# What happened to my Timers...!!!!



## mithcman333 (Feb 7, 2006)

I've had the Vip 622 for a couple of months now - and like others I've gone through the growing pains (eg. software updates, reboots, video skips) but nothing was ever too much...

Until tonight....! - A big night of recordings (back-to-back Timers) NOPE.... not only did nothing record (bad), all my *"Timers" are GONE *(worse). It says zero, I had over 60 at last count..... it took so long to get them perfect...

Wife is going to kill me.....!!! .....lots of little issues before - this was a biggie tonight..

Anyone else have lost Timer issues.....????

*Mitchman *


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## DAG (Feb 7, 2006)

mithcman333 said:


> I've had the Vip 622 for a couple of months now - and like others I've gone through the growing pains (eg. software updates, reboots, video skips) but nothing was ever too much...
> 
> Until tonight....! - A big night of recordings (back-to-back Timers) NOPE.... not only did nothing record (bad), all my *"Timers" are GONE *(worse). It says zero, I had over 60 at last count..... it took so long to get them perfect...
> 
> ...


I woke up this morning to no timers listed at all on my 622. In fact, when I went to create a manual timer, nothing happened at all when the final screen memo came up stating something about searching for programs. When I went to my program guide and tried looking ahead for several days, it quickly popped up a notice that my guide needed to be updated and when I let it, my timers magically showed up again! My 622 had already updated at 3AM today according to the counters. Another glitch to be added to the list......

Still patiently awaiting another software upgrade to "fix" all the new "features".


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## wcswett (Jan 7, 2003)

DAG said:


> I woke up this morning to no timers listed at all on my 622. In fact, when I went to create a manual timer, nothing happened at all when the final screen memo came up stating something about searching for programs. When I went to my program guide and tried looking ahead for several days, it quickly popped up a notice that my guide needed to be updated and when I let it, my timers magically showed up again! My 622 had already updated at 3AM today according to the counters. Another glitch to be added to the list......
> 
> Still patiently awaiting another software upgrade to "fix" all the new "features".


I had exactly the same problem and none of my Tuesday [edit] morning shows recorded. I advanced the guide, updated it, and my timers all returned. The problem was exactly duplicated on my second 622 as well. I wonder if there was some kind of 622 hit or stealth "upgrade" last night.

--- WCS


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

First off. I can say with 100% certainty there is no such thing as a stealth software update. Second, lets keep in my the rules of the forums and stick to the facts and experiences. 

Now.. lets try and gather up info here. This one sounds major. 

Mitchman.. did you do a power cord reboot? 

DAG.. What counter increments when the guide updates over night? 

Everyone: WHen you say timers are you talking events or timers? Is all your previous recordings in tact? Are the timers going or all the events associated with the timers not showing up? 

Do you all of you have OTA antennas hooked up? 
Dual or Single Mode operation? 

More details the better.


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## mithcman333 (Feb 7, 2006)

mithcman333 said:


> I've had the Vip 622 for a couple of months now - and like others I've gone through the growing pains (eg. software updates, reboots, video skips) but nothing was ever too much...
> 
> Until tonight....! - A big night of recordings (back-to-back Timers) NOPE.... not only did nothing record (bad), all my *"Timers" are GONE *(worse). It says zero, I had over 60 at last count..... it took so long to get them perfect...
> 
> ...


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## Cold Irons (Dec 7, 2005)

Just got my 622 activated on Monday, 24th (another story in itself). I use it (like my 942) in single mode.

Set up a bunch of timers for the week - all Wash DC networks - some OTA & others on the Sat HD LiL channels (mapped to xxx-00 via HD Priority). The 2 timers that I set up for for Monday night worked.

Tuesday (yesterday) afternoon, came home & checked the daily schedule & it was BLANK! All the timere were gone. The recordings from Monday night were on the Hard Drive AOK. Before I started trying to debug that, looked in the guide & had "no information" for all shows after the current time. Forced a guide update & then ALMOST all the timers "came back" in the daily schedule list! Had to re-set-up the two Monday night timers.

So - this was my case also - some sort of Monday-to-Tuesday overnight guide glitch appeared to empty the daily schedule list....very strange.

Redid all the timers last night & looked at the daily schedule again this morning & all appeared OK. Will check again this afternoon.....


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## fwampler (Dec 2, 2005)

mithcman333 said:


> I've had the Vip 622 for a couple of months now - and like others I've gone through the growing pains (eg. software updates, reboots, video skips) but nothing was ever too much...
> 
> Until tonight....! - A big night of recordings (back-to-back Timers) NOPE.... not only did nothing record (bad), all my *"Timers" are GONE *(worse). It says zero, I had over 60 at last count..... it took so long to get them perfect...
> 
> ...


My 625 showed the same symptoms. A cold reboot fixed it. Got back all my timers and recorded programs.


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## bairdjc (Sep 22, 2005)

how do you force a guide update except by a hard reboot?


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

bairdjc said:


> how do you force a guide update except by a hard reboot?


Do a checkswitch. After it is complete, the receiver will re-download the guide before you can do anything else.


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## wcswett (Jan 7, 2003)

Ron Barry said:


> First off. I can say with 100% certainty there is no such thing as a stealth software update. Second, lets keep in my the rules of the forums and stick to the facts and experiences.
> 
> Now.. lets try and gather up info here. This one sounds major.
> 
> ...


1) Under "schedule", all events disappeared and nothing previously scheduled recorded.
2) The guide only contained two hours of data until I forced an update by scrolling ahead a few hours.
3) Upon scrolling ahead, the "guide outdated" warning came up.
4) Selecting the option to update the guide produced a guide updating window that lasted for only a couple of seconds and did not show any progress in the progress bar.
5) The guide updating window disappeared and all the guide data and recording schedule reappeared.
6) This was the case for both of my 622's.
7) Edit: one 622 has OTA and the other does not

--- WCS


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## sampatterson (Aug 27, 2002)

Both my 622s also lost all their timers...


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## zeekle (Jun 18, 2005)

wcswett said:


> 1) Under "schedule", all events disappeared and nothing previously scheduled recorded.
> 2) The guide only contained two hours of data until I forced an update by scrolling ahead a few hours.
> 3) Upon scrolling ahead, the "guide outdated" warning came up.
> 4) Selecting the option to update the guide produced a guide updating window that lasted for only a couple of seconds and did not show any progress in the progress bar.
> ...


This was exactly what happened to me last night when I got home from work. No OTA on mine


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## dishbacker (Jun 15, 2004)

Any chance this is related to the big move of stations on Tuesday morning to Echo 10? My auto-tune timer on my 942 that starts up Disney-E at 6:30a every day didn't fire. After the kids finished watching stuff, I did a power button reboot (habit from my 18 months of 921 use) and everything recorded just fine last night.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Good feedback guys. I suggest a power cord reboot and see if the timer events reappear. 

1) So based on the feedback. No lost DVR recordings. 
2) Looks like it is not OTA dependent. 
3) Intersting post by dishbacker. There might be a correlation here. 
4) Looks like 4 or 5 people reporting this so far. 

I did not see this. I am not on 61.5 is anyone that had this happen yesterday not have 61.5?


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## dishbacker (Jun 15, 2004)

To add to my Echo 10 speculation... I remember my 942 was set to KDFI 27 when I hit the power button on it Monday night. I know this because I was watching 27-1 for the Rangers game, and as with my cautous nature of living with a 921, I switched it to Satellite 27 (an old old 921 issue about leaving your box on an OTA-HD channel).

Anyway, KDFI 27 was involved in the move on Tuesday morning to a new spot beam on Echo 10. Could be a coincedence... who knows.


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## moman19 (Oct 22, 2004)

Although I have a high-priority Timer set to record all new episodes of 24 on Fox OTA, the 622 somehow missed Monday's episode. It was not a rerun. The 622 simply failed to record it. I checked the schedule and next week's episode is set to record, so I'm not sure what to do other than watch it to see if starts up next week. All other timers seem to be intact. After missing the episode and seeing this topic on the Forum, I am suddenly less than 100% confident that all my shows will get recorded.

My 622 is in Dual mode.


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## voyagerbob (Jul 14, 2002)

I lost all my events on the 622 on Saturday all of the timers were still there just nothing scheduled to record. Did a "hold down the power button" reboot and when it came back up they were all there. 

A separate issue with my 508 was last night all of my recordings were gone but four. I had about 83 or so before. Both protected and unprotected ones were all gone. I did a reboot and then only had two recordings left. What is weird is that they were from the 21st or 22nd everything before and after was gone. Luckily I've been use the 622 since May 30th and had just about watched everything I needed to.


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## scob-dog (Dec 29, 2003)

wcswett said:


> 1) Under "schedule", all events disappeared and nothing previously scheduled recorded.
> 2) The guide only contained two hours of data until I forced an update by scrolling ahead a few hours.
> 3) Upon scrolling ahead, the "guide outdated" warning came up.
> 4) Selecting the option to update the guide produced a guide updating window that lasted for only a couple of seconds and did not show any progress in the progress bar.
> ...


I ran into the samething last night and resolved by doing just as described above. All already recorded events came back and was in tact. I watched a couple to ensure they were still in tact. I am also pointed at 119, 110, and 61.5. My recordings were set to the local SAT HD stations, although an OTA connection exists as well.

I experienced this on my 921, 942, and 622. 522 recorded without a hitch, unfortunatley it was only set to record The Unit, all other show recordings were missed. Even though the timers are back, I hope they record tonight.


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## sledhead 700 (Apr 27, 2004)

All my timers where gone yesterday. I did a powercord reboot and they are all back....


Dave


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## wcswett (Jan 7, 2003)

dishbacker said:


> Any chance this is related to the big move of stations on Tuesday morning to Echo 10? My auto-tune timer on my 942 that starts up Disney-E at 6:30a every day didn't fire. After the kids finished watching stuff, I did a power button reboot (habit from my 18 months of 921 use) and everything recorded just fine last night.


If I had to take a guess at the cause, I would guess that it was related to some change in the guide data stream between 11:30 PM EDT Monday and 6:00 AM EDT Tuesday, the times of my last successful recording and first missed recording. Of course that's just a guess.

--- WCS


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## JimD (Apr 8, 2005)

wcswett said:


> 1) Under "schedule", all events disappeared and nothing previously scheduled recorded.
> 2) The guide only contained two hours of data until I forced an update by scrolling ahead a few hours.
> 3) Upon scrolling ahead, the "guide outdated" warning came up.
> 4) Selecting the option to update the guide produced a guide updating window that lasted for only a couple of seconds and did not show any progress in the progress bar.
> ...


My experience was identical, with the addition that one regularly scheduled timer ("new" episodes of House) disappeared entirely after the recovery. I had to re-enter it. It is the only one I am aware of having lost.


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

wcswett said:


> If I had to take a guess at the cause, I would guess that it was related to some change in the guide data stream between 11:30 PM EDT Monday and 6:00 AM EDT Tuesday, the times of my last successful recording and first missed recording. Of course that's just a guess.


Strange. I did not have any problems. Somehow your guide download got halted or corrupted. Perhaps it's releated to time zone (time of day of update). Perhaps something with locals.

But I'd expect a quide stream change to have effected a lot more people.


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## mikec73 (May 5, 2005)

My 625 had the same problem, recorded fine Monday night then last night nothing. Wife is upset she didnt get American Idol. I checked the shedule and events lists- nothing. Kept all recordings though. Going to check for timers now and reboot.


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## Bradtothebone (Aug 11, 2003)

When I tried to turn off my 622 on Monday night about 10:45 Central, it didn't respond to the "off" command from the remote. I tried again, and it went off for a couple of seconds, then all the lights on the front came on and the cooling fan went into overdrive for about 15 seconds. After that, a screen came up that it was verifying satellite signal on 110, transponder 22, 1 of 5 thru 5 of 5. When that was done, it came back on and I was able to shut it off normally. I don't know if that was a normal reboot routine, since I haven't had to do one yet on this machine.

On Tuesday, all timers fired normally. I don't know if any of this is related to problems others have had, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Brad


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## lionsrule (Nov 25, 2003)

What is the point of the main page linking this thread? To simply get us to all ***** in the same place? Where is the solution?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well it looks like people are getting the timers back by a hard reboot or soft reboot. Also looks like other receivers (625) had the same issue. Wonder if 942 users saw it also. I believe there is common code between those three receivers. 

Also, given that this seem to hit a cross section of user at the same time and that it hit both OTA and non OTA users, my gut would tell me that this is stream related. 

Questions is why did it not hit all of us. I did not notice this on either of my 622s.

As to the purpose of the link at the main page is to direct users that experience the issue to discuss it. Based on the feeback so far, looks to me that the changes in the stream confused the boxes under certain circumstances that resulted in the timer events to disappear. Also looks like a soft or hard reboot brings them back. <--- Important part of the thread and what I would call a solution to people whose timer events are still missing. 

Also remember... we are in the 622 forum so keep those rocks in your pockets.


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## wcswett (Jan 7, 2003)

Ron Barry said:


> Also, given that this seem to hit a cross section of user at the same time and that it hit both OTA and non OTA users, my gut would tell me that this is stream related.


Ron, is it possible that it hit a crossection of users due to timing? I know a variety of things happen in the wee hours, and if a guide stream change happened in the middle of a guide update for some receivers, perhaps just those receivers were affected. You didn't have the problem, but I and most of the other posters are three time zones ahead of you. All the complaints seem to be from eastern and central time zones, with mountain and pacific time zones reporting no problems.

--- Chris


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

I have been having a problem with OTA scheduled events disappearing with the overnight guide update. We've been discussing this problem in the thread 
"Help with setting up schedules?" (sorry, don't know how to make this a link).

Until this week, I've been able to set OTA timers for 'tonight's' programs. But, I did not get my scheduled recording of either Monday or Tuesday "CSI:Miami". I have only had problems with OTA channels. Last night I set a timer to record CSI:Miami on OTA. I checked to see that the show appeared in the schedule. At 9 pm I turned off the TV and went to bed. Just checked the box. It did not record. This appears to be a problem that is getting progressively worse. When I first got the 622 ... not that long ago ... I could set timers to record OTA programs on future dates. That stopped a week or so ago. Now, I can't set the box to record an OTA event on the same night ... unless I leave the 622 ON.

Ideas... Hope someone at dish is aware of this problem and is working on it.


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## Rogueone (Jan 29, 2004)

I have tons of timers, and I lost 2 Monday night. I have Prison Break and 24 set for Mondays, on OTA Fox, and both failed to fire. I had checked probably on Sunday night to make SURE they were still active and planned for recording, because LAST Monday (the first for my 622 being able to see HD programming) it also failed to record those 2 shows! So now I've missed 2 weeks of PB and 24 (on that note, anyone by chance have those still and could burn a couple dvd copies for me?) 

I found out the monday shows were missed Tuesday afternoon, and also noticed the lack of info in the guide, did the auto update that I was prompted for when trying to advance the guide view, and all my timers seemed to be there, EXCEPT the PB and 24 timers. Why did it have to screw up the 2 must watch serial shows where you're lost when you miss an episode, and especially back to back ones  

sounds like we need keep an eye on the guide and make sure it's updating as it should every day. As for the reboot question, no I haven't rebooted, yes i turn the box off after using it.


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## DAG (Feb 7, 2006)

Ron Barry said:


> DAG.. What counter increments when the guide updates over night?
> 
> Everyone: WHen you say timers are you talking events or timers? Is all your previous recordings in tact? Are the timers going or all the events associated with the timers not showing up?
> 
> ...


I didn't say any counter increments, just that counter #38 show the time of the last FSCK which is what a scheduled download does...cause 1.

The bug affected the timers and everyting that would have been associated with them in the "schedule" views. Previously recorded events were still present.

OTA is hooked up.

Dual mode.


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## johnnyd1023 (May 14, 2005)

My 942 is working fine !


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## Gargy (Apr 22, 2003)

My 721 seemed to have problems starting last week. I lost all previous recordings on the PVR, all timers were gone, PVR functions would not work after reboots, and it would lockup all the time. I thought the unit was just dead. I called dish on Friday last week and talked to them they decided I needed a new receiver. So I went ahead and scheduled a 622 install. Meanwhile they offered to send me a refurb'd 721 for free to get me by for the next month. Needless to say on a whim I went and turned on my 721 just now and it's working just fine with all my recordings back now. This is strange.


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## djc (Aug 18, 2004)

My 622 did the same thing last night. However, my Monday timers did fire normally. I noticed it last night (Tuesday) when a 10PM timer did not fire. I was shocked to see that I lost all my timers. However, I did not panic (too much):eek2: and after trying several things, a powerbutton (soft?) reboot did the job.

Any ideas what caused this? I just replaced a VERY unreliable DVR with the 622 and thought my troubles were over...guess not yet  

Dom


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## bavaria72 (Jun 10, 2004)

Just got back in town. All my timers are in place and fired/firing correctly. Have OTA, running single, but I do have all 4 sats (both 129 and 61.5). Interesting.


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

I just had a strange timer issue as well. I set (through the guide) to record "Criminal Minds" on the local CBS OTA station at 8:00pm tonight (4/26/2006). It was about 8:06pm and I noticed that the red recording light was not on. I immediately went to the DVR screen and nothing was recording. I then went to the Schedule screen and the timer was gone. This is the first time this has happened to me and now know what people are talking about in this thread. I will contact technical support to report it now.


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## Moridin (Mar 22, 2005)

johnnyd1023 said:


> My 942 is working fine !


Ditto. Numerous timers fired properly during the period in question, and I saw no loss of extended guide data.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

If you haven't already, be sure to see this announcement:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=57075


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

Thanks for the update, Chris.

Hopefully the programmers will address this....

The boxes should be able to recover from this event (retry the download and/or use the guide from the prior download).


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

johnnyd1023 said:


> My 942 is working fine !


Funny, I actually had a missed timer on my 942 on Sunday, but not my 622. =) the light wasn't on, but when I went into the schedule and it listed it as currently recording, but it wasn't. After a reboot it kicked back in. Now back to the topic of Vip622 timer issues.


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