HR10-250 "Please activate DVR svc" with menu button reboot ...

[MidnightRider]

Searched this and the "other" forum without finding anything comparable to my situation:

I'm zippered and on 6.3c. A few weeks ago I started getting spontaneous reboots, and trolled forums for a few days reading various troubleshooting processes. Yesterday I decided to try a manual mfscheck, which forced a GSOD and ran for a couple hours. Upon reboot I got tv service but a message saying "Please activate your DVR service ...". Also, pressing the DTV menu button on the remote or panel reboots the device after a short delay.

I do still have telnet access ... tried to force another mfscheck and got this:

#mfscheck
InitializeProgramOrDie (mfscheck) failed: 0x11001

Also tried to force a kickstart on a reboot but the rec light never goes yellow when it's supposed to and entering the 57 or 58 codes do nothing.

Can anyone throw me some ideas about what I might try next? I'd rather not re-image if possible (losing recordings and invoking the Wrath of SWMBO), although I'm getting to that point.

[BruceShultes]

It may have nothing to do with your problem, but a few weeks ago, when I started to get the "Please activate DVR service" message, I removed the DirecTV authorization card and re-inserted it a few times.

This seemed to solve the problem. Apparently the contacts that read the card can become corroded over time, and this cleans them enough so that the card can be read again.

I did not use zipper, but my box has been expanded using InstantCake and is on 6.3c.