# 811 Lock Up/Freezing Problems



## C*Tedesco (Jan 31, 2004)

The Black Screen of Death continues for me with the 811. Usually it happens when I try and switch channels too fast. However, lately it's been freezing up when I'm simply watching something. This is getting highly annoying. Has anyone gone to Dish for a Swap out for a new 811 to solve this. This will be my next step.


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Yes, I know people who have done exchanges for this reason.

The question you have to answer however is are you DHA or still under warranty?


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## khearrean (Mar 24, 2004)

C*Tedesco said:


> The Black Screen of Death continues for me with the 811. Usually it happens when I try and switch channels too fast. However, lately it's been freezing up when I'm simply watching something. This is getting highly annoying. Has anyone gone to Dish for a Swap out for a new 811 to solve this. This will be my next step.


You didn't indicate if this was happening when watching OTA stations. If so, I'm having the same problem, but I didn't think it would be an 811 issue.

Ken


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## ee1995 (Feb 10, 2004)

I had several Complete lockups this weekend while switching OTA channels. Required reboot. Also, when using the browse function, I get a 'signa not found' error panel when going from one OTA to another but using the channle down then channel up keys usually teh new channel will lock.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

An unusual lock. Last night we had a power surge that turned off all electricity for less than one second. As a storm was brewing, when I turned the unit on, I went to system set up, to check signal strength (this was after watching programming for a minute or so). After checking signal, audio was locked on the signal squeal, the only thing that corrected that was turning the unit off then on again ( I had already tried several stations and re canceling out of signal test again.)


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## khearrean (Mar 24, 2004)

Since having my OTA antenna installed and now getting my HD locals, I'm seeing a freeze frame issue quite regularly (where the picture and audio just freeze).. It's actually occurring more on (1) particular channel. Whenever it does this, and I check signal strength, it shows 49%. The installer has been back several times to try & help me resolve it trying things like installing an in-line amp, running a separate lead instead of using a diplexer, etc. I'm beginning to believe it's my 811 as someone else recently suggested. My signal strengths are all good even on the channel that locks up when it is watchable. Does this sound like an 811 issue?

Ken


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## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

khearrean said:


> Since having my OTA antenna installed and now getting my HD locals, I'm seeing a freeze frame issue quite regularly (where the picture and audio just freeze).. It's actually occurring more on (1) particular channel. Whenever it does this, and I check signal strength, it shows 49%. The installer has been back several times to try & help me resolve it trying things like installing an in-line amp, running a separate lead instead of using a diplexer, etc. I'm beginning to believe it's my 811 as someone else recently suggested. My signal strengths are all good even on the channel that locks up when it is watchable. Does this sound like an 811 issue?
> 
> Ken


Not nessarily Ken. Narrowing it down to one OTA channel sure makes it sound like it could be the channel itself. Not to completely rule out multipath interference though. Ken, what hardware ID are you running? For Example LAFD-N.


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## moman19 (Oct 22, 2004)

C*Tedesco said:


> ......... Has anyone gone to Dish for a Swap out for a new 811 to solve this. This will be my next step.


Don't bother. It's not your hardware. I went thru the entire swap process, rewired my system, etc. No change. Although new releases seem to decrease the frequency of the BSOD, it still occurs and each new release introduces some new quirk.

So let's review:

BSOD still occurs.
No Info still occurs
Studdering or frame dropping still occurs.
No way to "see" a satellite when tuned to OTA station
942 introduced.
MPEG-2 to be replaced eventually

It doesn't look good the 811 will ever be bug free before it's put out to pasture like any ol' model 4000. Too bad Dish will never be straight with us. It's simply a buggy box. It works, but.............


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## khearrean (Mar 24, 2004)

C*Tedesco said:


> The Black Screen of Death continues for me with the 811. Usually it happens when I try and switch channels too fast. However, lately it's been freezing up when I'm simply watching something. This is getting highly annoying. Has anyone gone to Dish for a Swap out for a new 811 to solve this. This will be my next step.


Just to clarify for me, when everyone speaks of the BSOD, do I take that literally? A totally black screen w/no image? If that's the case, that's not what's happening to me. When I'm watching a local HD channel via the 811's OTA tuner, I'm getting a video freeze (as if I paused the picture); it may then unlock and go on as normal (repeating this several times) or it may go to a black screen w/the little rectangular box toward the bottom which says "Offair digital signal lost xxxxxxxxx."

Ken


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## moman19 (Oct 22, 2004)

khearrean said:


> Just to clarify for me, when everyone speaks of the BSOD, do I take that literally? A totally black screen w/no image? If that's the case, that's not what's happening to me. When I'm watching a local HD channel via the 811's OTA tuner, I'm getting a video freeze (as if I paused the picture); it may then unlock and go on as normal (repeating this several times) or it may go to a black screen w/the little rectangular box toward the bottom which says "Offair digital signal lost xxxxxxxxx."
> 
> Ken


Yes. In mycase, BSOD is just that. No image. No audio. Only a pilot light on front panel. Sometimes, I can be in the guide, notice a BSOD in the upper right corner where the picture should be. But by then it's too late. When I exit the guide I get the BSOD. With me, it seems to happen most often when I'm on ALL CHANNELS instead of SUBS or one of my favorites as I surf through a few channels. But it's simply not predictable. This is after shutting down nightly, auto-tuning to a sat channel, etc.

The scenario you describe sounds more like weak OTA signal or maybe multipath. Just a guess. With this box, who knows for sure??????


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## C*Tedesco (Jan 31, 2004)

Wow, I shouldn't have bothered with the swap, it solved absolutely nothing. It's not the hardware indeed. 

I'm not sure what we can do about this, but it is getting more frequent and annoying. I asked the customer rep if they had any clue what was going on, she was baffled to say the least. Comcast anyone?


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

I had a BSOD with audio on Component and DVI. Audio going through optical out. Unit worked on S-video (All connected all the time) But in the SD mode the aspect ratio did not and changing aspect in HD mode did not change aspect. This was on both HD and SD channels. Called tech support, went through a couple of tests. Authorized an exchange. Last night the old unit worked fine.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

C*Tedesco,

286 introduced BSOD back into the 811 codbase. I heard that it should be fixed in 288. As to frequency, I would be suprised that it is increasing with frequency over time. Might be that it gets more annoying over time having to deal with it and therefore seems to occur more frequently. I would hardly consider this a provider jump issue, but we all have our levels of frustration. 

288 is around the corner. Until then the soft reboot is a workaround. Ugly yes but still a work around.


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