# HR20-700: Three LEDs blink, then a reset



## dem (Apr 6, 2008)

Minutes before the NCAA basketball championship game last night I experienced something I haven't seen before with my refurb HR20-700.

I happened to glance over at it and noticed that only three of the ring LEDs were flashing on and off in a triangle pattern . There was no message on the screen, but shortly after I first noticed the flashing the box reset.

After the reset it seemed to take longer than normal to get through "Step 1 of 2" so I pulled the plug for a minute. After that it booted normally, but perhaps more slowly than usual.

Does anyone know what the blinking triangle means?

The unit temperature was 120 degrees. I have a SWM-8 but didn't reset it (that would have been the next thing to try).

Thanks.


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## ICM2000 (Sep 14, 2006)

Have two HR20-700's one of them did the exact same reboot sequence you described, but on Saturday night. I had Recorded a 1080P Movie "Blind Side" and was not sure that caused this very long reset.


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## Alebob911 (Mar 22, 2007)

Had the same issue with my HR22-100. the thing would not finish the boot process so I D/L the NR and it booted up just fine. I tried everything before D/Ling the NR. Does anyone know what the triangle of lights mean?


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## ICM2000 (Sep 14, 2006)

I also have and SWM 8 but my HR20-700, after what seemed a very long reboot, finally completed normally without out a reset or unplugging.


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## Alebob911 (Mar 22, 2007)

I too have a SWMLNB setup. MY 2 other HR's have not done this. I checked them when the one did it.


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## Robert L (Dec 13, 2005)

Oh, well that's interesting. I thought my HD was going bad, since I can hear that churning noise so good, ever since Directv started causing it. Which was a long time ago.

This caused me to miss 24 last night. It did it twice, once about what appears to be about 15 minutes after it started. But I only had a one minute recording. The when it FINALLY finished rebooting it recorded almost the second hour, but then did it again with about 10 minutes left. 

So I unplugged it awhile, then scan the HD. It was back on this morning. So, sounds like a new problem. 

Its a HR20-700 and I do not use SWM. I don't think the other DVR's did this, but not postive.


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## spolaski (Sep 12, 2006)

I experienced the same thing yesterday. After the 1st reboot, the unit was working -- that is, it was showing video and audio. However, I couldn't change channels or access menus or anything. I had to do a second RBR, and everything seems OK for now.


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## davemayo (Nov 17, 2005)

I've had this issue for quite a while on one of my HR20-100s. Come home from work and have the three LEDs. Only fix is an RBR. I've posted on here before about this issue but no one seems to know what it is or what causes it.


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## gpg (Aug 19, 2006)

I had it happen to my HR20-700 last week. First the inverted triangle of LEDs, then the reboot. Like the OP, I had to rbr during the "Step 1 of 2" phase, because it seemed to be taking so long. Since then, things seem to be back to normal.


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## PlanetBill (May 8, 2006)

hmm.. just got back from vacation yesterday, was gone for 10 days. My HR20-700 died. Will not power-up, no fan, no hard drive spin, nothing. Did D* send something down to cause this. My HR-22 and 23 are fine. The Hr20 was my favoirte box because of OTA and responsiveness. I have no clue what they'll send as a replacement. I've had the box since shortly after they became available. 

I've read that recorded content cannot be copied from one drive to another, has anyone ever suceeded? I hate losing so much.

BTW, I'm on a SWM


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## MartyS (Dec 29, 2006)

PlanetBill said:


> hmm.. just got back from vacation yesterday, was gone for 10 days. My HR20-700 died. Will not power-up, no fan, no hard drive spin, nothing. Did D* send something down to cause this. My HR-22 and 23 are fine. The Hr20 was my favoirte box because of OTA and responsiveness. I have no clue what they'll send as a replacement. I've had the box since shortly after they became available.
> 
> I've read that recorded content cannot be copied from one drive to another, has anyone ever suceeded? I hate losing so much.
> 
> BTW, I'm on a SWM


Just as a suggestion, you might want to try unplugging the unit for about 15 minutes and the plugging it back in again. Sometimes that might bring it back to life.

However, it does sound like you might need to have it replaced. When you do have it replaced they will replace it with whatever they might have available at the time. Ask for a replacement HR20 since you want the OTA. If they can't "guarantee" an HR20, you might ask if they'd throw in an AM21 for OTA, or at least credit you for the cost of the OTA over several months.

Good Luck, and I would try unplugging the unit just to see if that might get you back up and running.


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## PlanetBill (May 8, 2006)

Thanks, done that. I think the power supply of the box went out, or worse. An AM21 is $50. They won't send one for free.


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## MartyS (Dec 29, 2006)

PlanetBill said:


> Thanks, done that. I think the power supply of the box went out, or worse. An AM21 is $50. They won't send one for free.


Oh well, it was worth a shot... RE: the AM21, I'd call and tell them that you rely on OTA and that your HR20 offered OTA, so if they're going to replace it, they should make sure you have OTA.

And, when the installer shows up with a new unit, if you do get an installer, be sure to ask what he has in the truck. Sometimes, they just grab the first box they come to. He may possibly have an HR20 in the truck and not even know it.

That's how I got an HR23 when my HR21 took a dump. He brought in another HR20 and I wanted the larger hard drive that was being replaced. I went out to the truck with him and when I saw the HR 23, I said can I have that... he said sure it didn't matter to him!


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## plex03 (Oct 6, 2008)

My HR-700 also has done the same thing twice tonight (within a span of 3 hrs.). 

Other receivers in the house are fine. 

It seems odd that all of ours are going at once.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

PlanetBill said:


> ...I think the power supply of the box went out...


Note that it can take _at least 5 minutes _for the unit to show any signs of life whatsoever, especially if you pull the plug for any length of time. I thought mine was dead once, and was almost through the phone tree to a live CSR when it came back to life on its own.

I also do not think it is a good idea to interrupt whatever the box is doing, especially something as crazy as described. If it is writing a new or secondary boot partition or instructions as to which to go to or anything on that order you can skunk the HDD for good, and we only know that something unique and different was happening, and nothing about what this was. If this happened to me, I would leave it alone for a good long time to see if it got back to normal, then reboot.


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## eileen22 (Mar 24, 2006)

plex03 said:


> My HR-700 also has done the same thing twice tonight (within a span of 3 hrs.).
> 
> Other receivers in the house are fine.
> 
> It seems odd that all of ours are going at once.


There are way too many people with the same problem, this has got to be a software issue. My HR20-700 became unresponsive to the remote twice in the past 24 hours. I never noticed if the blue ring had a triangle pattern, but I did have a very long reboot on the first RBR yesterday, on page 1 of 2. Since I can't stand just sitting there waiting, I was in the next room and kept coming back in to check the status. It eventually booted up (I didn't unplug or RBR again), but it was probably the longest reboot I've ever had. Today when the DVR became unresponsive, the RBR was quick, probably faster than usual. Strange.


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## tbpb3 (Dec 10, 2006)

Just happened to me at about 5:30pm pacific. Didn't think it was ever coming back but it did.


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## desulliv (Aug 9, 2007)

Had same issue around 4:30 PM this afternoon. Unit was unresponsive to the remote and I was going to reboot, but wanted to finish watching a program. About ten minutes later, the three blue triangle lights lit up and the unit rebooted on its own. It took a while to go through searching for satellite, but it's working okay for now.


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## galaxie428 (Apr 29, 2007)

My HR20 has done it twice now also. I did it Friday morning and then again last night (Monday 4-19-10) about 8:00 EST. Mine is in the closet so I did not see what the lights did but we were just watching tv and all of a sudden, it just rebooted.

Has anyone called DirecTV? I did not have time to call them but I wonder if the problem has been reported?


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## PlanetBill (May 8, 2006)

I wish mine came back to life... replacement should be in today. I've tried everything short of opening the lid.

I agree, something had to have been sent down to our boxes.


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## ICM2000 (Sep 14, 2006)

Could this be a random audit that the equipment you have active is actually on line at your stated location? Are all the affected receivers connected to the internet? My HR 20 that had the strange reboot IS connected to the internet.


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## RoberMR (Oct 24, 2007)

Yea, my HR20-100 did this around 5:30 PM Pacific time yesterday. Twice within 10-15 minutes. I have the blue ring lights turned off so I didn't notice the triangle effect. This has not happened today, so it must be D* is screwing around with something again.


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## ahatten (May 16, 2007)

Mine JUST NOW did it! I looked at the flashing triangle and then it rebooted. It also rebooted itself this morning....


EDIT: How many of you are using MRV and this problem is happening? I had only one DRV set up for share playlist and yesterday I turned on the second DRV for sharing multi-room. I'm wondering if that's the problem, so I've turned off the second room multi-room share and we'll see if that makes a difference.

Also, I had noticed my remote stopped working before I realized that the triangle on the front was blinking..


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## stlrams11 (Sep 21, 2007)

Had a reboot at the same time as previous user. In my case, the remote and box actually stop responding. We were watching American Idol when it happened, so had to watch it live and couldn't switch channels. Now the show isn't recording and we are sitting through the reboot sequence.


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## tbpb3 (Dec 10, 2006)

Mine just did it again! Two nights in a row. It froze for about 15min.Than re-booted very slowly. I am beginning to think it's about gone.


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## stlrams11 (Sep 21, 2007)

We are going to find out this is a big problem. Has to be software related.


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## majikmarker (Feb 28, 2005)

Just happened to my unit minutes ago as well (just before 6pm PDT). Never noticed it before...Not using MRV but is connected to the internet.


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## stlrams11 (Sep 21, 2007)

Now counting at least 7 people with same problem at approximately same time.


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## tbpb3 (Dec 10, 2006)

Remote control unresponsive again.Will not do anything!


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## tbpb3 (Dec 10, 2006)

rebooting again 6:55 pm!


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

tbpb3 said:


> Remote control unresponsive again.Will not do anything!


7 people out of 16 million subs. That's huge!


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## tbpb3 (Dec 10, 2006)

TomCat said:


> 7 people out of 16 million subs. That's huge!


16 million people have 3year old HR20-700's?


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

1. There's not 16 million HR20's out there.
2. Every HR20 owner is not a member of this forum.


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## SPACEMAKER (Dec 11, 2007)

My HR20-100 locked up at around 7:45 or 7:55 EDT. Had to do RBR to get it back. 1st lock up in at least 2 months.


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## Fish Man (Apr 22, 2002)

My HR20-700 in the living room rebooted at about 7:58 PM CDT, following a lockup of an undetermined amount of time.

*ARRGH! the beginning of Lost!* :eek2:

I was not home at the time. My quick-thinking wife (love her), queued up Lost to record on the HR20-100 in the bedroom (which was not affected) with seconds to spare.

So, with MRV, we could watch a complete "Lost", from the beginning, in the living room (playing via MRV from the bedroom).

(My MRV is the "beta" through my own home CAT5 network and switches.)


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## tgarons (Jul 19, 2007)

My HR20-100 went blank and then rebooted by itself at ~7:25PM CDT. When I looked at my R10 in the same location it was only receiving a signal on one tuner. An RBR fixed the R10. Could be totally unrelated. Very strange that this all happened about the same time for a lot of people, but not the exact same time.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

THis happened to me a few months ago on one box and not since then (that I'm aware of anyway). IT would be nice if we could find out something from the various contacts here. Like, is this something wrong with the hardware or just a general lockup and is it a sign things could worsen?


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## Xram (Nov 19, 2005)

Add me to the list. Happened twice in the past 2 days on one of my HR20-700's.


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## MattWarner (Feb 11, 2007)

Just an FYI - I have a HR20-700 unit and found that mine had rebooted twice over the weekend (both times when I wasn't watching it). On Sunday evening, I manually rebooted (thru the menus), then rebooted a 2nd time once it was up and running. This purged the guide cache and I haven't had an issue since Sunday morning.

So, might be worth purging the guide data and seeing if the problem goes away.


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## CTskydiver (Jan 19, 2009)

Happened to me at least twice in the past week or two. Most recently, during latest episode of House (missed first half hour of episode. Grr, not available on Hulu till the 20th).

I have the HR20-100S connected to the internet via ethernet, but not to a phone line and I don't use MRV. I also use an external hard drive enclosure (Antec MX-1 with Seagate 1.5TB drive). I turn off the front panel LED's after every reboot.

Got the flashing triangles and unresponsiveness each time. I too would like to remind folks not to be too hasty pulling plugs, as my unit definitely seemed to take a long time to come back to life after re-applying power.

I was terribly scared when I first saw the flashing triangle. With about 200 movies on the hard drive, I know it may only be a matter of time before I lose access to them if the box itself fails. Thought it may have happened, as I could get no response to the remote or front panel buttons, or even the red button. Pulled the power for a while and when I restored it, I was initially crushed, as the box seemed truly dead for quite a while. I was very surprised when it suddenly jumped back into the reboot sequence. Hooray!

2nd reset happened while I was actively watching recorded content. Just POOF. However, I think that time it rebooted spontaneously after a few moments. But I may have done a RBR, memory is funny.

Edit to add:

Also should report no long term affects. Didn't loose any of my programming or to-do list except what the box was unable to record while inactive.

Also, I should note, I've also had to re-add VERSUS (Channel 603) to my favorites list during this time period. Not sure if these two issues are related, but I have a custom favorites list and I know DirecTV has been fiddling with Channel numbers, though 603 has remained assigned to the same station throughout. In any case, anyone else notice the channel disappearing from their favorites (twice)?


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## cody21 (Sep 26, 2007)

My H20-100 (non DVR) and my HR10-700 (DVR) BOTH restarted 3 times over about 1 hour last night. (5:15 PM, 5:40 PM, 6:10 PM - PST) Both at exactly the same time ... I don't think this is a hardware issue going on ...


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## RoyGBiv (Jul 24, 2007)

I reported in another thread that this happened to me Friday evening. I was watching CSI that I'd recorded the night before on my HR20-700 and was recording the Rangers/Flyers on both the HR20 (that I was watching) and HR22 in my family room (not wanting to take chances!). About halfway through CSI the DVR became completely unresponsive to either the remote or front panel buttons, but the show kept playing, and we were able to watch the entire recording. As soon as it ended the picture froze, and about 30 seconds later the DVR rebooted. I did not RBR, it did it on its own. I didn't even notice until later that the HR22 had also rebooted at almost the exact same time. I noticed it when I went to watch the hockey game. Both recordings were missing the same section of the second period.

AFAIK the HR20 in my sitting room was unaffected, but I can't be sure since it wasn't being used at the time. I know it didn't reboot because the list didn't reset to "all" from "local."

SMK


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## PlanetBill (May 8, 2006)

It sounds like most peoples units come back to life. Mine didn't. I was connected to internet and MRV was enabled. Maybe this is D* way of getting rid of older equipment.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

HA, so funny. I mentioned this happened a while back. AS soon as I wnet downstairs I saw the same box, an HR20-100, had just started rebooting. Can;t say for sure it was the three dots, but it is pretty hilarious that it probably locked up as I was typing that I had not seen it happen for a while.


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## PlanetBill (May 8, 2006)

just in... replacement they sent me was another HR20. I get to keep OTA


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## m4p (Apr 12, 2007)

My HR20-700 would not respond to remote on Monday night. Then all of the sudden I got the 3 light triangle thing and it rebooted on its own. On Tuesday morning about 5:55 a.m., the unit booted on its own again. I am not using MRV but I do have my unit networked.


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## eileen22 (Mar 24, 2006)

I think the most strange thing about this is that it seems to happen at around the same time of day for people (8-9pm EST, 5-6pm PST). When it happened to me 2 days in a row at 8pm, I thought that it can't be a coincidence. I have a HR20-700, no MRV, but it is connected to internet. My incidences were this past Sunday and Monday. I didn't lose any recordings or my To Do list, but the first reboot on Sunday took a VERY long time to finish, it hung on the Page 1 of 2 longer than I've ever seen before. Also, mine didn't reboot itself, I hit RBR each time, but maybe it would have rebooted itself had I waited.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

spartanstew said:


> 1. There's not 16 million HR20's out there.
> 2. Every HR20 owner is not a member of this forum.


Alert the media! Thanks for that, Captain Obvious.


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## plex03 (Oct 6, 2008)

Since it happened to me twice in a span of 3 hours a few nights ago it hasn't happened again. (There I go jinxing it)

However, the response to the remotes commands (guide, manual channel entering, etc..) have been noticeably slower and laggy much like the HR-21's have experienced. 

For the record mine is connected to the internet directly via a linksys router and I do not use MRV.


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## drpratt01 (Jul 24, 2007)

This happened to us 3X last Sunday evening while watching The Blind Side OnDemand 1080P PPV movie. No problems since then. The sad thing is that was our first attempt at a 1080P movie other than test trailers - and we might not try again.


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## poppo (Oct 10, 2006)

My HR20-100 did it a few days ago. And one of my HR20-700 did it last night. The HR20-700 became unresponsive to the remote first. I was going to RBR after the current show was over, but it did the triangle flash thing then rebooted. 

I agree that there are way too many reports of this to be some massive DVR failure issue. Has to be a bug of some sort.


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## cbearnm (Sep 6, 2006)

Mine bought the farm as well.
I got home from work Wednesday night and it was cycling through the reboot processes. I called support and they had me try a disk scan (hold <Down> and <rec> on the front of the receiver during boot) but no luck. 
I was told the new receiver would go out FedEx 2 or 3 day delivery and when I got home tonight it was there.

It makes me really glad I watched Lost late Tuesday rather than my usual Wednesday night.

Any word on what caused it?


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