HUGHES GAEB0 and GAEB0A update!

[Elf]

This also affected some Sony receivers, but I don't know exactly what model numbers. . . .

We are now REPLACING THE RECEIVERS that were affected by the update that went though earlier this week.

If your receiver is resetting itself every 5-20 minutes, ad infinitum, CALL US.

800-695-9251 is the Tier-2 number. We're here. We're answering. There's a significant hold right now, but please be patient. Just let us know, "I've got X number of Hughes boxes that are affected..." and we'll take it from there.

We're doing $0 replacements, which are shipped via Fed Ex and should be received by mid-next-week.



--Elf!!

 

[Beavis]

No wonder OMS was slow as all hell today.

It's going to be funny dealing with pissed off people who can't watch the NFL playoffs. Oh well. I think it was the Sony A65 & B65.

 

[slacker9876]

Wow, that's rich. What are they giving up, D10's?

 

[Beavis]

I would think it would be a D10. No way in Hell would we give away a new HNS.

 

[Rancid1]

It's handled through OMS and as far as I know (Correct me if i'm wrong, as i've only worked for D* less than a year) OMS will process the order with the same model IRD for warranty in offers. And whatever is available for warranty out offers. Unless of course you have privs to order specific equip, (Which I don't and neither do the majority of the agents in my call center). I wouldn't think that OMS would be changed to process all GAEBOA warranty in offers to ship a certain model IRD as a replacement. Sorry if that's just me being un-informed.

 

[DirecTVTechCSR]

I'm not sure on this, however if the unit has not been exposed to the buggy update that went out and caused this mess, it should be fine anyhow. I had a woman today who had two of them, one had been unplugged for 3 months. I had her put that one in the main tv room until her replacement comes, and it was working fine.

 

[Elf]

They're replacing the resetting models, warranty-out, with whatever models are available. A warranty-out replacement will send you a refurbished receiver. Normally they TRY to exchange like-for-like, but in this situation, they're NOT sending out replacement GAEB's. This is information that was distributed by memo, so it's info I'd give you if you were my caller.

As an aside: The Sonys that died are tough, because most people who bought those receivers got them specifically because they do both caller-ID and have optical audio. Most standard receivers have caller-ID, very few have optical audio. Most Tivo units (especially new ones!) have optical audio but don't do caller-ID.

There are a few RCA models (DRD435RH, 455RH, 486RH) and at least one Samsung (SIR-S310W) that are standard receivers that do both caller-ID and optical audio. . . . but of course we can't guarantee that exchange, so those are being handled on a case-by-case basis.

Rock on. And yeah, that's why OMS was slow. If you do a receiver exchange, always keep the tracking number when you ship back the faulty receiver.

OK, it's my day off; time to not think about work.

--Elf

 

[ds650]

Something to think about though. While the RCA's are far superior to the D10s, The RCA will not have 100% function with the interactive features & the D10 will , correct?

I hope I'm wrong. I want to hookup my 435RHs in place of my D10s.

 

[Beavis]

I've been told by my sup to process all replacements as warranty-in. Doris says the same thing too. I did get a memo about an hour before the end of my shift that is from D* corporate...it states that we are to check to see if the IRDs have Watchword active, cause it can cause major sensitivity. I guess I'll see tomorrow if it works.

 

[dslchiphead]

I really glad to see this thread. I was wondering what happened to my GAEB0A. (I really like my Hughes receivers and I am sorry to seem them go. Anyway back to this problem.) It has been resetting itself all week but I had more problems. The video would freeze up sometimes and would come back other times the box would reset. I also see video breakup on the left side of the screen. Looked like pixelation with about 1/2 inch squares. Sometimes the video would go away all together and instead I would see vertical bars. When I had video, I would see very thin diagonal lines across the picture (with RF-out. Did not see this with video output).

Not knowing that this was caused by Directv, I changed receivers around on two TVs to make sure it was not a LNB or cables that went bad. The problem followed the box. Today I have not noticed all the resets but have not watched too much on that box today (changed it out yesterday). But, the RF-out video still is bad with those thin diagonal lines across the picture (top-left to bottom-right). What could be causing that?

(Sorry ELF to repeat this info vs the private email to you).

-Dave

 

[mcsj]

So what will be the replacement? GAEBOA has RF remote, SRS surround sound, IR control to VCR, S-video, 2 RCA-output, and an optical output. So far I've seen nothing as good as, if not better than, this one on the non-HD level.... Anything not as good as the GAEBOA is just a rip off.

 

[MRTRIPOD]

agreed! nothing has all these features.

They replaced one of my gaeboa's with a R10, but that does not have the Turbo Feature, multi function remote, Caller ID, or the one line scrolling Guide. No way in hell I'll take a D10? Or should I? Are the D10's better than the GAEBOA's? I do not need the IR CONTROL!

Should I take D10's in place of the GAEBOA's?

I mean if my GAEBOA's were not broken, and you had a choice between the 2, which would you take new out of the box and why?

Are the D10's faster? Do D10's have the guide where you can watch TV and still see the guide like the Hughes does? I am leaning to takeing a D10 because my GAEBOA's are 3 years old, and if I can get a free BRAND NEW RECEIVER, why not?

So give me some advice..THANKS ALL!

 

[ds650]

I had 4.5 year old RCA's. I got the D10's when I upgraded to locals. The D10s are a BIG step backwards. They have terrible remotes, The don't look as nice in your entertainment center, the on screen displays aren't good, the guide is slow & it sometimes won't come up right away. When switching channels fast the D10 will hang up. I'm thinking maybe Dish makes D10s for Direct.

I bought 2 RCAs off Ebay but haven't activated them yet because they will NOT be able to use the interactive channels as I understand it. The D10s will.
If the interactives aren't that great I'll toss the D10 then. I mean heck, VE was selling brand new ones for $24.95! They aren't worth much brand new & I can see why. These were a BIG disappointment

 

[dslchiphead]

I agree that there is nothing on the market that can take the place of a GAEB0A and it's feature set. I love this unit. And I have a warrantee on this unit but sounds like that is worthless now as Hughes (HNS) does not support or sell previous hardware anymore. Looks like the products that are coming out under the DirecTV moniker are very low end products that are easy to produce.

Something I do not understand clearly yet is how can a software download destroy the GAEB0A? Can't it just download a corrected download or is the GAEB0A so screwed up that it now can not download anymore? Can't we send this in and have them reinstall the firmware?

 

[mcsj]

A person on the Tier-2 line told me that GAEB0/GAEB0A are not the only Hughes receivers in trouble. They received reports that some HAH-SA/HBH-SA/SD-HBH also got the bad update, and upon request, they will send out new reciever to owners of bad HAH-SA/HBH-SA/SD-HBH.

 

[MRTRIPOD]

OK, but WHAT will they most likely send out?

 

[dslchiphead]

I got a couple of HBH-SA as well but I see no problems with those. Elf mention that the problem was something to do with if you have WatchWords in effect when the bad software appeared. The problem may go away if you remove your WatchWords.

Does anyone know why the units have to be replace just because of bad software? There's got to be a better solution than replacing the whole unit.