Ugh. Doesn't bode well for us, then. We BOUGHT our 922 last August. Last Wednesday morning, came downstairs to hear the fan on very loud, and no lights on the front panel. Hard reboot (unplug) and long wait for anything on the screen. The DVR was operating normally at 10 PM Tuesday. The DVR is on a low open shelf near the floor in the outside corner of the coldest room in our house. There is air space all around it except underneath, but the wood shelf it sits on is 5" off the floor. We live in Alaska and thermostat is set at 63 days, 58 nights. It probably never gets above 60 F in the corner even in summer (our summer highs average in the low 60s here).
I have the DVR set to update at 3 AM each night and am guessing that's when it overheated. It will now stay on for only a few minutes before blanking out -- no lights and high fan. However, we see no high temp. warning when this happens. BTW we're running S116. I am scrambling to get an EHD to (I hope) dump content before the thing permanently gives up the ghost.
After telling us 1) the unit is leased, and 2) we would have to pay $35 shipping for a replacement unit, Dish is now sending the replacement for free. That unit still shows as leased but we've been told this will update when we call to activate the replacement. We'll see. After eight years with Dish and two DVR models, both of which I bought, each and every tiime I've had a tech issue Dish has insisted it owns my hardware. Such systemic default claims smack of fraud -- I think Dish hopes some customers won't know any better and will start paying rental fees.
BTW when we called to get the replacement Dish did the hard sell on $6/mo service protection. I am pretty amused when sellers of fancy electronics tell you how great their devices are, charge you a lot to buy said devices, and then tell you their devices aren't really so trustworthy after all, so you should probably buy an extended warranty etc. Which is it, Dish?
I had a terrible experience with my old 510 after a couple of years. New firmware after NBR came in was buggy and Dish had no interest in troubleshooting its own code. I was among many 510 owners who lost timers, had recorded events wiped overnight, could not set new timers, etc. Now I'm wondering if the 922 is equally buggy. There are too many reports of units "overheating" in mid-winter, here and on DBSTalk. Some customers over there are on their 3rd 922 over the course of a year. Coincidentally, this latest round of problems seems to have happened right after the S116 firmware upgrade for many of us.
The only reason I'm still with Dish is that DTV doesn't carry locals. OTOH, I get pretty good OTA reception and have a legacy Panasonic DVR that could do SD recordings. At a certain point the ability to record locals in HD is not going to be worth the aggravation of dealing with faulty Dish hardware and software, especially since the satellite HD broadcasts chop off a substantial part of the picture on both sides ofthe frame.
Advice?
to Sat Guys!! I am sorry you are having a problem with your ViP922 overheating. Can you please PM me and I will see what we need to do to get the receiver replaced ASAP. Please include your name and the account or phone number. Thank you!
