501 hard disk died

[TheUser005]

My 501 running software version P220 just died. It gives ne "serious error has occured, hard disk drive failed, Error: ????".

I know the firmware contains a list of supported drives.. what are my options to replace or upgrade the drive? I don't necessarily need a bigger HD.. I am happy with 40GB. Unfortunately, this is out of warranty.

Thanks in advance.

 

[boba]

Your best option is to call DISH and find out what they will sell you a replacement DVR for. Unless you are very computer savy you can't replace the hard drive, it is not just putting in another HD and it starts working. Your second best option is switch to Directv and get a TiVo.

 

[Mike_H]

When my 501 flaked out I was told the replacement cost was like $80.00 if I hadn't had the dish warranty.

You might want to get with the "DishRip" yahoo group to get more details on how you could replace the drive yourself.

 

[Stargazer]

No surprise there that the hard drive failed. You can buy the $5.99 warranty that dish has and then call in to have it replaced. There is no commitment to keep the warranty for a certain period of time. It even covers the shipping costs.

 

[rmmrph]

Just curious was that $80 for a new HDD or a new (or refurb) 501?

 

[Mike_H]

I was told when I had to warranty my 501, that I was getting a good deal paying shipping since a reman 501 was $80.00.

 

[TyroneShoes]

That error does make one gulp pretty hard, doesn't it? The good news is that I've seen it twice on my 501 and never had to RMA or replace the HD. Pull the power for a good 10-15 minutes, and reboot. This is a hail-Mary pass, but its worked twice for me, and my 501 keeps right on truckin'. Nothing to lose.

 

[navy8ball]

this same thing just happened with my 508.i did both soft and hard reboots and when i did a second hard reboot i lost all my recordings about 30 hours worth. i have the warranty so i called dish they gave me an ra # sent me a remanufactured 508 within 2 days ups.checked my account they charged me 14.95 for shipping but also credited me 14.95 at the same time.so i guess the only thing it cost me was time and the lost recordings.if you see these harddrive errors sign i would immediately watch or record my recorded shows to a vcr if you dont want to risk losing them.

 

[boba]

Sat. I came home and went to play back my recordings. I was greeted with "A serious hard drive error has occurred Error 0457". I did a power button reset, no luck, smart card reset, no luck. In the background I could see the program log it was empty. In desperation I unplugged the receiver and thought about calling DISH and ordering my replacement under my warranty($1.99). When plugged back in everything came back and it is recording again.

 

[GaryPen]

You should probably watch or off-load your recorded stuff ASAP. Once an IDE drive causes an error message like that, it's only a matter of time.

I wonder why the 501/08/10 has such a huge hdd failure rate? These things are ordinary IDE drives, aren't they? Looking through the vent holes, I see the one in mine is a Maxtor, so Dish, surprisingly, is using a quality drive. These things normally last for years in a PC!

 

[TyroneShoes]

Gary, let me hazard a guess. I think all PVR vendors use pretty much the same off-the-shelf 4200 RPM drives, yet E* units have a history of these kinds of problems while no other vendors do. To me, that points to the robustness (or lack of) of the hard drive cataloging routines. IOW, some programmers do it well, and others don't, and so my guess is that the problems are more software-driven than hardware-driven. Just a guess.

 

[GaryPen]

Are you saying that the Dish software causes a lot of unecessary disk activity? Considering the Dish programmers' skills in all other areas, this does not surprise me.

I do notice a lot of audible disk activity.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Are you saying that the Dish software causes a lot of unecessary disk activity? Considering the Dish programmers' skills in all other areas, this does not surprise me.

I do notice a lot of audible disk activity.

Considering how long it takes for a 921 to delete an event (especially vs. the older receivers), I think I agree with you.

 

[GaryPen]

They need to have their hw designed and built by professionals familiar with consumer electronics. Their hw is just ridiculous.

 

[SimpleSimon]

They need to have their hw designed and built by professionals familiar with consumer electronics. Their hw is just ridiculous.

As is their software - regardless of which group is developing it.

It's the same old story. Quality just doesn't matter any more.

rant

Reminds me of a project my boss & I lost. After saving this large medical charities butt on their online donations system, they decided to outsource their website development. We didn't get the bid, even though it was millions less than the outfit that did, and when they (20+ kids from a major outfit) were done - 50% over budget, it still wouldn't process online credit card transactions - they had to use my system for that. Ah, well. We would've brought in 4-5 senior (20+ year) types for maybe $250K each and been done in half the time for a third the money, and the 2 of us would've retired with $1M or more each.

Bottom line is management goes all ga-ga over the shiny baubles that salesmen have, and swallow their crapola. I've seen it happen many times.

 

[Foxbat]

I wonder why the 501/08/10 has such a huge hdd failure rate? These things are ordinary IDE drives, aren't they? Looking through the vent holes, I see the one in mine is a Maxtor, so Dish, surprisingly, is using a quality drive. These things normally last for years in a PC!

FWIW, we have had a huge failure rate with Maxtor 20GB IDE drives at work. We bought two 20-pk boxes and roughly 30% of them failed within 18 months. Fortunately, they came with a five year warranty and the replacement drives have been solid.

 

[GaryPen]

As is their software - regardless of which group is developing it.

It's the same old story. Quality just doesn't matter any more.

rant

.

When I said "HW" I was including the supporting firmware/software. It blows, collectively.

 

[fslove]

Gary, let me hazard a guess. I think all PVR vendors use pretty much the same off-the-shelf 4200 RPM drives, yet E* units have a history of these kinds of problems while no other vendors do. To me, that points to the robustness (or lack of) of the hard drive cataloging routines. IOW, some programmers do it well, and others don't, and so my guess is that the problems are more software-driven than hardware-driven. Just a guess.

The only 4200 RPM HD's are the 2.5" form factor drives (for notebooks). The HD used in PVR's are 3.5" form factor which start at 5400 RPM speeds.

 

[GaryPen]

I would have thought they'd have to be high speed drives to handle the AV data transfer.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I would have thought they'd have to be high speed drives to handle the AV data transfer.

Yeah - noone that I know of is still making big 5400RPM drives. Maxtor even has a line of consumer electronic drives that are supposed to be extra quiet.

It's possible that the 921 uses them - I haven't looked.