# BUG DISCUSSION: 0 Second Recordings - possible solution



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

jsanders has posted in his bug report thread about frequent 0 second recordings that he ran the Check Disk diagnostic on his 921 twice, and hasn't had a single 0 second recording since in the last few days. The diagnostic can take a very long time to run (up to 24 hours), so plan for it, but it appears that it may fix a disk corruption issue that may cause 0 second recordings.

Jeff, if I missed anything, please add it or correct me!


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## ggw2000 (Dec 22, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> jsanders has posted in his bug report thread about frequent 0 second recordings that he ran the Check Disk diagnostic on his 921 twice, and hasn't had a single 0 second recording since in the last few days. The diagnostic can take a very long time to run (up to 24 hours), so plan for it, but it appears that it may fix a disk corruption issue that may cause 0 second recordings.
> 
> Jeff, if I missed anything, please add it or correct me!


Could someone provide a detailed procedure for doing this? Also I assume that this will NOT delete any existing recordings that are saved on the HDD?
jsanders, will you provide all details on this, Thanks


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

This option is in the Diagnostics menu (Menu-6-5?). I've never let it run all the way through the test, but the couple of times that I started it, and then rebooted to abort it, it didn't delete any of my recordings.


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## Jason Kragt (Dec 20, 2002)

I'll give it a try. I just got another "0 second" recording earlier today. All of my "0 second" recordings have been HD programs from Dish's HD package, mostly HDNet and Discovery HD.

I did talk to someone in Dish's engineering department earlier today about this. I have his name and extension number if anyone is interested. He claimed that a few failed recordings per month are very normal and I should not be complaining. That statement effectively ended the conversation, not because I was upset (which I was), but because by claiming that there was no problem, we could no longer work toward a solution. 

I transferred to an account specialist at that point. She recommended that I erase all recordings. That is also a "wrong answer" in my book, but I did it anyway because I am somewhat caught up on viewing things. She claimed that is the only way to end recording problems once and for all. 

I also just ran the hard drive diagnostic.

When you run the test, it starts a countdown timer (measured in gigabytes?) that at first seems to imply progress. It starts at 249 then almost immediately goes down to 248. It then takes a few minutes to go down to 247. A few more minutes pass before it jumps down to 244. It stays at 243 for a while. It stays at 242 for a while. After 242, it posts the message, "Hard Drive is OK" and stops.

Let's see how it goes. I don't get a lot of "0 second" recordings, just enough to be irritating, so it might take a while before I know if it is fixed or not.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> jsanders has posted in his bug report thread about frequent 0 second recordings that he ran the Check Disk diagnostic on his 921 twice, and hasn't had a single 0 second recording since in the last few days. The diagnostic can take a very long time to run (up to 24 hours), so plan for it, but it appears that it may fix a disk corruption issue that may cause 0 second recordings.


Mark,
You perhaps recall my SERIOUS problems and your assistance in getting help from the 921 support team.
Never once did they mention running that test, but I did run it, twice. Once before my problems were resolved and then again when my 921 was seeming to be getting more reliable. The first time the test took maybe five minutes, there was nothing on the hard drive. The second time it ran for almost two hours, there was perhaps 10 hours of recorded 'stuff' on the drive at that time.

Since then, and I am holding my breath, I have not had a single 0 sec recording. I did have a strange occurance where I got a 2 min. recording off of the satellite but haven't been able to figure out what really happened.

Anyway, now I am quite happy with the 921. Of course I am still looking forward to it being more reliable and for the OTA guide data to become a reality instead of just a kludge.

Brian....reporting in from the left coast.... :grin:


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

Thanks for explaining everything Mark! 

For those trying this out, it would be very helpful to know if it worked for you. Please post any feedback if you have it.

For those that are interested in how and why I think this should work, please take a look at the following bug report:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=36414


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

Mark Lamutt said:


> jsanders has posted in his bug report thread about frequent 0 second recordings that he ran the Check Disk diagnostic on his 921 twice, and hasn't had a single 0 second recording since in the last few days. The diagnostic can take a very long time to run (up to 24 hours), so plan for it, but it appears that it may fix a disk corruption issue that may cause 0 second recordings.
> 
> Jeff, if I missed anything, please add it or correct me!


I've done that, and it finished in a very short time. My first, ans so far only 0 second recording, occurred after that.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> jsanders has posted in his bug report thread about frequent 0 second recordings that he ran the Check Disk diagnostic on his 921 twice, and hasn't had a single 0 second recording since in the last few days. The diagnostic can take a very long time to run (up to 24 hours), so plan for it, but it appears that it may fix a disk corruption issue that may cause 0 second recordings.


Mark, can you explain what the, "Check Disk" diagnostic actually does? I would also like to know how to use the new feature for the, "Teach Remote." I guess it is unreasonable for E* to give any HELP or information about the new features.

Thanks,

John


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

tnsprin said:


> I've done that, and it finished in a very short time. My first, ans so far only 0 second recording, occurred after that.


I had to do it twice. And, I got five 0-second recordings in a row until I exited the menu after the test had finished (I let it run while I was at work one day and the menu was still up while a bunch of timers fired). It's been four or five days without any 0-second recordings now.


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## Jason Kragt (Dec 20, 2002)

I erased all recordings yesterday and ran the disk check. This morning I have a 0 second recording of "Odyssey 5" from last night.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

boylehome said:


> Mark, can you explain what the, "Check Disk" diagnostic actually does? I would also like to know how to use the new feature for the, "Teach Remote." I guess it is unreasonable for E* to give any HELP or information about the new features.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> John


I have no idea what the Check Disk diagnostic does. But, the Help screen on the diagnostics page does give you pretty detailed instructions on how to use the Teach Remote function.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

Jason Kragt said:


> I erased all recordings yesterday and ran the disk check. This morning I have a 0 second recording of "Odyssey 5" from last night.


Hmm, can you humor me and try one more time, but this time with some recordings on the drive. May take a long time so fire it up and go to bed or do it when you don't want to use the receiver.
The reason I ask this is because that is exactly what happened to me. I ran the dish check test the first time with a blank hard drive and still had 0 sec. recordings. I ran the second time with 10 or so hours of recordings and since then I have not had any. (I have my fingers crossed, of course) :grin:


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

Jason Kragt said:


> I erased all recordings yesterday and ran the disk check. This morning I have a 0 second recording of "Odyssey 5" from last night.


Sorry to hear your still having problems Jason.

When you checked your machine, was the check disk screen still up? I left my check disk screen up when I went to bed and had 0-second recordings. Only after I got out of that screen after performing it twice did I see the problem go away.


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## Jason Kragt (Dec 20, 2002)

My check disk screen was not up.

By the time that this recording failed, there were a couple of SD programs on the disk that successfully recorded before it.

The only commonality I can find among the 0 second recordings is that they all have been HD programs from TNT HD, Discovery HD and HDNet--all part of Dish Network's HD Package. Those also also the only channels that I watch from the 110 orbital location. Almost all of my basic package and all of my local channels are from 119. 

My transponder signals are strong, whether they be even or odd, 110 or 119, tuner 1 or tuner 2. The weather has been crisp and clear, but quite cold (-8F). I have legacy dual LNBFs and SW21 switches. Switch tests have been successful, but I seem to recall that sometimes it does 28 switch tests while others it has done 34 switch tests. That is the only odd thing that I recall from this receiver.


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

Hmmm. That is interesting Jason. I'm running the same setup as you for the most part with sw21s.

Bad signal levels do not seem to have an effect on timer operation from my experience. I will play back OTA broadcasts, and if a dropout occurs, the recording shows the "Acquiring Signal" message.

If you watch a live show, and then press the "Record" button on your remote, does it work? Could you try it for both OTA and satellite HD broadcasts?

Have you watched a program when you get a 0-second recording? Let's say, for instance, you set up to record a show on ABC from 7pm to 8pm. If you now tune to the channel you record, and bring up the banner guide with the browse button on your remote, do you see a red box with the letters "REC" in the upper right hand corner of the screen during that show, even though the DVR menu already shows that the program is 0-seconds in length?


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## Jason Kragt (Dec 20, 2002)

Those are some interesting ideas for experiments. I'll give them a try.

Is anyone experiencing this problem who is NOT using SW21s?


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

Jason Kragt said:


> Those are some interesting ideas for experiments. I'll give them a try.
> 
> Is anyone experiencing this problem who is NOT using SW21s?


All sort of configurations have reported it. I was using SW64 when I had my first 0 second. I have now switched to DPP44 and had one today, but that one almost makes sense. Todays was a OTA recording, but I didn't have my antenna switched over to the 921 that had the error.

Although many others reported problems before L211, It sounds like it is more common now. I guess we need some polls to tell if that is true.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

I have 2 SW64s feeding a 921, a 510, 2 7200s, and a 4900 and I see the problem occasionally (King of Queens on CBS is hit often with the bug but that is the only CBS show I record regularly). I also saw it on Odyssey 5 a few months back, but I stopped recording that show once they ran out of new episodes for me (well new to me anyway). I keep nervously checking Smallville on HDNEt as I just started watching this show after it hit HD NEt, but I have escaped problems so far.


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