Follow Us On TWITTER | NEW LOOK | PDA MODE
Those listed below are our PROUD SatelliteGuys GOLD Sponsors!
Applied Instruments DishStore.NET

» Advertising
Register Today and many of these ads go away!


Welcome to SatelliteGuys.US - America's Most Popular Satellite Information Forum!!

You are currently viewing our forums as a guest which gives you limited access. By joining our free community you will have access to post & reply messages in our forum, play in our fun arcade and communicate privately with other members as well as enjoy many other members only features.

Also as a registered member you will also see much less advertising!

Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Go Back   SatelliteGuys.US > Signals From The Sky > The DIRECTV Forum > DIRECTV Technical Discussions
Sponsored Links

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 10-20-2009, 01:33 PM
SatelliteGuys Freshman
 
Join Date: Oct 31st, 2003
Posts: 31
Is this a hardware problem?

Sponsored Links
I had an HR-20 that worked fine for about 3 years. About a month ago, the hard drive started clicking or chattering. It did this continuously on and off. Not just when we were recording or watching, but even with the unit turned off. It had never done it before, but I initially assumed it was ok. About a week later, it started losing DVR shows -- we would start to watch one and it would just quit, and lock up the receiver. No other problems with the receiver, just watching recorded programs.

DTV sent me a new (refurbished) receiver right away.

The receiver appears to work fine, but it has the hard drive chatter going already. So far (1 day) it only chatters when we are watching a recorded program. Is this something I should be concerned about (ie. does it portend disk failure), or is this fairly normal. Should I call DTV and ask for another new one? I only ask because our previous unit never did the chatter until right before it began to fail.

Thanks for opinions.
Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2 (permalink)  
Old 10-20-2009, 07:37 PM
Jimbo's Avatar
Pub Member / Supporter
 
 Pub Member / Supporter
Join Date: Jul 14th, 2005
Location: NW Ohio - Buckeye Country
Posts: 20,224
Quote:
Originally Posted by martincva View Post
I had an HR-20 that worked fine for about 3 years. About a month ago, the hard drive started clicking or chattering. It did this continuously on and off. Not just when we were recording or watching, but even with the unit turned off. It had never done it before, but I initially assumed it was ok. About a week later, it started losing DVR shows -- we would start to watch one and it would just quit, and lock up the receiver. No other problems with the receiver, just watching recorded programs.

DTV sent me a new (refurbished) receiver right away.

The receiver appears to work fine, but it has the hard drive chatter going already. So far (1 day) it only chatters when we are watching a recorded program. Is this something I should be concerned about (ie. does it portend disk failure), or is this fairly normal. Should I call DTV and ask for another new one? I only ask because our previous unit never did the chatter until right before it began to fail.

Thanks for opinions.
I would call and make them aware that the new one is making an unusual noise and see what they say, it the very least, they then have the conversation on record.
If you start to lose recordings or freezing, have it replaced.
__________________
Go Detroit Tigers !!!

2 HR20-700's
1 H20-100
AU-9 Slimline dish
Reply With Quote
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 10-20-2009, 09:58 PM
cfb cfb is online now
SatelliteGuys Senior
 
Join Date: Apr 10th, 2009
Location: California
Posts: 893
Rattly disk drive is a bad sign. You didnt by any chance do something different soon before the original receiver kicked the bucket, did you? Put it in a cabinet? Stack it on top of another component like a receiver? Put it next to a subwoofer? Cat sleeping on it? Right next to a heater duct?
Reply With Quote
  #4 (permalink)  
Old 10-21-2009, 04:15 PM
SatelliteGuys Freshman
Topic Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 31st, 2003
Posts: 31
Quote:
Originally Posted by cfb View Post
Rattly disk drive is a bad sign. You didnt by any chance do something different soon before the original receiver kicked the bucket, did you? Put it in a cabinet? Stack it on top of another component like a receiver? Put it next to a subwoofer? Cat sleeping on it? Right next to a heater duct?
Reasonable question, but nope, nothing in my setup has changed. It has plenty of ventillation, hasn't moved, and we NEVER let the dog sleep on it
Reply With Quote
  #5 (permalink)  
Old 10-21-2009, 04:18 PM
SatelliteGuys Freshman
Topic Starter
 
Join Date: Oct 31st, 2003
Posts: 31
Not a bad idea.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
I would call and make them aware that the new one is making an unusual noise and see what they say, it the very least, they then have the conversation on record.
If you start to lose recordings or freezing, have it replaced.

I'll give 'em a call to document what's going on. If bad things happen down the road, it should make it easier to get a fix.
Reply With Quote
  #6 (permalink)  
Old 11-30-2009, 08:38 AM
SatelliteGuys Regular
 
Join Date: Aug 14th, 2006
Posts: 160
A google search reveals this is a well-documented common problem since the last update. Mine and my buddies hr-20 never shuts up anymore. It sounds like a hard drive that continually defrags. It has made watching tv an annoyance. I am going to try to get them to send me a new one (pain in the ass). If not, I am going to cancel Directv--I can't stand the noise any longer...
Reply With Quote
  #7 (permalink)  
Old 11-30-2009, 10:42 PM
wildbill129's Avatar
Pub Member / Supporter
 
 Pub Member / Supporter
Join Date: Jul 31st, 2009
Location: State of Jefferson
Posts: 538
Chatter is often normal. Clicking is not. It's a sign of the heads on the hard drive wearing out, sectors going bad, and other problems. A hard drive should only click during initial startup during the POST. Since DirecTV dvrs are never really off, you would not normally hear that. So.....it's a good chance the drive will fail. Call and tell them it's dead and you need a new one.
Reply With Quote
  #8 (permalink)  
Old 12-01-2009, 11:43 AM
Banned
 
Join Date: Nov 9th, 2009
Location: General Location
Posts: 519
Quote:
Originally Posted by bertbarndoor View Post
A google search reveals this is a well-documented common problem since the last update. Mine and my buddies hr-20 never shuts up anymore. It sounds like a hard drive that continually defrags. It has made watching tv an annoyance. I am going to try to get them to send me a new one (pain in the ass). If not, I am going to cancel Directv--I can't stand the noise any longer...
My HR20 isn't making any noise.

Even though a "google search" is all the evidence you need, I don't really think the last software update had any intentional or unintentional "make the hard drive noisey" subroutines.

I don't think you have to call and tell DIRECTV it's making noise to "document" the problem and make it any easier getting it replaced down the road. If you call them up one day and tell them the DVR is screwing up recordings, resetting itself, or stuttering/skipping a lot they'll replace it.

Last edited by yorktown; 12-01-2009 at 10:33 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

  SatelliteGuys.US > Signals From The Sky > The DIRECTV Forum > DIRECTV Technical Discussions

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On

Forum Jump

Sponsored Links

Search Google


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:15 PM.


Get SatelliteGuys News Flashes on

SatelliteGuys.US is Proud to be relaxed home of the DirecTV Cutting Edge (CE) Program.
SatelliteGuys.US is also a PROUD SPONSOR of the Newington Little League - Newington, Connecticut
SatelliteGuys.US is not affiliated with any cable or satellite television company
The opinions expressed here at SatelliteGuys.US are those of our members and may not reflect the opinions of our staff, our sponsors, or any Satellite/Cable Company.

All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
The SatelliteGuys Logo and the "G Satellite" Icon are Trademarks of SatelliteGuys Incorporated

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2010, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.5.0 RC2
Copyright 2003 - 2010 SatelliteGuys Incorporated - All Rights Reserved
Page generated in 0.14031 seconds with 13 queries