# Hr-24 frustrations.....



## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

Finally got my Hr-24 replacement after a year of dealing with customer service and not getting anywhere. I was having to reset the receiver once or twice a day as it would freeze up and become completely unresponsive. Activated new reciever last week and everything is good until yesterday. Exact same issue returns. Reset, everything works until turning the reciever on this morning. Frozen once again. Reset.... It seems to me that I should not be having to manually reset every single day. Customer service has moved me up to a new level and they had me cover up the ir port and unplug the off air tuner and are waiting until Friday to see what happens. 
Is anyone else having issues with their hr-24's or did I just happen to get 2 defective receivers in a row?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

I've had a couple now and not had any of these issues.

Two bad ones in a row "seems unlikely" [not impossible], so this might suggest something else is causing this.


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I agree. I'd be looking at heat and/or power.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I think unplugging the off-air module is a good diagnostic tool. It might also help us here, if you described the installation a bit, how you have it connected, what sort of networking you're using, etc.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

RGoldman said:


> Finally got my Hr-24 replacement after a year of dealing with customer service and not getting anywhere. I was having to reset the receiver once or twice a day as it would freeze up and become completely unresponsive. Activated new reciever last week and everything is good until yesterday. Exact same issue returns. Reset, everything works until turning the reciever on this morning. Frozen once again. Reset.... It seems to me that I should not be having to manually reset every single day. Customer service has moved me up to a new level and they had me cover up the ir port and unplug the off air tuner and are waiting until Friday to see what happens.
> Is anyone else having issues with their hr-24's or did I just happen to get 2 defective receivers in a row?


Can you set the receiver and remote to operate in RF mode ? If you do not have an RF remote, get them to send you one.
IR interference can cause the unit to freeze up and stop responding.

Press the Info button on the remote and hold it for a few seconds ( with the tape off the sensor eye ) until the system info comes to the screen. Choose more Info. The temperature should be at the bottom of that screen. What is the temp ?

Question for previous posters: If it was heat related or power related wouldn't it probably also be resetting itself.

Thanks


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

Thanks for the suggestions and I will go check the temperature. I have an RF remote already.
The receiver is connected via hdmi to a Denon A/V receiver. The TV and Denon receiver have been working perfectly for years. Had Dish prior to changing over to Directv last year with the same setup, location, etc, and never had a problem like this. 
What's strange is that they tell me they can't help me unless the receiver is frozen when I call them which is really a pain since it's always first thing in the morning when I am trying to get ready for work and don't have time to sit and explain the issues to a person that doesn't understand me for 15 minutes before they will finally transfer me to someone that can help. The first thing that person does is reset my receiver and then go through a bunch of things that are always ok. It's never less than an hour from the time I dial the phone until they tell me to call back next time it happens. It gets to a point where just hitting reset and waiting for it to come back alive is simpler than trying to get them to fix the problem!


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

If it always freezes in the morning I have to ask,
Have you gone into Menu, Settings, Power Saving and turned that feature OFF ?


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

Power saving has always been turned off. Internal temp is 111F.


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## pandafish (Apr 20, 2012)

When I first ordered Directv I received an HR24 that would constantly freeze. It mostly did it if I hit the skip back or forward more than once. It would also happen if I had it going fast forward and I passed the point I wanted and I would hit back. I had a tech come out and he replaced the lnb saying there was moisture in it. That did not fix the problem. I called tech support again and finally the next tech replaced the DVR. I believe the first one I had was HR24-100. The replacement is an HR24-200 and it hasn't happened since. This was 2 years ago.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

How many receivers total i your system? How are they all wired? Are you connected to the internet? What Dish do you have? Some more detail may help us suggest a few things to try, to see if you can narrow down where your issues is coming from, if not eliminate it altogether.


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## CATCRAW (Mar 27, 2008)

I've just started having a similar issue with a HR22-100. It has worked perfectly since it was installed, about 3-4 years ago. Now it turns itself off and I have to unplug and wait a few seconds for it to turn back on. Power save is OFF and CS told me the same thing - everything is fine but to call right when it happens. I also have a HR 21-200 and it works fine.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

Frozen again this morning. This time the screen was basically a green plaid pattern that was flashing. That is the first time I have seen that. Called and they are sending someone out to replace the receiver on Monday. They wanted to just mail me a new one but I told them that since I am paying for their home prtoection plan they should send someone out this time. Would be nice to actually have some equipment that works.
There are three receivers total. Only one DVR and that is the one that has the problems. They were all installed by Directv so they are wired however they should be. They ran all new cable when they did the installation. No internet connection. Not sure what dish it is but it was brand new and installed with the system last year. 
After a week or so of the original installation, the receiver would be frozen first thing in the morning after being off all night. A reset was teh only thing to get it to work. Got to be where it was required once or twice a day before they sent me a new receiver two weeks ago. The new one worked perfectly for about a week before it was frozen first thing in the morning just like the old one. I disconnected the off air tuner and covered the IR port like the tech told me on Tuesday. This morning, green screen and unresponsive to front panel or remote.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

RGoldman said:


> They wanted to just mail me a new one but I told them that since I am paying for their home prtoection plan they should send someone out this time. Would be nice to actually have some equipment that works.


Here's hoping that if there's an external problem, it manifests itself while the technician is there. It doesn't sound likely from what you've described.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

I told them the same thing but at least they can replace the receiver and take the old one with them so I don;t have to drive to town and mail another one back. The first one I sent back is still floating around between fedex and USPS and neither of them seems to know who has it at this point.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

Tech was here today. Realigned the dish and had me connect the hdmi out of the receiver directly to the TV and then use an optical cable for audio to my a/v receiver. We shall see if that does anything for the problem or not..... Had to reset the receiver yesterday morning with the plaid green flashing screen of death once again. 
I am skeptical that this will resolve the situation but it's something new to try this week.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

RGoldman said:


> Tech was here today. Realigned the dish and had me connect the hdmi out of the receiver directly to the TV and then use an optical cable for audio to my a/v receiver.


You should confirm whether your TV passes surround sound coming in from an HDMI source. Many, if not most, do not.


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## BuLL (Apr 19, 2010)

Check out these threads. Sounds like the same problem.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=208853

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=205206


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

harsh said:


> You should confirm whether your TV passes surround sound coming in from an HDMI source. Many, if not most, do not.


What's the point of that unless you're assuming that he has his optical going from an output on his TV to his AVR rather than from the receiver to the AVR. Is that how a DISH installer would do it?


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## smitbret (Mar 27, 2011)

RGoldman said:


> Finally got my Hr-24 replacement after a year of dealing with customer service and not getting anywhere. I was having to reset the receiver once or twice a day as it would freeze up and become completely unresponsive. Activated new reciever last week and everything is good until yesterday. Exact same issue returns. Reset, everything works until turning the reciever on this morning. Frozen once again. Reset.... It seems to me that I should not be having to manually reset every single day. Customer service has moved me up to a new level and they had me cover up the ir port and unplug the off air tuner and are waiting until Friday to see what happens.
> Is anyone else having issues with their hr-24's or did I just happen to get 2 defective receivers in a row?


This is why it took a year to get one to you. In the end, it's probably not the box that's an issue.

I've had two of them for more than 2 years and a 3rd for 10 months and have not had a lick of trouble. Sounds almost like a signal issue.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

RGoldman said:


> Tech was here today. Realigned the dish and had me connect the hdmi out of the receiver directly to the TV and then use an optical cable for audio to my a/v receiver.





Shades228 said:


> What's the point of that unless you're assuming that he has his optical going from an output on his TV to his AVR rather than from the receiver to the AVR. Is that how a DISH installer would do it?


It isn't clear whether the optical cable came from the TV or the DVR nor whether the tech indicated one way or the other.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

Sorry for the confusion. I connected the optical cable from the Hr-24 to my A/V receiver. The HDMI cable from the HR-24 goes directly to the TV now. Sound is the same with either the optical to the AVR or HDMI to AVR so that is not an issue. 
We have had to lengthy power outages in the last 5 days so the receiver has been "reset" a couple of times this week. We'll see how it does for the next few days and if that cleared up the issues or not.
As far as taking a year for them to send me a new receiver, it had nothing to do with my setup but rather taking the time to deal with the customer service people. It was more convenient to just rest the receiver every morning than go through 30 minutes of being on hold and having someone read off a script on what should fix it. I was finally able to take the time to get the issue escalated to the next level of CS a few weeks ago and get things moving.


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## barkmanusd (Sep 28, 2012)

I have an unique take on this problem as I have 2 almost identical systems. 
SYSTEM 1: Pioneer Elite Receiver VSX24 HD & 3D. -- 65" Panasonic HD/3D Tv, -- Monster HD/3d hdmi cables, -- DIRECTV HR24 / *100 *(running 0x5d2)
SYSTEM 2: Pioneer Elite Receiver VSX24 HD & 3D. -- 65" Samsung HD/3d Tv, -- Monster HD/3d hdmi cables -- DIRECTV HR24 / *200* (running 0x5d2)

All 2011 & mostly 2012 models I purchased new this summer. 
*SYSTEM 1 has the same TV turn off issues* when volume, (or most any other controls which affect thru-put via HDMI are tinkered with! It also can happen without touching the remote(s) depending on the DIRECTV scene currently showing.)

*System 2 works fine* & has never failed!

The difference appears to be ox5d2 does not work on a hd24 / *100* box BUT does work on a hd24 / *200*!! I've put together several other less specific examples from several blogs and all lead to the same conclusion. I'm sure it applies to other DirecTV release combinations as well.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

RGoldman said:


> Sorry for the confusion. I connected the optical cable from the Hr-24 to my A/V receiver. The HDMI cable from the HR-24 goes directly to the TV now. Sound is the same with either the optical to the AVR or HDMI to AVR so that is not an issue.
> We have had to lengthy power outages in the last 5 days so the receiver has been "reset" a couple of times this week. We'll see how it does for the next few days and if that cleared up the issues or not.
> As far as taking a year for them to send me a new receiver, it had nothing to do with my setup but rather taking the time to deal with the customer service people. It was more convenient to just rest the receiver every morning than go through 30 minutes of being on hold and having someone read off a script on what should fix it. I was finally able to take the time to get the issue escalated to the next level of CS a few weeks ago and get things moving.


Are you using one remote or two? Could there be conflicting commands between the AVR remote and the DirecTV remote?


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

Only using the directv remote. Woke up to a frozen receier once again today. Nothing but a strange green flashing apttern on the screen requiring a reset once again. Been on the phone trying to get through to an intelligent person for the last hour. No luck yet. I am on hold once again....


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

RGoldman said:


> Only using the directv remote. Woke up to a frozen receier once again today. Nothing but a strange green flashing apttern on the screen requiring a reset once again. Been on the phone trying to get through to an intelligent person for the last hour. No luck yet. I am on hold once again....


And this is the second receiver where this is happening? And you are now HDMI'd from the DVR to the TV? Have you tried another TV?

Can you post a photo of this strange pattern?


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

I will take a photo next time it happens. CS is now telling me it must be my TV that is the problem rather than their equipment. They had me connect component cables rather than hdmi to see if that fixes it. Came home tonight to find the receiver frozen but with nothing, no picture, no sound, completely unresponsive to remote or front panel. Another reset. Next step is to move the receiver into a different room with a different TV and see what happens. If it freezes up in there, then I have no idea what they will do. Running out of possible ideas as to what would be causing this. Certainly not happy with a year remaining on my contract and no solution in sight.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

The component cables didn't make a difference. Still locked up twice in two days. Moved the receiver into a secondary room and brought the one in there into my living room this afternoon. Having the DVR in a different room is not that big of a deal but the lag in the FF and 30 second jump really sucks. Sure hope this problem gets figured out soon. If they can't come up with anything, it's going to be another long year of daily resets until I can switch companies.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

RGoldman said:


> The component cables didn't make a difference. Still locked up twice in two days. Moved the receiver into a secondary room and brought the one in there into my living room this afternoon. Having the DVR in a different room is not that big of a deal but the lag in the FF and 30 second jump really sucks. Sure hope this problem gets figured out soon. If they can't come up with anything, it's going to be another long year of daily resets until I can switch companies.


Why not replace it?


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

It was just replaced and now they are telling me it must be a problem with my TV since there is no way they could have sent me another defective receiver.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

RGoldman said:


> It was just replaced and now they are telling me it must be a problem with my TV since there is no way they could have sent me another defective receiver.


There are hard numbers on whether a DVR will be defective when it arrives, or shortly after being in service. Odds are pretty low, but it happens. I'm living proof that it happens.

Whether you might have had 10 bad ones in a row does not change the odds on whether the next one will be defective, just like if you flip a coin and it lands heads 10 times in a row, the odds of it landing heads the 11th time are still approximately 50-50. Bottom line, the odds of you getting a defective receiver this time around are the same as anyone else who replaces a receiver.

So yes, it might be your setup, but the "no way" impossibility of serial defective DVRs is total BS.

Good luck.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

The big problem is trying to get CS to understand that. At this point, they are not giving me a lot of choices other than basically telling me to go buy a new TV and see if that fixes it. I am waiting to see if the DVR receiver locks up in the other room as it is connectd to a 3 month old TV in that room. If it does lock up in there as well, they will have to come up with something other than my living room tv being the problem. Should only take a couple of days to find out one way or the other. 
I am pretty sure the component connections do not have the same issues that HDMI connections can have with the HDCP and I wouldn't expect my TV to be able to somehow lock up the receiver while using them but that is what they are still leaning towards as the answer.


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## cody21 (Sep 26, 2007)

Same issue going on with me. We did the "MOVE" pkg in July 2012. The tech replaced our flawless HR20-700 (or 100?) with a new HR24/500 ... It was working fine for about a month. Then all of the sudden we started getting the "freeze/lockups", Pause will occasionally freeze to the point where we have to switch channels to get the receiver to respond again (hence losing everything Paused). The only way to get it back from the lockup/freeze is to pull the power and let it reset itself. 

Int Temp = 110
we're using IR remote
No network of any sort being used
S/W update was July 10, 2012

This really sucks and has become more frequent - for a unit that is only 2 months old installed.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

I moved the DVR into a different room where it didn't get used for a week other than to record and then replay shows on different tv. It was never turned off and it didn't freeze all week. The HD receiver(non dvr) from the other room was moved into the main viewing room where the DVR had been and connected exactly how the DVR had been when it was freezing up and worked all week without a single problem. The annoying part is the long pauses when using FF and 30 second skip while viewing recorded material with the DVR in a different room. 
I moved the DVR back into the main room last night and had a lockup within an hour. This absolutely makes no sense that it freezes up but the non dvr receiver works perfectly. If they could fix the delay when viewing recorded material, I would make the switch permanent but it seriously bothers me and I pay extra for a DVR and would like it to work properly.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

@ cody

Have you tried a menu reset instead of pulling the plug? 

If you do two such within 30 minutes, the entire Guide cache will be flushed, which can sometimes make a difference. 

How much free space have you? 

If using Pause to save a place tends to lose things, hit R before doing so until that gets straightened out.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Mr. Goldman-

How long are these delays? 30SKIP or 30SLIP? 

How are you networked? 

HDMI now on both?


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

Cody, you might also want to check to see if your getting drive errors. What you can do is do a menu reset and while the box is booting back up again when you see the running self test screen press select on the remote, this takes you to the test menus. I don't remember the exact names but you want something like internal component tests and then HDD or hard drive test. You migth try the surface scan test, if it sees any error it will try to correct them. That test can take 90 minutes and I wouldn't interruput it while it's running, I did that once and it bricked the receiver.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

RGoldman said:


> *I moved the DVR into a different room where it didn't get used for a week other than to record and then replay shows on different tv. It was never turned off and it didn't freeze all week.* The HD receiver(non dvr) from the other room was moved into the main viewing room where the DVR had been and connected exactly how the DVR had been when it was freezing up and worked all week without a single problem. The annoying part is the long pauses when using FF and 30 second skip while viewing recorded material with the DVR in a different room.
> I moved the DVR back into the main room last night and had a lockup within an hour. This absolutely makes no sense that it freezes up but the non dvr receiver works perfectly. If they could fix the delay when viewing recorded material, I would make the switch permanent but it seriously bothers me and I pay extra for a DVR and would like it to work properly.


Have you tried turning just the TV off when it freezes and give it a few minutes to see if the receiver will work again ?

This might be a lot of trouble but might be worth the try.
Switch the TVs instead of the receivers since it works in the other room.
I still think it is IR interference from the TV. IR can freeze up the receiver.

When this receiver that is freezing up was in the room and did not freeze, was it going thru an AV receiver there also ?
Have you tried bypassing the AV in the main room and see if it works ?


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

"RGoldman" said:


> I moved the DVR into a different room where it didn't get used for a week other than to record and then replay shows on different tv. It was never turned off and it didn't freeze all week. The HD receiver(non dvr) from the other room was moved into the main viewing room where the DVR had been and connected exactly how the DVR had been when it was freezing up and worked all week without a single problem. The annoying part is the long pauses when using FF and 30 second skip while viewing recorded material with the DVR in a different room.
> I moved the DVR back into the main room last night and had a lockup within an hour. This absolutely makes no sense that it freezes up but the non dvr receiver works perfectly. If they could fix the delay when viewing recorded material, I would make the switch permanent but it seriously bothers me and I pay extra for a DVR and would like it to work properly.


Try running rf on the DVR for a week or two.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

I agree, you need to rule out IR interference. There are TV models that or notorious for causing those kinds of problems. If your remote control is an RF capable remote (look for an FCC sticker on the bottom), then you can change it from IR to RF and try that for a few days to see if it makes a difference. You might also try covering the IR sensor on the DVR (black electrical tape usually works well to do this).


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

So I've made it two weeks without a reset! At this point, the only thing I can explain as the cause is the off air tuner. When I first disconnected the usb cable from the HR-24, I was still having issues with the receiver locking up so I did not think it was the problem. After changing my receivers around, it worked fine with the HD receiver for a week so I moved teh DVR back into the living room and it froze up immediately. I then pulled the off air tuner completely out of my component stand and have not had a problem since then. No idea why it works on the HD receiver but not not the DVR. Also unfortunate that you have to pay $50 for the off air tuner and it won't work with the HR-24 like it is supposed to.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

I wonder if you're daring enough to try the AM21 again?
I've had my AM21 connected without any issues, so I kind of wonder if something got sorted out and now it might work as it should.


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## RGoldman (Mar 29, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> I wonder if you're daring enough to try the AM21 again?
> I've had my AM21 connected without any issues, so I kind of wonder if something got sorted out and now it might work as it should.


I was planning on trying it at some point this week when I have time to reconnect everything. Not sure how it was effecting the DVR with the usb cable disconnected but that still seems to be the only thing it could have been at this point. I will post here again after I reconnect it and see what happens.


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