811 freezes

[deno24]

hey was hoping some can tell me why my 811 freezes when i tune to my locals which are on ch. 006-1 and 00-12. It never fails everytime i switch to them the STB locks up, and has to do a complete signal acquisition routine. both ch. have 85 or above signal strength. Im beyond pissed off with this as these are my local HD channels. MY other 3 local HD's are fine. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Carl B]

For the past 4 to 6 weeks my 811 (owned since 12/03) has also taken to freezing and initiating a self-rebooting. This typically occurs on an OTA channel. The software is P380, which is what it has been for months. The wife is getting so torqued, this may be the straw that breaks us back into Comcast cable (she was already PO'd when I told her that our 811 was going obsolete and eventually it would cost us $49 upfront to LEASE a new HD receiver from Dish and our monthly bill would increase by $15 for essentially the same channel package we currently have).

 

[Carl B]

Another thing that happens in these failure scenarios is that when initiating a channel change, besides the freeze on one channel, it will start flashing something about "Smart Card doesn't allow for this channel". Of course the channel is one that is in my package or is another OTA channel.

Never had this problem before in almost 3 years of Dish 811 ownership. Just started in past 4 to 6 weeks. Hard to call Dish support and complain because I can't reproduce the problem on demand. It just happens randomly. Soft re-booting fixes the immediate problem, but doesn't keep it from happening again. I'm going to try a hard reboot next time.

 

[Stats8]

Same thing here, it started at 4-6 weeks ago. I get a 005 message "not authorized to view this channel".
I have also called, they say its a defective 811.
I do not think so. I think its a problem with their encryption technology affecting the 811. If I leave the 811 on the channel, it will come back after 2-7 minutes.
It is very annoying, and something they should be able to fix at their end

 

[VegasVoomer]

My 811 was having problems alot. The ones listed above plus it would lose signal from all sats. and I would have to go through disconnecting another receiver in the house and rebooting the 811 and WAIT for 10 minutes for it to go through all the checking crap. My solution--leave the 811 powered on ALL THE TIME. I havnt turned it off in 3 months and it hasnt failed yet. Every now and then it has to download the program guide but thats no problem.

 

[deno24]

ok thx for the advise i will leave it on and see if that helps.

 

[Carl B]

Have any of you that are having these freeze and Smart Card message problems activated the new software option that puts your 811 to sleep if there isn't any activity (video feed out I think) for some period of time (2 hours I think)? I ask because I activated it and now I'm wondering if that is what is causing some of my problems.

I'd appreciate any feedback from you guys having the same issues.

Thanks,

Carl B.

 

[Stats8]

I have not activated that option, and I still get the message, although it has not shown up for a week or so. I used to get it every day.

 

[cyberized]

My 811 has started doing this CRAP - AGAIN - this past week it did it 2 days in a row; it had to Search for Satellite etc. and then WAIT for programming to load down.............. I turn it OFf every night, does not make a difference. I am finding anymore that IF you have a program you want to watch at say, 8 PM, you had better turn your Dish Receiver 811 on 10 minutes early because it may have to set itself up all over again. What a "Pain in the ASH!"

 

[Carl B]

I deactivated the Power Save option and did a soft reboot. I'll see if the weird "not authorized on my Smart Card message" problem reappears and post an update here.

 

[kb7oeb]

I was getting the smart card error message so I checked sysinfo and I noticed the phone icon was Red so I strung a phone cord over and had the 811 dial in. I haven't seen the message since. I have the power off option disabled but my 811 turns off anyway.

 

[techweb]

hey was hoping some can tell me why my 811 freezes when i tune to my locals which are on ch. 006-1 and 00-12. It never fails everytime i switch to them the STB locks up, and has to do a complete signal acquisition routine. both ch. have 85 or above signal strength. Im beyond pissed off with this as these are my local HD channels. MY other 3 local HD's are fine. Any thoughts on this?

No guarantees this will help, but try this. First disconnect the TV antenna cable from the 811, then scan for local DTV channels to clear out the channel list completely. Re-connect the TV antenna cable, then rescan for local DTV channels. Sometimes local stations change PSIP info, and this may negatively affect the 811 when tuning to locals

 

[Carl B]

One week with the Power Save option deactivated on my 811 and no screen freezes with the Smart Card message. I'll continue to monitor and report on this experiment.

 

[kb7oeb]

I haven't either, I wonder if it was a sympton of dish doing an attack on pirates.