Bell HD PVR 9242 having all lights flashing except for dual mode light

[6star]

I tried a long HDD diagnostic test to see if it would fix my 4 years old 9242
that had recently started rebooting itself over and over. It hung there. Now it
boots to all lights flashing except for dual mode light and no picture.

This is the test that caused the problem:
HDD Long Diagnostics (DST-2):
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press Pause, 2

I have tried a couple tricks suggested in another forum, ie, plugging in a
USB stick to the front/back panel USB port, pluggin in receiver for 24 hours
with internal hard drive unplugged. The lights continue flashing with no picture. I
cannot access the menu to perform an NVRAM dump to get rid of the flashing
lights. Does anyone know how to get out of this flashing loop? Thanks.

 

[Blackloz]

Sounds like its time for a 9400

 

[primestar31]

Most likely a problem with the internal drive, that test got my receiver also the exact same symptoms. My Dish VIP622 did this, and the steps you took didn't work for me either. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/228896-VIP622-might-have-bought-the-farm?p=2428499#post2428499

That's the post that explains what I did for my old VIP622 to get it back functioning. Basically, leave it alone and it'll eventually recover by itself. You may still have a bad drive though, but perhaps a reformat will fix it. If you get it back to just working, do the below:

1st: Hit this button sequence on your remote:

Menu-6-3-Info-Right-Left-TV/Video to clear the NVRAM, then reboot it.

2nd: After it reboots and comes back up, just do a:

Menu-6-3-Info-Right-Left- Play,- Play,- Recall to format the internal HDD. It'll prompt to format, and reboot again.

You will lose all recordings, and your settings (and timers, write them down first) but it may fix your drive! If this doesn't do it, then it's time to RMA it.

 

[6star]

Thank you so much, primestar31! I have tried leaving the receiver plug in overnight with power to the internal HDD disconnected. I also tried plugging the HDD back in for 7 hours. In both cases sat feeds and TV2 out were disconnected. The lights never stopped flashing. And still blank screen from TV1 or TV2 composite video out. I may try again with sat feeds connected.

I had cleared NVRAM and reformatted the internal HDD without problem before I tried the long HDD diagnostic test which caused the flashing problem. Someone mentioned in another forum that the flashing lights mean the receiver detected a hard drive fault of some sort. The fault gets stored in the receiver's eeprom memory. If this is the case, the receiver will recover if/when the fault gets cleared in "boot recovery mode." Is there another way to clear the fault other than removing the actual eeprom chip and reprogramming it?

 

[primestar31]

The blinking lights are a bad firmware load, not necessarily also a bad drive. Though some of the programming is written to the drive, so it's possible.

You need to just put the receiver back the way it's supposed to be with everything connected as normal including the internal drive. Then let it continue to stream in Boot Recovery mode. IF it can be resurrected, it will. It may take longer than 7 hours depending on the corrupted firmware load. It it doesn't recover in 48 hours, I'd say it's a lost cause.

Do NOT even touch it, hit remote buttons, do anything, until the lights stop flashing, and the screen-saver comes up. Every time I did anything except leave mine alone, it set me back hours!

If you have a lucky rabbits-foot or something like that, it couldn't hurt to lay it on top of the receiver!

 

[Slartibartfarst]

After everything you have tried, I would put the entire Rabbit on top......

 

[6star]

The lights stopped blinking when I was thinking to put my foot on top of the receiver... primestar31, you were right! This time I connected the receiver to a sat feed. The lights stopped flashing and stayed on steady after it streamed for less than 6 hours (I didn't check earlier.) The receiver was back to screen-saver mode. I cleared NVRAM and then power cycled it. I also formatted hard drive.

Now I hope the receiver will no longer reboot itself over and over randomly. Hopefully the rebooting issue was caused by heat or corrupted software. I have vacuumed the inside and put a laptop chill mat underneath. The receiver's front or rear USB port can power the mat's two fans.

Thank you primestar31! You are my hero!

 

[primestar31]

Cool! Glad to hear it!