# I Hate My 211K!



## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

Sorry to vent guys, but tonight was the last straw.

I've had a 5000, a 508, and now a 211K. I'm about ready to throw this receiver out the window. Every single day, it has to go into a reboot, and then a ridiculous, useless, ugly screen saver appears until you push the Select button. This thing has ruined more recordings in three months, than the other two did in 10 years. Since this is 2010, my VCR has been replaced by my Windows 7 Media Center PC.  It appears Dish Network is still in the 1980s. They don't understand we don't want a forced reboot everyday, followed by the ridiculous, useless, ugly screen saver. They've actually gone backwards with this unit.

What's makes even less sense, is according to the owner's manual, there use to be way to disable this nonsense on the 211K. Obviously, someone knew what they were doing at one point, but some genius at Dish Network later took it out of the menus. Name any other device that just reboots itself while you are using it every single day without provocation. Even a computer can install most programs these days without rebooting, and it can certainly do minor updates without disturbing what you are doing, so why can't this thing install these little patches? Have these guys heard of realtime compilers and dynamic loading? Most of the time, these updates don't even put in new software. I can see rebooting once in a while, but every [email protected] day???

If a reboot is absolutely necessary, they could put a reboot message in the guide every month or two, "Please reboot at next opportunity", similar to Adobe updater.

Then, what is the purpose of having to press a Select button to get your receiver back running again? It obviously has stored the channel number it was on, because it goes right back to it when you press the Select button. So not only does it reboot, it doesn't even come back on. Stupid!

1) These Dish engineers have no common sense.
2) They are completely behind the times. If I could, I would get every Dish engineer and manager a subscription to Software Development Times. 

There is absolutely no need for any of this.

Signed,

Livid


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## rocket69 (Oct 27, 2008)

to stop the shut off go to menu then go to Preferences (8) then Inactivity Standby (8) Then Highlight Enabled And use the up arrow to highlight disabled then done.. 

Now the box will not shut off untill its time to Dl new Program guide.

Default Guide Download is 3 am you can change it if you have recordings at that time by going to Menu>Prefrences (8) >Updates (4) ..

Once you have your Preferd time frame set set up a manual Timer for say 3:15 am on the channel you wish to have the box left on untill your auto tune kicks in..

Hope This will help as it has for us in Privet cable systems like motel's .


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Michael1 - I'd say its time for YOU to get with the program and stop blaming Dish.

rocket69 gave you a very nice work around that will work, although I'd set the autotune timer for about 30 minutes to an hour after the middle of the night download (which it will do everyday).


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## ruralruss (Feb 5, 2010)

Michael1 said:


> Sorry to vent guys, but tonight was the last straw.
> 
> I've had a 5000, a 508, and now a 211K. I'm about ready to throw this receiver out the window. Every single day, it has to go into a reboot, and then a ridiculous, useless, ugly screen saver appears until you push the Select button. This thing has ruined more recordings in three months, than the other two did in 10 years. Since this is 2010, my VCR has been replaced by my Windows 7 Media Center PC. It appears Dish Network is still in the 1980s. They don't understand we don't want a forced reboot everyday, followed by the ridiculous, useless, ugly screen saver. They've actually gone backwards with this unit.
> 
> ...


I was told by a CS rep that a timer would keep it from rebooting. I have recorded before when the reboot normally happens with no problem.

Russ


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

rocket69 said:


> to stop the shut off go to menu then go to Preferences (8) then Inactivity Standby (8) Then Highlight Enabled And use the up arrow to highlight disabled then done..
> 
> Now the box will not shut off untill its time to Dl new Program guide.
> 
> ...


Thanks! I'll give this a try.

What happens when it is time to download a new program guide? Does it override the autotune, and how often will that happen?


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

scooper said:


> Michael1 - I'd say its time for YOU to get with the program and stop blaming Dish.
> 
> rocket69 gave you a very nice work around that will work, although I'd set the autotune timer for about 30 minutes to an hour after the middle of the night download (which it will do everyday).


Why shouldn't I blame Dish? They created this mess.

The workaround is a help, and is much appreciated, but it doesn't fix the problem. I'm still going to have to manually set the channel in the auto tune if that channel doesn't match what I am recording at the time.


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## PokerJoker (Apr 12, 2008)

That's how all current Dish receivers behave. (well, admittedly I haven't yet seen a 922.) AFAIK there's nothing you can do about it. You can control WHEN the boot happens, but you can't stop it. And you're right, there is no need for it to come back up to that stupid screen saver. It could at least go back to whatever you were doing when the boot happened. That's always been one of my pet peeves about these units.

Why do they do it? My theory is that they know how unstable it will get if it isn't rebooted once a day. 

Isn't there *some* time of day you can set it to that won't cause recording problems? I have mine set to 5 AM. I have seen others set it to noon. Are you really doing recordings 24/7? (And if you are, when do you find time to watch them all?)

Keith


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

My theory on the screensaver is, thats the state it was most likely in or going to. As there is a warning that pops up with a 2 min count down, before the reboot for important information happens. If you are there watching live TV, you say no, since it happens late at night, even if the machine was watching a show it would go to the screen saver at x amount of time anyways. If you are recording a show, and not using the EHD option, just set a Autotune, it will wake up the reciever make it go live, nice and pretty.


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

Bad news, guys. 

I did everything that was suggested, including setting the auto tune. Everything looked OK when I left it. It skipped the reboot, and there was no screensaver. I left and came back about eight hours later, and there it was, the ridiculous, ugly, useless screensaver. The 211K won the battle again.

If I was trying to design a satellite receiver to irritate customers, Dish did exactly what I would do, force a daily reboot, and then put up the ugliest screensaver ever made that serves no purpose whatsoever (it's live video, it doesn't need a screen saver!).

As far as one person mentioning that they may do this because the software is unstable (which may be true), my response is FIX THE SOFTWARE! Hire a company to clean up your code, and put some unemployed people back to work at the same time. Perhaps they could bring back the people who programmed the 5000 or 508. They didn't need a reboot. The 5000 ran for months without a single problem or reboot. Months!


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

PokerJoker said:


> That's how all current Dish receivers behave. (well, admittedly I haven't yet seen a 922.) AFAIK there's nothing you can do about it. You can control WHEN the boot happens, but you can't stop it. And you're right, there is no need for it to come back up to that stupid screen saver. It could at least go back to whatever you were doing when the boot happened. That's always been one of my pet peeves about these units.
> 
> Why do they do it? My theory is that they know how unstable it will get if it isn't rebooted once a day.
> 
> ...


Not only is it the time of day for the reboot an issue, but anything after that reboot time is ruined, too, because it goes that dumb, ugly screensaver. I don't record tons of shows, but I do record a wide variety.


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## ruralruss (Feb 5, 2010)

Michael1 said:


> Not only is it the time of day for the reboot an issue, but anything after that reboot time is ruined, too, because it goes that dumb, ugly screensaver. I don't record tons of shows, but I do record a wide variety.


Since I have enabled the EHD function on my 211K I have never had a recording to fail. They all worked perfectly. I have recorded many shows and movies and most of them have been in the time range of 10 pm to 5 am.

I would say you have a bad box or there is something else causing a problem. My first 211K was bad, it rebooted several times in the first couple of weeks by just changing a channel! I have had zero problems with the second one. Maybe something like poor grounding, dirty power or just poor power regulation. If you can get your hands on a multimeter check you power at various times of the day. You also might want to pick up an ac polarity checker, they are just a few dollars. Most of them also check for proper grounding.

Russ


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

Michael1 said:


> Not only is it the time of day for the reboot an issue, but anything after that reboot time is ruined, too, because it goes that dumb, ugly screensaver. I don't record tons of shows, but I do record a wide variety.


So you just have the 211k left on a channel and use your set times on your pc to start recording? And then you get caught hrs later with either a screen saver for inactivity, or a screen saver after the reboot? 
Well since you know when the reboot happens, set a Autotune on the channel you want, just after the reboot, or better yet, set a autotunes for the shows you want to watch, this way you make sure the right show comes on, you can have the EPG updated nightly as well as get any updates. Autotune wakes up the reciever, but if inactivity, or reboot happens afterwards, you will get the screen saver.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

The OP is probably using an IR blaster from the PC to change channels on the 211K. At least that is the way I would prefer to do this.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

scooper said:


> The OP is probably using an IR blaster from the PC to change channels on the 211K. At least that is the way I would prefer to do this.


I am not sure how he is doing it. It would still be just as easy, and safer to set Autotunes.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Autotune to kick it out of screen saver (disabled otherwise), then use the IR blaster for the different channels.


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

ruralruss said:


> Since I have enabled the EHD function on my 211K I have never had a recording to fail. They all worked perfectly. I have recorded many shows and movies and most of them have been in the time range of 10 pm to 5 am.
> 
> Russ


I'm not using an EHD, but rather a Media Center PC.


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

GrumpyBear said:


> I am not sure how he is doing it. It would still be just as easy, and safer to set Autotunes.


I am using an IR blaster. It would be safer to program autotunes, but not just as easy. With Media Center PC, I just click on the show I want, and it records it, or the series of shows.


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## ruralruss (Feb 5, 2010)

Michael1 said:


> I'm not using an EHD, but rather a Media Center PC.


Sorry, I missed that important detail.

Russ


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

Michael1 said:


> I am using an IR blaster. It would be safer to program autotunes, but not just as easy. With Media Center PC, I just click on the show I want, and it records it, or the series of shows.


As a work around, as I don't think Dish will do anthing about this one. There response will be get a DVR. What about setting a Autotune for right after your update, you update lets say 1am, set a autotune at 1:05am. Making sure that you have the Standby time disabled.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Iwould give it more than 5 minutes to download and reboot, I have mine set to auto tune 1 hour after the nightly download/reboot, but I don't do any recording overnight, 30 minutes would probably do.


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

Score: Me-1, 211K-2

I set the Auto Update to 8:45am. I also set an Autotune for 8:45. The first day, the 211K won. The next day, I won. It ran all day, no problems. I thought I was home free, but it was not to be. Today, the 211K outflanked me, and did a reboot at 9:45, even though it was set for 8:45. It just waited an hour.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

I think you're missing something, here.

Don't set the autotune and the update for the same time. An update reboot will always take priority over the autotune.

Set the autotune for 10-15 minutes AFTER your update time and your 211k will kick back on.


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

Score: Me-1, 211K-3

I set the Auto Update to 8:30am, and the Auto Tune to 8:45am. The 211K won the battle again. There was the ridiculous, ugly, useless screensaver. I am so sick of this thing.

Next I am going to give it 1/2 hour time span, although I can't see how it could possibly take more than 15 minutes to reboot a satellite dish receiver. I could reboot a Windows file server faster than that.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

The download of the guide data and the reboot could take more than 15 minutes, especially if dish downloads any updates or other stuff that they might include in the nightly download, that's why I recommended 30.

If the receiver is still rebooting when the auto tune timer is supposed to fire, it will be ignored.

Why are you still recording to a VCR, pay the $39.99 and get yourself an external hard drive and turn that 211K into a DVR.

You'll never use that old VCR again.

I replaced the VCR with a DVD recorder and if there is something that I want to save permanently or to share, I copy it from the DVR to the DVD recorder - much safer than VCR tapes.

I sent a DVD to my mother-in-law of a program that highlighted her hometown and high school, she was tickled to see it.

I LOVE ALL THREE OF MY 211's!!


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Jim - you need to read closer - the OP is using a Windows media Center PC to record / change channels/ etc.

But yes - 30 minutes (or more) after the download starts is when the autotune should fire to take it out of the screen saver.


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## newsman (Nov 21, 2006)

I use a Tivo w/ IR blasters on my 222. I set the auto update to happen at 3AM. I set the auto tune to channel 102 at 4AM. I do record some stuff in the mornings, and they're always there. No issues. It sucks that we have to have a work around, but once you do it, you get used to it and don't even worry about it.


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## Michael1 (Feb 24, 2010)

Score Me-3, 211K-3

It's been a few days, and I'm starting to win the battle with the 211K. I tried setting the Autotune to 30 minutes after the update time, and voila, the machine was on with actual video playing. I also tried 15 minutes but it failed. I now have it set to 20 minutes, and so far, so good. That gives me 5 minute pre-roll and post-rolls for recordings outside the update window.

BTW, I called Dish Network Tech Support to see what they had to say, and to voice my complaint. The tech support representative instructed me to "Enable" the Inactivity Timer. What???? I explained to her I wanted the screen saver off. It didn't do any good. Where do they get these people? They know less than I do.

I appreciate all the tips here. Huge help.


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## GrumpyBear (Feb 1, 2006)

Michael1 said:


> Score Me-3, 211K-3
> 
> It's been a few days, and I'm starting to win the battle with the 211K. I tried setting the Autotune to 30 minutes after the update time, and voila, the machine was on with actual video playing. I also tried 15 minutes but it failed. I now have it set to 20 minutes, and so far, so good. That gives me 5 minute pre-roll and post-rolls for recordings outside the update window.
> 
> ...


I know its a work around, but glad its working for you. Its just amazing how useful Autotune can be sometimes.


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