HD DVR Freezing and Resetting

[Ametrine]

Hi, I hope someone here can help, Dish sure isn't. For over a month now our receiver has been freezing (during live TV, recorded payback or paused makes no difference), after a minute or two the TV channel blasts static because the receiver has lost power like it had been unplugged and then goes through the whole restart process. This happens multiple times a day, many times it happens within a few minutes of the last event. Calling customer service has been an exercise in frustration, I was told they couldn't help unless I called while it was frozen, so I did and the two and a half minutes it takes just to get through the phone system meant the picture was back. That call the idiot had me going into the set up menu and reading her numbers, the call ended with her telling me that Dish is "updating the data since Feb 28th". Next call i was sent to a higher level of tech support and she sent me a "new" receiver. Next call after the new one kept doing it I got some idiot who didn't listen to a word I'd said because when he decided he couldn't help me and passed me off to an "Advanced" agent the problem he said I was having is my picture is pixelated! Say WHAT?? When the technician came out (at no cost to me) that's what he thought was wrong and that the ticket said it might be freezing too. WTF?? He put a new dish on the house, rewired the house and it froze with 20 minutes of him leaving. He suggested the outlet might be sparking so I moved the plug to another outlet and it hasn't helped one bit. HELP!!

 

[Jim5506]

Be sure your dish and the incoming cable are grounded to the houses ground system, if not (seperate ground locations can cause anelectrical potential difference between the two grounds and damage the receiver, at best cause random reboots).

Another thought, make sure your power is "clean", spikey or otherwise "dirty" power can cause receivers to reboot. You might have an electrician check you house current for proper voltage and "cleanness".

Thirdly, be sure the receiver is placed in an open area with good ventilation - I have a small computer case fan that I use to draw the hot air out of the right side of both of my Hoppers w/sling, if I don't the case on the right side becomes VERY hot to the touch. You can also use bottle caps to raise it up 3/8 of and inch more above the shelf and NEVER put another appliance on top of it.

 

[Tampa8]

Everything Jim5506 said especially make sure about the ventilation I can't stress that enough. All sides should be away from a wall and don't put the receiver in an enclosure or anything on it. If the room it is in gets really warm a small quiet computer fan aimed at one of the ventilation areas may help.
The problem almost has to be on your end somewhere not the equipment, though I am assuming the installation was done correctly.

Did this just start happening about a month ago after it not happening at all? Did you get a new TV? Are you going directly from the receiver to the TV? Do you have anything big like an air conditioner on the same outlet or even same room that you started using when this started to happen?

If none of the above works or applies I have three things to try. First try putting the HDMI into a different input on the TV assuming it has more than one.
If that makes no difference try a different HDMI cable.
If that makes no difference try not using HDMI, and use component cables instead.

 

[Ametrine]

Be sure your dish and the incoming cable are grounded to the houses ground system, if not (seperate ground locations can cause anelectrical potential difference between the two grounds and damage the receiver, at best cause random reboots).

Another thought, make sure your power is "clean", spikey or otherwise "dirty" power can cause receivers to reboot. You might have an electrician check you house current for proper voltage and "cleanness".

Thirdly, be sure the receiver is placed in an open area with good ventilation - I have a small computer case fan that I use to draw the hot air out of the right side of both of my Hoppers w/sling, if I don't the case on the right side becomes VERY hot to the touch. You can also use bottle caps to raise it up 3/8 of and inch more above the shelf and NEVER put another appliance on top of it.

Hi Jim5506, thank you for your quick reply.
I suppose I should have added that the receiver is sitting on the bottom shelf of an old, open wooden end table. The same place every Dish receiver has sat since we bought the house 13 years ago. We've had the HD receiver since 2011. There was a DVD player on top the whole time, plus a PlayStation for the last 3 years or so. We got rid of the DVD player last year and all that's there is the PlayStation.
When the technician was out he said he was putting in a new ground wire since the one we'd had hadn't been reconnected when they sided the house 10 years ago.
As far as I know, the power to the house is "clean". Up until this began we've never had any problems with a receiver or anything else. We aren't having problems with any other electronic devices. This is why we are so stumped by this.

 

[boba]

Hi, I hope someone here can help, Dish sure isn't. For over a month now our receiver has been freezing (during live TV, recorded payback or paused makes no difference), after a minute or two the TV channel blasts static because the receiver has lost power like it had been unplugged and then goes through the whole restart process. This happens multiple times a day, many times it happens within a few minutes of the last event. Calling customer service has been an exercise in frustration, I was told they couldn't help unless I called while it was frozen, so I did and the two and a half minutes it takes just to get through the phone system meant the picture was back. That call the idiot had me going into the set up menu and reading her numbers, the call ended with her telling me that Dish is "updating the data since Feb 28th". Next call i was sent to a higher level of tech support and she sent me a "new" receiver. Next call after the new one kept doing it I got some idiot who didn't listen to a word I'd said because when he decided he couldn't help me and passed me off to an "Advanced" agent the problem he said I was having is my picture is pixelated! Say WHAT?? When the technician came out (at no cost to me) that's what he thought was wrong and that the ticket said it might be freezing too. WTF?? He put a new dish on the house, rewired the house and it froze with 20 minutes of him leaving. He suggested the outlet might be sparking so I moved the plug to another outlet and it hasn't helped one bit. HELP!!

I don't think I missed it, what receiver are you using? How long have you had it? What receiver did DISH replace it with?

 

[Ametrine]

Everything Jim5506 said especially make sure about the ventilation I can't stress that enough. All sides should be away from a wall and don't put the receiver in an enclosure or anything on it. If the room it is in gets really warm a small quiet computer fan aimed at one of the ventilation areas may help.
The problem almost has to be on your end somewhere not the equipment, though I am assuming the installation was done correctly.

Did this just start happening about a month ago after it not happening at all? Did you get a new TV? Are you going directly from the receiver to the TV? Do you have anything big like an air conditioner on the same outlet or even same room that you started using when this started to happen?

If none of the above works or applies I have three things to try. First try putting the HDMI into a different input on the TV assuming it has more than one.
If that makes no difference try a different HDMI cable.
If that makes no difference try not using HDMI, and use component cables instead.

Thanks for the information Tampa. Yes, this just started the first of March. First it was occasionally then more and more often til it was happening a couple times an hour, sometimes within a half hour of each event.
I forgot to add that after I moved the plug after the receiver freezes it doesn't seem to go through the whole reset process, the screen goes blank it only just acquires the signal. Hum.... That does make me wonder....
There is actually less on the plug, for reasons I won't go into, we had to use eight outlet plugs in every electrical outlet. My husband's first degree was in electronics so we know not to overload them. They

I don't think I missed it, what receiver are you using? How long have you had it? What receiver did DISH replace it with?

Sorry this is so long in coming, busy Sunday.
It's a VIP722k HDTV DVR. We'd had the first one since 2011 and Dish replaced it with the exact same one.

 

[Ametrine]

I'm sorry, my reply to Tampa8 was cut off like that. A friend in crisis called and I closed my browser, I didn't realize it posted the reply....
I think where I was going next was there isn't anything drawing as big of a load from that outlet like an air conditioner. Only the TV and a wireless router. Nothing new at all. Nothing big drawing any current on the entire floor of the house or whole house!
It is plugged right into the TV.
I'll tell my husband your suggestions and we'll give them a try. At this point, we're about done dealing with it, though. I'm going to start looking at using PlayStation Live, Netflix and Hulu.

 

[Ametrine]

I was getting ready to tell you all that your suggestions worked, I put a little cooling fan blowing into the case and took the PlayStation off of the receiver. And..... It froze up and did the full reset...
We're getting a new HDMI cable and trying that. If it doesn't help we're telling Dish to go pound sand.
Thank you for all your help Jim5506, Tampa8 and boba.

 

[sundude90]

Yeah, heat doesn't play very well with those receivers. Another thing to try is putting the Receiver on a UPS Battery Backup as that will clean the power and help mitigate drops in voltage. I had to do that at my parents as the power where they live can be a little wacky, plus since I worked for a internet provider I know how crucial stable power is for certain electronics


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[JSheridan]

Get a new Hopper. They run a lot cooler. Besides that, they haven't made a 722K in years so no matter how many they send you they'll still be old units.

 

[Ametrine]

Yeah, heat doesn't play very well with those receivers. Another thing to try is putting the Receiver on a UPS Battery Backup as that will clean the power and help mitigate drops in voltage. I had to do that at my parents as the power where they live can be a little wacky, plus since I worked for a internet provider I know how crucial stable power is for certain electronics


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

That's about the only thing that's changed here. They are building a new bar and grill in town and my husband thinks they may have affected our power when they ran power to it. I don't know for sure the exact timeline for when they did that and our trouble started. Frankly, we don't have to money to have someone come out and check our power cleanliness.
I think I have a surge suppressor around here, I'll try that.....
Thank you for the tip.