Hard drive failures on two DVR's in the same week.

[TheForce]

Yesterday, I had to call support for a VIP 722K hard drive failure. Worked one day, failed the next. CSR ran me through the check list and then said a new one would be on the way. I verbally verified with him it would be a 722K, not a 722. He confirmed. So today I get an email with tracking number and it is a 722, not a 722K. Note- I have two DVR's a 722 and a 722K.

So I complain to my wife that Dish CSR is sending me the wrong model and I'll have to call and get the correct one sent. Then she says well, that's OK because this one in the Kitchen is down too. It's a 722. So now we have two DVR's failed at the same time! Today I called Dish with the bad news and was worried that I would get a CSR who would have trouble understanding but instead I got an American who did understand and is sending me a 722K too. Then she offered to adjust my bill for a credit to thank me for being a loyal customer and having to put up with two DVR's broke down at the same time.

Hopefully the replacements will be good and I can be happy I'm a Dish customer.

 

[Stargazer]

In the past the tech support said to check the power in the house such as the surge protector and plug directly into the outlet.

 

[dwarren2]

As far as I am concerned, I will always plug my dvr into a ups. Will condition the line, prevent brown outs and keep the dvr online if there is a brief power outage.

 

[Teehar]

Wonder if there were any power surges/spikes in the last few days?It could just be coincidence but,seems unlikely.

 

[mike123abc]

Well at least you were able to use the unit they sent you. Hopefully the next one will be the "k" model.

 

[navychop]

I'd be Hopping up and considering my options from a clean sheet of paper.

 

[JayStil]

I came home from work and turned on my 722, and got the lovely hard drive failure popup telling me I could still watch live TV. Just got this receiver as a replacement in the end of Feb.

 

[navychop]

Maybe they're beginning to age out? I know my two were getting a little wacky toward the end.


Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[TheForce]

I considered the upgrade to Hopper but as best I could tell, I would have less capability and pay considerably more. Only advantage I saw was a different user interface which is not that important. I only have two locations, Home Theater, and Kitchen. Both my DVR's are sling capable and both have ext hard drives. My 722K has dual OTA tuners. Programming I want to keep I have on the External Hard drives.

Tomorrow, the 722 arrives and Monday the 722K should be here.

I think I'm well protected for power surges and momentary outages. Entire HT is on 2 UPS. DVR is not on secondary (switched) Power center. It's plugged into the UPS battery backup as well.

IIRC, the instruction to plug the DVR into a wall outlet, bypassing any UPS/Surge Protector is for the tech CSR testing process. Otherwise, Dish tech support has always said to plug into surge protection for general use.

There are some devices that can't be plugged into surge and RF filtering power strips. These would be any that feed the RF controls through the power line. I have to plug my X10 controllers into the wall outlet. Dish Homeplug is one technology that would require you to NOT plug into a UPS/Surge power strip. I don't use Homeplug.

 

[TheForce]

So the new 722 arrives and I install it, activate it and all seems to check out except for some weirdness I don't understand.

I see that none of the HD channels show up between 194 and 239. Only the SD channels. All other HD channels are there fine. In addition, the check switch results in 119, 110, 61.5 locked on. BUT, I have my 722K on and it shows 72, 77 61.5 The 61.5 is a remote separate dish I have for stronger signal. The 722K is working fine. I spent 4 hours on the phone with Advanced Tech support and no results. I think the 5 different technicians must have had me do check switch and reboots over 50 times today and no satisfaction. I did verify my system on the old VIP722 with the bad HDD as 77, 72, and 61.5.

Is it possible I got a bad Refurb 722 that will not do a check dish properly?

The last tech support person I spoke with gave up and said she was just going to send an installer out to see what's wrong with my signal. The last time an installer came out here he screwed up my wiring so bad nothing worked and he just left. It took me a whole day to rewire the house at my expense. None of the dishes belong to Dish Network anyway.

 

[navychop]

Hippity Hop, Hippity Hop, .......

2 ViP722 series, what I had, cost more than 2 Hoppers, what I have today (well, I have an owned Joey but that might soon be deactivated). And 1H/1J would be even less. Monthly fees, of course.

 

[Teehar]

So the new 722 arrives and I install it, activate it and all seems to check out except for some weirdness I don't understand.

I see that none of the HD channels show up between 194 and 239. Only the SD channels. All other HD channels are there fine. In addition, the check switch results in 119, 110, 61.5 locked on. BUT, I have my 722K on and it shows 72, 77 61.5 The 61.5 is a remote separate dish I have for stronger signal. The 722K is working fine. I spent 4 hours on the phone with Advanced Tech support and no results. I think the 5 different technicians must have had me do check switch and reboots over 50 times today and no satisfaction. I did verify my system on the old VIP722 with the bad HDD as 77, 72, and 61.5.

Is it possible I got a bad Refurb 722 that will not do a check dish properly?

The last tech support person I spoke with gave up and said she was just going to send an installer out to see what's wrong with my signal. The last time an installer came out here he screwed up my wiring so bad nothing worked and he just left. It took me a whole day to rewire the house at my expense. None of the dishes belong to Dish Network anyway.

Not only is it possible,it's also pretty likely you got a bad refurb.We have had that happen on more than one occasion.

 

[dwarren2]

When you go to setup and check switch are you selecting one of the options such as Dish 500? If so, don't. Instead go to point dish, select 72 wait till it locks in and then select done. I had to do that when I replaced my old 722 after being switched to the earc.

 

[TheForce]

Instead go to point dish, select 72

Did that but it still reverts to the 110 119 61.5 when complete.

Tomorrow, just to rule out my cables, DPP and dish antennas, I plan to pull my 722K and swap the locations. This will tell me if the problem follows the DVR. If the Refurb 722 works correctly in the Home theater location and wiring.
If the 722K works properly in the Kitchen location, and the 722 fails again in the Home theater, Then I know it's a bad refurb DVR. But, if the 722K now does the same thing in the Kitchen and the 722 works in the Home theater, then I'll need to do some deeper troubleshooting on my dish setup.

If it turns out to be a bad 722, How do I explain this to the installer coming over Sunday afternoon? Most installers I have met are "procedure intelligent," not real technicians.
The advanced tech at Dish Network told me all their field techs carry spare 722's and 722K's in the truck to swap out if they determine the problem is the DVR.

 

[TheForce]

Navychop- You keep pushing Hopper as the repair solution. While in the past, I pooh poohed the Hopper because it really didn't do 2 channels of OTA like my 722K does, neither did it do sling which my 722 and 722K does. But I see Dish now has a solution with the Hopper +Sling and a USB connected Off air tuner for UHF antenna. I will take a second look now at the possibility of upgrade and what the cost will be. I assume Dish has a way to raise my monthly bill is I go with a Hopper +sling and one Joey for the Kitchen.

 

[jerryez]

When my 722k HD went bad, I explained to the CSR that I had paid for the OTA module, so I required a 722K and not a 722, which would make my OTA module useless. I received the correct DVR.

 

[TheForce]

Making Progesss! Didn't need to swap the DVR's, but did a little homework and reviewed my notes from when I initially installed my 1000.4 Dish. I discovered several changes along the way including an upgrade of the 622 to 722 that told me my 722 was still connected to the old Dish500. I thought it was on the 1000.4 dish. My system is complicated for most installer's to come in and understand but basically without too many details, it is a 3 dish complex with lots os cable running to different locations in the home. I can move cables around and connect different dishes to different DVR's I forgot the 3rd dish was a Dish500 and was still connected to the 722. The 722k is on the 1000.4 and wing 61.5 dish. A simple swap of the cable network had my 722 check switch to the birds that carry the News channel HD channels. Now I have to call Dish and cancel the installer scheduled to be here tomorrow.

If this works, I could actually remove the Dish500 from it's mast now as it is completely out of the system. Any suggestions as to why I should keep the Dish500 ( 110, 119 )?

 

[navychop]

I must correct myself. Under the new, higher second Hopper monthly rates, a two Hopper system would be more expensive than two ViP722 series DVRs. I am grandfathered under the lower rate, for as long as that lasts.

I am happy I moved to HWS. I also think there are not many years left on the old ViP series, going by how mine were deteriorating. HDDs alone will push for retirement. OTOH, there are still some 500 series out there.

Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[ZachS@DISH]

neither did it do sling which my 722 and 722K does.

The Sling Adapter does work with the Hopper.

 

[TheForce]

Yes, Zach. I have been doing some reading on the latest Hopper features and the biggest + for me is it now has the OTA device capability. The biggest negative is the cost of the monthly and upgrade. Basically, if my 722 Dish system is functioning properly, I have no wishlist of desire to go to Hopper as it would be a step backwards for me. The image quality of the DISH locals is greatly inferior to my Off Air channels. The PTAT has no value to me at all. My second DVR, the 722 is rarely used with DVR and could be used with a Joey but doing that would limit the function of my HT room for recordings and watching so it would be better served with a second hopper.

I also stand corrected on the sling adapter. I have one attached to the 722 and I have the big HD sling connected to the 722K. Many times when my wife and I are traveling, she will want to watch sling content from her ipad while I watch sling from the other 722k. Probably, as I understand, the internal sling on the Hopper would be more tightly integrated although both I have work very well.

If I went with 2 Hoppers or a single Hopper and Joey, I already have a cable run between the two locations so rewiring would not be a problem. But the advantage of 2 Hoppers, besides additional recording flexibility, is if one DVR goes down, I would not be in blackout for 2 days.

A couple features I did like would be the ability to transfer some programs to my ipad when I'm flying or traveling out of Broadband range. That is cool!


I'm glad Dish is continuing to grow their capability with the DVR's. When stuff breaks down I use the opportunity to see what the competition is doing and Dish doesn't have to worry about losing my business. Between Comcast and DirecTV options, Dish has no competitors here. I'm very happy I told DirecTV to shove it 6 years ago. I do wish Dish would offer some of the new 3D channels however. Vizio just added Wealth 3DTV channel widget. At least offer the same 3D channels that DirecTV offers. Pleeeeese!.