Power Failure Causes Hopper 311 Code - Replacement Required

[redman042]

We had a power failure in my neighborhood today and came home to find the Hopper's hard drive fried (my understanding of a 311 code). Tried four reboots in a row (twice with red button, twice by pulling the power code for 15 seconds). No dice. I get this error each time and when I clear it I find that the DVR has no memory of shows or timers.

So after consoling my wife over the loss of all our shows and timers, we called Dish support and, upon hearing what code it was, the technician immediately ordered a replacement receiver. It will arrive on Saturday.

This stinks. Can a simple power outage fry these receiver? Am I just unlucky? Should I consider a UPS to help protect it? Would a UPS even help, since it can't signal a "controlled shutdown" of the DVR like a UPS hooked up to a PC?

 

[Teehar]

Very possible there was a surge at some point.I have learned the hard way over the years,to always have your favorite shows backed up on an ehd.

 

[kwindrem]

Can a simple power outage fry these receiver? Am I just unlucky?

It's unlikely a power failure would cause damage to the receiver or hard drive. That said, if the DVR is recording when power fails at just the wrong time it's possible the directory structure of the drive could get corrupted. I don't know any way of reformatting the hard drive on Dish receivers so corrupted or "fried" both require a replacement receiver and loss of all DVR content.

Should I consider a UPS to help protect it? Would a UPS even help, since it can't signal a "controlled shutdown" of the DVR like a UPS hooked up to a PC?

A UPS would delay power failure to the DVR but if most power outages are short term, the receiver would see less of them. If the power is out long enough for the UPS to run out of battery, it should shut down cleanly which may be better than power glitching or a brown-out.

 

[redman042]

A UPS would delay power failure to the DVR but if most power outages are short term, the receiver would see less of them. If the power is out long enough for the UPS to run out of battery, it should shut down cleanly which may be better than power glitching or a brown-out.

How would the DVR know to shut down when on UPS power during an extended outage? I'm worried a UPS would just delay the damage 20 min or so, not prevent it.

This is the only reason I don't run out and get a UPS. But a surge protector may be a good idea.

 

[navychop]

Def get at least a GOOD surge suppressor such as Brick Wall or PanaMax. Since most power losses or sags are very brief, a UPS can keep it running even recording with less chance of HDD corruption.

 

[kwindrem]

How would the DVR know to shut down when on UPS power during an extended outage? I'm worried a UPS would just delay the damage 20 min or so, not prevent it.

This is the only reason I don't run out and get a UPS. But a surge protector may be a good idea.

A UPS will turn off cleanly when it runs out of battery. Compare this with some power outages where the power sags, then comes back, then goes out breifly then comes back then finally goes out completely. A clean off is much kinder to devices.

It's true a UPS delays the eventual loss of power and there's no way to signal the receiver to shut down cleanly. In my area, most power interruptions are infrequent and of short duration, often less than a minute. So a UPS provides substantial protection. I have sized mine to run the receiver about an hour when nothing else is powered up. I run my entire system on a UPS, not just the Dish receiver so up time is much less when I'm actually watching TV -- maybe 15 minutes max.

In contrast, a surge suppressor will only squelch extremely short transients that exceed a threshold. They offer no protection to under-/over-voltage or power dips/brown outs. A typical UPS will include similar protection to a surge suppressor also.

Damage or hard drive corruption due to a power failure is rare anyway. A write must be occurring (including a directory update) at the time of the failure. Even if a DVR is recording, the chances are slim that the failure would hit at precisely the incorrect time.

 

[Elkview]

UPS works great for me, we have frequent loss usually only seconds. Got a spike in the summer and lost electric water heater,refrigerator but hopper kept on hopping.

 

[hoopsbd2]

Same thing happened to my hopper with just a flash of power going off and I have a surge protector.

 

[Barry Erick]

We had a power failure in my neighborhood today and came home to find the Hopper's hard drive fried (my understanding of a 311 code). Tried four reboots in a row (twice with red button, twice by pulling the power code for 15 seconds). No dice. I get this error each time and when I clear it I find that the DVR has no memory of shows or timers.

So after consoling my wife over the loss of all our shows and timers, we called Dish support and, upon hearing what code it was, the technician immediately ordered a replacement receiver. It will arrive on Saturday.

This stinks. Can a simple power outage fry these receiver? Am I just unlucky? Should I consider a UPS to help protect it? Would a UPS even help, since it can't signal a "controlled shutdown" of the DVR like a UPS hooked up to a PC?

Anything electron can be fried by power surges. Now, you say 15 seconds. Try uplugging for more than their recommended 30 seconds. Unplug it, have breakfast and plug it back in. It should take awhile to even turn on.

 

[JerryDowning]

My computers have software which directs a clean shutdown if the UPS batteries approach depletion. Could Dish provide similar software?

 

[dwarren2]

A big advantage of the ups is that if you get a short outage and you are recording, you don't lose the recording. I have had very few outages and most of them have been very brief, sometime a little as 4 or 5 seconds. With the ups you have both battery backup and surge suppresion.

 

[midleman]

I have a UPS for my Hopper and I agree with most of the comments. What I would like to add is that another reason to have a UPS is to provide clean power. Most UPS will provide a clean 60 cycle. In some areas or during power problems you might have enough voltage but the cycles fluctuate all over the place. That could cause damage to the electronics of a computer or Hopper.
I live in a rural area that has power outages a lot. I went one step further; I installed a back up generator for the house. 30 seconds after the power goes off, my generator kicks in and runs the house. The UPS keeps my Hopper going so I don’t lose any recording and I can keep watching TV. My teenage kids don’t even know that the power has gone out.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Ive had mine on a UPS for years, real nice to not lose shows as well to a short outage, since they can keep recording while they have power.

 

[Smwoodward]

My computers have software which directs a clean shutdown if the UPS batteries approach depletion. Could Dish provide similar software?

I very seriously doubt that will happen. The boxes are considered more of an appliance than a computer, even though they are more like a computer than an appliance. The real issue is creating drivers for the different UPS's. With Windows, drivers are developed by the manufacture of UPS, where as drivers would need to be created by Dish for the hopper. The other thing to keep in mind is that the Hopper doesn't even have a shutdown option at all. The primary reason computers have a shutdown is because the OS is written and read from the HDD, and if you pull the power during a read/write operation it could cause problems and make it where the computer is not bootable because data was sprayed all over the drive and possible boot files. I bet that the Hopper's OS is loaded in flash that only gets read from except on software upgrade operations so the Hopper will boot up every time (generally) and does not need a shutdown procedure. Yes it can cause problems during a recording from the HDD, but I'm sure that Dish programmed ways to handle that in the firmware and it's easier to code procedures to handle that VS trying to code drivers for every UPS for a feature that's not even in the Hopper.