# EHD Issue with L4.49 (moved from Ext. HDD now spins up from Sleep mode.)



## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> So it sounds like it still is an issue with L4.49 right SkipperTW? My advice is always with EHD is go with the basic USB drive. More the drive can do the more likely there is going to be an incompatibility with the 622/722. Definitely don't need the bells and whistles if this is going to be the only use for this drive.


I just replaced my WD Essential 320 that apparently "died" with L4.49. I archived some 30 minutes programs and a few movies to the new unit and when I tried to playback one of them, it quit about 20 minutes into it as if it reached the end. Now, everyone one of my recordings finishes as soon as I select Start Over. I installed this EHD three days ago. At this point I get an error if I try to archive anything. My first drive worked for quite a few months until the day I received L4.49. The replacement died the first time I tried to playback a recording. Coincidence or L4.49?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Strange TulsaOk.. i have used my WD essential 250GB a number of times and Have not ran into an issue. Wonder if something went wrong with your update and the issue is in your 622. Are you getting any other issues with your 622/722?


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Strange TulsaOk.. i have used my WD essential 250GB a number of times and Have not ran into an issue. Wonder if something went wrong with your update and the issue is in your 622. Are you getting any other issues with your 622/722?


I assume the problem is with my receiver, which is too bad since it's been pretty solid since I've had it. After L4.49 there have been a few transient things like reboots that I never had before. I remember rewinding to the beginning of the buffer only to have it switch to Live TV when it got to the beginning but that's not repeatable. Of course, the biggie is the EHD. I bought the drive to increase my capacity to the level of the 722 without the expense of upgrading and committing to another 24 months. Now, two drives and over $200 later, I still have a 622 with a 30 hour capacity. What a pisser.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

Yesterday, I watched a movie on my EHDD, and after 8 min. or so, it paused, like I hit the pause button. BTW it was one of my all time favorites "Soylent Green".

I had to watch 8 min at a time, and hit the stop button, and wait 30 seconds for the resume screen to appear. This was living hell, but would not let this movie go!

Today, thinking that something got corrupted, and was a fluke, I started to watch another movie on that drive, and the same thing is happening!

I'm restoring this movie to the receiver, and will see if 449 hasn't corrupted everything in my archives.

I have never had this problem before 449. It just keeps getting better!


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

I haven't watched any recording since 449, but just got a rude jolt ... similar to those described above. I can move recordings from the 622 to the EHD (a seagate 750) but cannot watch more than a few moments before lockup. I've tried moving the movies back to the 622's HD without success. After about 8 or so minutes, the system errors out and the EHD disappears from the system. This requires a reboot. 

I have moved movies from the main HD to the EHD but can't go backwards. I'm glad to see that I'm not alone, but I'm extraordinarily disappointed. 

I had used the system agent that came with the seagate to turn off sleep mode, so that shouldn't be the problem. 

This is a real bummer. I have about 45 movies archived. Very unfortunate.

Any ideas? I will complain to Dish. It may help to have everyone with problems with this particular problem try to file a problem report.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

SingleAction said:


> Yesterday, I watched a movie on my EHDD, and after 8 min. or so, it paused, like I hit the pause button. BTW it was one of my all time favorites "Soylent Green".
> 
> I had to watch 8 min at a time, and hit the stop button, and wait 30 seconds for the resume screen to appear. This was living hell, but would not let this movie go!
> 
> ...


Let me know if the movie restores properly. On mine, when it screws up on the EHD, it restores it screwed up as well.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

Update!

The restored movie on the receiver drive played perfect.

But the time to restore the movie from the ext. drive took much longer then normal.

I think this all has to do with the 449's fix " External Hard Drive Transfer fixes"

rbyers, I'm sorry to hear about your loss of 45 movies, very unfortunate, indeed.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

I take the last post back!

I must say that I'm very upset with my latest experience this afternoon.

I tried to watch an hour show on the ext hd, and after a minute, it locked up, I restored it to the receiver, and it worked fine for about 20 minutes, and locked up when I tried to ff through the commercials. 

I had to wait 30 seconds and was able to resume, as long I didn't try to zoom though the commercials.

With 19 minutes left of the program, I got a digital pixalized light show, and the receiver went into a reboot.

From there it was all down hill, with a continuous loop of reboots.

So much for 449's fix for "Reboot Fixes"

I thought for sure that the receiver was toast, and tried unplugging and it wouldn't display anything that it normally would, like searching for sats.

Finally, after 25 mins, and unplugging it several times, I was able to get it back!

I don't know what to say at this point, but I know it's not the hardware!


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## PittsbuRgh R (Jan 22, 2005)

TulsaOK said:


> Let me know if the movie restores properly. On mine, when it screws up on the EHD, it restores it screwed up as well.


I have also had similar issues since 4.49. I have restored items that were then corrupted once back on the receiver. I have had shows just disappear off the EHD after stopping mid-stream. Another wierd thing I have seen is after having the EHD freakout, when accessing the listing of events, drive shows a severely truncated list of events (like 3 v. 100 normally shown), however this list includes items that don't show on the EHD after a reboot of the receiver.

Yesterday had a show that was watching off the EHD which stopped mid-stream (lets say 5 min or less into the show). could not restart the show after the error. However, without rebooting the receiver - unplugged (disconnected the power to the EHD) the EHD for a few a minutes then plugged it back in (got the msg the USB device removed by doing this, then the usb device connected do you want to manage), but was able to restore this same show that previously quit playing to the DVR and playback from the DVR w/o any problems.


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

Something is truly squirrelly for some of us. See post #5 above for earlier details.

I did call Dish Tech Support with mixed results. The first young man told me that my Seagate sucked and that it was my problem. There is nothing wrong with the dish receiver or release 449. I tried again and a young lady did offer to take a problem report and forward it to engineering. And (hold on to your hats here) she did an amazing thing... she used her head. After listening to my tail of woe, she asked if I had tried to use the EHD on my other 622. I'd thought of it, but hadn't done so. She asked me to try it and let them know. So I did. Guess what, the EHD performed flawlessly on the 2nd 622. After a couple of hours, I took the EHD back to the 1st 622, where it failed in about 2 minutes. 

As the young lady asked, I called Dish again and they are sending me another 622 (this one's about 2 years old). I don't exactly know what has happened to the failure report that I tried to get them to send. If they write it off as a USB failure, that doesn't help anyone else. I think this is a serious enough problem to get some work done on this interface. It seems to be quite inconsistent ... and it could be that the problem is in the USB hardware/code. 

Also, please note that my problems with restoration had to do with transferring movies. I might be able to transfer smaller programs, but don't have any on the EHD.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

rbyers said:


> Also, please note that my problems with restoration had to do with transferring movies. I might be able to transfer smaller programs, but don't have any on the EHD.


I haven't been successful restoring anything, especially 30 minute programs from the Science Channel.


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## MVL999 (May 14, 2004)

I am having the same problems with my EHD(WD MY BOOK ESSENTIAL EDITION 500GB) ever since L449. Prior to this it worked great. THANKS FOR NOTHING DISH!!!!


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## dbrakob (Apr 26, 2006)

Was just wondering if anyone here who have had problems attempted to "get" anything from Dish like a refund on the USB activation fee?


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

dbrakob said:


> Was just wondering if anyone here who have had problems attempted to "get" anything from Dish like a refund on the USB activation fee?


I have not. Trying to upgrade to a 722 for the expanded capacity.


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

I don't think this is a simple problem. Dish did replace my 622 last week because of the EHD problem. Check my post above. The replacement unit lets me play back my EHD recordings just fine. My old unit is headed to Dish engineering, I'm told. So, with a unit that duplicates our problems, maybe we'll get a fix sooner. 

This is not just a 449 problem, since lots of people with 449 can play back their recordings. I can do that now on my primary receiver. Same software, same EHD, different hardware. I have every confidence that they'll get it fixed. In the meantime, if you get your facts together, and do a little CSR shopping, you can probably get Dish to take care of you.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

rbyers said:


> I don't think this is a simple problem. Dish did replace my 622 last week because of the EHD problem. Check my post above. The replacement unit lets me play back my EHD recordings just fine. My old unit is headed to Dish engineering, I'm told. So, with a unit that duplicates our problems, maybe we'll get a fix sooner.
> 
> This is not just a 449 problem, since lots of people with 449 can play back their recordings. I can do that now on my primary receiver. Same software, same EHD, different hardware. I have every confidence that they'll get it fixed. In the meantime, if you get your facts together, and do a little CSR shopping, you can probably get Dish to take care of you.


I believe it is a firmware problem (L4.49) coupled with a particular production run of hardware. Mine stopped working properly within hours after I received the update. I replaced the EHD and had the same problems.


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

TulsaOK said:


> I believe it is a firmware problem (L4.49) coupled with a particular production run of hardware. Mine stopped working properly within hours after I received the update. I replaced the EHD and had the same problems.


Yeah, but I replaced the receiver and the problem went away.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Hmmm interesting.. Wonder if there is a hardware component on the particular 622s that is a contributing factor.. Perhaps similar Version numbers or perhaps a component that some are slightly out of spec... 

Just guesses.. But I think swapping boxes and having the same software version would be strong evidence there is more than the software update as a contributor to this issue.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Hmmm interesting.. Wonder if there is a hardware component on the particular 622s that is a contributing factor.. Perhaps similar Version numbers or perhaps a component that some are slightly out of spec...
> 
> Just guesses.. But I think swapping boxes and having the same software version would be strong evidence there is more than the software update as a contributor to this issue.


I absolutely agree that there is more than L4.49 causing the problem. As I said before, I think it's a combination of L4.49 and a particular production run of ViP622's. My receiver serial number ends with the letter L. I really don't know how Dish is going to come up with a fix for a few receivers that won't affect all the other ones out there. I think they've tried to do that before and failed. My guess is they will attempt to replace the units that get reported with refurbished 622's and hope for the best.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

rbyers said:


> Yeah, but I replaced the receiver and the problem went away.


Different production run of receiver. What is the last digit of the serial number of the receiver that worked? It's not the R00 number, it begins with RBER.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Yeah... it is the number on the back of the receiver I believe it is of interest.. Would definitely be an interesting data point to see if you guys have the same last letter. 

As for a fix.. could be one of those whack a mole type situations where you fix one thing and break something else or it could be something that can be fixed without breaking other receivers... Hard to say from this vantage point but I have seen both type of scenarios play out in my job.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

It's to bad that that Dish doesn't have a restore funtion like Windows XP, Vista!

If you download or install an application that's buggy, you can go back to a time when the computer was running normally.

I would gladly go back to 447, when it was running great, and so was my external hard drive!

I'm living with it for now. To watch anything on my EHD, I first have to restore it.

I say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!


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## ESPNSTI (Feb 27, 2008)

I'm having problems too. 

It was working *flawlessly* until I got L4.49.
I don't use my EHD all that frequently though, so I can't pinpoint the exact day that it went wrong, but it definitely was during the first use after the L4.49 update.

Info:

My EHD is a Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000ABYS 500GB in an ICY DOCK MB559US-1S-B 3.5" USB 2.0 & eSATA external enclosure.

My ViP622's last two digits of the serial number are XH and the s/n starts with WBER.
It also has "Remanufactured WESK" printed on the label, I assume that's because I've had it replaced once before for a broken HDMI port.

Before the first symptoms showed after the L4.49 update, I was first able to transfer 3 events to the EHD without problem.
It's when I tried to play or restore that problems started:

Symptoms/Trouble Shooting:

1) During playback, I used the "skip fwd" button a few times and then suddenly the screen froze. 
I was able to get to the USB Storage menu again (without rebooting), but I got error screen 860 - "There is no multimedia device connected to the USB port".
Then I shut off the EHD, waited 10 seconds or so and turned it back on.
Instead of the usual connect message, I got error screen 850 - "You have connected an unsupported device to the USB port."
I finally reset the ViP622 using by holding the power button for a few seconds, and after it booted up, I was able to see the list of events in the EHD again, however I got the same problems again during playback.

2) I decided I would try to restore some events from the EHD back to the internal HDD.
After a few minutes, I got error screen 855 - "An error occurred while transferring events to your USB storage device." (I know the message says "transferring to", but I really was "transferring from".)
Again I got error screen 860 when getting back to the USB Storage menu, and it behaved the same as with the playback error, including having to reset the 622 to get the list of events again.

Just to rule out my EHD, I hooked it up to my PC and used the freeware Linux Reader utility ( _www dot diskinternals dot com/products.shtml_ ) to look at and transfer the files.
It had no problem transferring all the files (only about 60GB worth) using the USB connection. (Nor did it have problems with the eSata connection.)

I called Dish and the helpful lady had me jump through the usual disconnect and reset stuff I had already tried.
(I understand though, I worked in tech support before and some people will tell you they already tried all sorts of things only to find out in the end that they really didn't.  )
She wrote up a report for their tech people to look at (or something to that effect).

Now I'll wait a bit to hear back from them to see what's next.
Hopefully I won't have to have my receiver replaced again.
Last time I had to do that, it took me close to 2.5 hours to set up all of my 96 timers again.


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## audiomaster (Jun 24, 2004)

If Dish wants to trade boxes, would we dare to move the programs stored in the main rcvr over to the the EHD to save them before sending it in? Or would this permamently screw up the EHD also?? Anybody tried this?


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

audiomaster said:


> If Dish wants to trade boxes, would we dare to move the programs stored in the main rcvr over to the the EHD to save them before sending it in? Or would this permamently screw up the EHD also?? Anybody tried this?


You should be lucky if you still can! I can send them to the EHD for storage, but can't watch them there.

If I try, it starts for 5 mins, and locks up(on the external hard drive). This started after 449.

The only way to see these recordings are to restore them to the receiver, and they work for the most part.

Before 449, I could watch a program without a problem, before 448, it would remember where to resume.

At this point, I'm hoping 450, will fix this nightmare, or I will be forced to exchange a receiver that has been flawless for over a year and a half for some refurbished unit. This is not a hardware, but a "soft" ware problem!


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## Perry Peters (Apr 1, 2006)

I just started seeing problems with my 622 and "MyBook" 750 GB WD drive on Friday. I tried to play back a program from the HD and it froze after 20 min. I also get an error if I try to restore content. No errors on archiving content to the EHD. I am running L4.49, but I haven't tried to play back anything for a while so I don't know when the problem started. I haven't pulled by 622 out of the shelf yet to check the serial number, but I was one of the early adopters. I was afraid that my WD HD had failed, but after reading this thread it sounds more like a dish software/firmware issue. Eagerly awaiting a patch.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

SingleAction said:


> It's to bad that that Dish doesn't have a restore funtion like Windows XP, Vista!
> 
> If you download or install an application that's buggy, you can go back to a time when the computer was running normally.
> 
> ...


Are you successful in restoring to the internal drive every time? I continue to get through about half of a program and then it ends as if it reaches the end.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Yes ... this appears to be a software combined with something else.. I do suggest people to post there hardware revision/production run letter (located on the back of their 622 if they are having the issues). Also post the EHD you are using. Be curious if we have pattern here. Either an EHD pattern or a EHD with Rev Letter pattern.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

SingleAction said:


> You should be lucky if you still can! I can send them to the EHD for storage, but can't watch them there.
> 
> If I try, it starts for 5 mins, and locks up(on the external hard drive). This started after 449.
> 
> ...


I'm convinced that it's a combination of hardware and software since not every 622 has this problem. I would bet that it's a particular production run of 622's that have the problem. I'm just not sure how Dish would go about fixing only some of the 622's that are out there. The ViP722 doesn't seem to exhibit this behavior either.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

ESPNSTI said:


> I'm having problems too.


Your post describes exactly what happened on my 622.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Yes ... this appears to be a software combined with something else.. I do suggest people to post there hardware revision/production run letter (located on the back of their 622 if they are having the issues). Also post the EHD you are using. Be curious if we have pattern here. Either an EHD pattern or a EHD with Rev Letter pattern.


My receiver serial number ends with the letter L. My EHD is a Western Digital My Book Essential 320 gig. I was convinced that it was my EHD so I bought another one. I can now prop open TWO doors.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

TulsaOK said:


> Are you successful in restoring to the internal drive every time? I continue to get through about half of a program and then it ends as if it reaches the end.


TulsaOk, I would say about over 95% at this time, but it shouldn't be!

I was able to watch recordings on the archive drive with no problem, and now I have to transfer recordings to the receiver, just to watch them!

That seems to also take longer then ever(25mins per hour)a program, and sometimes locks up midway.

I'm sick of this!

On top of this, this last week, I've lost live tv for over 4 nights, because my switch box went out! This of course had no effect on the matter at hand.

The VIP622, is still peachy, with it reboots, black screens, lock ups, and just being flaky after the last two software downloads!


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## theacolyte (Mar 25, 2008)

That sounds an *aweful* like a similar problem in Linux with external USB drives.

Something similar to [link redacted - not enough posts to link yet - Google has plenty if you check out USB sleep or sdparm usb sleep].

Google yields some stuff you can do in Linux with sdparm.

Unfortunately, since the DVR is locked down, there's not a whole lot we can do about it.

(Disclaimer: The above may or may not be true - just an idea)


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## theacolyte (Mar 25, 2008)

Heh, 10 to 1 that's it - it runs Linux. I bet you they updated something that broke it (I recall one of the updates affecting EHD).

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/dvr_receivers/source_code/


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

I can sympathize with you guys here. I'm not having any problem with my E revision unit. But I did have the dreaded C version. Those because so bad that E* recalled all of them out of the field after they got mine back into the lab. It sounds like the s/w update trigger a flaw in the L revision that isn't present in other versions.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

whatchel1 said:


> I can sympathize with you guys here. I'm not having any problem with my E revision unit. But I did have the dreaded C version. Those because so bad that E* recalled all of them out of the field after they got mine back into the lab. It sounds like the s/w update trigger a flaw in the L revision that isn't present in other versions.


Are you talking about the receiver serial #?

Mine starts with Rberbr, and ends with C. Does this mean that I have the dreaded "C" version, and if so. why didn't they recall mine?


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

SingleAction said:


> Are you talking about the receiver serial #?
> 
> Mine starts with Rberbr, and ends with C. Does this mean that I have the dreaded "C" version, and if so. why didn't they recall mine?


That would be the "C" version.


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## mattfast1 (Mar 26, 2008)

TulsaOK said:


> I'm convinced that it's a combination of hardware and software since not every 622 has this problem. I would bet that it's a particular production run of 622's that have the problem. I'm just not sure how Dish would go about fixing only some of the 622's that are out there. The ViP722 doesn't seem to exhibit this behavior either.


The 722 is a completely different class of receiver. They actually made that one work.  


TulsaOK said:


> That would be the "C" version.


Y'know, this might be something Engineering would want us to check, if it seems the h/w version matters for this problem. Of course, since they don't give us any troubleshooting steps or information related to EHD, it's doubtful they'd give us any. Make sure if you are going to call Dish you insist they fill out a Technical Problem Report (TPR) with the receiver serial - I want to see if they're actually going to give us the information we need to do our job.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

mattfast1 said:


> The 722 is a completely different class of receiver. They actually made that one work.
> 
> Y'know, this might be something Engineering would want us to check, if it seems the h/w version matters for this problem. Of course, since they don't give us any troubleshooting steps or information related to EHD, it's doubtful they'd give us any. Make sure if you are going to call Dish you insist they fill out a Technical Problem Report (TPR) with the receiver serial - I want to see if they're actually going to give us the information we need to do our job.


I'll bite,

The VIP 722 has had it's fair share of other problems(reboots, etc).

I maybe wrong, but was under the impression that the 722 was identical, except for a 500GB hard drive, and color.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

SingleAction said:


> I'll bite,
> 
> The VIP 722 has had it's fair share of other problems(reboots, etc).
> 
> I maybe wrong, but was under the impression that the 722 was identical, except for a 500GB hard drive, and color.


You are not wrong. At least if you are, so am I.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

mattfast1 said:


> The 722 is a completely different class of receiver. They actually made that one work.
> 
> Y'know, this might be something Engineering would want us to check, if it seems the h/w version matters for this problem. Of course, since they don't give us any troubleshooting steps or information related to EHD, it's doubtful they'd give us any. Make sure if you are going to call Dish you insist they fill out a Technical Problem Report (TPR) with the receiver serial - I want to see if they're actually going to give us the information we need to do our job.


I'll give you one thing; you've got guts posting this kind of information. Even with your disclaimer, Dish can't be too happy about that. As a customer, I'm not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about the internal support you guys are getting. 
Just an observation; not a criticism.


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## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

TulsaOK said:


> I'll give you one thing; you've got guts posting this kind of information. Even with your disclaimer, Dish can't be too happy about that. As a customer, I'm not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about the internal support you guys are getting.
> Just an observation; not a criticism.


tulsaOK,

I think, something is not kosher about mattfast1, considering that he is a new member as of today, and bad mouthing his employer without regard.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

SingleAction said:


> tulsaOK,
> 
> I think, something is not kosher about mattfast1, considering that he is a new member as of today, and bad mouthing his employer without regard.


I know there are folks in Dish that monitor this group. I'm sure they've noticed the posts. I wouldn't want him to get into any trouble, but at the same time he probably should soften the criticism a bit. OTOH, it may open some eyes internally to some issues the tech's are having.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Ok guys.. lets get back on topic... So far.. not seeing a pattern but not getting a lot of info on if you are seeing the problem... TulsaOK. Did you get the same drive before or do you have two make and models of drives that are showing the same issues. IF you do.. I think that would be a strong indication that type of external Hard drive is not a contributing factor.


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## Perry Peters (Apr 1, 2006)

Perry Peters said:


> I just started seeing problems with my 622 and "MyBook" 750 GB WD drive on Friday. I tried to play back a program from the HD and it froze after 20 min. I also get an error if I try to restore content. No errors on archiving content to the EHD. I am running L4.49, but I haven't tried to play back anything for a while so I don't know when the problem started. I haven't pulled by 622 out of the shelf yet to check the serial number, but I was one of the early adopters. I was afraid that my WD HD had failed, but after reading this thread it sounds more like a dish software/firmware issue. Eagerly awaiting a patch.


622 Main Board number starts with RB456 and ends in 16C.

WD drive MDL: WD7500P032


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> Ok guys.. lets get back on topic... So far.. not seeing a pattern but not getting a lot of info on if you are seeing the problem... TulsaOK. Did you get the same drive before or do you have two make and models of drives that are showing the same issues. IF you do.. I think that would be a strong indication that type of external Hard drive is not a contributing factor.


Both drives are Western Digital My Book Essential 320 gig. Identical.


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## bjf2007 (Oct 22, 2007)

I have a 722 and a WD 500gig MyBook Essential.

Has worked fine since I got it a few weeks ago.

Tonight I was checking the recordings on the WD and it locks up.
Now it says it's playing and I must stop playback before it will let me do anything further on the WD.

But it's not playing at all and hitting the stop button does nothing.

I can't see any list of my recordings on the WD.

And I can't control transfering them back to the 722.

I haven't rebooted the 722 yet but I doubt it'll help.

Why are they releasing new technology to save your recordings only to LOSE them all. And we paid $40 bucks for this ability to save our recordings.
Their code writers must work for microsoft.

VERY disgusted "new" dish customer : (

bjf


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

bjf2007 said:


> I have a 722 and a WD 500gig MyBook Essential.
> 
> Has worked fine since I got it a few weeks ago.
> 
> ...


Power cycle your EHD. That usually works. How long have you had your EHD?


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## bjf2007 (Oct 22, 2007)

I pulled the power cord from the722 and rebooted and indeed works ok again.

No idea why this did this.

But today I transferred a program to the EHD and it took much longer than normal.

I have L449 software on the 722.

The EHD is a month old.

Just hope this lockup doesn't happen again.
I hate not being able have multiple safety backups for rare recordings.

bjf


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Anyone having an these issues that don't have a WD MyBook type drive?


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## MVL999 (May 14, 2004)

MVL999 said:


> I am having the same problems with my EHD(WD MY BOOK ESSENTIAL EDITION 500GB) ever since L449. Prior to this it worked great. THANKS FOR NOTHING DISH!!!!


MY SERIAL NUMBER ENDS IN D.


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## ESPNSTI (Feb 27, 2008)

<sorry needed 1 more to post links>


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## ESPNSTI (Feb 27, 2008)

Ron Barry said:


> Anyone having an these issues that don't have a WD MyBook type drive?


Yes, I have:

ICY DOCK MB559US-1S-B

+

Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000ABYS 500GB


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

audiomaster said:


> If Dish wants to trade boxes, would we dare to move the programs stored in the main rcvr over to the the EHD to save them before sending it in? Or would this permamently screw up the EHD also?? Anybody tried this?


That's what I did. I ended up with 50+ movies on the EHD. I can play them all back without a problem on my replacement 622. I'm not sure that I'd worry about the replacement being a refurbished unit. The SN on my replacement was from a much later production run. And my original unit was 2 years old. So far, everything works the way the engineers (and me) hoped it would. The other thing we need in 4.50 besides a fix for the guys who can't or won't swap 622s is to be able to move the EHD between our own 622s without restrictions. Wonder what wizard thought up the three time box switching limit.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

rbyers said:


> That's what I did. I ended up with 50+ movies on the EHD. I can play them all back without a problem on my replacement 622. I'm not sure that I'd worry about the replacement being a refurbished unit. The SN on my replacement was from a much later production run. And my original unit was 2 years old. So far, everything works the way the engineers (and me) hoped it would. The other thing we need in 4.50 besides a fix for the guys who can't or won't swap 622s is to be able to move the EHD between our own 622s without restrictions. Wonder what wizard thought up the three time box switching limit.


Were any of the programs that you can now play on your new 622, ones that would not play on the old 622? Just wondering if the files were corrupt on the EHD from the original 622.
Glad things worked for you.


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

TulsaOK said:


> Were any of the programs that you can now play on your new 622, ones that would not play on the old 622? Just wondering if the files were corrupt on the EHD from the original 622.
> Glad things worked for you.


Yes, I recovered all of the programs that I had recorded with the old box. I've replayed some of them. Enough to have confidence that everything works as advertised.

On the previous setup I was able to save movies to the EHD, but couldn't play back. Now I can play back recordings from before and after the 622 replacement. It works the way you'd think it should work.

The limitations are the ones that have always been there ... can only move the EHD between units 3x and you have to go to menu option 4 to see your EHD recordings. Both are sort of dumb restrictions.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

rbyers said:


> Yes, I recovered all of the programs that I had recorded with the old box. I've replayed some of them. Enough to have confidence that everything works as advertised.
> 
> On the previous setup I was able to save movies to the EHD, but couldn't play back. Now I can play back recordings from before and after the 622 replacement. It works the way you'd think it should work.
> 
> The limitations are the ones that have always been there ... can only move the EHD between units 3x and you have to go to menu option 4 to see your EHD recordings. Both are sort of dumb restrictions.


Thanks for the reply. Sounds like you've got things working now. It's encouraging that even the programs that failed are now able to be viewed.


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## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

Any news on when/if Dish is going to address this problem? Hitting me too.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

invaliduser88 said:


> Any news on when/if Dish is going to address this problem? Hitting me too.


Dish has known about this problem for many weeks. The L4.49 firmware upgrade, which is responsible for this problem, began spooling 2/21//08. Shortly thereafter, we began to report this on the forum. Dish monitors this forum so they were aware pretty quickly. We're now coming up on the month of May and there hasn't been any fix that I'm aware of. Since this only affects a small portion of their customer base, I'm not holding out much hope that they will ever provide a fix. 
One solution that works, is to upgrade to a ViP722.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

TulsaOK said:


> Dish has known about this problem for many weeks. The L4.49 firmware upgrade, which is responsible for this problem, began spooling 2/21//08. Shortly thereafter, we began to report this on the forum. Dish monitors this forum so they were aware pretty quickly. We're now coming up on the month of May and there hasn't been any fix that I'm aware of. Since this only affects a small portion of their customer base, I'm not holding out much hope that they will ever provide a fix.
> One solution that works, is to upgrade to a ViP722.


Based on their retailer's chat, I don't think they believe there is a problem. Perhaps only after L4.49 they apparently started to enable the Household key for external drives. This introduces a new message when it sees a drive that previously was connected about reformating for the household key. It reportedly does not erase the drive, which is a different message. I cannot say yet as my receivers still have keys of zero.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

tnsprin said:


> Based on their retailer's chat, I don't think they believe there is a problem. Perhaps only after L4.49 they apparently started to enable the Household key for external drives. This introduces a new message when it sees a drive that previously was connected about reformating for the household key. It reportedly does not erase the drive, which is a different message. I cannot say yet as my receivers still have keys of zero.


But, the problem you mention came later. Initially, it was not being able to access the drive at all or the recordings stopped in the middle upon playback or recordings would just disappear from the EHD. For example, my 622 would reboot whenever I tried to access the drive.
Didn't some post that they sent their 622's in to Tech Support for them to evaluate? Again, this was sometime prior to the Household Key implementation.
They know of the problem, it's just a matter of them acknowledging it and doing something about it.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

I'm pretty sure that Tech folks know about the 622 vs. EHD issues ... or so they acknowledged to me via email, indicating that the fix would come by way of a software download some time in the future. 

In addition to the usual no-wake-up problems, I find that, depending on the length of the movie stored on the EHD, the EHD will sometimes lose track of where a movie was stopped in mid-play. When that happens, telling the unit to RESUME ends up re-starting it instead.

Of course, their email gave no clues for when they expect to correct the problems.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

For those 722 owners out there, here's a question for you: 

Do you have a Seagate FreeAgent 750 that works on a ViP722 and seamlessly with L4.49?


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## Lostinspace (Oct 25, 2007)

HDG said:


> For those 722 owners out there, here's a question for you:
> 
> Do you have a Seagate FreeAgent 750 that works on a ViP722 and seamlessly with L4.49?


Yes. First installed when the 722 was at 4.48, currently running fine under 4.49.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Lostinspace said:


> Yes. First installed when the 722 was at 4.48, currently running fine under 4.49.


Thank you, Lostinspace, I was under the impression that the Seagate FreeAgent EHD problem was common to both the 622 and 722.

From your reply I gather that if I were to upgrade to a 722, my Seagate would operate correctly (wake up on demand with all send and playback controls intact).

Can anyone else confirm this, please?


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## ryan8886 (Sep 19, 2006)

So is there a fix coming or is there NOT a fix coming?? Really glad I found this thread. Searched a month or so ago and came up empty. Thought it was my WD EHD. Do I need to contact Dish or not? I've just slowly been restoring stuff from there to my 622. Can only do it in small batches or it seems to lock up. Some of the programs transfered back to the 622 sucessfully but still show titles in the EHD. What's up with that??? Know it's useless to rant but it's SERIOUSLY annoying. I paid a lot of money for that drive PLUS the $40 to activate the service. Least they could do is inform me there's a problem and they're working on it.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

ryan8886 said:


> So is there a fix coming or is there NOT a fix coming?? Really glad I found this thread. Searched a month or so ago and came up empty. Thought it was my WD EHD. Do I need to contact Dish or not? I've just slowly been restoring stuff from there to my 622. Can only do it in small batches or it seems to lock up. Some of the programs transfered back to the 622 sucessfully but still show titles in the EHD. What's up with that??? Know it's useless to rant but it's SERIOUSLY annoying. I paid a lot of money for that drive PLUS the $40 to activate the service. Least they could do is inform me there's a problem and they're working on it.


Dish has been aware of this problem with the EHD and ViP622's since shortly after firmware revision L4.49 was released in February. It apparently affects only a small percentage of 622 users. Some have reported that replacement units have worked with the external drives. Others, have reported that the replacement unit exhibited the same problem. So, getting a different receiver seems to be a crap shoot. What worked for me was to upgrade to a ViP722. There's a slight difference in the chipset with the newer ViP722 receiver. 
IMO, Dish isn't going to be too aggressive in tracking down the units that aren't working with the EHD. I recently talked to someone in Tech Support that wasn't aware there *was *a problem. You might as well give Dish a call to see if they will send you a different 622 and hope it works. Or, they might let you upgrade if you've been a customer for a while. I tried emailing the CEO address four times regarding this issue and never received the courtesy of a reply.
Good luck.


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## jjlawyer (Dec 7, 2004)

Just to be clear, what is the problem that people are having? My problem with 622 and and wd my book essential is that when I play back from the EHD, it plays normally but at some point (could be 5 min or 30min) the picture freezes, like someone hit the pause button but without any osd. The no buttons will do anything. If you wait maybe a min or two, playback resumes.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

jjlawyer said:


> Just to be clear, what is the problem that people are having? My problem with 622 and and wd my book essential is that when I play back from the EHD, it plays normally but at some point (could be 5 min or 30min) the picture freezes, like someone hit the pause button but without any osd. The no buttons will do anything. If you wait maybe a min or two, playback resumes.


Have you read through this thread?


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## jjlawyer (Dec 7, 2004)

TulsaOK said:


> Have you read through this thread?


Yes and I dont think it is clear what problem people are talking about. The guy who was watching soylent green has a problem like mine but the op seems to be different.


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## HumpMan (Sep 12, 2002)

I guess I should chime in here.

I've had a 622 since January of 2006, I think. I did the EHD thing sometime last year. I put together a USB hard drive using a Maxtor 320GB IDE drive and a "generic" external kit I got off of eBay.

Transfering to and from the drive seemed to work fine, although I had never tried to play back from it. I didn't even know until recently that you could playback from the external. I thought it always had to be restored. Maybe this was the way the feature was first implemented.

I decided I needed another EHD so I could keep my archived recordings a bit better organized (like series on one, movies on the other). So I got a WD 500GB Sata II drive and another generic external kit. As before, I tested the combination as a PC drive for a couple of days and it seemed to work OK, except it wouldn't always get recognized on power up. So to rule out the drive being bad, I went to Radio Shack and got a somewhat better kit made by "Mad Dog Multimedia." This time I put it together and tried it directly on the 622.

Transfering to and from the drive (and my earlier drive) still seemed OK. As has been reported here, all my problems started when I tried to playback from an external drive. I've had the same experience 3 separate times, with each resulting in a loss of the drive's contents. Some, like a few movies I recorded off of one of the Voom movie channels, will be missed, since I dropped those from my subscription package.

In brief, the playback freezes after about 10 minutes of replay, and after subsequent reboots of the receiver and/or restarting of the drive, the contents of the drive become unplayable and nontransferable without error. I did get one short program to transfer back to the receiver (with an ending error), but it remained unplayable.

To further test whether it might be the hard drive, I purchased a used WD 320GB Sata I drive and tried it in the original SATA kit that I had purchased. Got the same result.

After some Internet searching. I finally confirmed that my experience wasn't unique and it seemed to be connected to a recent software update (L449). I sent a help request to Dish and got the expected reply that they are aware of this problem and hope to correct it in the indeterminate future, and hope to do it with a new software download.

Here are my technicals:

Vip 622 with Hardware code RBDD, Bootstrap 1711
Unfortunately I don't have any other serial number codes available right now.

I should add that I too am of the opinion that this problem is likely to be an unexpected interaction of their latest software with some sub-group of Model 622 receivers. What components in the hardware could lead to such serious differences in behavior are a mystery to me. Whether these hardware differences can be programmed around to avoid the necessity of a receiver swap is also an open question.

the HumpMan


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

HumpMan said:


> I guess I should chime in here.
> 
> I've had a 622 since January of 2006, I think. I did the EHD thing sometime last year. I put together a USB hard drive using a Maxtor 320GB IDE drive and a "generic" external kit I got off of eBay.
> 
> ...


I think we can forget about a "fix" from Dish. It's been way too long and most of the tech people I've talked to don't know about it. 
The options are:
1) Try to get them to replace the ViP622 with another ViP622 (refurb) and hope that if it does solve the problem, more problems will show up later.
2) Try to work with them to upgrade to a ViP722 which doesn't appear to have any problems with the EHD.
Option #2 worked for me. Let's hope they don't try to fix it with software; no telling what would happen to the ViP's that are working now.
I wish you luck.


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## HumpMan (Sep 12, 2002)

Well, maybe Dish will not try and fix the EHD playback problem, but I hope not. If it really does only affect a small number of 622 owners (like me) then handling it by just replacing boxes may indeed be the easiest approach. If, however, it can be determined what the systematic problem is, and if the potential group of affected boxes is significant, then I would still expect them to develop a programming fix.

We'll see. I'll wait at least until the next software revision to see what happens. I guess I'll keep one of my disks "expendable" so I can test it when the time comes.

I did go ahead and reformat one my home-built drives and moved a few programs back and forth. I seem to have verified that moving events back and forth doesn't seem to have any problems. It's only when the system hangs during playback directly from the EHD that the serious problems begin.

So far I can live with just using the EHDs for archiving. I might be very wrong here, but I have the weak recollection that playback directly from the EHD wasn't an original feature when Dish first "turned on the USB port." Or maybe it was always available for USB 2.0 drives but not for slower drives and I just got it in my head that you always had to copy it back to view it.

In any case, I just need to be alert to the next software release (L450?).

the HumpMan


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## Ernie7410 (Apr 28, 2008)

dbrakob said:


> Was just wondering if anyone here who have had problems attempted to "get" anything from Dish like a refund on the USB activation fee?


I did get Dish to refund the $40 activation fee. I pointed out that I had to buy and activate an EHD to save programs due to replacing both 722 receivers due to defects in the receivers. She said "sure" and took the activation fee off my account.

Ernie


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Ernie7410 said:


> I did get Dish to refund the $40 activation fee. I pointed out that I had to buy and activate an EHD to save programs due to replacing both 722 receivers due to defects in the receivers. She said "sure" and took the activation fee off my account.
> 
> Ernie


Is your port still active?


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## Ernie7410 (Apr 28, 2008)

TulsaOK said:


> Is your port still active?


Tulsa,

Do you mean my USB port? If so, yes, it is still working fine. Actually, I have 2 EHDs, the Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB and a Fantom 120 GB. Both work with each 722 receiver.

The Seagate has on on/off switch and goes to sleep after some time of inactivity. Usually to wake it up I have to disconnect the power cord and reconnect. The Fantom stays on all the time unless I switch it off with its on/off switch.

Sometimes I get an error signal from the receiver when I try to perform a 2nd operation on the Seagate. E.G., after restoring some files and then trying to archive other files. When I get the error message I will unplug the drive and replug. This usually solves the problem.

Ernie


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## HumpMan (Sep 12, 2002)

Hey, I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd give an update.

I am one of those with a 622 that had some problems playing back recordings from an external hard drive (EHD). If you go back and read my earlier post, I tried 3 different SATA drives in three different external USB 2.0 cases and had lockups that required me to reformat the hard drive (using a PC). 

I put things aside for a while and just didn't try to playback any recordings from the EHD. A few software updates came and went and I decided to see if anything had changed. I didn't keep a good log of what I experienced, but it went something like this.

After one of the early l6.1x updates, I tried copying a few recordings back and forth from one of my EHDs and all seemed fine. I tried a playback from the EHD and it was sort of hit or miss. One 30 minute recording (SD) seemed to play back OK, but another would lock up. However, this time the lockup didn't seem to permanently affect the drive, so there was no data loss or need to reformat the drive. 

Another update happened, so I tried again and this time I had better results, with both an SD and HD recording playing back OK. But I did have at least one lockup during a playback, and it didn't destroy any data. However, this was a homemade USB hard drive using a cheap kit and a SATA I (150Mbps) drive. It also used an A to A type USB cable, so it didn't easily connect to the A to B cable I plugged in the rear USB port. (I only tested using the front USB port).

So I tried a different homemade drive that I had, this one using a refurbed Maxtor (Seagate) SATA II drive and a different cheap USB kit. This one gave similar results, but did show lockups on playback. I tried both the front and USB ports on the 622. However, I suspected that this particular enclosure seemed to have some problems, so I decided to "recertify" the combination by formating it as a PC (NTFS) drive and testing it with a PC. I was able to partition, format and chkdisk this drive, but during some back and forth copying of files from a PC, I had some problems. I tried using the drive jumpered as a SATA I and also as a SATA II.

Well, now I had reason to suspect either the drive or the enclosure, and since I suspected the enclosure more, I went out and bought yet another enclosure, although this time I decided to try a "better brand." This one was a Vantec NexStar CX. I switched the drive back to SATA II operation (300Mbps) and put it in the new enclosure. I formatted it using a PC and ran the most exhaustive disk check on it. I copied files back and forth from the drive for a day or so and got no errors.

So now I plugged it into the 622 and let it reformat it. I copied some recordings I had onto the drive and all seemed well. The final test was to playback a recording from the drive. I played back a 2 hour HD recording (the Battlestar Galactica finale) and didn't have any problems. I tried a number of trick play features (skip back and forward, FF up to 300X) and had no problems. i even accidentally turned off the receiver during playback and other than having to fast forward to get back to my resume point, that didn't cause any problems.

So, in conclusion, I am tentatively pronouncing my EHD playback problems solved! Of course, I'll have to try a few more recordings to build my confidence, but I am at least confident that the situation is better than when I first started my postings here. I should add that I am now on software L6.18.

the HumpMan


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## HumpMan (Sep 12, 2002)

I still know this is an old thread, but I thought I give one more update.

After having lots of problems with playback from a home-built external hard drive (EHD) on a ViP 622, I starting having much better luck after the recent software updates L6.1x. I also saw some flawless performance after buying a better brand of USB enclosure.

Now I still had an older home-built drive (WD 320GB, SATA I, 150Mbps) that I had copied a lot of stuff too. I have rarely, if ever, had any problems copying TO the drive, but problems copying FROM the drive, or playing back from the drive. So before I went to confirm that the new drive I had built had solved the playback problem, I wanted to restore most of what I had copied off the DVR.

Well, with that older drive I had a lot of problems copying back programs. It would work sometimes and then fail most other times. Usually it would copy like the first 30 minute show OK, then fail a few times in a row. It took me many days and many tries, but eventually I was able to copy off the programming I wanted back to the 622. I then re-formatted that drive, ran WD diagnostics on it extensively and copied several GB back and forth to the drive using a PC for a day and got no errors.

Now I put the newer drive in place and copied some stuff from the 622 to the EHD. Then I played a short 30 minute SD program from the EHD and had zero problems. I copied some larger programs back, and other than a pause or two in the process, it all seemed to go OK. My final test was to playback something longer and in HD directly from the EHD. Again, I chose to use the 2 hour Battlestar Galactica finale. I only watched about an 1/2 an hour of it, but playback didn't have any problems and I even did some skipping around with no trouble.

So, there you have it. I think the best theory that fits all my observations is something like this:

1) Some, but not necessarily all, ViP 622 receivers may have USB interface circuitry that is more sensitive to transfer problems than other units. Maybe they have less buffer memory or something like that.

2) Back in software releases around L5.49, Dishnetwork exposed these hardware tolerances by having transfer failures (from the EHD to the 622) fail badly, leaving the EHD in a bad state. This is what cause much loss of programming since the failure during playback would force you to reformat the drive to get it usable again. It seemed that just transferring a program back to the 622 was less of a problem and worked most, if not all of the time. This makes some sense that playback would be more critical than just transferring the programming.

3) With later releases around L6.1x, things changed again. Perhaps they just made the failure mode much more tolerant, as playback or restore failures didn't seem to "destroy" the contents of the EHD. (I don't really think it actually destroyed any contents, but it did lead to the loss of programs.) Now, at least, you could turn the drive off, back on, and get it recognized by the 622 again. However, it seemed that restores to the 622 were much less reliable, especially if the EHD wasn't "up to snuff," whatever that may mean.

4) Some combination of the drives and enclosures that I was using were not reliable when used with the 622. Whether that is the fault of the enclosure or the 622 or both, I don't know. But all of the enclosures (with perhaps one exception) that had problems with the 622 work fine as PC drives. The one exception is an enclosure that works fine only if it is recognized successfully on initial power-up.

5) People that used commerically-built USB hard drives (e.g. WD MyBook, Maxtor OneTouch, Seagate, etc) may have had fewer problems if, indeed, the level of quality/sophistication of the EHD is part of the problem. Maybe they have more or better buffer memory, or perhaps they "fail" during a transfer in some way better than the cheap Asian USB drive kits.

6) It could very well be that some revisions of the 622, and most likely the 722, have different USB circuitry that is either just better, or handles transfer failures through the USB port better.

At this point, I am mostly satisfied that I can now use an EHD to playback shows that I have archived (Yeah!). I do want to try a few other things, namely go back to an even older (EIDE, not SATA) home-built USB drive that I have, and maybe try one of the name-brand units.

the HumpMan


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