# VIP 922 died (again); swap internal drive?



## ZBoomer

Fellow Dish Peeps,

While watching a program, and out of nowhere, my 922 rebooted, and decided to kick the bucket. (This is my 2nd one) It just endlessly reboots, never getting past the "Starting..." screen. I've left it unplugged for hours, and it still won't come back. Appears some internal component popped...It had been rock solid since I got it, and I'd been slinging to my phone perfectly lately. The replacement is slated to arrive today.

I had quite a bit of my stuff on EHD, but still had some 300+ recordings on the internal drive. It's not the end of the world to lose it, but I would like to recover if possible, assuming the drive isn't dead. (I don't think it is)

If I recall, isn't the boot firmware and OS stored in EEPROM in the receiver, and not on the drive? If that's the case, could I temporarily put my existing 922's drive into the new 922, at least long enough to copy the programs over to EHD?

Just not sure how the 922 behaves, so any advice appreciated.

Swapping a drive is old-hat for me, I used to be a PC technician, so I've swapped countless hard drives in my lifetime...pretty familiar with the inside of a DVR as well. Thanks!


----------



## Stewart Vernon

Do you own the receiver or is it a leased one?

In either case, opening the receiver and removing the hard drive voids the warranty... and if a lease, voids the lease agreement.

I feel your pain, but unless you want to risk having to buy it, I don't think I would open it up.


----------



## Ray [email protected] Network

As Stuart Vernon stated, I wouldn't open up the receiver, especially if it is leased. Sometimes leaving the receiver unplugged overnight and plugging it back in will allow normal functionality. You mentioned you left the 922 unplugged for hours. I would try overnight to see if it will reboot and allow you to transfer your recordings. Thanks.



ZBoomer said:


> Fellow Dish Peeps,
> 
> While watching a program, and out of nowhere, my 922 rebooted, and decided to kick the bucket. (This is my 2nd one) It just endlessly reboots, never getting past the "Starting..." screen. I've left it unplugged for hours, and it still won't come back. Appears some internal component popped...It had been rock solid since I got it, and I'd been slinging to my phone perfectly lately. The replacement is slated to arrive today.
> 
> I had quite a bit of my stuff on EHD, but still had some 300+ recordings on the internal drive. It's not the end of the world to lose it, but I would like to recover if possible, assuming the drive isn't dead. (I don't think it is)
> 
> If I recall, isn't the boot firmware and OS stored in EEPROM in the receiver, and not on the drive? If that's the case, could I temporarily put my existing 922's drive into the new 922, at least long enough to copy the programs over to EHD?
> 
> Just not sure how the 922 behaves, so any advice appreciated.
> 
> Swapping a drive is old-hat for me, I used to be a PC technician, so I've swapped countless hard drives in my lifetime...pretty familiar with the inside of a DVR as well. Thanks!


----------



## P Smith

If you can, swapping drives will works. 
Before that make sure your EHD is recognizing by new 922 and you can play any of old recordings.


----------



## ZBoomer

Thanks for the tips guys...

@ Ray, thanks for the suggestion. Already tried it overnight, no change. I'm convinced an internal component crapped out. The fan behavior is very strange now as it tries to boot. It will not run at all, run slow, sometimes fast, then shut off, flash the front lights and reboot, etc. It never gets past the screen with the globe in the middle...

It's acting very possessed, lol. Too bad, this receiver was SOLID. Never had a single issue, then BAM. :nono2:

Now I just hope I can remember the strange, convoluted way you have to get a new 922 up and running. I remember last time the enclosed instructions were very little help.

On a good note, the 922 does save all your timers in the remote - it's pretty easy to recover them back to the new one, that's nice.


----------



## 356B

I wonder if there is a connection between a large numbers of recordings on the 922 internal hard-drive and drive failures...? It seems I've read this before and I have personal experience with a drive failure too.


----------



## P Smith

356B said:


> I wonder if there is a connection between a large numbers of recordings on the 922 internal hard-drive and drive failures...? It seems I've read this before and I have personal experience with a drive failure too.


Why ?
It's same type of drive, same type of file system as DTV and they are working fine.

You found unreasonable reason.


----------



## ZBoomer

I don't think the drive failed, I think the box itself did. I've had a drive fail before, and the receiver still works, it just won't record or do any DVR functions.

I had about 350 recordings on it, which I think was 88% full. I run around 90% constantly, so that's pretty much par the course for me. I just record more than I have time to watch, dump to EHD when it gets > 90%, oh well...

Anyway, the replacement 922 came today, and I have a few things to report, all good, or at least interesting.

Once unboxed, the DVR itself was completely sealed in shrink plastic, form-fitted to it, with power cord sealed under the plastic. First time I've seen this shipping setup, pretty cool. It's appearance was brand new, although I'm sure it's refurb.

2nd, it installed MUCH MUCH easier than the first replacement 922 I got last year. The default firmware it arrived with in a much better state, and I was able to follow the (simple) instructions perfectly.

Basically, the first step you turn it on, and link the remote. This didn't work at all last time, but did perfectly this time.

Then you run a check-switch to configure it to your dish setup, the box reboots, and downloads all it's firmware updates. Then it steps you through a process of activation (which I did online), downloads the guide, and if you didn't do it already, allows you to link remote again.

Then it reboots, and is basically in the same state my previous 922 took a few days to reach! Seems 100% ready to go. The latest firmware was in place, GUI ready to go, and even has all the channel icon graphics in place in the guide! Not only that, it booted in 720p, which is the native res of the TV I was using to do setup (bedroom.)

A quick restore of the timers that were auto-saved into my remote, and bam, all my (63) timers restored.

If someone wasn't an A/V geek like us, it would be setup in an optimal config right there, no need to do anything more.

It was a MUCH improved experience, so I give Dish big kudos. 

Now fingers crossed it's a good box, and stable...for a long time! I love the 922, it's an awesome box.


----------



## ZBoomer

Interesting factoid:

Dish shipped the replacement unit to me via UPS 2nd day air. I placed their return shipping label on as instructed, and stopped by the UPS store to drop it off...only to have them inform me it was a Fedex label (duh, embarrassing).

Sure enough, the return label was Fedex ground, even though they had shipped to me UPS. Sooo...I had to then find the Fedex ground store. Interesting...

Replacement 922 working good so far, aside from the few minor bugs I've always seen when trying to record > two shows at once, with OTA tuner.

It also spontaneously just stopped recording the other night in the middle of a 3-hour program...weird. I'll keep my eyes on it, if it keeps acting up, I'm not shy to request another one. Or maybe by then I'll upgrade to Hopper. That PTAT feature looks so awesome.


----------

