# Hopper, inactivity and updates



## shegeek72 (Jul 8, 2018)

Our Hopper 3 keeps breaking in during the day to do updates even though they're scheduled at 5am. We've been around the block with Dish, even escalating support, and they've been no help. I've set inactivity timer to off to prevent future disruptions (so far it's working), though I read in another thread that the inactivity timer has nothing to do with updates. However, when I set the inactivity timer to off I got this warning: "By not allowing your Dish receiver to go into standby, software and programming updates cannot be downloaded, which can cause your receiver to become unstable." Is Dish blowing smoke up my ***? I don't leave it on 24/7.


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

Mine too. It's set for 6:30am and the other day at 7:30pm, have had it do it many times during the day or night, with programming recording it actually did the reset chopping the recordings in half. I thought that this was long since dealt with? Especially with the H3 and the KGCUI. Not sure what "update" it's doing since the Guide can be done, as I have seen, anytime over a spare tuner.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

FarmerBob said:


> Not sure what "update" it's doing since the Guide can be done


mostly for smart cards: channels/packages authorizations, de-authorizations, etc


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

P Smith said:


> mostly for smart cards: channels/packages authorizations, de-authorizations, etc


That is constantly being done on the fly as well.

DISH receivers run better when they get their regular reboots. It is odd that a receiver set to reboot overnight is rebooting during daylight hours.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

James Long said:


> That is constantly being done on the fly as well.
> 
> *DISH receivers run better when they get their regular reboots.* It is odd that a receiver set to reboot overnight is rebooting during daylight hours.


"being done" - not that easy, the EMM cmds repeating in a few hours and lasts month (to be sure - hits will reach a target regardless of "smart" people  )

Who is a member here for at least 10+ years, should remember - dish FW began so buggy with first DVR models, so bosses made very "wise" decision - do not spend time for debugging and fixing many problems, instead they found "universal" solution - nightly reboots !


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

Rebooting is good for the operating system. DirecTV's receivers get slower and slower and slower until a manual reboot cleans them up. Maybe the first Dish DVR firmware was buggy, but that was a long time ago, before my time with my first old SD DVR. Their DVRs have been extremely stable for a long time.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I recall it was 721, dish developers got a report from one user, smart LINUX developer, with detailed info about memory leakage from first versions... it was expected a fix will follow, but instead, we saw implementation of scheduled reboot 
since that it's become main feature of bug squashing from the company ...


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

And, it works...


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

kidding ? 
instead of do real job, fixing bugs, do reboots ?

I'm sure you will kill those developers who will do same with your iPhone/smartphone


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

What bugs? Other than those intrinsic to LINUX. However they do it you can't imply these DVRs aren't stable and almost entirely bug free to the user.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

It is easy for Peter to make false statements and implications. I expected them in his first reply but he went with a different false statement. Come on Peter, do the one where you call all customers "beta testers"! It is one of his greatest hits (or tired old tropes).

I have not met a device or system that did not benefit from an occasional reboot. Servers rebooted quarterly for patches. PCs rebooted weekly. And yes, I'll reboot any phone as a first step if it is showing any issues. And if someone reports a problem with any device expect a reboot (either immediate or at the first opportunity where the reboot would not severely affect service). Perhaps in the days of transistors and tubes a reboot would not be as helpful, but nearly every device I deal with has a computer inside. The more one asks of a computer, the more one should expect to reboot it occasionally.

DISH receivers are not a life critical application that cannot be rebooted daily. The issue here is not that there is a highly recommended reboot, but when those reboots occur. When one sets the update time at 3am one expects the updates to occur at 3am ... or 5am if that is the chosen time. Certainly not during prime viewing and recording hours. That is the issue.

If there is any explanation as to why these receivers are rebooting during prime time it would be good to hear them. Any way to make the receivers behave would also be good to report. Otherwise, grimace and bear it and hope that the software engineers at DISH are working on a solution.


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## shegeek72 (Jul 8, 2018)

Just to be clear rebooting consists of hitting reset or unplugging, waiting 10-15 seconds, then plugging it back in, not just using the remote to turn it off?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Correct. A real reboot is when the system shuts down and restarts. One should not need to do this through a power cycle (10-15 second unplug) or pressing the reset button unless the receiver is locked up and unusable. But one should not prevent the receiver from performing a reboot. Using the remote to turn off the Hopper 3 and any Joeys when you are done watching TV at the end of the day typically frees up the receiver for a real reboot.


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## shegeek72 (Jul 8, 2018)

UPDATE: The problem was I'd disconnected the power to the Joey in another room (because we never use it), so Dish was trying to update the Joey and that was causing the breaking in during the day.


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