# 721



## ckw (Nov 9, 2003)

i have a 501 that works great.I have the opportunity to buy a 721 cheap from a friend of.prollem is he was trying to screw with it and dumped some menus or something like that .Anyways he locked something up and now it will not power up.My question is is this thing worth buying or is he just trying to unload it now?
I can get this unit for a couple hundred dollars and was just wondering is it worth it or go ahead and get a new one?Any info would be apreciated


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## pjmrt (Jul 17, 2003)

ckw said:


> i have a 501 that works great.I have the opportunity to buy a 721 cheap from a friend of.prollem is he was trying to screw with it and dumped some menus or something like that .Anyways he locked something up and now it will not power up.My question is is this thing worth buying or is he just trying to unload it now?
> I can get this unit for a couple hundred dollars and was just wondering is it worth it or go ahead and get a new one?Any info would be apreciated


Without knowing more, I'd recommend strongly against it. You can easily get the receiver replaced under warranty (regular or extended - even if you don't already have the extended warranty). But if its locked up and your friend was tampering with it (like I said, don't know) - I'd be very careful. Dish probably won't fix that free and unless your a technician,.... you could be left paying a whole lot for something only good for parts. I'd recommend that you have your friend send it to dish for repair (if you need the extended warranty, and he doesn't already have it - it probably would cost about $50 or so). Dish would ship your friend a replacement unit which you buy for the couple hundred dollars + the ~$50 repair fee. If what your friend was doing is on the level - no problems. If not, well then its your friend's problem to sort out.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

If he didnt TAMPER with the box, then add it to your account wait 31 days and RMA it. Did he try a NVRAM reset?


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## ckw (Nov 9, 2003)

Im not sure exactly what he did he was talking about trying to reset it and hit flash read and when he did that it just locked and will not do anything now.The HD spins up and all he says but has no front panel lights or video.Not sure if it is worth buying if it cannt be fixxed.But sure was a cheap price.Like they always say if it sounds to good to be true then it probably is.


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## chris_h (Mar 19, 2003)

ckw said:


> Im not sure exactly what he did he was talking about trying to reset it and hit flash read and when he did that it just locked and will not do anything now.The HD spins up and all he says but has no front panel lights or video.Not sure if it is worth buying if it cannt be fixxed.But sure was a cheap price.Like they always say if it sounds to good to be true then it probably is.


Here is what I did to get my 721 out of brick mode when it suffered from the 64 timer limit bug. This may work for you (if you get your friend to lend you the 721 prior to purchase).

1. Unplug unit and wait 1 minute for hard drive to spin down.
2. Unplug smart card
3. Plug unit back in
4. I left the room for about 30 minutes here, so I do not know how long
it really took, but when I returned the "system info" screen was up.
5. Plug back in smart card.
6. In out 3 minutes it booted okay, but shut off.
7. Turn unit back on and delete a timer.

From: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=10838

You may find other useful tips in this thread, if the above sequence does not work:


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

Although waiting for the system info screen was recommended for the 5XX series, I read somewhere that DISH recommends against this on the 721. Just push the card right back in.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Theres also pull cover and unplug connector to do the NVRAM reset. I heard about this with my box that had the 65 tuner bug that would go into continious reboot.

Its worth a try at least.


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## ckw (Nov 9, 2003)

well i tied all of the above as i finally got him to let me try it.No success with anything.I really think he has screwed this unit up.Thanks for all of the advice guys


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## ckw (Nov 9, 2003)

Well i finally got the truth straight from the horses mouth my friend and a guy he knows thought they would be cute and try and hack one of these units.They went into a hidden menu and tried to read the box keys and thats when the unit locked up.Anyways ive read that this kills the unit.I can get the unit for a 100 bucks now and i think the hard drive is worth that if it will work in my computer .Anyone know if this drive will work in a pc or can the ird be saved.Thanks in advance


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## retiredTech (Oct 27, 2003)

ckw said:


> Well i finally got the truth straight from the horses mouth my friend and a guy he knows thought they would be cute and try and hack one of these units.They went into a hidden menu and tried to read the box keys and thats when the unit locked up.Anyways ive read that this kills the unit.I can get the unit for a 100 bucks now and i think the hard drive is worth that if it will work in my computer .Anyone know if this drive will work in a pc or can the ird be saved.Thanks in advance


$100 is too high a price even if you could use the hard drive.
(there no teliing if they did real damage to the drive or just the software)

pricewatch.com has 120gig drives for $75 + $5 ship = $80


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## ckw (Nov 9, 2003)

i kind of thought that but wasnt sure.I was hoping someone would know how i can fix the dvr as im afraid to send it to E as they may say that I did something to the ird.I cannt afford a new one right now since its so close to christmas and i dont get child support for my 2 kids so i guess ill just have to wait for now.It would have been good to put in the kids room for there cartoons.


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## rcwilcox (Jan 20, 2003)

ckw said:


> i kind of thought that but wasnt sure.I was hoping someone would know how i can fix the dvr as im afraid to send it to E as they may say that I did something to the ird.I cannt afford a new one right now since its so close to christmas and i dont get child support for my 2 kids so i guess ill just have to wait for now.It would have been good to put in the kids room for there cartoons.


Go ahead and buy it you can't go too far wrong. Ship it off to E* and plead ignorance. Say you bought it at a garage sale and throw yourself at their mercy. I think it is worth the gamble for a couple hundred you could end up with a 500 machine.


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## boba (May 23, 2003)

Or you could end up with a $500 repair bill for tampering with the receiver. If you just want a receiver for the kids you can get a new DP301 from DISH for $99.00 or a DVR510 for $99.00 with a 1 year commitment.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

That's assuming that E* would even agree to fix it after it was obvious that it had been tampered with. Not only will they assume YOU are the pirate, but you could get stuck with an expensive paperweight.

XBox did it to me. My DVD-ROM drive was mulfunctioning, so I opened it to blow out any dust and debris that was interfering with the laser. It worked better for about three month and then the problem came back and got even worse. I tried to get them to repair it and they said that it wouldn't be repaired since it was "tampered with".

No biggie. The repair would have cost $99 + shipping. I got a new XBox with two games and extra controller, a steering wheel (A Best Buy exclusive deal) , and new components (I had one of the first ones to roll off the line in October 2001) for $179. I had the memory card so I was able to copy all of my save games and my XBox Live account. Plus I've got a slightly flaky one in teh closet that I can system link together and play Halo (this game was more forgiving as it would take longer to load but wouldn't crash like most of the other games)


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I would not put very much money into this receiver, perhaps $50 since its a big risk. I think $100 might be too much unless the hard drive is good. There should be some way somehow to detect whether the receiver has been opened before or not. Isn't there a sticker that is placed over the cover that indicate that it is still sealed or are the screws sealed indicating it has not been tampered with before?


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