# Theory: A sure-fire method to toast your 921…



## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

This did not happen to my 921; it happened to my brother's.

My brother normally never puts his 921 into standby - it's left on all the time. I usually inform him when a software update downloads so that he can put it into standby in order to install the update - this time (L273) I forgot to tell him.

Anyway, a couple of days ago his wife was hooking up their Xmas tree. She decided to locate the tree near the TV in their den (also where their 921 is located.) This however required her to unplug the 921 from the AC wall outlet to add a power strip in order to accommodate the added outlet needed for powering the light string on the tree.

She did what you would normally consider the right thing - Put the 921 into standby; Pull the power plug from the wall; Plug in the power strip; Plug the 921 into the strip.

So now on a power-up they get the infamous "ATE missing from hard disk" error followed shortly by the "Your Hard Disk has failed" diagnostics screen (which BTW shows that they're still on L272). None of the clicking or clattering sounds out of the unit you would normally expect to hear with a failed hard drive. The SD and HD lamps are both lit and the Red Record lamp just flashes continuously. After a few moments you are put on CH101, but any button press on either the remote or front panel gives you the HD failure diagnostics screen again. The unit is basically toasted at this point. No amount of soft/hard/card reboots gets it beyond this condition.

DISH is sending them a replacement unit - hopefully it won't take them too long to get it.

But I have a theory about the cause of this failure. When she put the unit into standby the 272 -> 273 update sequence initiated and was in progress when she pulled the AC power. Call it luck of the draw, but my guess is that she managed to hit it at the exact critical moment when some primary boot component that lives on the hard disk was being updated. I think there may be a lesson to be learned here. If my theory is correct, shouldn't some kind of warning screen be shown if an update is on the hard drive and pending install, regarding unplugging the unit from the AC source until the update completes and unit has fully restarted?

Anybody else have some thoughts on this?


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

I agree. It makes sense. The only other theory I can offer is that there was a ground problem with the power strip in conjunction with the x-mas tree lighting allowing a power surge/spike or whatever, causing the failure.


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

boylehome said:


> I agree. It makes sense. The only other theory I can offer is that there was a ground problem with the power strip in conjunction with the x-mas tree lighting allowing a power surge/spike or whatever, causing the failure.


Thanks for the input John -- I agree -- Anything is possible, but I did go over to their house and check it with an AC plug tester. Everything tested okay. And the the tree is only 36" tall with a 15 peanut bulb string on it (brand new). The power strip is a surge supressor and is also brand new.


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## welchwarlock (Jan 5, 2005)

I accidentally did this on my last receiver upgrade. I unplugged the unit while it was downloading the new software. It did not kill the receiver, but you could no longer command it to update software. In that menu it would say "No Updates Available" until you put the unit into standby, at which point it picks up from where it left off...now if it were flashing the bios at the time it was unplugged...that could kill it...

WW


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Unplug the 921 for more than an hour. This should allow the residual voltage to drain off and completely kill the startup sequence from the hard drive and cause the 921 to revert to it's backup rom. If an hour doesn't do it, keep it unplugged until the next day. When you power up the reload process may take nearly an hour and then it will need to rebuild the L273 download as well but I doubt your hard drive and/or 921 is toast. I've been there and done that and it's a sick feeling but knowing what is expected it is worth it to do the rebuild process that just may do the trick and have you up and running several hours later. The clue for me was that your drive did not sound like a failed hard drive. People who have reported the clanging sounds, have a different issue. The 921 was designed to not fail; if a download was in process when a signal failure or power failure happened. I agree, however, that the error messages you got are not very encouraging. I felt the same way when my 921 went through that more than once. Now I ignore the messages and listen for normalcy! 

The downside of getting Dish to just replace the 921 is you will get someone elses 921 that was once sent in for unknown issues and you'll need to trust Dish that they checked it out. Trust Dish? Is that an oxymoron? luck of the draw with the exchange as you will not get a new machine.


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

DonLandis said:


> Unplug the 921 for more than an hour. This should allow the residual voltage to drain off and completely kill the startup sequence from the hard drive and cause the 921 to revert to it's backup rom. If an hour doesn't do it, keep it unplugged until the next day. When you power up the reload process may take nearly an hour and then it will need to rebuild the L273 download as well but I doubt your hard drive and/or 921 is toast.


Don -- Thanks for your suggestion -- Their unit has been disconnected since last Friday evening so should be good to go for a try at a reload. I'll post the results of the attempt.

I also heartily agree with you that whenever possible you're much better off sticking with your own unit -- we'll hope for the best.

Thanks again!


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

welchwarlock said:


> I accidentally did this on my last receiver upgrade. I unplugged the unit while it was downloading the new software. It did not kill the receiver, but you could no longer command it to update software. In that menu it would say "No Updates Available" until you put the unit into standby, at which point it picks up from where it left off...now if it were flashing the bios at the time it was unplugged...that could kill it...
> 
> WW


My guess is that the entire L273 update was already downloaded (and laying in wait) on the hard drive. When she put it into standby it started installing the update. She of course was unaware that this was occurring because there is no notification or warning that such a process is, or will when standby is entered, occur. During this hidden process, she pulled the AC plug.

I'm hoping that Don's input regarding a master rebuild ability is correct and will allow a recovery to occur. I'd really like for them to be able to keep their 921 which until a couple of days ago has worked very well for them. I (like you) have had somewhat less than stellar experiences with 921 refurbs (for me it took 5 attempts to get a fully functional one.)

Thanks for your response,


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

Well, it turned out as I had feared it would.

Left the unit completely disconnected for three days. Reconnected it and left it to percolate for 6 hours - absolutely no change. It's toasted.

I still believe that there is nothing physically wrong with it, but the boot loader has been blitzed as I theorized in my earlier postings - and we'll never really know, will we? It seems to me that just a simple warning screen could have avoided this.

Anyway, they are awaiting delivery of the replacement 921 - hopefully it will be a functional one.


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## JPC (Feb 8, 2005)

The abilty to choose manual installation of a software update would have also prevented this from happening. Not to mention the ability to not fix what isn't broken.


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

Will they received the replacement unit - it made it about 8hrs before croaking completely. After downloading the L273 and letting it update from the L055 version it came with, we called to activate it. Immediately noticed that something was screwed up with the guide times - they were an hour off (late) from what they should be but the displayed time and date at the top of the guide was correct. Tried a softboot then a coldboot but no change. Decided to give it the overnight to percolate since this sometimes clears up guide issues but it was still screwed up this morning. Tried another softboot - got the HD logo and nothing else - let it sit 15minutes - no change, just the HD logo. Tried a coldboot next - got the HD logo and nothing else - let it set 30minutes - still no change, just the HD logo... Croaked Toast...

So now my question is, which of the Howard brothers (Curly, Shemp, or Moe) do you suppose Dish has dug up and hired to do their QC on these refurbed 921s? My vote's for Curly because he "&#8230;tries to think, but noth'in happens&#8230;"

I guess they are about to try 921 #3 (maybe it'll be charmed) :lol:


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

AVJohnnie said:


> So now my question is, which of the Howard brothers (Curly, Shemp, or Moe) do you suppose Dish has dug up and hired to do their QC on these refurbed 921s? My vote's for Curly because he "&#8230;tries to think, but noth'in happens&#8230;"


I'm not sure, but maybe all three of them. They were last seen waving a magic wand over all the bad 921's. Funny thing is, what they thought was a magic wand was actually a lit roman candle!:lol: :lol: :lol: We know Larry wouldn't be a problem.:eek2:


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