# L331 problems



## swamper (Jan 31, 2007)

The past year of fairly trouble free operation seems to be over with the L330 and L331 downloads. I went over six months without having to reboot until L330 came along. The system slowed to a crawl with every press of a remote key until it finally locked up. A reboot was the only way to fix it. Since getting L331, I now have another problem. Once a recording has started, I can't stop it. The first recording I tried went over an hour past the end time until I rebooted the system. I tried just a few minutes of recording this morning. Same problem. Once started, it won't stop. 

Anyone else seeing this?


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

Actually yes, I had this on Saturday! I taped a program on NASATV for 45 minutes. I set it manually, it recorded for 32 hours! No kidding. I was not home at the time but I tried to stop, erase etc... nothing. Booted it, recording stopped and then it erased fine. This was with L330. Didn't know about 331.


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## jmraider75 (Aug 21, 2006)

penguin44 said:


> Actually yes, I had this on Saturday! I taped a program on NASATV for 45 minutes. I set it manually, it recorded for 32 hours! No kidding. I was not home at the time but I tried to stop, erase etc... nothing. Booted it, recording stopped and then it erased fine. This was with L330. Didn't know about 331.


I am having the same problem.


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## swamper (Jan 31, 2007)

Further update. I contacted technical support yesterday. At first the rep told me no one else had reported this. I told him there were others reporting it at DBSTalk and he agreed to look further. Lo and behold, he came back and said there IS a problem that the software guys know about and are working on. The workaround is to reboot your 921 when you want to stop recording. The solution is expected within eight (!) days.

If it wasn't for DBSTalk, I doubt I would have received a straight answer. I understand software can be buggy but you'd think they would have done some testing before releasing it. The time change started this whole mess but they've known about that for well over a year. Maybe next time they'll fix one problem at a time.


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## mwgiii (Jul 19, 2002)

swamper said:


> The workaround is to reboot your 921 when you want to stop recording. The solution is expected within eight (!) days.


:lol:

I guess that is a new added feature. I wonder if they are going to start charging $4.95/month for the ability to automatically stop timers?


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## tthomps (Jul 17, 2004)

Last night my son recorded Mythbusters. Eight hour later it was still recording. My only choice was a power button warm boot to stop it. Interestingly, all of my old timers that were set before 330 and 331 are working fine.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

I had this problem again today. I guess it wasn't fixed. Yeah, some of my timers fire and stop when scheduled. Some, for some reason don't and a reboot is the only way to stop. I also pvr'd mythbusters last night. Mine did stop though. Hmm...


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## SteveB (Aug 18, 2004)

Haven't had recording problems, but I will protect the existing recordings as soon as I get home. But, just like L330, L331 boots on its own several times a day, drops a black screen covering 90% of the picture several times a day and every morning at about 8:20 am Pacific, requiring a soft reboot or hard power plug reboot. Sometimes the controls become sluggish. Off-air drops out more often. AND of course the OTA guide data is now missing (I do not subscribe to locals).


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

Oh and to add one more thing to my post, the recoding i had going, once re-booted, is deleted. As if it never happened.


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## Zarom (Jun 4, 2005)

I'm also having the problem of unending recordings that only stop when a power cord reboot is done. With my 921 on its own power strip, it's easy to do a power cord reboot. I added the strip since rebooting seems to be frequently required.

I've had two instances of recordings running for over eight hours, one with a recording manually selected with stop at end, and once on a timed recording. After rebooting, the recording is gone.

I'm also having some recordings that are selected for M-F recordings not record at all. I've deleted and reset one of them, but so far it's still missing the recording. 



PVR921 S/W L331HECD-N
Boot ver 120B
Flash F052
HD34


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## SteveB (Aug 18, 2004)

Zarom said:


> With my 921 on its own power strip, it's easy to do a power cord reboot. I added the strip since rebooting seems to be frequently required.


I did that a year ago. Still a little inconvenient since moved the unit into the garage below my TV to get rid of the &*^%[email protected] fan noise.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

Guys, found a way to stop the recording and still keeping it on the drive. Do a dish point, menu 6 2. it will say the usual 'dish point has stopped becuase there is a recording, do you wish to stop the recording and continue?" I told it yes, then the same message came up again, i said yes again. It stopped the recording. No rebooting. 

I hope they fix it. It seems to be doing this for recordings that are set manually, ie, i am watching a show, then i press record. Anything else pre-set, works fine.


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## BarryO (Dec 16, 2003)

Thanks for the tip. I had the same manual-recording bug happen today. Just did a hard reboot to stop it.


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## SteveB (Aug 18, 2004)

I complained several times to E* about many many problems I have had since 330 & 331, they decided it must be my box, they are replacing it free! Now, we have to watch all the stuff we have on the hard drive or copy it at real-time rate. I wish they had a system to transfer the data from an old system to a new system.


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## crashman (Feb 11, 2004)

swamper said:


> The past year of fairly trouble free operation seems to be over with the L330 and L331 downloads. I went over six months without having to reboot until L330 came along. The system slowed to a crawl with every press of a remote key until it finally locked up. A reboot was the only way to fix it. Since getting L331, I now have another problem. Once a recording has started, I can't stop it. The first recording I tried went over an hour past the end time until I rebooted the system. I tried just a few minutes of recording this morning. Same problem. Once started, it won't stop.
> 
> Anyone else seeing this?


I'm getting the same thing. The only differents I got from L330 to L331 was the added recording issue (Not Stopping) and the very slow performance, not to mention OTA HD recording very jittery and pixelating.

Wife is going to call in to tech support and issue the complain to make it official.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

penguin44 said:


> Guys, found a way to stop the recording and still keeping it on the drive. Do a dish point, menu 6 2. it will say the usual 'dish point has stopped becuase there is a recording, do you wish to stop the recording and continue?" I told it yes, then the same message came up again, i said yes again. It stopped the recording. No rebooting.
> 
> I hope they fix it. It seems to be doing this for recordings that are set manually, ie, i am watching a show, then i press record. Anything else pre-set, works fine.


I called E* three times since 330/331 came along (I found out about 331 at the time I made the second call). My first call was because i could not manually stop a recording of an OTA station (I do not subscribe to LIL's). The tech suggested changing to another OTA channel, lo and behold I got the same message that penguin44 got with menu 6 2.

My second and third call was due to the 921 locking up and then rebooting wile watching a live OTA broadcast.

330/331 adding insult to injury - they take away the OTA guide and made the 921 even more buggy than ever. My wife rants at how E* equipment is all a P.O.S. This is my 8th 921 - so I had about as much luck with hardware as software.

[RANT ON]
Hey E* - give it up and do us poor 921 owners right! We pay a DVR fee and get this greif. We should get a free OTA guide, don't make us sub to your overcompressed LIL SD garbage. BTW: it's not really free, you get the DVR fee after we BOUGHT the 921. Now you want us to give the 921 back for a leased 622 :lol: :nono:  and charge us an "HD Enabling fee" on top of that  :shrug: :grrr: :hair: Your "bean-counters" are going to destroy what good name E* has left after this fiasco! [RANT OFF]

If you wat to nickle and dime us to death, at least get the frickin' box to work right


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## TvilleBee (Feb 11, 2007)

Michael P said:


> Hey E* - give it up and do us poor 921 owners right!..... we BOUGHT the 921. Now you want us to give the 921 back for a leased 622 :lol: :nono:


I'm almost to the point that if they want to take my owned 921 & give a leased 622 (with no upgrade fee at all), I think I'd be better off.....

Rob


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

TvilleBee said:


> I'm almost to the point that if they want to take my owned 921 & give a leased 622 (with no upgrade fee at all), I think I'd be better off.....
> 
> Rob


There actually is a deal that effectivly doees that, via monthly credits to your bill. An advanced tech told me about it. There is even a deal where you can buy a 622 for $300+ (forgot the exact amount), again you would have to give up your 921 to get that deal (plus the HD enabling fee if you don't sub to HD programming).


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

just to add to list, pvr'd 2 shows last night (monday) When recording was completed, they disappeared! No delete, they weren't even on the list. But they were there as being recorded, red light on the box and even confirmed this by going into the dvr list and it showed it with the little red dot thingy on it, and in guide. They must fix 331. This is getting annoying now. I managed to re-record but should not have to. Nor do I want to upgrade as a 622 is useless to me since I am unable to get 61.5 due to a big honking building. I don't want anything. I like what I have.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Last night when I came home from work (I work an afternoon-early evening shift) my daily recording that was scheduled for 7-8 PM did not record. Additionally when I turned on the 921 only the green light came on, neither the amber or blue lights lit. I though to myself {they must be pushing a software update to rid us of 331}. No such luck. I had to do a front panel reboot and stinkin' 331 was still there. Fortunately my 7 PM show repeats at 9 and midnight, I caught most of the 9 PM rebroadcast and recorded the 12 midnight "last chance". 

So now to add to the OTA freeze-ups, 331 now also misses scheduled recordings. It's probably all realated to the same issue. I just happened to be watching on OTA station on 3 seperate occurrences of the lock-up and now a missed recording because I was not home at the time the scheduiled recording failed to fire (I bet there was no red light).

Oh how I miss L278!


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## dougj6502 (Mar 22, 2007)

I have seen the same thing. However after a reboot my 921 no longer can tell the model number of my switch. (sw64) So now I can not get any local channels and many of my other channels are gone. I have tried several things including a switch tests without the cables plugged in and then with them plugged in. I have two other recievers and I have used them to test the cables and the switch they both work just fine. Any one else seeing this? Is this just something have happened independent of the new software? Software version is L331.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

dougj6502 said:


> I have seen the same thing. However after a reboot my 921 no longer can tell the model number of my switch. (sw64) So now I can not get any local channels and many of my other channels are gone. I have tried several things including a switch tests without the cables plugged in and then with them plugged in. I have two other recievers and I have used them to test the cables and the switch they both work just fine. Any one else seeing this? Is this just something have happened independent of the new software? Software version is L331.


This sounds like a problem with the power adder of the SW64, and not a problem with the 921. As a former user of the SW64 I have experienced a lot of greif with that switch.


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## AnubisPrime (Mar 13, 2005)

My 921 is having the same "manual record forever" bug since L331.

Edit:

I just spoke with a tech rep from Dish regarding an ETA for a fix. The rep said that it has been a known problem since 3/14, but had NO ETA as to when a fix would be available. They endorse the Dish/Point menu option to stop manual recordings. I was assured that a fix is in the works.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

Actually got the same answer here, no ETA but hoped it would be soon, as he was tired of all the calls. (he said it jokingly) very nice guy. Chris R. or something like that. I told him i was doing the dish point option, it seems to work.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

I made 4 calls to tech support since 330/331. In addition to the problems noted above, my EPG will slow down (take sever seconds to respond to a request to display, and then when it does display it slowly appears from top to bottom, similar to an older PC running on a newer version of Windows that it was not designed to run). The latest problem involves the picture blacking out (except for the sides). Only a reboot fixes the blackout.


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## penguin44 (Oct 29, 2005)

I also have the slow load problem from time to time, but no picture blackout.


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## havana (Dec 19, 2005)

swamper said:


> The workaround is to reboot your 921 when you want to stop recording. The solution is expected within eight (!) days.
> 
> Makes me want to freakin scream...do you suppose E* would accept some lame excuse for not making your monthly payment...like, sorry my check bounced and the workaround is to debit the CEO's retirement account:hurah: and I'll try to come up with a solution within eight (!) days.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Here is one more 331 glitch: I was recording OTA on the fly with a manual stop. After 16 minutes the box locked up and went into an automatic reboot. At least I still had the 16 minute recording after the reboot (I switched to the analog feed to continue watching the program).

331 cannot become history soon enough!


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## swamper (Jan 31, 2007)

My original complaint to Dish was on 3/14 and I got a promise of a fix within 8 days. Seems like they missed the deadline and things are just getting worse with reboots required at least twice a day. Just for the heck of it I called to see about upgrading to a 622. Here's the answer:

Upgrade cost (after rebate) $99.00
Monthly Costs:
Top 100 with locals $34.00
HD Channels 20.00
DVR Fee 5.98
Receiver Fee 6.00
Total $66.97 per month!

I now pay $55.96 for the same service with my 921. The only difference is a few more HD channels and I'm not willing to fork over an additional $11.00 per month for that! I'll be staying with what I've got and hope they can fix this thing before it ends up in my backyard with a hole in it. Direct TV is looking better and better all the time.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Receiver fee? What is that? If you subscribe to the HD channels the "HD Enabling fee" is waived. That fee is only charged if you don't get the $20 HD pack.


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## jadebox (Dec 14, 2004)

I'm having all the problems noted in this thread. The problems started a couple of weeks ago. I guess this is just Dish's way of encouraging us to "upgrade" to a 622. 

-- Roger


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## ClaudeR (Dec 7, 2003)

Michael P said:


> Oh how I miss L278!


Well, I still have L278, and can't record worth a darn; time is an hour off, etc.. They want to replace the box, but I said to hold off on that...


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## swamper (Jan 31, 2007)

Michael P said:


> Receiver fee? What is that? If you subscribe to the HD channels the "HD Enabling fee" is waived. That fee is only charged if you don't get the $20 HD pack.


I asked about this extra fee and the Dish Rep put me on hold to check it again. She confirmed that I had to pay the DVR fee AND the Receiver fee. I asked if this was a fee for a second receiver and TV. She replied it was not. It would be part of my regular monthly billing for one TV.

These extra fees have been the source of much controversy over the past many months. Dish can brag about not increasing rates but it's the fees that add up. That's why I'm going to stay with what I have now for as long as I can.

If anybody from Dish is reading this, how about an update on fixing the problems with L331?!


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

swamper said:


> I asked about this extra fee and the Dish Rep put me on hold to check it again. She confirmed that I had to pay the DVR fee AND the Receiver fee. I asked if this was a fee for a second receiver and TV. She replied it was not. It would be part of my regular monthly billing for one TV.
> 
> These extra fees have been the source of much controversy over the past many months. Dish can brag about not increasing rates but it's the fees that add up. That's why I'm going to stay with what I have now for as long as I can.
> 
> If anybody from Dish is reading this, how about an update on fixing the problems with L331?!


The official "fees" are listed on the back "boiler plate" of the paper bill (if you still get one). Nowhere is there a "receiver fee", and extra receiver fee, yes, but not one called "receiver fee. If you only have one receiver,a nd sub to the HD pack the only fee they can still hit you with is the PVR fee. If they mean a lease fee, that should be included with the programming fee, especialy if you only have one receiver.

I'd ask to speak with a supervisor on that one.


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## doxieland (Mar 25, 2007)

Has anyone heard when we can expect the 921 problems with 331 to be fixed? the eight days i saw on here, and the one week we were told have long passed. 

Yesterday, I thought there may have been some progress, manual record stop at end worked, the screen only blacked out 3 times and it only took a quick "turn off" of sat - without a reboot to regain - and my guide was working amazingly better.

Today, back to same old stuff, never-ending manual record, lockups and blackouts.... golly,

I wondered if anyone else had this happen....
does anyone have updates?


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

doxieland said:


> Has anyone heard when we can expect the 921 problems with 331 to be fixed? the eight days i saw on here, and the one week we were told have long passed.


332 is scheduled to spool tomorrow. Maybe a fix will be in it.


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## Cabby (Jan 2, 2006)

Being a sap who has the L278 that never updates... I haven't dealt with the L331 problems because they cant seem to send me a replacement that actually functions.

BUT, I did ask them about known bugs in L331 and how a lot of people are having issues with recordings that don't stop. Their reply was to use the Check Switch workaround to stop a recording, but "there is no record of recordings going past the scheduled time, only the inability to stop the recording manually."

I also asked about upgrading to the 622 to not have to deal with these never-ending 921 issues, and they actually told me not to because of all the HDMI connector issues on the 621. Exact words "Upgrading would be a risky proposition if you want to use the HDMI connector."


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## Cabby (Jan 2, 2006)

Received my third 921 which turned out to be a 942. The 942 is about 10000000000000 times better than the 921 in almost every way. Recording shows based on name... what a concept!!


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## ClaudeR (Dec 7, 2003)

Cabby CONGRATULATIONS! This used to happen once in a while, so I asked the rep if they would do it for me, of course the answer was no.


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## Cabby (Jan 2, 2006)

ClaudeR said:


> Cabby CONGRATULATIONS! This used to happen once in a while, so I asked the rep if they would do it for me, of course the answer was no.


Thanks! My initial reaction was , oh crap, they can't even send me the right receiver now. Upon further investigation, it was an upgrade pack saying my 921 was upgraded to a 942 at no cost. It took a bit to get it activated, but the interface is so much better than the 921 and so much easier to use.

People who have 942's or 622's for a long time probably laugh at us old timers, but just hangin on trying to protect my investment of the craptacular 921. It doesnt seem the 942 has near the number of bugs that the 921 or 622 have currently. Glad to see they released a new 921 software update for all my old friends.

Squeaky wheel syndrome I guess, not sure why they picked me, but they saved themselves a customer. We even took out the "How to reboot the Satellite" from our babysitter's instructions


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## pkeenan (Feb 21, 2005)

Anyone had this problem?
Channel 102 Lost Lock.
Please wait, or channel up or down
Satellite...110
Transponder...2
Trying to figure this one out. No real error codes. I am currently with the system info:
L332-HEED/N


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