My 211 DVR function is activated

[chikagobnd]

Unbelievable!

Well, good news! I finally have DVR function!! Okay, now let me see if you get this one...maybe this explains how inept the CSR's are. I am in an MDU(apartment bldg) which shares a dish between 4 units. So whenever I have issues with programming or whatever, I can never do the automated services because a CSR has to make changes to my account. So when I call the activation number and pulls up my acct. info, it always directs me to a CSR instead of letting me use the automated system. 4 CSR's sent 4 different activation signals to my receiver and none of them worked. Finally, I called the activation number again...this time tho, it didn't recognize my phone number in their system, so I had to manually punch it in through touchtone. Now it lets me use the automated service. I request to activate the hard drive, the voice guy says, "ok, done!" and 30 seconds later, I get the message asking if I want to format the hard drive...I say yes, it does it's thing, reboots, downloads the new program guide and then voila! DVR on my 211. So how backwards is it that I have to start with CSR's, get no resolution, and my problem gets fixed by automation. Usually it's the other way around for most people I see on here. So I don't know what the CSR's were doing wrong, but the trusty automation system came through for me. So finally, after starting this process at 8PM last night...at 10:30 tonight, I'm in business. Next problem...I'll probably have 2 activation charges on my bill, as before this worked, I had already been charged the fee. We'll see, but I can handle that.

 

[Ray S]

Chikagobnd:

I am glad it finally worked out for you. :up

 

[Foxbat]

Enjoy your ViP 211 DVR, chikagobnd! You've certainly earned it! I was going to ask if the MDU setup was interfering with the hit, but it seems like you figured out the system. Yea!

 

[rjfrandle]

Thanks to everyone for posting how things are going on this little project. It took a couple of calls, but my 211 is now working as a DVR too. I thought it was funny that the CSR told me this was a cool feature to be able to take my external hard drive with me and plug it into a computer to watch my shows. I wish it was that easy. I used a 500gb WD My Book Essential, that seems to be working good. I am very curious to see how it does the next few weeks. My question to you WD hard drive experts is...does this drive go into sleep mode, and if so is that going to screw up DVR recordings. If it does go to sleep, will it kick in when a recording is flagged to start? So far, so good, but I've only played with it a little bit. The CSR made it a point to tell me that there was no monthly fee for this, and I didn't even ask. Hope he is right, and no fee shows up on my bill.

 

[Jim5506]

Now! What happens if you unplug the EHD from your 211?

Well I did just that, and after about 5 minutes it rebooted and downloaded the guide and was back to it's 2 day guide self with no HDD.

So, I reconnected the hard drive and it recognized it and said it needed to reboot to use the feature - selected Yes (other options were cancel and no) and it rebooted and then asked the same question, selected YES - reboot same question - selected no, loaded 2 day guide no HDD.

disconnected EHD and reconnected - drive detected, reboot to use this feature - same old story, in a reboot loop. This time I selected NO - 2 day guide, no EHD.

I had no recordings on the EHD so I connected it to my XP Pro PC and deleted the three partitions on the drive and reconnected it to my 211. It immediately recognized, reformated and installed the 9 day guide - back to abnormal, working fine.

We need to get the correct proceedure from Dish for removing/swapping hard drives, because not being able to reconnect a pulled drive will never do!!

 

[Smith P.]

So, practically speaking, you can't move the 211 EHD between 211s ! Bastards.
Almost same problem when 622 EHD started.

 

[Jim5506]

FAILURE!!

FAILURE!

Even though iT did reformat the drive, there is no DRV functionality present.

Currently chatting with Dish Tech support.

Their first recommendation was not to disconnect the drive!

 

[md_paul]

Now! What happens if you unplug the EHD from your 211?

We need to get the correct proceedure from Dish for removing/swapping hard drives, because not being able to reconnect a pulled drive will never do!!

Did you unplug the EHD while the receiver was running? I wonder if you had plugged the drive into a linux PC and ran fsck on the file systems on the EHD, if all would have been okay when you then plugged your "repaired" drive into a powered off 211, and then powered on the IRD?

I would have thought that dish would have designed their software to automatically fsck a dirty/crashed or corrupted file system at receiver boot though, so maybe not? Let us know how everything turns out..

 

[Ray S]

The procedure I used to turn off my Western Digital, My Book, Essential that is connected to the 722 was to unplug the USB cable to the WD hard drive. The WD would turn off and it had no adverse affect on the operation of the 722. However when I attempted to disconnect the USB cable after the 221 was turned off, it made the 211 reboot and then it had to go through the download of the guide. The same thing happened when I turned off the 221 and then unplugged the power cord from the 211. The screen said the hard drive was unplugged and the 221 had to be started. After I turned it back on, the guide started to download. The DVR function is intact and is working but I have not recorded anything to the hard drive.

It looks like the WD will have to stay on all of the time. This is not good.
It may be necessary to purchase the WD hard drive that is recommended by Dish. Does anyone know if it (or the other hard drive recommended by Dish )has a manual switch to turn it off and what the affect is on the 221?

 

[rjfrandle]

After getting my 211 set up last night, this morning when I got up, I had no channels. So I unplugged the 211, not the hard drive. I plugged it back in and everything came back including the DVR functions. I thought maybe after Jim's post that I would lose my DVR functions, but so far they are there. I'll see if they are still OK when I get home from work this afternoon. Why is it bad if my WD My book runs all the time. Doesn't the one in the 622?

 

[Foxbat]

After getting my 211 set up last night, this morning when I got up, I had no channels. So I unplugged the 211, not the hard drive. I plugged it back in and everything came back including the DVR functions. I thought maybe after Jim's post that I would lose my DVR functions, but so far they are there. I'll see if they are still OK when I get home from work this afternoon. Why is it bad if my WD My book runs all the time. Doesn't the one in the 622?

My 211 is configured to reboot at 5 AM. I woke up this morning to no DVR functions! I did not unplug the EHD but performed the one-fingered-salute. After the reboot, the DVR button works again.

I hope this isn't going to be a daily ritual...

 

[ontwowheels]

My 211K now has DVR. It was not a pretty activation, long story short, I think instead of taking 15 mins to activate it was more like two hours. This was around 11:00pm last night. I tried it again this morning, and DVR function still there.

One thing strange last night, when the function activate, at one point it deactivated...but activated again...then ever since it had been fine.

 

[rjfrandle]

Foxbat...what kind of hard drive did you say you have on your 211?

 

[bubba04]

I got my WD HDD to finally activate. The trick was to use the method discovered here. Just have them send a 'hit' to the receiver while the 499 message is displayed. After 2 hours on the phone with various CSR's, this is the only thing that worked. When the CSR sent the hit to my receiver while message 499 was displayed onscreen, 2 mins later the format message came on and I was good to go.

As for the HDD being on all the time, I was under the impression that all DVR HDD were on always. I have a 501 and even though I turn off receiver, I can still hear the HD working away. This is why they have a message on the receiver itself that one should wait at least 30 seconds after unplugging the unit before physically moving it. I assume this gives the HDD a chance to spin completely down.
Bubba04

 

[sdmrt29]

After all the talk and promise and waiting, it's here. I picked up an external hard drive, checked to be sure I had the correct software version for my VIP211, plugged it in, made a phone call, bit the bullet for yet another USB activation fee (previously paid for my 622), did a hard re-boot, waited a couple of minutes, walked through the series of install messages, and magically the transformation is complete. It all works. Pause, reverse, forward, jump back, jump forward, record, playback, everything my 622 does. The process could not be easier, and the tech on the phone with me could not have been nicer. Thanks Jamison!

This is very kool everyone. This site has been terrific in providing the information, the whats, and the hows, to getting the most out of my home entertainment equipment.

The new EHD I picked up is a Western Digital My Book Essential 750 GB. It's my third (the other two are on a 622 and a 722). They've performed flawlessly for me since day one of the USB capability last year. Why not stick with a proven product.

 

[muskie-mike]

Got my Seagate Freeagent 500gb harddrive working today. Yesterday I called the CSR # and the said it was activated but didn't work.Waited about 8 hours and tried again and again they said it was activated but still no go.waited til today and called the tech # and they said the activate was never sent out. I unplugged and plugged my harddrive and while the 499 screen was on he sent the activate code out and the format screen came up and it's all working now.I had two activating charges on my bill and he said he would remove one---whew--

 

[Juan]

My 211 is configured to reboot at 5 AM. I woke up this morning to no DVR functions! I did not unplug the EHD but performed the one-fingered-salute. After the reboot, the DVR button works again.

I hope this isn't going to be a daily ritual...

Disable sleep mode. u need to go to the WD website and download there application (search for disable sleep mode)

 

[Pinchhitter]

I had activation issues as well yesterday.
I attached a 750GB Maxtor OneTouch 4 and then called the 800 number, nothing happened.

Called tech support and after some research the CSR indicated that it shows I called the 800 number for activation but that the call was terminated before activation occurred, even-though the automated message said it was ready to use.

The CSR said this was the first activation call he received, so I knew more about this than he did. To his credit he took down the model number of the drive I used plus I told him about Western Digital and Seagate models I heard that worked, so he could assist future customers.
He sent the hit to the receiver and then it worked.

So obviously the automated phone line activation does not work.

So far so good, it is now functioning without issue.

 

[rjfrandle]

Disable sleep mode. u need to go to the WD website and download there application (search for disable sleep mode)

I think he is using a seagate drive right now. So, do WD My book Essentials have sleep mode. Maybe that's why I lost all of my channels last night, and had to reboot my receiver. How would you disable sleep mode while it is hooked up to the 211?

 

[rcbridge]

Just got off the phone with Dish tech support, at this time all is okay!!
DVR appears to be working, just set up a short manual timer to test out!!