522 freezing - CSR blames power strip??

[jdr01930]

My 522 has been freezing up about once a day for the last week or so.
I have to hold down the power button for 15 seconds, or unlug it (for 15 seconds of course), then let it boot up. I get a Hard Drive diagnostic screen (599 in upper right corner). It runs through, then works fine for another day or so before freezing up again.

So I finally called Dish, figuring my hard drive was going and they'd send me a new unit. However, the CSR asked if i had it plugged into a surge suppressor. I said yes (as it is plugged into a powerstrip), and he said the next time it happens to plug it directly into a wall outlet and see if that takes care of it, because sometimes surge supressors cause problems!


Never heard that one before. I figured if I said I didn't use a surge suppressor, he'd yell at me (lol).

He also said they couldn't troubleshoot it unless the problem was actually occuring. I happened to call them right after it recovered from the last freeze, so he said they couldn't do anything! Of course, I don't know what he could do with totally frozen unit over the phone - it's gotta boot and run diagnostics before you have any access. Whatever.

Anyway, is what he says legit, or was he just trying to get rid of me fast?

Guess I'll find out soon enough, as it's likely to freeze up tomorrow (if it doesn't, I'll move it to a wall outlet anyway)

The 522 is about 15 months old. I've also had a 622 for about a month or two with no problems. At one point, the 522's HD filled up, but right now there's about 22 hours record time available.

 

[Pepper]

One obvious thing with the 522 is HEAT. Make sure it has plenty of airflow available and is NOT inside any kind of enclosure.

 

[jdr01930]

One obvious thing with the 522 is HEAT. Make sure it has plenty of airflow available and is NOT inside any kind of enclosure.

Neither receiver is in an enclosure, and nothing is on top, behind, or next to the 522, so it should be getting plenty of circulation. I'm a computer/network geek by trade (but I have not yet achieved the rank of "satellite geek!), so I understand about the need for electronics to get good ventilation.

The diagnostics/counters screen shows
Hard Drive 0x6001
Can someone maybe check their 522 and tell me if that is normal?

My 622 shows 0x6030, which from what I read somewhere else here seems normal (for a 622 anyway)

Incidentally, the thing froze up again last night, so I plugged it into a wall outlet. It was too late at night for me to deal with calling Dish again. We'll see how that goes...

 

[gdarwin]

They have used this power strip excuse on my 811, 942, and 622...

 

[brodrick]

Power Trip Strip

I had a 522 installed yesterday, and it was locking up while the installer was still there. After he left, it continued to freeze or reset itself every 20 minutes or so, and so I finally called Dish. They used the Powerstrip as a scape-goat as well, so while on the phone, I plugged it directly into the wall.

Since tech support wanted to end the call and have me call again "if" it continued, I waited until just before the call ended and lied, 'hey, it just reset again'. They are sending me another one "right away".

It continued to reset itself all evening, as many as 3 times in 25 minutes.

The question: will I go to Hell for lying to avoid another tech support call?

 

[RandallA]

"The question: will I go to Hell for lying to avoid another tech support call?"

If that's the only way to get things done with E*, I think not.

When I moved my dish to 129 to get the Voom channels, they asked me if I had a dish pointing at 61.5 (we all knew that Voom was on 129 too) and I said "Of course". I had to lie to them to get the HD package but that's the only way to get things done with E*.

 

[jdr01930]

They have used this power strip excuse on my 811, 942, and 622...

Fascinating. I would thing they would encourage the use of power strips/surge suppressors. Surge suppressors save lives (well, for electonics anyway), and would theoretically reduce failures and costly replacements.

Still wondering if someone with a working 522 could check the Counters screen and tell me if 0x6001 for Hard Drive is normal...

To get to that screen, press Menu on the remote, and select
System Setup
Diagnostics
Counters
then press Page Down on the remote and item # 10 will show a code next to Hard Drive.

Thanks!

 

[Dish Dude]

actually there is actually some truth behind the power strip, just not in most cases, the newer receivers sometimes act funky when there is no ground plug in the system, we had an account that everything had been replaced twice, tested the gentlemen's power strip( no coax suppressor, just elect) and the plug that it was plugged into had a faulty ground on it, he bought a new power strip, and has had no problems since September, same equipment in system when it was going goofy. So yes there is some truth to the power strip, especially if you use the coax thru feed, and it is not rated.

 

[jdr01930]

Gotta admit, in my years as a computer tech, I've also seen more that a few power stips go flaky, so I hear ya!

However, my 522 has now frozen twice since being plugged directly into the wall, so I don't think this is one of those cases.
It's frozen right now, so time to call Dish.... wish me luck...

 

[jdr01930]

Well, that was painless (for a change). They're sending a new 522. Should have it Thursday or Friday.
She immediately pegged the hard drive as bad. Big suprise!

hmmm maybe they should make these things with sleds (cartridges that hold hard drives, making HD swapping easy) so they could just send a new cartridge with hard drive instead of a whole new unit. That'll never happen!

 

[iKramerica]

A well versed tech explained why they suspect the POWER and not the HD during these issues.

The HDs are server class and meant to run constantly.

The powersupplies are just AT style supplies from your typical cheapo computer, and they are not meant to run at full tilt 24/7 and last forever.

yet the PVR does just that, drawing a huge amount of power constantly.

If you provide power that is dirty, under voltage (like my house), lacks a ground, or anything else that may cause the PS to work even harder or have another fault, it will overheat and the unit will lock up.

Once this happens, the lock up can corrupt the software installation, or just begin damaging parts inside.

It actually makes quite a bit of sense, and cheap power strips can cause power concerns.

 

[Pepper]

The HDs are server class

I would get fired pretty quick if I built my servers using Maxtor 5400rpm IDE drives.

The powersupplies are just AT style supplies from your typical cheapo computer

That statement I can definitely believe.

 

[brodrick]

My 522 has now reset itself 18 times since it was turned on Monday afternoon. Two times that I've seen, it came up and did a disk check after freezing up. Probably due to data corruption with all the sudden resets.

I can see why they would want to eliminate the power strip for testing purposes, but it seems like someone had an issue with a powerstrip once, so tech support put it as the top troubleshooting option. I guess there isn't really much they can do over the phone after you've tried the reset/unplug options.

I know this isn't very nice to say, But I swear I was talking to Napoleon Dynamites brother Kip when I was on the phone with Dish Tech Support.

<<Now I'm going to Hell>>

 

[bhelms]

...<<Now I'm going to Hell>>...

Actually, sounds like you were already there and back...!

 

[jdr01930]

Well, this is kinda interesting (or at least I thought so!).
I got a PM from a member here saying he's a Dish Network employee, and that one of the Dish Network engineers saw this thread and wanted to contact me.

Well, I contacted the member at the echostar.com address he provided, and it turns out the engineers wanna check out my dead 522. Apparenlty they want to reroute it so it goes to engineering rather than the normal return/refurb center. Sounds like they want to do an autopsy as my problem is not that uncommon.

I've heard that Dish engineers check up on stuff here, but to experience it first hand is kinda cool.
(assuming it doesn't turn out to be a scam and someone is trying to get their hands on a 522 - so far it appears legit!)

 

[KenSoren]

I have my AV setup - including my 622 and TV - on a UPS. The 622 does freeze up occasionally, but not too often. I thought surge protection plus cleaning and regulating the power supply would be good for all the equipment. In another thread I outlined my setup and had a comment made that this was not a good thing to do. I didn't ask for an explanation at that time since that was one of my first posts

Can anyone think of any reason not to use a UPS? All opinions and explanations are welcome.

 

[RandallA]

I have my 625 on a APC UPS battery. I haven't had any problems with the receiver but now I'm wondering too if I should have it on a UPS. I can only see advantages to using a battery backup unit.

 

[Pepper]

All my home theatre stuff has been on multiple UPS units from day one. Just make sure you have enough to handle the load properly.

 

[bhelms]

Why UPS vs. just good filtering?

Questions: Other than the filtering, what is the advantage of a UPS on A/V equipment. Is it primarily to get you through a short-term event while recording, or what? How long does your equipment hold-up on battery? (Obviously this is a question of capacity vs. load.) Why would you want to have your TV/monitor and other equipment on the UPS ??

I assumed (caveats acknowledged!) that a good quality surge protector/line filter would give the same level of noise immunity, albeit without regulation or hold-up time. Am I missing something here?

TIA and BRgds...

 

[Jahntassa]

I have pretty much anything with a harddrive on a UPS. Some of them will regulate power, and the more mission-critical stuff is on those UPS's. DVRs just get a standard battery backup (APC 500/725) just to keep over/under voltages a little suppressed. They'll switch to battery on certain events, and any protection for the harddrives is good. Keeps data from getting corrupted.

Especially through things like brownouts or rolling blackout type things. I don't put the TV on the UPS, mostly because I don't have one large enough to support it for any length of time, but I do have the TV going through a surge suppressor.

My 522 will last probably 10-20 minutes on the battery. Haven't timed it though.