ViP 211 Warning 981

[Foxbat]

I came home from Thanksgiving visits with my wife's Family and the power LED on our ViP 211 was on. I thought that was odd since there shouldn't have been any timers for today. When I turned the TV on, it indicated no video detected so I yanked the power cord for a hard reset.

Instead of the normal "Acquiring Signal" screen, though, I got this screen instead:


In all my times of owning the 211 I've never seen such an 8-bit screen! It filled up the row of squares (I guess, each time I looked more were red and not blue) but now there is still no video output and I've tried to power-cycle it multiple times. It's dead, Jim.

 

[Tampa8]

I don't see anything in your post after I got this screen instead. Error 981 should mean a software update (download) was interrupted. Often from a signal loss.

 

[Foxbat]

I don't see anything in your post after I got this screen instead. Error 981 should mean a software update (download) was interrupted. Often from a signal loss.

Sorry, I realized after I started that I needed to blur my Receiver ID. The Warning 981 screen is there now in Post #1.

We had a lot of heavy rain at home Friday and Saturday. If the update was attempting to download during that time frame, I could see how the download would be disrupted.

Now it appears to be a silver brick. No video, just the green power LED.

 

[Juan]

Pull the smartcard

 

[the mack]

Pull the smartcard

Probably still using the embedded card?

 

[Foxbat]

Okay, I yanked the purple SmartCard. No response. The unit is not outputting video, so there is no way to access any menus. I'm thinking it's totally bricked unless there is some "Master Rest" procedure to try.

I connected my old analog LCD monitor to the composite outputs and power-cycled the 211 without the SmartCard. It is finally showing video output! The 981 screen is attempting to download software once again.

Crossing my fingers...

 

[ChadT41]

It looks like that on all systems. It is the boot recovery message. If it has not resolved itself after 4 hours of uninterrupted alone time, then it needs replaced.

 

[Foxbat]

Even though the 211 filled the entire set of bars and restarted, coming up with the "bouncing dish" logo screensaver, it disappeared shortly afterward. After appearing to spontaneously reboot, it is now unresponsive, with no LED and no reaction to button presses. Sounds like a brick to me.

Edit: Oh, what you're saying is don't try to rush it, this process of "fixing" itself could take upwards of four hours? I'll try to be patient...

And now we're back to the "Warning 981" screen. So much for watching Dish tonight!
(perhaps it's time to see if there are any Cyber Monday Hopper with Sling Deals out there?)

 

[ChadT41]

Even though the 211 filled the entire set of bars and restarted, coming up with the "bouncing dish" logo screensaver, it disappeared shortly afterward. After appearing to spontaneously reboot, it is now unresponsive, with no LED and no reaction to button presses. Sounds like a brick to me.

Yup. Have it RA'd

 

[Juan]

Probably still using the embedded card?

nope were upgraded at least twice..current is purple

 

[Foxbat]

Yup. Have it RA'd

Considering the number of years I paid for the Dish Protection Plan, I probably payed for 8 or 9 ViP211 units. But I discontinued it after the last DishNetwork price increase earlier this year. At this point, I'd just buy new one.

I've finally been able to get it to the point where I could plug in the EHD. The last thing recorded was on Friday. The rains came through Friday night/Saturday morning, so it probably failed during that time. But what I don't understand is the Firmware version is L570, the same as the version that was on it a few weeks ago when I last checked.

Edit: Okay, this is an issue. The picture keeps freezing. Audio is fine, but the picture will be good for only a few seconds after tuning the channel before it gets stuck.

 

[the mack]

nope were upgraded at least twice..current is purple

Ahh...did not notice the absence of the "k"

 

[TNGTony]

IIRC when I installed my 211, it takes forever to get the initial download. It reboots and comes up with a Dish Logo for about 5 seconds, then in reboots again and takes about 10 to twenty minutes for the receiver to come back on again (presumably after writing info to Prams). Interrupting the SECOND process is bad.

 

[JosephB]

We had a lot of heavy rain at home Friday and Saturday. If the update was attempting to download during that time frame, I could see how the download would be disrupted.

There is no way that the rain disrupted it, unless you also had a power outage. It doesn't write directly from the satellite to the PRAM, it downloads it all into a buffer first.

If it DOES write directly from the satellite stream to the PRAM, then Dish/Echostar are being negligent and extremely stupid. It should absolutely buffer to prevent just that type of issue. Given that it has to wait for the bits to come around to the beginning, it probably needs the whole thing before it can start writing to ROM anyway.

 

[Foxbat]

With the receiver acting as squirrelly as it has, I believe that it has some hardware issue. When I was able to run the system diagnostics, the one field (B or C) was at 87, which, if I recall correctly, is the number of reboots in the last fortnight or some other time period.

Buying all new ViP211 is $99 or so. Super Joey goes for ~$150, HWS is ~$250, Solo Node is ~$25. If I need to throw more money at Dish, I might was well upgrade the system to the latest and greatest, which I was hoping to avoid until after the first of the year when Dish usually shows off its new goodies at CES.

If I go to the Hopper side, I hope I can keep my ViP722 on the account as a turn-it-on-in-the-summertime receiver for our vacation use. I thought I saw someplace that you can idle a receiver with no penalty for activating/deactivating. Otherwise, I'll go with a Pay-as-you-Go system if it can't be done.

 

[Bobby]

722 is not compatible with the Hopper system. Dish will not allow activation of it on a Hopper account.

 

[Foxbat]

I was hoping that things were better tonight, but I was sadly mistaken. While the timer for "Major Crimes" kicked off at 9:00pm EST as it should and we were able to watch, maybe 30 minutes in the picture froze while the sound continued. Since I was recording, I selected a UHF station and the picture came back, but it was like one frame kept playing out of order. Instead of frames 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... it was more like 2, 3, 4, 1, 5...

After the show finished, I ran through the System Info page and the "b" counter is now 40. I rebooted and I'm checking the playback of the recorded show and at least the bits from the satellite aren't getting corrupted.

I've seen enough that the only receiver allowed on a Hopper account is the 211 (figures, since it's the one that's all janked up) but I thought I saw that there was a way to use the 722 with the Pay-as-you-Go Dish service. That appears to be the optimal way to go.

 

[ChadT41]

You can do that, but you would be paying for a second account full price.

 

[Foxbat]

As it was explained to me, the PayGo was a month to month, no contract, and no startup cost. Perfect for a vacation home without account stacking. Unless Dish dropped it again?

 

[ChadT41]

Yes, but you have pay for a months worth of service at a time. You can cancel at anytime and be credited back the difference... But there are start up costs for no commitment. You have to buy all the equipment. And I believe there is a $49 activation fee on those.