# Hard Drive Failure?



## PittsbuRgh R (Jan 22, 2005)

I was watching an HD program OTA last night and the receiver froze. Thought it was just part of the normal random problems that this receiver always has. Rebooted this morning and got the Christmas lights and the Hard Drive failure message. Now waiting for a call back from Advance Tech support. Just tried another soft-reboot a while after calling tech support and now I have access to all my recorded programing but no access to the guide or any current programs at all - Just comes up blank indicating that it is Wednesday, December 31 at 11:59 p.m. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this hard drive failure - ohh wait it's working again somewhat senario. Just glad that I can watch my recorded programs as the other resident in the house was none to pleased to hear about the failure.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

I've been there severeal times. You need to do a check switch (inside "point Dish" menu 6, 2). What you experienced was a diagnostic recovery of your hard drive. It saves your recordings, but loses all the settings (you also have to rescan OTA if you use that feature, reset ratings/channel locks etc.) Basically, with the exception of the recordings and your subscription, your 921 is in the same state it was in the day it first was installed. It can only see 119 until you do the check switch, after that it will have to download the EPG, then it should be O.K. for awhile.

I strongly suggest that you back-up any recordings you may want to keep long-term to a VCR or DVD burner. The next time it crashes you may not be so lucky to still have the recordings intact. Eventually they may just "RA" it, in which case you loose your recordings to the UPS truck. I wish they would have utilized the Firewire port as originally planned.


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

It finally happen to me my hard drive totally failed with crunching noise. I called dish they said it can take 24-72 hours before I get a call back. Obviously they know it the hard drive because I described the noise it makes, the fact that is states "hard drive failed" message and the fact it doesn't boot. 

For those of you that had hard drive failure was the 921 technicians able to repair the drive over the phone (or internet)? 

If not how many days did it take to get a replacement starting from the first time you called?

Has anyone had problems with units off warranty?

Did DN offer extended warranty after a new unit was substituded? In other words does the replacement have a 1 year warranty or just until the time expires from the original one.


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## Redster (Jan 14, 2004)

Mine failed earlier this month. The tech called back in about 4 hours and we went over the symptoms again. They RA'd it and I had a replacement receiver in 2 days. The biggest pain was trying to get it activated but I think the rep just didnt know what they were doing. Not sure about the warranty as I purchased the Dish insurance.


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Redster said:


> Mine failed earlier this month. The tech called back in about 4 hours and we went over the symptoms again. They RA'd it and I had a replacement receiver in 2 days. The biggest pain was trying to get it activated but I think the rep just didnt know what they were doing. Not sure about the warranty as I purchased the Dish insurance.


Mine failed yeaterday and I called twice, once to tech support and another time to advanced tech support. Still they're saying wait for them to call me back which could be at late as Wednesday. The add shipping time to that and it could be next week if it doesn't arrive by Friday.

What is "Dish insurance" or is that an extended warranty? Also what does it cost and cover?

Personally what I'm most upset about is loosing my pre-reconded programs.


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## Redster (Jan 14, 2004)

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/products/warranty/index.shtml is the link. Its $5.99 and I believe covers just your receiver.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Im on my 4th 921. I wonder what the failure rate is?


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Michael P said:


> Im on my 4th 921. I wonder what the failure rate is?


You've had four 921's in how many years? 
Were they all hard drive failures?


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

I thought everyone who owned a 921 for a period of time eventually experienced a hard drive failure. Or at least the vocal users of this forum, who do seem to constitute a large percentage of 921 owners


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

jergenf said:


> You've had four 921's in how many years?
> Were they all hard drive failures?


 Years? Try months! :flaiming 
I purchased my original 921 in November 2004 when the price dropped to $549.
Had it recording daily programs continuously until March 2005 when a "ZSR of death" wiped all my recordings and could not record any new programs (all other functions were fine). Mark said the fix was to make as many recordings as the ones that were lost. Well the disk was full when it wiped, that would have taken forever. Mark hooked me up with the Advanced Technical Department and unit #1 was RA'ed.

Unit #2 was fine until software version L2.15. I lost the operating system - but wait - the 921 fixed itself and I still had all my recordings :icon_cool I only lost all my preferences and had to rescan the OTA's. Unfortunately the hard drive was starting to go bad, as I went through several more bouts of losing the "ATE" (the operating system) then watching the 921 lightshow as it repaired itself. By July 05 I had enough and called the advanced techs who RA'ed unit #2.

Unit #3 arrived and had a noiser than usual hard drive (I'm willing to bet it got damaged in shipping although no visable signs on the 921 itself, only the shipping box had a slight indent in one corner). In less than a month I started getting the lost "ATE" problem again, however this time it could not fix itself. This unit was totally dead.

Unit #4 arrived at the beginning of September, and so far so good (however I stopped using daily timers for programs I might want to watch and only record occasionally.

I am ready to give up having a PVR. It's adding insult to injury to have to pay an additional $4.98 for a feature that is unreliable and not get the OTA program guide (I won't sub to locals - the PQ sucks on the satellite LIL's, they don't carry every station I can get OTA, and why pay for a signal I can get for free). l lost more recordings than what I was able to watch or save to tape.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

Wouldn't it be great if they had a recordable DVR for HighDef and worked with the 921? Or just as good, wouldn't it be nice to have a portable (back-up) hard drive that worked with the 921?

Sooner or later, the 921's hard drive is going to fail (some die sooner than others). We just can't fully rely or trust the 921 because of its instability.


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

boylehome said:


> Wouldn't it be great if they had a recordable DVR for HighDef and worked with the 921? Or just as good, wouldn't it be nice to have a portable (back-up) hard drive that worked with the 921?
> 
> Sooner or later, the 921's hard drive is going to fail (some die sooner than others). We just can't fully rely or trust the 921 because of its instability.


Is that sarcasm? I'm not sure.

What your asking for is called JVC D-VHS. It's available now. It's supposed to work with that taped over firewire port.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

David_Levin said:


> Is that sarcasm? I'm not sure.
> 
> What your asking for is called JVC D-VHS. It's available now. It's supposed to work with that taped over firewire port.


No to sarcasm. But yes, the ability to back-up programming due to lack of stability is the point.

Is your, "supposed to work" like what the fire wire ports were supposed to be for but do not (sarcasm intended)?


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Michael P said:


> Years? Try months! :flaiming .


This is rather disturbing because the 921 is basically a PC and the hardware should last as long as one expects from their computer.


Michael P said:


> I purchased my original 921 in November 2004 when the price dropped to $549.
> Had it recording daily programs continuously until March 2005 when a "ZSR of death" wiped all my recordings and could not record any new programs (all other functions were fine). Mark said the fix was to make as many recordings as the ones that were lost. Well the disk was full when it wiped, that would have taken forever. Mark hooked me up with the Advanced Technical Department and unit #1 was RA'ed..


I purchased mine in December 2004 (about a month later than you). It was the 921 with 34 inch HDTV CRT for $999 plus tax. Never got ZSR except on two occasions when I interfered with the recording. Basically the recording was transferred to the pause buffer leaving the DVR listing for that program as zero minutes. Deleting it caused no problem.



Michael P said:


> Unit #2 was fine until software version L2.15. I lost the operating system - but wait - the 921 fixed itself and I still had all my recordings :icon_cool I only lost all my preferences and had to rescan the OTA's. Unfortunately the hard drive was starting to go bad, as I went through several more bouts of losing the "ATE" (the operating system) then watching the 921 lightshow as it repaired itself. By July 05 I had enough and called the advanced techs who RA'ed unit #2..


The fact that it repaired itself is due to Linux performing a file system check. Often it can fix a file system because it contains many backup file tables. But if as you say the drive was faulty then it inevitable that corruption will cause permanent data loss.


Michael P said:


> Unit #3 arrived and had a noiser than usual hard drive (I'm willing to bet it got damaged in shipping although no visable signs on the 921 itself, only the shipping box had a slight indent in one corner). In less than a month I started getting the lost "ATE" problem again, however this time it could not fix itself. This unit was totally dead..


Either the unit was dropped during shipment or DN is using old refurbished or bargain hardware in it's replacements.


Michael P said:


> Unit #4 arrived at the beginning of September, and so far so good (however I stopped using daily timers for programs I might want to watch and only record occasionally..


DVRs are meant to used for time shifting programs it's a shame that you're afraid to use it in fear of breaking the hard drive.


Michael P said:


> I am ready to give up having a PVR. It's adding insult to injury to have to pay an additional $4.98 for a feature that is unreliable and not get the OTA program guide (I won't sub to locals - the PQ sucks on the satellite LIL's, they don't carry every station I can get OTA, and why pay for a signal I can get for free). l lost more recordings than what I was able to watch or save to tape.


Understand that the 921 was it first of its kind, a pioneer machine. And like the first American pioneers they set the path for others to follow but also got killed by Indians. I agree with you concerning the $4.98 DVR fee and the stingy attitude DN has regarding OTA EPG.


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

boylehome said:


> Wouldn't it be great if they had a recordable DVR for HighDef and worked with the 921? Or just as good, wouldn't it be nice to have a portable (back-up) hard drive that worked with the 921?
> 
> Sooner or later, the 921's hard drive is going to fail (some die sooner than others). We just can't fully rely or trust the 921 because of its instability.


By record-able you mean transferable. It would be nice to be able to transfer the data from the 921 to a hard drive in your PC but that wouldn't work in real life. Because of copy right concerns data can not be saved unless it's encrypted. The encryption method (or seed) is based on the a unique number stored on each motherboard. So even if you were to save it to another hard drive it would be useless if that unit failed a you received a replacement 921. 
The only way you can really save the programs of your 921 is to clone the disk entirely (before it fails). This means if the hard drive should fail you would have to insert your backup 250GB drive. This of course will void your warranty as DN would most like not allow self fixes. Maybe a customer agreement could be made that allows for warranty for everything but the hard drive. This means every time your hard drive fails it would cost you $80 (typical cost of a new 250GB) but you still have your programs because you saved them to spare drive. Bare im mine if anything else goes wrong and the unit is swapped then your clone disk is useless again (and all programs lost) so back to square one.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

I just wish I could save programs to a jump drive. The 921 has a USB port so all they have to do is create the feature and enable the USB port.

This way, I could save programs for viewing into the future on the same 921, while freeing up the hard drive.

The 921 will soon be obsolete anyway once they start using MPEG-4. My only hope (I'm not holding my breath) is that E* will do us right and swap our 921's for the new MPEG-4 unit AT NO COST!


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## jergenf (Mar 31, 2005)

Michael P said:


> I just wish I could save programs to a jump drive. The 921 has a USB port so all they have to do is create the feature and enable the USB port.
> 
> This way, I could save programs for viewing into the future on the same 921, while freeing up the hard drive.
> 
> The 921 will soon be obsolete anyway once they start using MPEG-4. My only hope (I'm not holding my breath) is that E* will do us right and swap our 921's for the new MPEG-4 unit AT NO COST!


Actually the front panel has an access door that was intended for a writable DVD . The firewire and usb ports was originally designed to do program transfers to either PCs or other dish devices. For various reasons Eldon abandoned many of the intended features and their software prevents use of communication or adding devices. Dish must truly take the matter serious of allowing customers to offload and preserve programs or all of these DVR will be extremely limited.

I believe they will allow an even swap if the channels we subscribe to are encoded in mpeg4. They may require some form of commitment like DirecTV is going.


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