# BUG REPORT L146: Random Reboots?



## lhess (Feb 22, 2004)

I'm new here but I happened to be reading a post and my 921 just suddenly went into some sort of reboot mode. I'm a dish retailer but I admittedly don't know a hell of a lot about this receiver. What does it mean when the screen gets a lot of dots with an 'x' in the middle then goes to a silver medallion dish logo then goes off then comes back on?


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## Jim Parker (Aug 12, 2003)

You just saw the infamous reboot screen. The 921 is unstable and it reboots itself way too often. However, the problem has eased up since version 146 came out a week ago. Mine rebooted every 2 or 3 days before, but has not in the last week.

A reboot takes about 6 minutes or so.


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## FarNorth (Nov 27, 2003)

Oddly enough, mine didn't do it at all for the first couple of weeks and now it is doing it every other day.


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## markcollins (Jan 27, 2004)

Mine reboots the same if not more with 146?????--what stabability fix!


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

Mine was rebooting 2-3 times per day - and in the middle of shows 

With L146, I haven't had hardly any reboot issues at all - in fact I don't remember even one offhand.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I also haven't seen any random reboots with L146 with my 921. Getting the blue light on overnight every 3rd or 4th day, but no random reboots when I'm using it.


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## Ronald K (Jan 11, 2004)

Pre 146 my 921 would freeze up on me requiring manual reboots with only one occation that I know of when it rebooted itself. Since 146 my computer auto reboots at least once a day.


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## lhess (Feb 22, 2004)

When mine rebooted we were just watching a movie. Didn't touch a thing. Wasn't the first time however. When I first got it I had it in my showroom. I noticed it would do the same thing once in a while but I always thought it was something I did.


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

L1.46 is definetly more stable for me overall. However, I was recording "Hack" on Saturday, and it rebooted twice during the recording. The cool thing was that it resumed recording when it finished rebooting each time. I have a good chunk of the recording in 3 segments.

I get the blue light special in the mornings.

Overall, it is still more stable than L1.45 for me though....


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## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

I was watching tech TV on Saturday. Not changing channels or anything, all of a sudden the B&W X screen pops up and spontaneous reboot. I have only seen that one once before and I was actually going through the guide data.


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## guruka (Dec 27, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> I also haven't seen any random reboots with L146 with my 921. Getting the blue light on overnight every 3rd or 4th day, but no random reboots when I'm using it.


I'm defininately seeing approximately one spontaneous reboot every 24 hours. Sometimes it happens when I'm watching something (right in the middle of the Oscars last light with a dozen people over here watching them in HD) and sometimes it happens at night and then I see the blue light special in the morning. This is definitely not fixed. Reboots caused by user actions (too many fast button presses, channel changing, etc.) do seem to be better with L.1.46 than with L.1.45, but random reboots are still as frequent as ever.

.....G


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

I honestly think that the 921 is crashing and rebooting more often with L146 than it was with L145. I understand that there were some supposed improvements in this area, but my experience is that things are actually worse in the new software in terms of general "up time".


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## topom (Jan 4, 2004)

Slordak said:


> I honestly think that the 921 is crashing and rebooting more often with L146 than it was with L145. I understand that there were some supposed improvements in this area, but my experience is that things are actually worse in the new software in terms of general "up time".


I have to agree. With L145 I had 1 random reboot in 10 days, and no "blank" (empty - 0 min) recordings. With L146 I have had 3 "empty" recordings (all off satellite HD channels) and 1 split recording (CSI on HD-CBS off satellite) since the new software came out.

I also get the famous "blue light" indicating re-boots while I am not watching about 2-3 times/week. At this point, I wish the version were an OPTION instead of mandatory. My first 10 days (with L145) had me wondering what all the complaints were about. The last 10 days (with L146) have me wondering if the software is "hardware specific" - meaning that for some reason my hardware was behaving better with L145 and others is behaving better with L146.


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## thevoice (Sep 24, 2002)

guruka said:


> Sometimes it happens when I'm watching something (right in the middle of the Oscars last light with a dozen people over here watching them in HD)
> .....G


Did yours reboot during the speech of Blake Edwards?


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## guruka (Dec 27, 2003)

thevoice said:


> Did yours reboot during the speech of Blake Edwards?



<chuckle> Nope. It wasn't then. I don't remember exactly when it was. I spent the reboot time distracting my guests. 

.....G


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## Jim Parker (Aug 12, 2003)

Well, after a 10 days of stability, mine rebooted 3 times yesterday for no apparent reason.


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## Ronald K (Jan 11, 2004)

146 has been a definite step backwards.

More reboots and worst of all my OTA recordings are once again hit or miss.

I do have caller id - half of the time.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

Mine crashed again last night, right about as "Kingdom Hospital" started. My girlfriend was quite upset and ran upstairs to watch the show on a much more reliable receiver (a 508). She is now questioning the purchase of the 921 altogether, since it's "a total piece of crap" in her words.

In any case, I couldn't get the unit to respond at all, so I finally yanked the smart card to try and force a reboot. The receiver rebooted and got all the way back to the "Acquiring program data from satellite..." screen before it completely hung. I couldn't get it to respond to the remote, so I started trying to work it from the front panel. I eventually got the power off, but then couldn't get it back on. I tried the "System Information" button, and it looks as if something was being sent over the DVI connection, but the signal wouldn't sync up, so I'm not sure. I eventually had to completely unplug the unit and plug it back in to get it to recover.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

The "random reboot" problems continue to occur. As Mark noted, there is nothing in L147 which changes this one way or the other (i.e. doesn't make it any worse, but doesn't make it any better).

Last night my receiver rebooted at the end of "American Idol", which I was watching it OTA. I had been using the rewind/fast forward live TV features, but nothing out of the ordinary. The receiver once again simply went to the "Grey X" screen and then rebooted after a few moments.


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