# 721 Woes



## vijaypatel (Sep 20, 2003)

I'm on my fourth 721 since its induction mid last year. The first unit, brand new wouldn't even power-up out-of-the-box. My second, third units where RMA'D with the pixelization problem. All three units had a noisy cooling fan since these suckers run soooo HOT!. The fourth unit which came yesterday has no cooling fan. Should I be concerned? or is Dish using a different cooling element. I'd be very interested to know how dish actually runs thier QA process.

Vijay


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Hi friend I know just how you feel. Number 5 or so is sitting here

By chance are you using a dishpro setup?

I found my dishpro somehow caused pixels, intermittent tuner 2 blackouts, wierd flakey opearations and other strange no nos like non repetive skips on playback...

When the latest replacement box didnt worik I changed the LNB on my extra dish to dishpro twin and all these issues went away. Plus I heard that you can create them by using a legacy adapter on a dishpro setup

I was told the latest 721s have quieter fans, so perhaps that explains no fan? Or refurb removed a noisey one and forgot to install its replacement?

I lead the way in finding wierd tech troubles that some feel I am making up, untill someone else reports them...

I must add that trying another receiver like a 508 on the sat 721 leads proves nothing. My 508s run perfectly on the sat coax that cause the 721 toloose its mind.

Of course if your usuing a legacy SW64 the 721 must be on either receiver ports 1&2 or 3&4 mixing will cause these problems too.

Advanced tech irritated me saying lost tuner 2 is not a known issue While its very well documented here.


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## vijaypatel (Sep 20, 2003)

- By chance are you using a dishpro setup?

Yes I am. I just switched the LNB on my extra dish to dishpro prior to getting the fouth unit. Maybe I should have done this ealier

- I was told the latest 721s have quieter fans, so perhaps that explains no fan? Or refurb removed a noisey one and forgot to install its replacement?

I think is time to open the unit and check. Maybe even adding a slot cooler would cool this sucker down a bit.

- I lead the way in finding wierd tech troubles that some feel I am making up, untill someone else reports them...[/QUOTE]

I've read your post, and I've also had my fair share of problems. Did I mention I'm on my 3rd 64-switch.

Vijay


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

I guess were big loosers all around. 

NO OFFENSE INTENDED.

Its just that a few of us have down syndroms. I kept my sw64 in my warm dry basement cieling to minimize troubles. had one failure in all those years.

Wonder what makes us special?


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## vijaypatel (Sep 20, 2003)

Bob Haller said:


> I guess were big loosers all around.
> 
> NO OFFENSE INTENDED.
> 
> ...


The more technically saavy you are, the more problems you have. I guess we're never satisfied, technically that IS.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

If I didnt repair machines for a living and thus like to fix wierd stuff I would of thrown thew whole nmess out long ago.

I look at stuff thats broke as a learnuing experience, to a point. I doint like to give up, and like to solve stuff on my own.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Bob Haller said:


> Of course if your usuing a legacy SW64 the 721 must be on either receiver ports 1&2 or 3&4 mixing will cause these problems too.


Bob,

If you carefully look at the installation manual for the 721 (page 127 for two dual LNBs or page 130 for the quad LNB) you will see that TUNER 1 should be connected to SW64 port one or two and TUNER 2 should be connected to port three or four. Did you confuse TUNER number with RECEIVER number?

I have had my 721 connected that way since I received it and have never had "a second tuner problem" or a receiver problem (other than the bugs that everyone else has reported).


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

I must of I might have been the first person here with a 721 on a SW64 and remember I had to change it to get it to work. But honestly forgot the details.

I saw a bizarre SW64 software problem once. It was the first night of ERs new season, we made a programming change which caused all receivers to flash or blinkout repeatedly. After 2 hours I powered the whole mess off for the night,. By morning it was all fine.

A inside contact said it was a software issue but showed up very rarelycaused by a programming change. All receivers went to intermittent lost signal messages. I was still a dealer then and thought if I cant fix this stuff for myself how can I do it for others?

Jen mentioned that the other night when the latest 721 didnt work. Reminding me and saying lets not have that happen again.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

The problem is, if you open up the receiver to see if you have a fan, then you will void your warranty.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

I have an SW64 (in my basement) hooked up to my 721 and 2 DPs. No problems other than the usual.

I replaced my 721 when one of the tuners started misbehaving before the fall season started (thedrive was almost empty thank God so it was a good time to do the switch). Everything working fine ever since.


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## Swampthing (Apr 24, 2002)

Reading about all the problems experienced by 721 users, I can't help but think how many would actually be better off today if they didn't hustle their Dishplayers on eBay... :/


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

The 721 problems are NOWHERE near as annoying as the Dishplayer was a few years ago. Although, they are stable now, I had weekly problems with my two receivers.

The 721 has been MUCH better. Maybe not as stable as some of the D* units, but much better than my Dishplayer experiences.


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## Swampthing (Apr 24, 2002)

"MUCH better?" I haven't heard of anyone going through their fourth or fifth dishplayer... The 721 seems to have a particularly terrible track record, particularly in light of how long the unit has been on the market.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Software appers better, hardware appears worse. Thru thick and thin my two dippy dishplayers kept on going. Sure I replaced hard drives but the boxes themselves were pretty good. 

With 721s and 508s I get tired of activating and swapping boxes.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Swampthing said:


> Reading about all the problems experienced by 721 users, I can't help but think how many would actually be better off today if they didn't hustle their Dishplayers on eBay... :/


Yes at this point I regret selling my dishplayers. At least the hardware was stable.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

I will grant you that the Dishplayer's hardware was solid, while their software was suspect compared to the next generations of E* DVRs.

This would probably help explain the unusually high resale value for the Dishplayers (I'm expecting to actually turn a profit when I sell my two remaining DPs in the next few months)


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

BobMurdoch said:


> I will grant you that the Dishplayer's hardware was solid, while their software was suspect compared to the next generations of E* DVRs.
> 
> This would probably help explain the unusually high resale value for the Dishplayers.


Bob,

The unusually high resale value of the DishPlayers is due to the fact that they are easy to upgrade to a larger drive and (the main reason for SOME buyers) they are easy to hack to get free programming. DISH is WELL aware of this but hasn't done much to upgrade the software to prevent it. I have spoke to DISH (at length) about the hacking problem to get free programming and for years they said they were going to fix the problem but never have.

You will find that when you sell your DishPlayers you will get a lot of bids by Canadians where there is likely more DishPlayers than in the U.S. (even though they are suppose to be illegal up there).


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I have also found the Dishplayer to be more reliable hardware wise but not as reliable when it came to the software. Perhaps there are not enough dishplayers out there for it to be worth sending down software to prevent piracy and maybe Dish learns how they are doing things in those few dishplayers to send down software to other receivers to prevent them from being hacked.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Last I heard theres around 90,000 subbed dishoplayers out of the 300,000 or so total sold. Most ones not subbed are being used in canada for  purposes. I heard E doubts they can ever really disable them.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Bob Haller said:


> Last I heard theres around 90,000 subbed dishplayers .


Bob,

I don't know how long ago you heard that but from what I hear there isn't anywhere near that number in service now. If you check e-bay you will see that there are a lot of them being sold every week.

If a customer calls DISH for a problem on a DishPlayer it is very likely that they will be offered a 5xx (now a 510) at a discounted price (with no return of the DishPlayer). DISH is starting to put in a little more effort to get rid of them.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Bill I think that numbers pretty good. Never did understand why they didnt tsake them back and crush them so hackers couldmt use them.


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## jerryyyyy (Jul 19, 2002)

Back to the fan... I have a replacement 721 and the fan is quieter. You can take the case off (carefully) and look inside (couple screws- don't strip them). Look in archives- there are photos. I think you void the warrently if you mess with the disk.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

When Dish offers them a 510, that will, if anything, cause there to be more of these available for sale. This may be one reason why you find more and more of these on ebay.

Do you actually think most of these Dishplayers actually failed or not being used? I dont think so. They were more reliable (hardwarewise) than the 501, 508, 510, 721.


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