Hopper with sling dead - Anything I can do?

[Tony S]

My HWS was working fine last night. This morning when I tried to use it, all I get is a black screen.

I tried pressing the reset button. I get the 'Hopper starting up' screen, then the screen goes black. A short time later, the 'Hopper starting up' screen is displayed again, however shortly afterwards the TV screen goes black and nothing else happens. I tried pulling the AC plug, waiting 15 seconds,then plugging it back in and I also tried pulling the smartcard and reinserting it, but I get the same result.

Is there anything else I can try?

 

[thomasjk]

Contact DIRT.

 

[JSheridan]

Is it well ventilated and cool?

 

[Tony S]

Is it well ventilated and cool?

Yes, it is in an open TV stand and I put small circular felt pads under the mounting feet so that there would be more air space underneath.

Oh well...time to call Dish tech support.

 

[JSheridan]

You should contact DIRT as thomasjk said above. Look in the Helpers section on the left sidebar to see if any are here. They're in red.

Good luck.

 

[Tron2012]

I always like to leave the equipment unplugged for a few minutes (5-10). Just for my sanity and OCD. ;-) Seems there were times where that helped, whether only coincidence or not. Assuming not even the DVR functionality worked with a black screen (or menu, etc...)?

You did not mention if you have an external drive connected or wireless adaptor, but if you do, be sure to unmount it and anything else and do the reset clean with nothing unnecessary connected.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Sorry, for your loss.

I hope your hopper .

 

[Tony S]

Dish did a pretty good job taking care of my Hopper problems! They shipped me a re-manufactured HWS. It arrived at my house in only 2 days. The refurbished HWS has a brand new Western Digital drive in it (the date on the WD drive is June 2015). The failed Hopper had a Seagate drive that went bad.

I had a couple of problems with the installation. First, the HWS froze on the 'pairing remote' screen. I had to press the reset button in order to continue. After resetting, the remote pairing process worked as it should. The second problem was another hang up at the 'activating receiver' screen. The activation message said that it could take 10-15 minutes to complete, but after 45 minutes, nothing happened. The message on the screen said not to unplug or reset the receiver, so I had to call Dish support.

After re-sending me a couple of 'activation hits' the HWS was still just sitting there at the activation screen. Dish then told me to unplug/re-plug the receiver. I told the tech that the message on the screen said not to unplug or reset the receiver. The tech said: "Oh, I see, lets wait a little longer". She then had me wait another 10 minutes. Afterwards, she said it was OK to unplug the receiver, even though the on-screen message said not to (she had checked with someone else at Dish). After that, the activation went OK.

Also, using my remote, I could not get the new HWS to restore my timers/settings from my previous Hopper. I selected: Settings, Diagnostics, System Wizard, Restore, but nothing ever restored. Re-entering all my timers/settings is not going to be fun!

So far, the replacement HWS is working normally.

 

[JSheridan]

The process stops at the activation screen often. We usually wait about 20 minutes and if it's still on the screen we reboot and it comes back on the final wizard screen.

Glad to hear about the WD drive. If your remote had a valid backup from the old Hopper you might try pressing and holding the zero key until the wizard comes up and then try restoring the settings from the remote a few more times. Sometimes it takes a few tries.

 

[BBCInc]

Were you able to determine the model # of the WD drive?

 

[Tony S]

Yes, the model number of the WD drive is: WD20EURX. Complete model number: WD20EURX-57T0FY0.

I was wrong about the date on the drive. The actual date is 6 March 2015. (When I first looked at the drive I thought that it said 6 - 2015). I guess that it does not matter much...(March vs June is not that much different). I am happy that it is a new drive.

 

[ChadT41]

I know the official ruling last year was "if it has no progression in 10 minutes, reset it. If it is still progressing, but very slowly, let it sit." That might help a tech out, but I am 99% confident the techs are doing just fine already. Biggest speed saver is when installing the hoppers, let the hopper download before connecting the joeys for activation. You would not believe the amount of calls the techops got hit for that one.

 

[KAB]

Yes, the model number of the WD drive is: WD20EURX. Complete model number: WD20EURX-57T0FY0.

I was wrong about the date on the drive. The actual date is 6 March 2015. (When I first looked at the drive I thought that it said 6 - 2015). I guess that it does not matter much...(March vs June is not that much different). I am happy that it is a new drive.

I actually did not believe you were correct from the start...since this is the middle of June...no way the drive was just made and put in a Hopper like yesterday.

 

[Tony S]

I was just looking at the specs for the WD drive. It looks really good! They are claiming 1 million hours BTBF and an operating temperature of 0 to 70 degrees Celsius!

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701250.pdf

 

[dlmcmurr]

Seagate used to have a good reputation until a few years ago. WD has pretty much taken it's place as the reliability leader. I'm not sure about this particular model, just the brand name in general.

 

[KAB]

A fairly extensive Hard Drive failure rate in Hoppers have been attributed to a bad series of Seagates. Glad the refurbs are getting WDs.

 

[harshness]

Seagate used to have a good reputation until a few years ago.

That was a rather long time ago as Winchester hard drives go. My memory says it started happening around ten years ago (shortly before they bought Maxtor). The decline could have started when Seagate acquired Quantum.

 

[KAB]

That was a rather long time ago as Winchester hard drives go. My memory says it started happening around ten years ago (shortly before they bought Maxtor).

That is correct. I think they actually just continued with the Maxtor tech and slapped the Seagate name on them. I had two Maxtors, and both failed within a year. Regardless, I do not buy/consider Seagates.

 

[Tony S]

I agree. Over the years I have had mixed results with Seagates, however I have never had a WD drive fail. I know that WD drives are not perfect and must have their failures, but in my personal experience over the past 30 years, I have had several Seagate failures and no WD failures.

 

[BBCInc]

Seagate used to have the nickname Seizegate due to a inability to start spinning called "sticktion".