Bizarre partial-black-screen/lost timers

[pwcross]

So, we're on our third 922 in the course of less than a month, and we're thisclose to replacing it with a fourth. With the last two 922's, we've been having this bizarre occasional issue: if you press Guide, or Menu, or DVR, basically anything that makes the current LiveTV screen get small and go into the upper-left corner, most of the screen goes black. So, the little screen displaying what you're currently watching continues to show and to work properly, but all the rest of the screen -- where you should be seeing the guide, or your timers, or your menu options, whatever -- is totally blank. The only way we've solved this is to hold the reset button for 5+ seconds and wait for a restart. The problem is that things only get more bizarre once the reset has happened. The 922 then deletes about 5 of my series timers (it thankfully leaves my already-finished recordings alone) -- and it seems to choose the same 5 every time, no matter if I change their priority, or protect them, set them via remote access, etc. And here's the even weirder thing: even after changing to our most recent 922 (so this is a totally different DVR now), we have the same exact problem, and it deletes the same exact timers.

Any ideas?

 

[lakebum431]

If you have had 3 922s and they are all doing this then there has to be something else wrong with your setup. The first guess is that you have the 922 in an enclosed cabinet and it is getting really hot and going crazy. If that isn't the case then maybe there is a voltage problem that is doing something nuts (never seen this, but it is possible). I have seen the "shrunk window" issue on other Dish receivers before and usually you can correct it by just pressing the menu button then the cancel button. The other stuff you are talking about seems much worse.

 

[scoobyxj]

If you have had 3 922s and they are all doing this then there has to be something else wrong with your setup. The first guess is that you have the 922 in an enclosed cabinet and it is getting really hot and going crazy. If that isn't the case then maybe there is a voltage problem that is doing something nuts (never seen this, but it is possible). I have seen the "shrunk window" issue on other Dish receivers before and usually you can correct it by just pressing the menu button then the cancel button. The other stuff you are talking about seems much worse.

Power issues will cause weardness in Dish receivers. As will heat. A thought on the timers as well. It might be all timers except those that keep getting erased are backed up on the remote. I'm not to sure exactaly how the system wizard works cause I never messed with it what installing, but I know it has the ability to restore timer if a receiver swap is necessary. It may be a case where the receiver is erasing all the timers but then looking to the remote to restore what it can.

 

[pwcross]

Thanks for the ideas.

Our 922 is in an open cabinet, so I *think* the heat is okay, although I will explore that further. And we just upgraded our electrical panel and all our circuit breakers a year ago.

The remote backup of timers is something I will look into some more, thanks.

I just wanted to add that I found a new angle to this problem and I wonder if it'll shed any more light. So, we have just one television. If the setting is on Duo mode, then everything's haywire - the PIP doesn't work, really, half the buttons on the remote don't work as designed. On Solo mode, everything works as it should. Here's the thing, though. I recently discovered that when my husband slings from his iPhone (so, in other words, "tv2" is in use), then stops slinging, we get the weird-partial-black-screen thing the next time I try to use the guide or the menu, etc. Even if I'm watching the main tv and everything was working normally, and I haven't turned it off or reset or anything at all, the very next time I try to go to the guide or something, we get the glitch. Also, a few times after resetting, the 922 has defaulted to Duo mode for some reason. So, I have to go into the menu and switch it to Solo mode. The moment I switch into Solo, there's the glitch again. So, I'm sensing that this issue has something to do with switching between Duo and Solo modes?

 

[n0qcu]

Thanks for the ideas.



If the setting is on Duo mode, then everything's haywire - the PIP doesn't work, really, half the buttons on the remote don't work as designed. On Solo mode, everything works as it should.

PIP isn't supposed to work in Duo mode