# BUG REPORT: Basic Functions failing on 921. Then 921 crashes quite suddenly.



## Schaefling (Jan 4, 2004)

I tried timer recordings for three shows tonight all in SD at 480i at 4X3 #1. I tried to tape Star Trek on UPN and two back to back half hour Curb Appeals on HGTV. Only the last Curb Appeal taped. The other two shows completely failed to record on the DVR. Now I can understand but not like the fact my 921 is having problems with OTA HD reception and recording but this is very basic stuff. Is the 921 so unreliable we are going to get regular droputs on SD 480i recorded shows? If so I must say I will be monumentally disappointed.


My wife had a second problem later tonight. She tried changing the channel from a local channel to HGTV and she suddenly lost the picture and a re-boot was started. Again this is really basic stuff. Simply changing channels causes the 921 to spontanously lose picture and re-boot. Again we were watching in SD at 480i in 4X3 #1 which one would think would be extremely stable. And once again I musk ask is this going to ba regular problem with the 921? If simple channel changing is going to cause occassional crashes then my disappoint is going to go way beyond monumental!

Well, it is now 90 minutes later and my 921 is still not working. After talking to Dish Network it is possible that my installation was done wrong. Apparrently both coaxial inputs from the Satellite to the 921 must come off of the same DP 34 switch. Since I have two DP 34 switches it is possible that one input is coming from each of the switches. Strangely enough DISH tech support is saying that even with this incorrect setup the 921 could work for several days before failing and the fact that I have been turning it off for ten to twelve hours each night and morning may actually have extended the time before the 921 began malfunctioning.

The bad news is that if it is not the switches then the likelihood is a failure of the 921 and it will probably have to be returned. This would be a real disaster from my point of view. 

And to think all this happened simply from switching channels! This goes beyong absurd in my book!

Schaefling


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## wcswett (Jan 7, 2003)

Schaefling said:


> After talking to Dish Network it is possible that my installation was done wrong. Apparrently both coaxial inputs from the Satellite to the 921 must come off of the same DP 34 switch.


The 721 is the same way.

--- WCS


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## peterd (Dec 17, 2003)

Welcome to the 921. What you are reporting squares with my experience (see this thread for more).

The situations you described all involve some OTA, which seems to be the major area of instability. The fact that you're using the SD 480i 4x3 #1 output is immaterial since conversion of the output is basically last in the chain before display. The instability is occuring at the beginning of the chain (handling tuner input). Hopefully we'll get a software download soon! In the meantime, try these tips...


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Schaefling - I need you to describe exactly how you defined the timers, step by step. 

And I need you to describe in as much detail as possible what you or your wife were doing prior to the channel change that caused the crash. These kinds of crashes are usually the result of a number of events that led up to it, not the final event. So, in this case, changing channels wasn't what caused the crash, but something that had been going on at some time before it.


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## Schaefling (Jan 4, 2004)

Apparrently Dish tech support was right. The installation guy thought he had put the two input channels for the 921 from the satellite on the same DP34 switch but he was wrong. Once he corrected the situation the 921 started working correctly again. I have not recorded anything since so I don't know if the timer failing to record was a separate issue. Dish tech support indicated that if the two input channels were on different DP34 switches the 921 could experience all sorts of glitches so there is no way to know for sure. Just remember I have 4 receivers meaning 5 connections from the Satellite 500 now that I have a 921 which is why 2 DP 34 switches were required. Anybody with three receivers or less won't have to worry about this problem or anybody who gets the DPP44 switch down the road.

Unfortunately in fixing my 921 the installation guy somehow killed the picture to my 501 which is now in the master bedroom. He is coming back tomorrow to fix the problem. I think he may have inadvertently disconnected my coaxial cable input line to the 501 as he indicated that there was one coax line which he had no idea what it did! He thinks one of the DP34 switches has a bad input. We shall find out who is right when he returns for the third time in a week. 

So the saga of the glitchy 921 continues. Please tell me future products from DISH will be easier to install! I love Dish Network but this has been a rather stressful experience to say the least!

Okay, Mark, since you asked here is my step by step on the timers and what was happening when the 921 suddenly crashed.

My wife and I were watching regular satellite channels on Wednesday night in SD mode at 480i at 4X3 #1. I had not watched any HD stuff since Tuesday night when I stayed up late to see Sniper 2 in HD. My wife took a nap from 7 to 9 pm after coming off a long nursing shift at the hospital. We both were using our computers after that until about 11 PM. While we were away from the HDTV and the 921 I set timers for Curb Appeal on HGTV and for Star Trek on WWOR.

I set the time for Star Trek to tape one minute early and go three minutes late which is the default setting. I set the first Curb Appeal to start a minute early but not to go over because the second Curb Appeal started right after it. The second Curb Appeal I set to start on time O minutes early and to end on time 0 minutes late. None of the timers overlapped although that should not have been a problem anyway with two satellite receivers in the 921. Only the second Curb Appeal taped to the DVR. Enterprise and the first Curb Appeal failed to tape at all.

I had taped several shows prior to this in both HD and SD and had no problems. Prior to failing to tape the 921 was working just fine. I have not made any attempts to use HD or analog OTA channels for several days because of the OTA tuner bug so accessing OTA channels had nothing to do with the recording failures or the sudden crash later in the evening.

As for the sudden crash my wife tried to change to channel 112 HGTV from one of the HBO channels in the 300s. We were still watching in SD at 480i in 4X3 #1. Just like that as she changed the channel the 921 suddenly crashed. After talking with Dish tech support the problem was determined to be failure to put both inputs to the 921 on the same DP34 switch which is exactly what turned out to be the problem. Unfortunately like I said before in fixing the 921 in my living room the installer disabled my 501 in the bedroom and this will have to be fixed tomorrow. 

I hope all this info helps Mark.


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## Schaefling (Jan 4, 2004)

The repair guy from the retailer came back today and got my 501 in the master bedroom working again. Apparrently a connection had gone bad where the coaxial cable ran into the Dish 500 satellite itself. I am now hoping this solves everything and I can enjoy my 921 without any more major problems. We shall see.


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