# Dish called (thanks to Mark)



## elmc (Jan 7, 2005)

I got a call from Dish today. The woman said that Mark had recommended them to call (thanks Mark)!!!

I explained that I was having problems with ZSRs ever since my recordings got wiped out. She tried to blow me off and explained that everyone is having ZSRs and a fix will be coming in early April. She said that until then I should avoid back to back recordings. I then explained that I knew about that problem and that I had avoided doing that since it was new. I explained that my problem started when I lost all recordings, now it misses recordings at random almost everyday. They don't need to be HD, or back to back, it just misses recordings and says "unknown recorded event - 0 sec" in the DVR list.

She put me on hold, then came back and asked me for all my receiver info, and told me she would be sending me a replacement. She put me on hold again, then asked me to cancel any HD timers I had set up, and she would call back on Tue.. She said this was just to make sure that I was having a hard drive problem and not a software problem.

Thanks Mark!


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

elmc - Allison is very good to work with, and doesn't ever "blow people off". If you'd told me this in the email you sent me, I could have told you how to get past the missed recordings.

The bug you are experiencing is the same as I've gone through with mine in the last week. Your drive was wiped clean, except that it really wasn't. The database pointing to your recordings was corrupted. And, from that point on, timers didn't record, they produced ZSRs instead. 

The workaround solution right now is to accumulate as many ZSRs as you had recorded events when your drive was wiped. Once you get past that point, your 921 will start functioning normally again.


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## elmc (Jan 7, 2005)

I have posted my problem here more than once, I have told you my problem in an email I sent you before (3-5-2005).

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=39187
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=39444

This idea that I have to accumulate as many ZSRs as recordings hasn't worked for me yet. I'm not sure how many recordings I did have, but I know I have been getting ZSRs everyday since Feb 25th and it hasn't stopped yet. I have purposely filled up my hard drive more than once and its still happening. I hope you are right, and I haven't reached that point yet.

I didn't mean to imply that Allison was rude or anything. I was blown off before by Dish when I first called them and I thought it was happening again.

I truely thank you for getting dish to help me on this.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Anytime.


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## Jerry G (Jul 12, 2003)

Allison was the one who got me a recent replacement (with Mark's help). She was extremely nice and courteous. The new unit has been performing better than the previous, but not perfectly (not that I expected it to, but at least most timers aren't failing to fire).


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

elmc said:


> This idea that I have to accumulate as many ZSRs as recordings hasn't worked for me yet. I'm not sure how many recordings I did have, but I know I have been getting ZSRs everyday since Feb 25th and it hasn't stopped yet. I have purposely filled up my hard drive more than once and its still happening. I hope you are right, and I haven't reached that point yet.


I think by accumulate Mark means you need to LEAVE the new ZSRs on the hard drive. If you delete them as you go, you keep reusing the same bad slot in the database (Instead of overwriting all the corrupted slots).

Perhapse you're doing this already.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

That was my experience, and until I had accumulated the right number of ZSRs, I never had a single timer fire correctly. Once timers started firing correctly again, I deleted all events and now it's working normally again. (Although my box now states I have 157 SD hours, 21 HD hours recording space available when there's nothing recorded.)


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## elmc (Jan 7, 2005)

Well it seems you are right Mark!!!! Thursday night was the last ZSR!!! My 921 has been back to its pre-FEB 26th state. 

I had been erasing every ZSR immediatly - maybe if I hadn't, it wouldn't of taken so long for me to reach this point.

My box is the same about 157 hrs SD - 21 HD when it was empty since day 1. When I first got it, I just thought maybe the "live TV recording" was taking up the x-tra space or something.

I emailed Allison and told her it seems to be fine - THANKS AGAIN!!


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> The workaround solution right now is to accumulate as many ZSRs as you had recorded events when your drive was wiped. Once you get past that point, your 921 will start functioning normally again.


Sorry Mark, this is an unacceptable workaround. What the 921 team had me do is much better. Since I've followed their instructions, NO ZSR'S!!!


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## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

and that is?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I agree - what did the 921 team have you do, boylehome?


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## Jerry G (Jul 12, 2003)

Yes indeed. Why post that you found a good solution and not tell us what it is? Is it classified by the NSA? Arrrrgh!!!


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

You can go to the following thread to get the information that I received from the E* 921 team. I'll post it here too. http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=36722&page=5&pp=25

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ZSR for Law & Order: Trial by Jury 10-11. New weekly timer made after L212. Was set for OTA NBC KNVN. All other timer fired and work.
DVR RECORD EVENT shows 03/03 Unknown Recorded event. When selecting the event to erase, the screen shows: Unknown Recorded Event-280PTV NR AO[SC]-Event Length: 0 seconds-This is a Recorded Event. There is no Program Information found for this Event.

My All Channel Program guide goes from 265 to 300. No 280.

The other timers were an OAT 9-10 and CBSHD 10-11.

This happened on my HEED.

I do have locks activated for PPV only and locks were enabled.

I called Dish Net Tech. Support and they took a report and passed it on to the, "921 team." Around 1:00pm PST, I got a call from a 921 team member. This is what they had me do:
1. Menu - 6 System Setup - Factory Defaults - Yes
After the 921 reset
2. 15 second power cord re-boot (described as, "icing on the cake")
After the 921 reset
3. Menu - 6 System Setup - 2 Point Dish - Switch - Check
After a successful Switch Matrix
4. Menu - 6 System setup - 8 Local Channels - Scan DTV and Save
After the OTA channel were added
5. DVR - Recorded Event Menu exam to see if remaining DVR events were still present
After verifying they still remained
6. Menu - 7 Timer Management to verify that all the timers remained
The were all accounted for

I was instructed to call if there were any future ZSR's  
__________________


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

boylehome, that procedure won't do anything if your 921 had "erased" all of your recorded events. Or, at the very least, I don't see what it could possibly do. The database is corrupted at this point.

It may temporarily prevent ZSRs from happening, though. But, heck, I'll give it a shot, as I just lost all of my recorded events for a 3rd time tonight...


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## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

mark are you somehow repeating steps to make your 921 erase all your shows? i sure hope so. my 921 has been very reliable and i sure hope i continue to not get ZSR's and surely not the hard drive erase move your getting....

Jon


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

Geez Mark, you're scaring the crap out of me. What the heck are you doing to your box?

Dish is sure lucky they really didn't ship too many of these boxes. What an embarassment.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> boylehome, that procedure won't do anything if your 921 had "erased" all of your recorded events. Or, at the very least, I don't see what it could possibly do. The database is corrupted at this point.
> 
> It may temporarily prevent ZSRs from happening, though. But, heck, I'll give it a shot, as I just lost all of my recorded events for a 3rd time tonight...


This is the 921 teams procedure. I would hope that you contact and talk to the 921 team. Between the you and them, maybe we can get a better solution. I would like some stability in solutions. What they told me was that the procedure repaired the defect that had developed in the software. Why do you say that their procedure, "won't do anything if the 921 has erased all the recorded events."? Does your procedure return the events that were lost? Or, do you end up having more ZSR's? Here is what I suggest. If you get a ZSR perform the procedure at least this way you do the fix and shouldn't lose the programing that remains until the next fluke. Perhaps a ZSR is a symptom to a bigger problem. It seems that everyone such as Eldon, E*, and other important people (you) are so tight lipped about what is the actual cause of this problem. If this is because the experts do not know what the problems are by now, then there is even a more serious problem. Don't you agree?

Also Mark, your 3rd wipe of dvr records? Sounds like you got a real lemon from the 921 pool. Maybe us complainers have lemons.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Believe me, if I know what the actual cause of the problem was, I'd tell everyone so that we could avoid doing whatever it is that's causing it.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

Are you using the beta version of the next release?

If so should I start dumping my shows to a video/DVD at this point?

I've had a few ZSRs but I never open them when I see the 0 sec. label. I'm getting about two a week now. The L Word and Smallville have been most susceptible and both are recorded duting heavy recording periods (dual timers active with a third starting up when one of them ends)

I'm also having major problems when the 921 is tuned to a Sirius channel when a timer needs to fire. The Simpsons started recording and wouldn't stop recording after 2 hours (and I tried to press stop). Wound up rebooting and the bad recording was just gone. Thank God for west coast waivers........ Recorded the west coast feed and didn't miss anything....


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

yup, beta here.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

For the first time, I'm hoping the next software release DOESN'T come soon if this is what we have to look forward to......


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I'm working very hard to make sure you don't see any of this Bob, beyond what you've already seen in L211 and L212.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

I appreciate the effort, but I'm nervous.... The last three updates had improvements that were invisible, yet introduced new headaches that I HAVE run into.

6 months ago it was fairly stable.... now I've got ZSRs all over the place, and sluggish response that sometimes takes 15 seconds to activate a pressed onscreen button.

I also REALLY hate the fact that I can't clean up old recordings while watching another..... it dumps out to the last live channel watched. Ditto for deleting a recording while two timers are active. Hearing from the CSRs that I should avoid multiple timers is asinine as it explains why I bought a two tuner receiver in the first place.

If the 942 is as stable out of the gate as you say in your review with Version 1.0 (or whatever number they gave it), then why can't these UK boys get it right after 18 MONTHS?


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