501 Keeps Powering Off

[md-detroit]

I don't know if it is rebooting, I don't know if it's power cycling, etc. But occasionally when I go through the guide to set up programs that I want to record, suddenly the 501 will click and power off, then come back and go through the "acquiring satellite signal" process, and then "downloading guide" and in the middle of downloading the guide it'll click again, power off, power back on and start the same cycle. And it just keeps doing it over and over. If I cancel the guide download, it'll go to the channel I was last on, but after about 3 minutes it'll power itself off again.

I tried "warm rebooting" by holding in the power button, but this doesn't work. It seems that I can't turn it off unless I unplug it. And once I plug it back in, it immediately powers on and starts the process all over again. I've left it unplugged for about 30 minutes and that seemed to help, or at least I was able to use it again.

Another issue is, when it's doing that, if I hit the power button while it's acquiring the signal, it will power off. But three minutes later or so, it'll automatically turn itself back on and start doing the power cycling thing when trying to download the guide. The only way I've seen it stay on for quite a while is if I immediately go to the Menu/Installation/Check Signal/Check Switch. It'll go through that without powering off in the middle.

Another question, if I "factory default" reset it, will I lose my recorded programs?


thanx
-mark

 

[Mike_H]

Sounds like there is, at the very least, a bad sector in a cluster on the drive that's allocated to some system function of the unit. Or there is a thermal problem occuring in the unit. You should probably call Dish and see what they think.

I'm pretty sure if you factory default the unit, you'll lose recordings.

 

[Grandude]

It sounds like you have an overheating problem. I had that problem with my first 501 and got it to work better by setting it up on a couple of large heat sinks which I had laying around. This worked for some time but it eventually failed and was replaced by Dish.
You could try putting a fan blowing across it to see if that helps.