# ATTN: DIRT Team - DVR's locking up, not responding to remotes



## rochrunner (Dec 2, 2006)

After several years with just normal minor glitches, our 722 has had a problem twice in the last two days. It gets into a state where we can change channels using channel up/down or by entering the channel number, but most other buttons (Guide, DVR, Info) do nothing.

The only solution is to do a reset and wait for it to come back up. So far, this works and all functionality is restored.

Is this a result of a recent s/w update, or should I talk to DISH about a possible replacement or ??? I would include my s/w version number, but don't know where to find it.


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## dlt (Feb 21, 2007)

Did anyone else have any problems with there dvr today, I have one 612, and two 722's. All three froze up when turned on tonight, then had to be re-set.


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## 3HaloODST (Aug 9, 2010)

What software version are you on?


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## Tecmo SB Guy (Sep 28, 2007)

722K froze up on me last night and had to be rebooted.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

dlt said:


> Did anyone else have any problems with there dvr today, I have one 612, and two 722's. All three froze up when turned on tonight, then had to be re-set.


Wow! This is weird! You're in Pennsylvania and I'm in Northern California.

My 722 and my 612 both froze up when I turned them on tonight. I had no control over them with the remotes.

I had a moment of panic though, as I usually check them in the morning sometime. But there it was 5:30 and several recording timers set to begin at 6:00 pm.

When they rebooted, which they did, the schedule was just fine, so I have no idea what caused it.

The thing is, my 722 did it yesterday, but not the 612.

The software versions have been the same for months.


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## rochrunner (Dec 2, 2006)

3HaloODST said:


> What software version are you on?


Where in the menus do they hide that info?


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## dlt (Feb 21, 2007)

Exactly, my remotes had no control at all. My 622 had to be manually re-set, my 722's froze up, then did a reboot by themselves. I assumed they got a software update but I could be wrong.


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## wildzeke (Aug 29, 2002)

I have the same problem with both my 722 and 722K. It just starting happening two days ago. The unit stops responding to the remote. Sometimes hitting the menu button will cause the screen to go black. I have to reboot the receiver to get the remote to work. Sometimes I can wait 20 minutes and it will start working on its own,


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## Wilf (Oct 15, 2008)

I had this problem for the past two nights. I was thinking it was time to call for a replacement 722.


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

Same thing here. Remote wouldn't work at all.

Had to do a hard reboot and it came back to life but was still sluggish but working at least.


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## GB1 (Dec 7, 2006)

Love this forum! I had the same thing for the last two nights. I was not looking forward to calling in for another new 722. But now I will wait. 

Thanks!


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## CeeWoo (Dec 1, 2008)

rochrunner said:


> Where in the menus do they hide that info?


menu--system setup--installation--system info (menu-6-1-3)


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## tkeech1 (Aug 24, 2007)

I am having the same problems on both 722 and 612. I called dish and they said the only thing could do is replace the receivers


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## beetle02 (Nov 14, 2007)

My 722 stopped responding to the remote on TV1 and TV2 this morning other than the power. But when I would turn it off the screen would go black instead of the normal powered off screen. It was recording so I did not manually reset it but as soon as the recording finished it did a reset on its own. Remotes are working now. The software version is L724.


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## altidude (Jan 13, 2010)

tkeech1 said:


> I am having the same problems on both 722 and 612. I called dish and they said the only thing could do is replace the receivers


Oh, OK. So we all have our receivers going out at the same time with the same issues? Come on Dish, it's the new firmware and you know it.


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## rochrunner (Dec 2, 2006)

(From the OP) - My software is shown as "L725".


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

In the threads DVR Issues Today and DVR stops responding to buttons people, including me, are reporting a problem that appears to have begun this week.

In my specific case my experience was on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (today), with my 722 and on Tuesday with my 612 I turned them on with the remote getting a picture and sound. From that point on I had no control with my remotes - any of my remotes. After a few minutes of trying to get a response, the boxes rebooted. After rebooting everything was fine, even all scheduled recordings.

If you check the other threads you will see that this has nothing to do with customer location. Some are on the East Coast, some of us are on the West Coast. My 722 still has L7.24 software. Some report having received the L7.25 update.

I do not believe this is some coincidence specific to our DVRs because of the different reports from the different locations. It is my belief that something changed on Monday, probably with Monday morning's update. Nonetheless, Here are screenshots of my system info detail screens and my diagnostic counter screens:


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Happened with my 722 again. Since there are two threads on this, I started another ATTN: DIRT Team - DVR's locking up, not responding to remotes requesting help.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Happened with my 722 for the third day in a row, and my 612 yesterday. Since there are two threads on this, I started another ATTN: DIRT Team - DVR's locking up, not responding to remotes requesting help.


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## sliderbob (Aug 10, 2007)

Happened to me yesterday and today. I have had to reset it, my 722 dvr, twice. I live in Utah. WTH is going on?


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

My 722k TV2 locked up and had a strange error message number 692 on TV1, I believe it was, but no timers were firing or being created. TV2 was very slow responding - over 30 seconds per command and TV1 had the unclearable error message on the screen. It said something had gone wrong, to check to see if the remote was blocked by something in front of the receiver - very strange.

I could not clear the error message without rebooting.


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## Tecmo SB Guy (Sep 28, 2007)

phrelin said:


> Happened with my 722 again. Since there are two threads on this, I started another ATTN: DIRT Team - DVR's locking up, not responding to remotes requesting help.


It happened to me last night again. Frozen again. Actually I also got the signal loss screen this time but I should be able to access programs on my DVR even with signal loss shouldn't I? But I couldn't as the whole screen and DVR froze.

I also live in northern California. Could it have something to do with the really hot weather we've been having here lately?


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

_Duplicate threads merged and all placed in the Support forum. Having multiple threads doesn't actually help DIRT or anyone provide better answers. If anything, it ensures answers are divided over multiple threads.

Please don't start another thread for this same issue. Having everyone's troubles in one thread is the best chance for someone to take a look at it._


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

For what it's worth... I haven't had any problems with my 722 during this time.

Out of curiosity... How are you guys connecting your 722 to the internet? Mine is on a WiFi USB adapter.

I ask because... there was a bug on a Dish DVR at some point (can't remember which receiver) where it was randomly locking up and rebooting and such... turned out to be an issue with broadband access... something flaking out there was taking the whole receiver down... and the "cure" was disconnecting broadband until they fixed the issue.

So... just for fun... if this lockup thing is reproduceable for some of you over several days now... try doing things that you wouldn't normally expect to be part of the problem... like temporarily disconnecting ethernet.

Weirder things have happened.


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## GoBunkos (Nov 11, 2010)

My 722K wouldn't respond to remote after turned on yesterday (soft reset locked up searching for satellites so did a hard reset) and today (rebooted on its own). Working fine after that. Hope they fix it soon. No problems with my 612 & 622.


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## sliderbob (Aug 10, 2007)

Stewart Vernon said:


> For what it's worth... I haven't had any problems with my 722 during this time.
> 
> Out of curiosity... How are you guys connecting your 722 to the internet? Mine is on a WiFi USB adapter.
> 
> ...


I'm connecting USB Wifi.


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## coldsteel (Mar 29, 2007)

Guys, call in and report it. Dish is collecting problem reports.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Hmm...

Is everybody having this issue on western arc? As I said, I'm not seeing this on my 722, and I'm on eastern arc.

Still could be a firmware thing... but it could be something unique to western arc IF all the effected customers are on western arc.


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## dlt (Feb 21, 2007)

It is happening everywhere, I am in PA, I am connected to USB, and have been for a year now with no problem till this week, it is a new problem that just started on Monday.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Stewart Vernon said:


> Hmm...
> 
> Is everybody having this issue on western arc? As I said, I'm not seeing this on my 722, and I'm on eastern arc.
> 
> Still could be a firmware thing... but it could be something unique to western arc IF all the effected customers are on western arc.


The Pennsylvania and Maryland reports might be on the western arc, but I am assuming they are not.


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## Tecmo SB Guy (Sep 28, 2007)

Stewart Vernon said:


> For what it's worth... I haven't had any problems with my 722 during this time.
> 
> Out of curiosity... How are you guys connecting your 722 to the internet?


Slinglink Turbo here.

I have method #2 on this page.



> Mine is on a WiFi USB adapter.
> 
> I ask because... there was a bug on a Dish DVR at some point (can't remember which receiver) where it was randomly locking up and rebooting and such... turned out to be an issue with broadband access... something flaking out there was taking the whole receiver down... and the "cure" was disconnecting broadband until they fixed the issue.
> 
> So... just for fun... if this lockup thing is reproduceable for some of you over several days now... try doing things that you wouldn't normally expect to be part of the problem... like temporarily disconnecting ethernet.


But don't you need to be connected to the internet so Dish can verify you have your receiver connected? Otherwise they'll call you. Because I remember when I had my 625 I had to have it connected to a phone jack.



Stewart Vernon said:


> Hmm...
> 
> Is everybody having this issue on western arc?


I'm also on the Western arc.



coldsteel said:


> Guys, call in and report it. Dish is collecting problem reports.


But I don't want to call in and have Dish send somebody over if this problem is going to clear itself up in a few days.


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

I have (2) 722's. Both are running L725. Only one is exhibiting the problem. The one in the MBR when I turned it on just now is not responding to remote commands. Another hard reboot just now brought it back to life. Both are hooked up to internet via hardwire ethernet connection.


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## stevenmh (Jun 19, 2009)

Same problem here with my 722k. Started this week. Twice now it's stopped responding to the remote, had to do a reset to get it working again. Checked my system info, 7.52.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

phrelin said:


> The Pennsylvania and Maryland reports might be on the western arc, but I am assuming they are not.


I'm in North Carolina... but I was on western arc until about 6 months ago when I moved. You'd be surprised sometimes how many east coast folk are on western arc.



Tecmo SB Guy said:


> But don't you need to be connected to the internet so Dish can verify you have your receiver connected? Otherwise they'll call you.


Yes... but I was talking about temporarily disconnecting it for a day or two and seeing if it makes a difference. IF it were causing the lockups and reboots then you might as well be disconnected because it wasn't really working anyway.

IF it doesn't help, then being disconnected for a few days is not a big deal... and it's a pretty easy thing to test and eliminate as a possible cause.

FYI... there are differences in hardware so even if we all have a 722 we may not all have the exact same hardware... so it's entirely possible for some of us to have an issue and others not... but they could still address it in firmware.

Sometimes updates to firmware expose/reveal some of the variances in the different builds and then they have to tweak the firmware to account for that.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Keep in mind that two of us with both 722's and 612's have experienced it on both models.


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## dennispap (Feb 1, 2007)

Same here. For the past 2 mornings, as soon as i turn the box on after about 30 seconds of watching tv the box reboots on its own. Tonight my wife said in the middle of watching tv it went to the recordings screen on its own. Hope they fix this bug quick.


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## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

My 622 did a spontaneous reboot last night when I woke it up. I also have a 722 and two 612's that so far are behaving normally.


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## catnapped (Dec 15, 2007)

My 622 has been unreliable for awhile (freezes, spontaneous reboots, etc)


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Unlike Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, today - Thursday - my 722 started up without freezing or rebooting. My 612 froze on startup only on Tuesday.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

rochrunner said:


> Where in the menus do they hide that info?


_[Menu, Menu]_ will let you see that, too.

My 722k is on L7.52 ... no problems to-date, but a bunch of old problems still not fixed.


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## dennispap (Feb 1, 2007)

dennispap said:


> Same here. For the past 2 mornings, as soon as i turn the box on after about 30 seconds of watching tv the box reboots on its own. Tonight my wife said in the middle of watching tv it went to the recordings screen on its own. Hope they fix this bug quick.


L724 on my 722.


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## bf1967 (Oct 21, 2008)

Mine started do this just recently as well. Did they push an update that caused this?


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## bf1967 (Oct 21, 2008)

I had 2 722s die within 2 months of each other with exactly the same hard drive issues. They must put the cheapest possible drives in these things....


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## martzta (Aug 29, 2002)

Happened here twice this week on my 722k, Maryland, eastern arc, L750. Had to reboot.


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## joyandjerry (Jul 3, 2012)

We have a DVR722 and it has had this issue intermittently for weeks, but it seems to havestopped a few weeks ago. Did a reboot each time and that solved the problem. We're not connected to the internet, and this seems to happen in the "wake up" phase, when downloading Dish interactive, and when pushing remote buttons too quickly (one after the other too fast). 

Great forum - others feel my pain! My husband said we may need a new receiver, but I have a lot stored on there and it seems OK now.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

joyandjerry said:


> We have a DVR722 and it has had this issue intermittently for weeks, but it seems to havestopped a few weeks ago. Did a reboot each time and that solved the problem. We're not connected to the internet, and this seems to happen in the "wake up" phase, when downloading Dish interactive, and when pushing remote buttons too quickly (one after the other too fast).
> 
> Great forum - others feel my pain! My husband said we may need a new receiver, but I have a lot stored on there and it seems OK now.


You may want to get an external hard drive to store your recordings.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

My VIP722 is still on L7.24. Last week it froze up solid. No buttons worked so did a reboot and all was OK again so wrote it off as a hiccup. Today it dropped the sound on all channels, well I didn't check them all, just a few, but had to reboot again to get the sound back. Something strange is going on indeedy. Can't blame it on the latest software as my 722 had been running flawlessly since the download of 724 many moons ago and still on 724.
My VIP622 sitting on the same shelf has not had any problems.........sshh...........


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## Jon W (Jan 27, 2004)

Same problem here. Version L724R. yesterday it quit responding to the remote. A couple of days ago it would only show the small video window n the guide window. Just the TV from that window with no actual guide so it looked like I had a 6" video on my 50" screen.


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## Tecmo SB Guy (Sep 28, 2007)

No freezing on my 722K last night unlike Monday and Tuesday which happened almost around the same time, around Midnight. So I hope it's better now.


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## Boston (Aug 29, 2006)

I have been having strange problems with my 612 for perhaps a week.

First, did not start recording a scheduled program, then locked up when I tried to get out of viewing the recorded program I was watching. Had to disconnect power to reboot.

Several times the receiver has lost the program guide.

I like to record the live coverage of Le Tour de France and skip commercials and fast forward thru some sections. Several times the fast forward, skip and play buttons lose function for no reason and I have to press the SAT button to get them back. This usually happens right when there is a break starting and I want to resume normal viewing.


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## catnapped (Dec 15, 2007)

Another unexpected reboot of my 622 last night...


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## dlt (Feb 21, 2007)

Many people having problems, yet I have not seen a peep from the DIRT people.


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## plasmacat (Mar 14, 2007)

My 622 froze up 3 nights ago. Had to reboot. I am in the Bay Area. I still have 710 as the software.


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## drewski11 (Jul 16, 2009)

This happened a couple of days ago on both my 722 and 722k. A reset fixed things.

Today the 722k is frozen in the Dish logo "Starting up..." screen. Resets with the button and the CSR "proper troubleshooting steps" of unplugging the receiver for 10 seconds twice did not prove effective. They're sending me a new receiver.

722 is on L725 firmware.
not sure about the 722k as it appears dead now.

We're in the SF Bay Area


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## catnapped (Dec 15, 2007)

Lalala...frozen again. Becoming like clockwork now.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

That would be a showstopper, for sure. Sorry to hear you guys are having these hang-ups.

As for me ... No "new" issues to report. My 722k downloaded L7.52 last week. The first thing I did that same morning was a power-down reboot - this follows the advice given on DBSTalk some months ago.

And, what *was* working with L7.50 then, is till working with L7.52 now.

What *wasn't* working, is still not working. For example,

1. The loss of aspect ratio when you come out of the interactive weather report still requires a graceful (come out of it using the _Exit_ command button) termination.

2. And the _Skip _function arbitrarilly causes poor audio until you press the _Pause_ button twice_._

There are other "legacy" issues still unresolved but so far, I haven't seen any "new" problems arise due to L7.52.


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## catnapped (Dec 15, 2007)

Sadly, my assertion isn't far off. Rebooted yet again, about 26 hours after the last incident. I don't want to call them and have to waste money for another receiver when the "new" (refurb) one will probably end up doing the same thing.


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## Mr.Gadget (Mar 29, 2004)

Do not confuse the 722 and the 722k, they run on different firmware versions.

This issue (lockouts of guide, etc) has been going on and off again since L7.50 on the *722k*, and sill exists on L7.52 (but not as frequently in recent days).

If the problem is now on the *722* (not k), then DISH may have migrated some bad code to that model.

When posting, try to be specific on your DVR model.


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## plasmacat (Mar 14, 2007)

My 622 locked up again last night. The software is 711 (previous lockup it was 710).
Here's how it happened:
Watched a recorded show, then deleted it.
Went back to watching live TV. Went to PIP position button - have it in side by side mode. Swap button to swap channels - here's where it locked up. No buttons on remote would work. Had to reboot . Then it worked OK.


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## n-spring (Mar 6, 2007)

Have no idea if it's related or not, but my Hopper froze up during playback of a recorded program on Tuesday night. I had to RBR to get it back.


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## palerider (Mar 20, 2007)

+1 for two 722 receivers, mine and my neighbor's, both L7.25 software. Mine froze twice in the last week, once while navigating Guide and once while viewing an HBO channel. Froze, no response to any remote button. Neighbor's 722 - all three times while navigating Guide. Same problem, no response to any remote button. Rebooting receivers in all cases solved problem.


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