722 problem

[Hoosier-Daddy]

On Sunday afternoon, I was watching a recording (The Cain Mutiny) and when I tried to exit, the 722 froze up instead of returning to live programming. So I did a long press of the on/off button. When the system came back, it played live just fine and the guide worked. But if I pushed the Dish button on the remote to access recordings, I got an error saying: "Server connection failure. Receiver is unable to connect to network server". The error number was 145. Web search didn't find anything useful.

I tried unplugging the 722 for a while and that had no effect: played live fine but, errored when trying to access recordings. But when I did it again, I got no picture or sound at all and no lights on the 722 other than a brief green light when powered on and then intermittently after long intervals coinciding with the fan noise that comes with power on. Although the screen was blank, the TV constantly reports there was a source at 1080i on that HDMI port which is normal for the 722.

Although a disk hardware problem shouldn't cause this, I wanted to see if maybe it contributed to a more complex problem, so I took the cover off and unplugged the SATA cable from the drive. When i did that, live pictures came back.

So I wondered if a disk failure may be causing some software problem. I plugged the SATA cable on the 722 internal drive into a SATA to USB3 adapter and found I could see and read the various 722 disk volumes just fine from a PC. Of course that doesn't rule out some data corruption BUT I could still play videos directly from the 722 drive on the PC, at least the dozen I tried.

At this point, I don't know if there is a problem with software embedded in the 722 or some corruption on the disk. BUT, I don't have a way to run any disk diagnostics on the 722 since the 722 is completely dead if the SATA cable between the drive and MB is connected.

So unless someone has seen this and has a fix, my preference is to somehow reflash the 722 itself and see if that fixes things. If that doesn't work, I could wipe the drive BUT I don't really have a way to do that since the 722 won't even boot with the drive attached via SATA and my PC access is via software that only provides read access.

I want to do it in that order (722 first, then disk if needed) because I'd like to retain many many recordings on that drive. And it appears that the disk is probably okay since I can browse the directories and even view every video I try if I attach said drive to a PC.

Any suggestions or insight?

 

[navychop]

No. You cannot watch on a PC.

Sounds like a bad case of Hopperitis.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

No. You cannot watch on a PC.

Uhhh. Okay.............................

Since I never wanted to watch on a PC, I have no idea what that adds to the discussion.

Not to mention, its not even true that you can't watch PVR recordings on a PC. I described exactly how I did just that to help diagnose the problem

Its obviously more convenient to watch videos from the PVR where they are accessible by name and date rather than some cryptic file names generated by the PVR, but the actual video files on the internal 722 hard drives are generic .ts video files easily playable on a PC by plugging the PVR internal disk into said PC at least for everything I record. But like I said, who would want to do that other than FOR DIAGNOSTIC reasons as in my case?

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Cliff's notes version without the clues from the original post:

Dish 722 is dead when the internal disk drive is connected to the MB with its SATA cable. 722 works fine when the SATA cable is unplugged from the MB other than the expected inability to play recordings or skip in live broadcasts.

Its not a typical HD problem because said internal hard drive is fully readable and videos are playable when connected to a PC for diagnostic purposes.

Looking for how anyone else solved that same problem.

Baring that, looking for how to flash the 722 (not the drive) back to original state since a corruption MIGHT be the root issue.

If that doesn't work, looking for how to wipe the drive and restart. The normal way isn't available since the 722 won't boot with the physically fine HD connected to the MB.

 

[KAB]

My advice is to just contact DIRT for a replacement, in that I don't think any of your ideas will reap success.

 

[the mack]

I could still play videos directly from the 722 drive on the PC, at least the dozen I tried.

Really? Thought they were encrypted?

Either way the drive has failed or is failing. Time for a replacement receiver or replacement drive if you can find one. Has to be a drive on the list of working drives, not any old drive will work.

 

[TheKrell]

I am suspicious of the SATA interface on the receiver. What happens when you plug in another working SATA disk? Does the receiver boot then? If not, something is seriously wrong with that interface. No, wait a minute... Did you using a different internal SATA cable with your USB adapter? Maybe the cable went bad. I had 4 cables in a NAS go bad on me and it drove me nuts before I thought to try different cables. Cables are passive and about the last thing you think of when diagnosing disk problems.

TheMack: no, most channels on Dish are not encrypted on the internal disk.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

@ TheKrell:

A faulty SATA socket on the 722 MB was the ONLY hardware failure that seemed possible to me. I mean the 722 works fine without the HD connected and the HD can be accessed fine when connected to a PC. This is why I would prefer to not have Dish replace the 722. No reason to think it would be any betrter than what I already have if I just reformat my drive to wipe out the file contents that I suspect the 722 software is choking on. I think its a software problem in that the software is encountering corrupted data it wasn't programmed to recover from.

Even the 722 SATA cable was used when connecting the HD to the PC so the cable is eliminated as the failure point. But the 722 SATA port seemed like a thousand to one shot. And I did not have a sure way to tell if it was bad.

I don't have any spare drives that the 722 is programed to recognize so didn't know what result would tell me about the socket. I do have numerous SATA drives lying around but they all have backups of one type or another on them and was a little worried the 722 would try to immediately format one even if it wasn't a model the 722 was programmed to recognize. Too much uncharted territory for such a low chance of getting useful info.

Can anyone confirm its safe to plug in another drive without the 722 trying to format it?

And does anyone know of a way to reflash/refresh the code embedded in the 722 MB? Its a long shot BUT the only possible way to save my DRMed recordings.

And if those are dead ends, does anyone know how I can force the 722 to reformat the drive since it won't boot with the drive in it. If I format the drive for Windows from a PC, will that cause a 722 to immediately format it again when it sees that?

@TheMack, yeah as TheKrell says, not even all the premium channels have any DRM. HBO/MAX and some others do and bizarrely some channels you'd never expect like CNBC do (so no bootlegging box sets of the evening news!) but the vast majority are not. There are even open source utilities to extract recordings from the drives which basically is just a matter of a straight copy and renaming the file to indicate its contents instead of the meaningless file name assigned by the PVR.

I am suspicious of the SATA interface on the receiver. What happens when you plug in another working SATA disk? Does the receiver boot then? If not, something is seriously wrong with that interface. No, wait a minute... Did you using a different internal SATA cable with your USB adapter? Maybe the cable went bad. I had 4 cables in a NAS go bad on me and it drove me nuts before I thought to try different cables. Cables are passive and about the last thing you think of when diagnosing disk problems.

TheMack: no, most channels on Dish are not encrypted on the internal disk.

 

[Hoosier-Daddy]

I found instructions for clearing NVRAM on a 722 in several places with a web search.

I'd like to try that. Unfortunately the instructions all include pressing a TV/Video button on the remote. My remote and all pictures of DISH remotes.I have seen do NOT have a button labeled TV/Video. The closest is "View Live TV". Anyone know what button is the TV/Video button?

 

[Tony S]

Hoosier-Daddy, Dish encrypts the recordings on their hard drive. Normally, when you connect a Dish hard drive to a PC, you cannot play back any of the recordings. If you were able to do that, something is very wrong in your receiver. I have to agree with the other posters that said your best bet is to call Dish and get a replacement receiver.

 

[pattykay]

I found instructions for clearing NVRAM on a 722 in several places with a web search.

I'd like to try that. Unfortunately the instructions all include pressing a TV/Video button on the remote. My remote and all pictures of DISH remotes.I have seen do NOT have a button labeled TV/Video. The closest is "View Live TV". Anyone know what button is the TV/Video button?

"Input"

Also, I am curious, did you try selecting the Factory Defaults setting in the menu while the drive was disconnected, to see if that would help?

 

[Bob Haller]

Hoosier-Daddy, Dish encrypts the recordings on their hard drive. Normally, when you connect a Dish hard drive to a PC, you cannot play back any of the recordings. If you were able to do that, something is very wrong in your receiver. I have to agree with the other posters that said your best bet is to call Dish and get a replacement receiver.

wonder if someone has found a way to break that encyrption somehow?