Receivers still locking up

[MichaelG]

I would like to know in advance as to what to expect from Voom tech support once I report this problem to them. In my earlier post, I explained that I had a 2 receiver installation on 1/12/05. The first 7 days everything went very well with few if any hiccups.

However, starting on day 8 (Thursday) receivers begain locking up at least a dozen times a day. Sometimes we will be watching and the picture will freeze and the remote has no effect. Other times while using the PG, the menu will lock up and the preview window which was showing the current channel will go grey. Again the remote has no effect.

When these lockups do occur, we reboot by pressing the power button until the unit restarts. Getting my wife to do this only makes the matter worse, as you can guess.

Our exact count for today is 4 times on the unit in the family room and 6 times in the theater room with the latter doing 3 times in less than an hour.

Did I get 2 lemon receivers? Is this what Voom is all about? Both boxes are on 7.33 if that means anything. We had family over today and had to go out for the evening so I haven't called Voom support yet so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Ilya]

MichaelG, welcome to the forum!
Are both of your receivers connected to the phone line? Try disconnecting them for awhile, see if this helps.
Also, what is your satellite signal quality?

 

[MichaelG]

Ilya,

Thanks for the quick reply. I will try that when we get home. (at the in-laws right now, checking "work" email, ha)

I get a great - 97 - signal on our 27" dish. I have seen references to the caller ID issue but I thought that was fixed before 7.33?

I know that the phone was not ringing when the freezes occured.

 

[timjf]

MichaelG,

This has happened to me often - what I've learned is that a power reboot (unplug - wait - replug) and then waiting a good while (~30 minutes - it varies) before operating the remote again works best at bringing the box back to life. Also - unplugging the phone isn't a bad idea too. With the new software releases, freeze-ups have been less frequent for me.

Good luck!

 

[snakebit]

MichaelG,

Your experience is almost identical to mine. 2 Recievers installed on 1/19/05. Worked flawlessly for first few days. I even wondered about the ocassional "buggy hardware" comments I saw here on the forum.

Then suddenly, a few days ago (about Thursday as you stated) the reciever I watch mostly exhibited exactly the same symptoms you described. Customer Service tried a few things, but eventually had me soft-boot. (That is what they called holding in the button for a few seconds)

It is starting to become tiresome doing this several times a day.

Note: On one occasion I simply lost most channels, but the reciever was not locked up and the remote worked fine. The signal had fallen from 98 to 60's. After the softboot, I got all channels and the signal strength was up again.

Most interesting to me about your post is your receivers are still 7.33. Mine are both 7.34 as of Thursday. I assumed that is what caused my problems. Now I'm stumped.

I do know something changed that day though. I was rock solid before.

 

[MichaelG]

Thanks tim,

I just realized that I can't type. In my earlier post, I said 27" ..geesh....it is a 24"

The PG has been doing some other weird things too. Like in the program reminders, I will try and set a program from Remind to AutoOn and it won't stick. It will select AutoOn but when I select another program to AutoOn and go back to the list, all of the programs will be back on Remind. ???? It didn't do that during the first few days we were running.

 

[MichaelG]

snake,

I was thinking the opposite, that I NEEDED the 7.34 to make this problem go away.

Rats.

Your symptoms are indentical to mine.

Did support have any solutions?

 

[Ilya]

I get a great - 97 - signal on our 27" dish. I have seen references to the caller ID issue but I thought that was fixed before 7.33?

It's strange that both of your boxes started locking up at the same time. That's why I am thinking of the phone line. Might be something else of course...

 

[benzbill]

I would like to know in advance as to what to expect from Voom tech support once I report this problem to them. In my earlier post, I explained that I had a 2 receiver installation on 1/12/05. The first 7 days everything went very well with few if any hiccups.

However, starting on day 8 (Thursday) receivers begain locking up at least a dozen times a day. Sometimes we will be watching and the picture will freeze and the remote has no effect. Other times while using the PG, the menu will lock up and the preview window which was showing the current channel will go grey. Again the remote has no effect.

When these lockups do occur, we reboot by pressing the power button until the unit restarts. Getting my wife to do this only makes the matter worse, as you can guess.

Our exact count for today is 4 times on the unit in the family room and 6 times in the theater room with the latter doing 3 times in less than an hour.

Did I get 2 lemon receivers? Is this what Voom is all about? Both boxes are on 7.33 if that means anything. We had family over today and had to go out for the evening so I haven't called Voom support yet so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

my box also started locking up on a thurs i think about a week & half ago i think that is when they went from 7.26 to 7.33 ,mine is usually only once a day but the reboot from the front of the stb works fine just annoying but i dont think its worth the time to schedule a service call i saw a post that Will was looking into it so hopefully it will be taken care of soon

 

[snakebit]

Can't be the phone line for me. I haven't and won't hook it up.
And sorry about squelching your hope that the 7.34 would be a solution. It isn't. Think about it, you were 7.33 (so was I) and everything was fine for days! Suddenly, starting on the same day, we both start having the same issues.

The common troubleshooting technique of "process of elimination" certainly tells us the following:

7.33 isn't the cause and 7.34 isn't the solution
Phone line plugged/unplugged makes no difference
We both were fine until the same day, so VOOM changed.....something.
CS doesn't know what causes it and has no remedy other than the one we already know of. Soft or hard reboot


I'm guessing here, but I believe VOOM broadcast all kinds of "technical command" signals for many different reasons. (updates, kill signals, etc) It just so happens that certain signals that our recievers recieve wreak havoc on them. It appears to be random and certainly unintentional.

It would be interesting if next time you are watching a show and it freezes on you, post the time here and see if we both got knocked out simultaneously? Maybe we can narrow this down.

Or better yet, maybe one of the sat-genious guys here already know what suddenly is causing this.

 

[rmunson2]

I started with the same type problem 17 Dec 04 and changed out three receivers with the freeze problem continued constantly. Finally the replacement of the Diplexer (attic) and LNB was accomplished and the problem has not occurred for over a month. Caller ID was never enabled and the telephone line was not attached at the time of the problems.

 

[snakebit]

rmunson,

Now we are getting somewhere.

Thanks

 

[runz22]

I've had a different problem. We've noticed it for the past 3 or 4 days and it occurs on all 3 of our recievers. The picture goes out completely (screen blank). Sometimes it comes back by itself and sometimes we just hit the power on/off button quickly and then it comes back. We aren't loosing any of the PG or any info--just the picture. This is brand new problem and I've been checking the forum for the past few days to see if this has been reported. Is it only me?? Even my 9 year old is getting frustrated!

 

[scottie_h]

I could count the number of lock-ups on my two boxes since June installation on one hand. And none of them have ever ocurred while watching TV - all have been freezes when turning on the TV after being away. I always have the phone line hooked up to both, and never turn either off at night.

Maybe I'm just lucky.......

 

[rmunson2]

Just a clarification of my problem -- the receiver would freeze when watching - say discovery HD. No sound, remote would not change to anything satellite. OTA OK. Soft reboot would not resolve problem. Hard reboot was required almost everytime. Disconnecting the cable was also required..

 

[snakebit]

Yea, you ARE lucky.

First, for not suffering the torment of constantly rebooting and acquiring the program guide.

But mostly for being surrounded by Paradigm speakers!

 

[scottie_h]

Yea, you ARE lucky.

First, for not suffering the torment of constantly rebooting and acquiring the program guide.

But mostly for being surrounded by Paradigm speakers!

I'll take both as compliments...

 

[MichaelG]

Snake and all.....

I had a business emergency so I had to head into field for a few days. I missed keeping up with this thread but I can see there is something more than my individual problem. I did have the wife unplug the phone cords and she said that during the day yesterday there were no lockups.

 

[j4st0n3]

I have 2 voom boxes both running 7.33 and I have persistent lockup problems on both of them. It happens independantly...ie...one may lock but the other is fine. I am getting very tired of the softboot. I have NO phone lines connected. It seems that I had maybe 1 lockup per week before the 7.33 update, so take that for what it is worth. Lockup happens at random times....on powerup of tv sometimes the PG does not respond and the little window goes gray, sometimes while changing channels with the PG, sometimes just for no reason at all with no input on the remote, sometimes the PG says no signal when changing channels and then locks. All I know is I had 1 box swapped before and if I have to go through the swap again I am going to think about having to give up on VOOM due to lack of properly working hardware.....I mean I feel I am paying to be a beta tester or something. WTF is going on over there on the technical end of VOOM? and is there a real fix to all the hardware bugs?