VIP 722 suddenly restarts (almost daily)

[ssides]

I am now on my second VIP 722 box and have not had any problems with it for about 6 months. This box replaced a 722 I got back in February; that box was continually freezing up and making it impossible to watch. Until recently, the new 722 worked fine.

Now, however, the 722 is almost daily just stopping itself automatically -- it just shuts down, no warning or anything. It then restarts itself after about 10 minutes, and generally works OK until the next day, when we go through it again.

Any idea what's causing this and how it can be fixed (short of replacing the box)? I have many, many things recorded on the Hard Drive and would rather not lose them if possible. Many thanks for your help.

 

[Gorbash]

It's the HDD in the box, the 622 suffers from the same problem. Only remedy is to get a new box. At least from my experience.

I've switched to the 612. Dunno if that was a good idea, but I only have one TV hooked up to the receiver.

 

[RandallA]

I am now on my second VIP 722 box and have not had any problems with it for about 6 months. This box replaced a 722 I got back in February; that box was continually freezing up and making it impossible to watch. Until recently, the new 722 worked fine.

Now, however, the 722 is almost daily just stopping itself automatically -- it just shuts down, no warning or anything. It then restarts itself after about 10 minutes, and generally works OK until the next day, when we go through it again.

Any idea what's causing this and how it can be fixed (short of replacing the box)? I have many, many things recorded on the Hard Drive and would rather not lose them if possible. Many thanks for your help.

I had the same problem with a 622 but it wasn't daily. I had to replace the unit and rebooting has stopped for now so I don't think there's much you can do to fix this problem other than replace the unit.

 

[ssides]

Well, that sucks. Second time this has happened to me in a year.

Do they at least know what's wrong and have they updated the equipment appropriately?

 

[Gorbash]

Why replace faulty parts when the cheaper ones work for most folk and it's cheaper to just give the consumer a refurbished unit and hope they don't notice.

 

[ssides]

Heh. Well, after losing quite a bit of recorded DVR programming twice in the same year, I'm tempted to switch to AT&T's new U-verse service ...

 

[KKlare]

Sounds like the daily update/reboot. Do menu-8-4 to check the time especially the AM/PM. No you cannot turn it off, just dodge your recordings.

If you were recording you can DVR-DVR-DVR-page up-repeat as needed to check when the recording was interrupted. If it is within 1 minute or so of the daily update, then you have found the problem.

If not, inquire at Dish during the day to get a USA rep.

I have one 722 that likes to sometime reboot at 4:12 AM while recording no matter the update setting.
-Ken

 

[ssides]

Thanks KKlare, but it doesn't happen the same time every day ... sometimes in the morning, sometimes evening (actually happened 3 times yesterday).

 

[defcon5]

If you have the receiver plugged into a surge protecter, you may want to bypass it right into an electrical outlet and see if the problem goes away. If it does, I recommend buying a new surge protecter. Is it only in the morning that it occurs or is this the only time you are home until later in the day? Try this next if bypassing the surge protecter doesn't resolve it, try running a check switch test...menu 6-1-1 on the remote. then select check switch tab, then on the next screen select test...if the install summary screen pops up, exit out of menus...it will go to 015 acquiring satelite signal and then download EPG, then you will return to programming...if after running test it says you have one or fewer satelites missing...call tech support at 800-333-dish.

 

[Gorbash]

Did you steal a CSR script?

 

[defcon5]

Just trying to help. Sorry if I offended anyone.

 

[Gorbash]

No not offend, just had to make a joke after spending 4 hours on the phone with those yahoo's trying to get working receiver and finding out why my content package was changed.

 

[DISH_NC]

It's the HDD in the unit. I've had that happen to two receivers/DVRs now. I'm on my 4th 622 (over the course of many years)...

Lately, the EHD has saved me and I am careful to copy programming off the internal HDD over to the EHD regularly. The last time the reboots started, I made sure I started copying the files quickly. After a week, the reboots would become more frequent and finally continuously.

If you have important programs you want to save, get a USB drive, activate the EHD option and save your programs.

 

[whatchel1]

Heat?

Thanks KKlare, but it doesn't happen the same time every day ... sometimes in the morning, sometimes evening (actually happened 3 times yesterday).

Just a question is the unit in an area that isn't well ventilated? If it is you will mostly likely have 3rd go down in few months too. You can check how hot the HDD is getting by using menu 6-3 move up to counters then page down 7 times. If the 3 HDD temps are all above 115 then the units will die prematurely.
SO NOW GET YOUR STUFF TRANSFERRED VERY FAST TO AN EXT HDD. Not yelling on last part just wanted to make it stand out. It isn't gonna last much longer.

 

[stroute]

I have a new 722 unit for my HD upgrade.The unit reboots itself any where from once an hour to 5 times an hour. The frequent reboots appear to be while recording only. The previous HD unit was just a receiver and it had no problem.I still have a 522 and it has no problem.The 722 is plugged directly into the wall outlet. Do I have a lemon??

 

[Zero327]

Did you steal a CSR script?

*sniff* ....*sniff* I smellz me a TSR.

 

[Oblong Desoto]

I also had a hard drive fail in a 722. It acted just like yours, then after about 6 months it died and wouldn't boot.

By the way... when I installed the refurbished replacement they sent, I of course had to readdress my remotes to work with the new unit. Without thinking about it, I left the UHF remote set to channel 1. For the next month, the replacement 722 was also rebooting randomly and exhibiting other strange behavior. One day on a whim I changed the UHF remote to use channel 9, and the problems disappeared. Guess I was having a remote duel with a neighbor somewhere! ;-)

-OD

 

[Stargazer]

I am having a 522 that is doing the same thing. The first one I got was to replace a 721 and it was doing this, and now this replacement for the first 522 is doing it as well. My 721 worked great for years. Sounds like a bunch of bull. If I keep getting bad 522's then I am going to demand a different model receiver. I've used 522's at my house for years and never had problems until they sent me this piece of junk refurbished crapola. When I contacted tech support they told me that they wanted to send someone out and blamed it on dish grounding. I don't see how that would cause my receiver to turn itself on and off when none of the other ones ever done it before and my 722 has not done it since I got it.

 

[whatchel1]

wiring that has gone bad

I am having a 522 that is doing the same thing. The first one I got was to replace a 721 and it was doing this, and now this replacement for the first 522 is doing it as well. My 721 worked great for years. Sounds like a bunch of bull. If I keep getting bad 522's then I am going to demand a different model receiver. I've used 522's at my house for years and never had problems until they sent me this piece of junk refurbished crapola. When I contacted tech support they told me that they wanted to send someone out and blamed it on dish grounding. I don't see how that would cause my receiver to turn itself on and off when none of the other ones ever done it before and my 722 has not done it since I got it.

Sounds a lot like your wiring has problems.

 

[ssides]

Thanks very much for all the responses. Here's my status:

(1) I'm confident this is a problem with the 722, not the satellite, so I unplugged the box from the surge protecter and put it directly into the wall outlet. We'll see if that helps at all.

(2) I checked out the HDD temperature and sure enough, it showed an average temp of 118, with high of 131 and low of 104. I'm worried that it may be too hot, but there is really nothing else around the unit -- I'm not sure how I could ventilate it better. Any suggestions?

(3) I'll want to download my stuff to an external hard drive in case this gets worse. Any suggestions on brands or sizes? I've got probably 10 hours of HD programming and 100 hours of standard def programming saved on my DVR. Is it pretty easy to transfer this stuff over?

Thanks again for all your help.