Doulble Whammy... another dead HWS

[larrykenney]

Last December my first HWS died trying to start. It got hung up on "The Hopper is starting up", going to black and then coming back to the same thing, over and over. Resetting it with the red button and pulling the plug didn't help. They set me a new HWS.

Last night I turned on the TV to watch the evening news and got "The Hopper is starting up" on my screen. It did the same cycling thing as the other one. Red button reset and pulling the plug didn't work here either. I called Dish and they're sending me another new one.

By any chance, have any of you had this problem? To have it happen twice in five months is kind of scary. I, of course, lose all of the programs saved on my hard drive. Luckily the back up retrieves all of my settings when I get the new DVR, but I'm losing a lot of programs I haven't watched and now won't be able to.

Larry
SF

 

[lucky86]

Try removing the hdmi cable and see if that makes any difference. Did you also try disabling HDMI cec?

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[ChairBound]

Larrykenney...this does not surprise me. I seem to have my Hopper hard drive failures after a software upgrade too. So, make a note of when you get a software upgrade and be aware of possible trouble. Check your software version frequently (you probably know how, but just in case...press the "Menu" key twice and look for the S-number next to "Software "Version") so you know when this happens.

I have had one Hopper with Sling fail in the last two months, and I am seeing behavior that indicates the second one is going to go sometime soon as well. The first one failed after a software update when it had no problems on it prior to that update, and this second one has been struggling since that same past update that killed my first one. Take that for what you will. I am sure people will argue about whether a software update can kill a hard drive. As a computer hobbyist, I am here to tell you that yes, it can. Of course, bad hard drives are a problem for everyone these days, but again, no problems were noted on either system prior to the update that killed the first HwS. Both HwS were fewer than 6 months old as well.

 

[larrykenney]

Lucky86...I tried removing the HDMI cable and there was no change. It's still hung on the "Hopper Is Starting Up" page. I don't use HDMI CEC. Thanks for the ideas, anyway!

Wicked_Girl... You're right about it failing right after a new version of software arrived. It was immediate back in December, but this time the DVR worked for a few days before it failed.

If this is going to be an on-going problem, as much as I hate to, I might have to drop Dish and go with either DirecTV or Comcast.

Larry

 

[lucky86]

Hmm, tried another outlet or bypassing any surge protectors?

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[Dishman1978]

Check your outlets with a reciprocal tester to verify they are wired correctly.... These can cause issues after some time. If it's good then I cannot tell you exactly why they just quit.

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[TheKrell]

Do y'all have an EHD connected to your Hoppers that won't boot?

 

[larrykenney]

I have no way to check the electrical outlet, but the HWS was plugged directly into the wall. That was what was suggested last December when the previous HWS quit.

I had an EHD and an OTA Dongle connected to the Hopper and removed both of those. Still no luck.

According to the tracking number, my new box should be here in the morning.

Larry

 

[KKlare]

Buy yourself a 3-prong line tester. The 3 neon bulbs indicate you have the right polarity.
You can also buy one with a ground-fault test button. Price $3 to $8.
I checked my house after 25 years and a few shocks and found exactly 1/2 were hot-neutral reversed.
I was replacing all the wall plates with white so it was a good time to do it, but do it ASAP.
Shocks may also come from some sets that are transformerless.
One Sony tube TV had that but I had added connections for Hi-Fi and stereo decoder.
No shocks now with the corrections--yes, exactly half as built by a neighbor and his kids 37 years ago.
-Ken

 

[larrykenney]

Thanks, Ken. I look for a line tester at the local hardware store.

My new HWS arrived via UPS this morning and the installation went smoothly. All seems to be working okay again!

Larry

 

[ChairBound]

No EHD attached to failing HwS units, and outlets wired correctly here. Can't vouch for the sockets in any other rooms of the house, but our HwS rooms and our computer rooms test fine (tested years ago just as an aside).

 

[KKlare]

You probably will not notice a hot-neutral or ground-neutral reversal except for a mild shock or abnormality.
But they can play havoc with sensitive equipment like a DVR or cause hum in a Hi-Fi.
Potentially they can be lethal. If all you equipment is based on one socket it is less likely to be noticed.
Every home on move-in and with each rewiring should be checked. Always check out sparks, even if mild.
-Ken

 

[odbrv]

I just had to install a new HWS after losing the hard drive. Lost more than a hundred programs.

 

[david_jr]

I know this is an older thread, but there seems to have been a lot of reports of Hoppers failing lately. I recently got a replacement HWS through DIRT who was quite helpful. I got the refurb unit and today I took the dead HWS to the UPS store to drop off. This was at 9:30 this morning and the clerk said, "That's the third one today. And we got three yesterday." This is a small city of 40,000 people surrounded by even smaller rural communities. That is a scary thought that these failing is so widespread. I suppose they might not all have been failed units going back, perhaps some that cancelled service but seems like a lot of failures. Hopefully they've got this "bad batch of hard drives" that I keep hearing about sorted out.

 

[garywiley]

I lost my first HWS about a year ago, and the second one died this morning. I lost a bunch of recording on both of them. I don't think my failure this morning was caused by a software upgrade.
Very sad.

 

[ewindowman]

It is strange that the flagship hoppers are failing very quickly mine died a little less than two years I am running my old 622 no problem if you read all the post lately there are a lot of hard drives crashing .. it's a bad batch of drives are a bad design on the hardware or software mine did crash after the software update. I have the drive out and I am going to do some test to see if the drive is actually bad .

 

[Grandude]

One of my Hoppers is having extreme pixelation on recorded programs and it seems to be getting worse so I have a new hard drive waiting for me to install once I get what I want onto external hard drives. I'm hoping this will solve the problem and I sure don't want to go through the Russian roulette of trying to get a decent working replacement receiver from Dish.

 

[david_jr]

My replacement which is a refurb seems to be okay so far. Only been a week though.

 

[KAB]

My refurb is perfectly fine and dandy.

 

[Boloni86]

Most common causes of Hopper deaths I think :

1) It's running on low signal or bad cable causing it to overwork. "Bad cable" would also include cable lengths greater than 200 ft. between dish and receiver

2) A defective component along the way … node, tap or lnbf

3) electrical issue … badly wired outlet

4) poor ventilation, overheating, excessive dust, cockroaches etc ...