# I did it again today...



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Managed to make my 921 blow away all of my recorded events again today. The only reason that I'm telling you this again is that this time it happened under different circumstances. 

I was running a test for a user concerning audio delay on TNT programs with the 921, so I had timers set to record NYPD Blue from 12-1 today on both TNT and TNT-HD. Default padding. Put the 921 into standby and went to work.

When I got home tonight, I went to check to recordings, and boom, everything was gone except for the 2 "Unknown Recorded Events" ZSRs.

I would say until this gets fixed, don't set up timers the way I did today, meaning don't set up timers for the SAME program at the SAME time on different channels (ie OTA and local). You're likely to lose everything recorded if you do, or at the very least, you're taking a big risk...


----------



## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

That is interesting. Did you have a lot of space on your hard drive at the time, or was it getting close to the point of doing some recycling? 

Maybe eldon will have enough dead 921s now to be able to figure this one out.


----------



## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

_"so I had timers set to record NYPD Blue from 12-1 today on both TNT and TNT-HD."_

_"I would say until this gets fixed, don't set up timers the way I did today, meaning don't set up timers for the SAME program at the SAME time on different channels (ie OTA and local)."_

I don't understand... Do you get TNT on a local channel / OTA channel? Mark- I think your report has descrepancies. Please report this way to clarify:

Timer 1: Time In; Time Out; channel#

Timer 2: Time In; Time Out; channel#

Channel that 921 was left in when you put 921 in standby:

Time remaining on hard drive before this test case:

I would think you recorded TNT on an SD sat channel (138) and you recorded the TNT HD channel (9420); not an OTA channel.
I don't see anything unusual about this scenario as long as you were tuned to one of the two and not trying to tune to a 3rd sat channel or an OTA channel as that would create a system conflict. Record 2 sat channels but must monitor one of those two or watch a prerecorded program when the timers fired. If there was a bug here it would be that you may have left the 921 on another channel and the system did not tune to one of the intended channels to make the recordings while in standby.

I have yet to see the ZSR except in a case where I selected to record a channel manually while watching it and I couldn't get it to stop recording, until it ran out of time and then deleted the entire HD. That was my experience last July.

One more thing- I have timers set to record two channels at once, and on Wednesdays, one sat channel, HDNet and one OTA channel local CBSHD, and never bother where I leave the 921 tuned to when putting in standby mode. It handles these simultaneous recordings without error. I have been careful to delete recordings manually to make sure I maintain between 7 and 18 hours free on the drive.
There is something really strange with this. I wonder if it is that the 921 reacts differently to the same observable and obvious conditions. A condition that could make the code function differently (bugs) may be soft memory, dare I say Memory leaks too? If this is the case, then Eldon or the best genius programmer will never fix the 921 through software adjustments alone unless they program in certain checksum error detection and program corrective action until the expected result is obtained. Something like this could add great complexity to the software, near A.I. like function.


----------



## dishbacker (Jun 15, 2004)

I have recorded American Idol on OTA-HD, 4-1, and SAT channel 4 (or 8403 because of the 'red dot' issue) 2 of the last 3 weeks. Last night and Tuesday night, I did the work before hand to tune in 4-1 (another cloudy night in DFW...) before the recording, but didn't put the receiver in standby either time. No issues, no ZSR, no deleted hard drive.

I record the SD channel as a backup since my FOX OTA can be un-tuneable at times based on weather conditions.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Glad to hear that, dishbacker. Maybe it's a function of one of the timers being from a Dish HD channel, rather than a function of being the same program name on different channels. 

Don - 

Timer 1: 12:00-1:00, 1 and 3, 9420
Timer 2: 12:00-1:00, 1 and 3, 138

Left tuned to channel 138 when put into standby. Lots of space left on the drive - I had either 10 or 11 HD hours recorded at that point.


----------



## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

Mark,
Do you think this is a repeatable problem?

Does your new 921 have the extra tracking diagnostics loaded (if I understood your prior statement correctly)? Is this one getting shipped across the ocean too?

Doesn't make a lot of sense, but it sure seems like some 921s are more prone to this failure then others. Perhaps it has something to do with a more suttle usage pattern.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Possible, David. I don't think that this one's going anywhere, but anything's possible at this point. Right now I'm mostly curious to see if my 921 will start recording again normally when I accumulate as many ZSRs as I had recorded events. Currently I can record nothing successfully, but I'm just about at the point that I have the same number.


----------



## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

So are you saying the box is still in a 'bad' state? Has it done an automatic reboot?

It seems like Eldon would/should want to see this.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

The current thinking is that once the 921 gets into this state, you will not be able to successfully record a program until you have recorded as many ZSRs as you had stored recordings before they were wiped out. Reboots don't do any good. My old 921 was in this same state, so they already have it.


----------



## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

For the first time last week, my machine failed to fire a timer. I checked the timer list and two were at the bottom of the list. Both had midnight starting times.

To E*'s programmers......

C'Mon guys. This CAN'T be that tough. Why does Midnight starting times give you guys fits?


----------



## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

BobMurdoch said:


> C'Mon guys. This CAN'T be that tough. Why does Midnight starting times give you guys fits?


I guess you can always set your padding so it starts a little earlier than midnight! :lol:


----------



## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> My old 921 was in this same state, so they already have it.


Mark, in your other post, you mention that Eldon made some finding. Do you have any update on the progress with the finding? One thing seems pretty consistant, Once I have a ZSR and a data loss, the problem persists until the factory reset and other procedures are accomplished.


----------



## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Managed to make my 921 blow away all of my recorded events again today. The only reason that I'm telling you this again is that this time it happened under different circumstances.
> 
> I was running a test for a user concerning audio delay on TNT programs with the 921, so I had timers set to record NYPD Blue from 12-1 today on both TNT and TNT-HD. Default padding. Put the 921 into standby and went to work.
> 
> ...


Just thought I'd add that I do this about half a dozen times a week because I don't trust the OTA-HD reception from some of my local stations. I will record the OTA-HD and the non-mapped SD version. So far so good, knock on wood. I to use the default padding.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

boylehome - I'm not at liberty to be more specific with what I said before.


----------



## elmc (Jan 7, 2005)

Mark Lamutt said:


> The current thinking is that once the 921 gets into this state, you will not be able to successfully record a program until you have recorded as many ZSRs as you had stored recordings before they were wiped out.
> 
> This doesn't seem to have worked for me. Mine erased everything Feb 25th. We have recorded A LOT since then and I have filled the hard drive all they way up more than once. ZSRs are as happening still.
> 
> ...


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Update: After I accumulated my 14th ZSR last night (the number of recorded events that were wiped out this time around), my 921 started recording and acting normally again.


----------



## invaliduser88 (Apr 23, 2002)

It still bugs me that we're experiencing this kind of problem and Dish hasn't given us any idea of what the time frame for fixing it. Give so some feedback so we know our issues are being taken seriously.

Mark, I know you're restricted by an NDA so this isn't directed at you.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

You're being taken very seriously. Over the past 3 days, I've been asked 5 times by the 921 team to get contact information for users that have posted bug reports in the bug reports forum so that they could be contacted about their reports.


----------



## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

How about a root cause? Is there anything we can do to avoid being wiped out?


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I don't have any idea on this one yet, David.


----------



## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Update: After I accumulated my 14th ZSR last night (the number of recorded events that were wiped out this time around), my 921 started recording and acting normally again.


Mark, can you tell us if you got a replacement 921 that was new or refurbished? Can you tell us what the the boot, flash, & software version are for your latest 921? I started having problems with my HEED last night. The OTA's that were recorded pixelated with audio drop outs. I watched the same OTA programs live while they were being recorded and they were fine. This morning, I saw that the HEED did not do the automatic reboot as it normally does. I did a power cord reboot for the HEED 921 in hopes that future OTA recordings will work.

Thanks,

John


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

My replacement 921 is from the beta pool, so it's not new.

Boot: 120B
Flash: F051
Hardware: HECD


----------



## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> My replacement 921 is from the beta pool, so it's not new.
> 
> Boot: 120B
> Flash: F051
> Hardware: HECD


From the looks of your info. it looks like a first out model. It's funny that I used to have the majority of problems with my HECD but is really working much better than the HEED?

Thanks,

John


----------

