# Except when necessary (ie. bug occurrence), do you REBOOT your 921?



## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Except when necessary (ie. bug occurrence), do you REBOOT your 921?
And if so by what method? 

If you own a 921, sooner or later you'll need to reboot it because of
one of the infamous bugs that occur or to accept a new software update.
But during normal times do you intentionally reboot your 921?
If so what method do you most prefer?


1. I leave my unit ON most or all the time to prevent rebooting.

2. I put my unit in STANDBY mode to allow auto-reboots to occur.

3. I personally do PUSH BUTTON reboots, every now and then.

4. I prefer the POWER CORD reset, every now and then.

5. I prefer the SMARTCARD reset method, every now and then.

6. Other policy? (provide explanation in post and label as OTHER).


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

I depend on standby for the auto-reboot but always do either a soft or hard boot when the auto-reboot fails and always do a power cord reboot when a bug creeps in.


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Slow response and aspect ratio bug are the most common bugs and with aspect ratio stuck I have little choice but a push button reboot. But since I've been *leaving my unit on 24/7* it seems like I'm getting less bug occurances. So no reboot is my choice.

Also allows me some protection from software updates until I find out what affect it likely to have. Example: L216 would have prevented me from watching OTA digitals for a few days because dishnetwork wasn't convinced at first, that it was due to software and didn't want to give free locals until they were sure.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

The aspect ratio freese-up is the biggest bug affecting me now. Soft reboot usually fixes this bug, but it rears it's uguly head every couple of days. I find that the more I chage the aspect ratio, the more often the bug reappears. Since my current TV is a 4 X 3 SD, I chance the aspect ration for nearly every change of OTA station. Since my local boradcasters can't seem to come to a standard that all can live by I make changes as needed (Letterbox for TRUE HD 16 X 9 broadcasts. Stretch for SD origination that the local broadcaster stretches into 16 X 9 which puts the SD original more or less back to 4 X 3, and Zoom for 4 X 3 that is upconverted but kept in it's proper aspect by the broadcaster so it doesn't fill the screen without zooming).


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## Larry Caldwell (Apr 4, 2005)

Other.

I try to remember to put the unit in standby mode, but if I am expecting a particularly important program, I do a hard reboot BEFORE watching TV. The switch on my surge protector is easily accessible, so a hard reboot is as easy as flipping a switch. 

When I do a hard reboot, I turn the unit off first, so it reboots into standby mode. I believe that booting into standby mode results in a more stable system. Voodoo, but it seems to work. 

I also leave the output in 1080i x 16:9 Normal, and leave my projector set in Auto Aspect Ratio. That gets me a full height picture in everything but 16:9 SD programming. I have to switch to Zoom mode to see that full screen. TNTHD is full screen, but the aspect ratio is screwed up on 4:3 programming. Staying away from stretch mode avoids the stretch mode bug. I have only gotten stuck in Zoom mode once.


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Larry Caldwell said:


> Other.
> 
> I try to remember to put the unit in standby mode, but if I am expecting a particularly important program, I do a hard reboot BEFORE watching TV. The switch on my surge protector is easily accessible, so a hard reboot is as easy as flipping a switch.


It sounds like you generally leave it in standby except on those occations when you want to do a night recording in which you power off the unit.


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## sjm992 (Jan 14, 2004)

The shutdown macro on my pronto switches the 921 to standby whenever we're not watching satellite. I very rarely have to reboot and when I do it's a power chord reboot because the switch is accessible (the 921 is hidden away behind the TV). I don't get the aspect ratio bug and I've never had a ZLR. It stays in HD mode all the time. Never had to reboot to get a software download - it installs automatically.
Stuart


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## Larry Caldwell (Apr 4, 2005)

jergenf said:


> It sounds like you generally leave it in standby except on those occations when you want to do a night recording in which you power off the unit.


Except for those occasions where I

1. Fall asleep on the couch with the TV on

2. Set a timer that interferes with the nightly soft reboot

3. Have been using the 921 for a while, and don't trust it to be stable.


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## BarryO (Dec 16, 2003)

sjm992 said:


> The shutdown macro on my pronto switches the 921 to standby whenever we're not watching satellite. I very rarely have to reboot and when I do it's a power chord reboot because the switch is accessible (the 921 is hidden away behind the TV). I don't get the aspect ratio bug and I've never had a ZLR. It stays in HD mode all the time. Never had to reboot to get a software download - it installs automatically.
> Stuart


'pretty much the same situation for me, although I've gotten the stuck apsect ratio bug once or twice.

Maybe it's because it put the 921 in standby when I'm not watching it, and I leave it in HD all the time, but my 921 is alot more stable than what alot of people describe here.


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## masman (Nov 20, 2004)

Other: I use a computer generated ir signals to reboot and place 921 in Standy as follows;

Monday morning 3:00 am--cut power (X10) with power restored 10 seconds later to force 
hard reboot
Monday morning 3:15 am--generated IR signals to restore proper HDTV aspect and scan options.
Tues - Sun morning 4:00 am - place 921 in Standby, 4:30 am - bring 921 back on line.


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## Jim Kosinsky (Jul 20, 2003)

Along with powering-down the receiver after viewing, I have a 24hr timer on mine that cuts power for a minute every morning at about 430am. for my 921 this seems to have helped significantly (no more AR issues; timers firing correctly; no BSoD occurances in a long time.)

Of course, YMMV.


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## Larry Caldwell (Apr 4, 2005)

Jim Kosinsky said:


> Along with powering-down the receiver after viewing, I have a 24hr timer on mine that cuts power for a minute every morning at about 430am. for my 921 this seems to have helped significantly (no more AR issues; timers firing correctly; no BSoD occurances in a long time.)


Where can I find a timer like that?


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## Jim Kosinsky (Jul 20, 2003)

Just about any Radio Shack or Best Buy should have something. Its just a simple on/off lamp timer that sits between my 921 and the surge protector.

http://www.bookofjoe.com/2004/10/timex_digital_o.html
I just quick searched and found this site with the picture, but this is my specific device. I'm sure a websearch can find it for a better price.


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

It appears that 88% prefer to reboot their boxes versus those 12% that attempt to keep their units on for as long as possible. I would suggest if you choose to reboot to use the push button method or auto-reboots. Both of thoses methods use CPU interrupts. As with any computer just killing the power can cause perminate data loss and possible disk corruption so I would only use that method as a last result.


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Just a heads up for choice #1:

1. I leave my unit ON most or all the time to prevent rebooting.

This implies that you don't have *inactivety mode * enabled else you might as well pick choice #2.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

The poll doesn't have the multiple choices set. 

Let it be known that I recognize there is a difference in the various methods of system recovery and use different ones depending on what the problem is.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

jergenf said:


> It appears that 88% prefer to reboot their boxes versus those 12% that attempt to keep their units on for as long as possible. I would suggest if you choose to reboot to use the push button method or auto-reboots. Both of thoses methods use CPU interrupts. As with any computer just killing the power can cause perminate data loss and possible disk corruption so I would only use that method as a last result.


It was explained to me differently- In a power button reboot the disk drive has the power to it momentarily interrupted at the time the power button is released after holding it off for >10seconds to effect a reboot. They said that this momentary power interruption is hard on the drive's pickup arm motor. In a case where the power cord is pulled, the proceedure recommended by E* engineering is to first put the 921 in standby mode, then pull the power plug and allow the 921 to completely spin down, and the power supply to drain all residual voltage from the system board. This is safely 5-10 minutes. At power up the hard drive is allowed to come on in a normal computer power up sequence. This should be no different than a laptop that you turn on and off often.

Remember- to put the receiver in standby first before pulling the plug. I made the mistake once of pulling the plug while the 921 was playing (also recording the buffer) and when I turned it on the HD output was corrupted with alternating pink and green Horizontal lines. I went to standby and pulled the plug. Allowed the 921 to remain off for an hour and when I fired it up all was fine. E* engineering explained to me what I had done. By leaving the 921 unpowered, the Basic OS was allowed to be accessed from the ROM backup as opposed to the hard drive and then it was allowed to update and correct the corruption.

A year before the 921 was released, I discussed this issue with an engineer from Eldon and he explained to me that they were designing the 921 with a ROM OS backup that would kick in on first power up. This would prevent the 921 from ever suffering a loss of OS function should the hard drive become corrupted. To see this, you must un-power the 921 for a length of time. Obviously, this does not help if the hard drive physically fails.

Bottom line- Power button reboots are harder on the drive than a complete spin down and normal power up sequence after a time to rest.


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## Grauchy (Oct 28, 2004)

I have my 921 on a lamp timer. Every night between 3:00 AM and 3:30 AM the power is cut. This has served me well, everytime they patch the software I turn off the lamp timer to see if they fixed it yet but I always end up putting it back on.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Grauchy said:


> I have my 921 on a lamp timer. Every night between 3:00 AM and 3:30 AM the power is cut. This has served me well, everytime they patch the software I turn off the lamp timer to see if they fixed it yet but I always end up putting it back on.


Wise man!


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

DonLandis said:


> It was explained to me differently- In a power button reboot the disk drive has the power to it momentarily interrupted at the time the power button is released after holding it off for >10seconds to effect a reboot. They said that this momentary power interruption is hard on the drive's pickup arm motor.


That's strange because advanced technicial support recommended pust button reboots. Generally it's bad to kill the power on any computer not so much because the drive looses power (fairly sure all drives now adays park the heads during power interrupts) but that it could be writing something to the filesystem and cause data curruption.

When using the push button the unit goes into standby mode first, and then by holding the button it sends a CPU reset. Wouldn't that be the same as putting it in standby for a couple of seconds then pulling the plug?


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

jergenf said:


> That's strange because advanced technicial support recommended pust button reboots. Generally it's bad to kill the power on any computer not so much because the drive looses power (fairly sure all drives now adays park the heads during power interrupts) but that it could be writing something to the filesystem and cause data curruption.
> 
> When using the push button the unit goes into standby mode first, and then by holding the button it sends a CPU reset. Wouldn't that be the same as putting it in standby for a couple of seconds then pulling the plug?


I think you're right, and Don was given bad information.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

SimpleSimon said:


> I think you're right, and Don was given bad information.


OK... I'll submit that it is quite possible that the people I got my information from, may not know what they are talking about but one thing's certain. The information they gave me has worked and I haven't had the problems others have had with a number of failures reported here, especially with the hard drive failures. So, if what I'm doing is not the proper way according to the current advanced CSR group then, no thanks, I'll stick to what I'm doing. It fixes the bugs that show up and I'm still on a 921 that is nearing 2 years old.  Not that the 921 is a great box but it works fairly well ignoring the nuisance bugs and if I don't try to push it to do too much stuff at once.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

One thing - my gut says the HECD models are more reliable and stable than the newer ones.

ANYway, I'm fairly certain that a power button reboot does NOT remove power from the HDD. It is much more likely that it simply raises RESET on the bus.


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