# Bug Report L185: Timer Not Firing



## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

I've been one of the lucky few whose 921 has been almost totally reliable - up until now.

After the download of L185, I looked at Menu-6-7 and powered off (via the remote) - as per the instructions. Of course, the software didn't install. It never does.

So I did a front panel reset and waited for the reboot to complete. Then I did the necessary power-plug hard reboot - just to make sure that my 921 would not have any timer problems.

So, what happens? My pre-existing weekly timer for Drew Carey failed to fire. Of course, it's on the ONLY channel that I don't have 'backup' for (the jerks running the local ABC affiliate took away my other ABC feeds).

So, I tried to create a timer from the guide, and it seemed to go OK - but it didn't fire either!

I then tried to create another timer from the guide, and found no Red Dot where it should've been. OK, maybe I screwed up. Tried again. Same thing - the timers were not being created - not showing in the guide or via Menu-7.

So, I did ANOTHER power plug reboot. All seems well now.

Because we're told that L185 is supposed to do only one thing, they're either lying to us, OR, the software download/install process ITSELF is causing timer errors.

To sum it up, what was _supposed_ to be a simple addition of a background timed task farkled my timers. Not surprising, they can't seem to get anything right the first time.

So, being I'm leaving on vacation in a couple of weeks, I decided I was going to lock out future software updates to prevent Eldon from frelling up my 921 without me being here to fix it.

I can't find the option anywhere. Maybe it never existed on the 921? I don't remember. I know it's there for other receivers, why not this one?

Finally, while I was browsing the menus, I noticed Menu-2 has 4 options. Has that always been true?


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## tm22721 (Nov 8, 2002)

I agree there should be a download lockout especially on the 921.

I want to lockout the name based recording upgrade this fall until it has been proved solid by the 'beta' testers. I am sure that E* will screw it up.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Unplug the receiver untill you get back . That will prevent any software updates period.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Mike - you're supposed to put smileys out when you're being sarcastic. 

If you WEREN'T being sarcastic, well the whole reason I bought this thing was for the 250MB hard drive so I could record my shows while out of town.

At this point, tho, I'm going to count hours needed and see if my 501 can handle it, then call CEO and have them activate it - and they oughtta do it for free! I don't have the hardware to run 3 tuners, so then I WILL shut down the 921 for the week.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

SimpleSimon said:


> Mike - you're supposed to put smileys out when you're being sarcastic.
> 
> If you WEREN'T being sarcastic, well the whole reason I bought this thing was for the 250MB hard drive so I could record my shows while out of town.
> 
> At this point, tho, I'm going to count hours needed and see if my 501 can handle it, then call CEO and have them activate it - and they oughtta do it for free! I don't have the hardware to run 3 tuners, so then I WILL shut down the 921 for the week.


 I have a question for you Simon and It probably will sound stupid ( not sarcastic:sure: ). When the pvr screen says you have say 147 hours and 30 minutes of sd and 21 hours and 30 minutes of hd , do they mean either you can use the whole hard drive and record 21 hours and 30 minutes of hd or 147 hours and 30 minutes of sd ,or can you record that many in both modes respectively? I just got this receiver 4 days ago and I don't understand how that works. If it can only record 21 hours and 30 minutes of say hd then I won't be recording that much hd since I will want to record mostly sd movies on the premium channels. I will most likely watch hd live instead.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Mike - it's either/or, not both.


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

tm22721 said:


> I agree there should be a download lockout especially on the 921.
> 
> I want to lockout the name based recording upgrade this fall until it has been proved solid by the 'beta' testers. I am sure that E* will screw it up.


Name based recording? Let's hope we get OTA guide data working first!


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Mike - Mark is right (of course ). It's just a way of saying how much free hard drive space there is. Notice that: HD * 7 = SD. It's not entirely accurate, jsut an estimate. 

Aside, notice that the "insufficient space" warning appears when you have 2:20SD or 0:20HD remaiining.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Thanks for the information. 

By the way I am getting a replacement 921 next week for my problem with the red/blue/green line running down the screen on dvi and component outputs. I talked to a Chris at Dish who called me back today. He is supposed to be the liason between customers and the 921 software team. He said this was a known problem and the only way to fix it was to replace it since software fixes won't work. He said this problem goes back to the first month or two they made them. I said my dvr was a new one from dishdepot.com and how could I be getting a older one from the first month or two when they had stopped making them for a while due to that problem. His answer was this was that Dish had warehouses full of 921s and that the retailers had not ordered enough. After laughing for a minute or two, I told him of the lists that run back to Dec. for both dishdepot and the dishstore, and that they are only getting a few each week , and he said that is wonderful. Now I guess, he is meaning that this is wonderful due to the demand for this receiver. Either that or he is being a little sadistic at the pain of all who have to wait for this receiver. 

I just hope I don't get a refurbished beat up unit in exchange for my brand new out of the box receiver. I will let you know how it goes. Hopefully this unit will not have more problems then I have now. :sure:


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Either Chris is clueless, or lying.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

I think the former rather than the latter. OF course when I talk to dishtechs they often will spew first like" that isn't a known problem", till I mention that I have seen this problem on the dbstalk website or the satelliteguys website. Then suddenly the conversation will change and they will then say " Oh yeah that is a known problem." These web boards get seen daily by dish and they do read the stuff we post here. Even Chris said he takes time to read the info we post because it is more up to date then even what he hears from the dish engineers and software writers.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

SimpleSimon said:


> I've been one of the lucky few whose 921 has been almost totally reliable - up until now.
> 
> After the download of L185, I looked at Menu-6-7 and powered off (via the remote) - as per the instructions. Of course, the software didn't install. It never does.
> 
> ...


ALL my timers showed and new timers were added with no problems. But NONE of them fired Yesterday.

Can someone sumarize outstanding bugs with timer's firing under L185.

Today, I'm trying removing all timers and that selecting a scattering of different types to see if they fire.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

tnsprin: You could have a corrupted timer database.

Delete ALL your timers, then do a hard reboot (power plug works for me - some say pulling the card works as well).

This seems to force some kind of internal refresh of the database and can solve a lot of problems.


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