new 6.2a yet (which seems strange to me, considering the DST change is coming up in a week).

I have tried S-video and AV, no change.

Are my tuners dying/dead? Or is there something else I can try ???

I hope the unit itself isnt dead, I havent even had this one a year. And since I have 100+ hours of recordings (hence why i upgraded to a 500gigger), I'd hate to lose this stuff, so I'd be forced to get another Hughes SD-DVR in order for the HDs i have now to work and preserve recordings.


edit: well doing the sat strength meter, my tuner #2 is dead. I ran auto sat setup, and it seemed to come back fine but still does the same thing (tuner #1 freezes constantly, tuner #2 is dead totally).

is there anything I can do, solder new parts to the board, etc ? Or do I need to go shopping..... again.

[John T Smith]

>tuner #1 freezes constantly, tuner #2 is dead totally

You did, of course, swap the input coax lines to verify the problem was not with the coax?

You also checked all connections, from LNB to DTivo, to veryify no weather caused connection problems?

[jp233]

I didnt swap the coax inputs, but both inputs worked fine on the other Tivo box (I tried swapping tivo's to make sure it wasnt the switch or coax). but hell I'm out of ideas so I'll try swapping coax lines also.

All other DTV boxes work fine, so I dont think its the service or dish-related.

[John T Smith]

Ok... if the 2 coax lines work with another DTivo, that would indicate this particular box is just about dead

[jp233]

update: now the tivo works perfectly fine?

I watched 24 on the hd box and took the tivo off standby. it still had the red light on meaning it did record 24 for me also, while in standby mode.

anyways, i flip it back on and both tuners work fine.

since the box had been unplugged since saturday/sunday when it originally died and i yanked it, and since i knew the thing needs the 6.2a software, i tried to make it phone home.

it says its "pending restart" and will not make a phone call because it needs to wait until 2am so it can reboot and finish installing new software.

great. did directv's push of 6.2a make my tivo crap out for a few days? :confused: i was under the impression that they got the s/w from the dish, not the phone line. (at least that is what DTV told me the other day)

in this config, i have the old(er) 160gb drive in it, so I am hoping tomorrow after it gets the s/w update, I can toss the 500gb drive back in it, and let it download the new software on that.

uggghhh

[goony]

great. did directv's push of 6.2a make my tivo crap out for a few days? :confused: Some people have reported that DirecTV has seemingly halted the rollout of the V6.1a/V6.2a software (cannot get it via satellite or phone-in in the last few days), so maybe there is an "issue" with it and they have halted the rollout.

i was under the impression that they got the s/w from the dish, not the phone line. (at least that is what DTV told me the other day)
New software rollouts are via the satellite, later when they aren't interested in getting them out fast & furious (i.e. maybe after a month or so) they are removed from the satellite stream and are then only available via a phone call.

Even if the unit gets the software from the satellite it won't install it until the box does a "phone home" and gets the go-ahead from the DirecTV system to install the update.

[jp233]

just to update,

my tivo downloaded the 6.2a s/w last night and was working fine this afternoon. This was with the 160gb drive i have. Once I confirmed both tuners worked fine, and everything else seemed to work fine, I installed the 500gb drive (which is the one I really want in the box for good).

BTW the message I got said for more info to head to http://directv.com/dvr62upgrade -- which just talks about the original 6.2 upgrade about 2 years ago.... doesnt have anything referring to 6.2a, new DST stuff for 2007, etc.

anyways the 500gb booted fine and I immediately got a message saying it needed to phone home etc. It gave the "pending restart" msg again so I am assuming its going to d/l the 6.2a s/w tonight at 2am. Both tuners work fine on the 500gb drive so this leads me to believe that....

DTV's push of the 6.2a software somehow screwed up my receiver and was causing the video freezing.... fantastic. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :down:

[goony]

BTW the message I got said for more info to head to http://directv.com/dvr62upgrade -- which just talks about the original 6.2 upgrade about 2 years ago.... doesn' have anything referring to 6.2a, new DST stuff for 2007, etc.Others have reported this - DirecTV didn't bother to update the original splash/info screen that greeted you back then, so you get to see it all over again.

[dmkuehn]

I am having the freezing/rebooting problem too right after the 6.2a update - DirecTV was not too helpful think I got to a level 2 person, the first person was actually going to try to reinstall the update! Their final statement is that is was a TIVO software issue, not their fault. Yeah right but this is a partnership though now strained that they are fully obligated to support because their are a lot of DirecTV customers with the original TIVOs (before their crappy R15 came out) and certainly many of us who are scrounging EBay for the DirecTV TIVO units. It is the 247 hr unit that is acting poorly, the other Samsung and the Phillips took the update without any issues. Thankfully the update will not be issued for the Sony T-60 (a very nice unit albeit on older software) and strangely enough my wife's R10 may not have the update yet (I haven't checked since last night) - one can only hope that it is a TIVO software issue that they are going to address soon!

2 Samsung SIR-4120's, one upgraded to 247 hrs 2nd drive
Phillips 708 stock
Sony SAT T60 over 200 hrs 2nd drive
DirecTV R-10 stock
DirecTV R-15 argh!
DirecTV D10,D11 tuners
Sony SVR 7000 bought at estate sale lifetime warranty sweet!

[jp233]

well dunno what else to tell you other than maybe force it to phone home (if you can get the menus to play ball long enough).... mine did not have a booting problem, just the video being choppy and freezing. but it also happened with the menus so I was out of options and just swapped the hard drive

(this is EXACTLY why i've kept the other hard drives on a shelf rather than wiping them clean and using them in a PC). I'd rather have the backup in case SHTF (stuff hits the fan)...

if you can get nowhere trying stuff on your own, demand to speak with the technical department and ask specifically with someone who knows TIVO's (not their damn junk DVR). I've found in the last year or so less and less CSR's know tivo even exists, they must have a high turnover rate at DTV (revolving door) because a lot of the folks I've spoken to dont know that there is a difference between REAL TIVO and DVR. (terrible) someone at DTV might be able to re-send you the 6.2a or just put you back onto 6.2 so that you can just run that box without a phone line and not get the DST update.

there is a thread on how to avoid the 6.2a crap (if you are lucky enough to be in central, mtn, or pac time zone). I am not so lucky as I'm on the right coast :)