Coolsat 8000 disaster!

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shadyone

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Jan 25, 2008
24
1
Last night my cs8000 locked up while changing channels. No big deal as this seems to happen every couple of weeks and a reboot with the back power switch always fixes it. Well, last night before I could get off the couch to reset the receiver, it started rebooting itself and came up to the initial install screen. Thats right, all my channel and satellite data was gone:eek: On the no-blindscan 8000, this means I have several hours (at least) of work to manually enter settings, transponders and satellites. I thought someone posted recently that one of the newer software versions allowed transponder and channel data to be saved and retrieved. I have the latest 3rd party software installed (I'm always hoping that the ota guide will be added) but cannot find any option to save the channel data. If someone knows how to do this please tell me so next time this happens, it won't be such a pain. BTW, Don't worry about me having the latest 3rd party software since I don't have any dishs set up for 110 or 119.
 
Hello Shady,
Any of the 3d party firmware, beginning with 12001 can be effectively backed up to your pc over the null modem cable. You have to go into the menu system, and arrow left to find "S/W Upload" .
Hit the Okay button.
The open "CS Upgrade v3.01" on your computer.
Select Mode = "Upload"
Type = " firmware and channels", then
browse to a location and name the file you want to create.
Having done that, click on START and the TV screen should show
Please wait, and the upload will begin.
The resulting file can be reloaded into your cleared CS8000, and it will be complete.
Even my motor settings ( but not saved Diseqc 1.2 positions, since they are stored in the motor) come back . The newer firmware has been a big improvement on this one score.
:)
 
I have the latest 3rd party software installed (I'm always hoping that the ota guide will be added)
Don't bother with 3rd Party Firmware, only a few FTA Channels have any Guide info. Usually that info is added by the Provider.
 
I'm not hoping for a fta guide but for a ota guide for the local broadcast stations thru the built in atsc tuner. According to Iceburg the original software had a guide but no satellite ability. All versions since have not had an ota guide. This is frustrating since every $40 digital converter box has a guide but a $400 hd dvb rec seems to not be able or willing to include one for ota channels. If the folks at coolsat(and most other stb makers) cared more about true FTA and less about serving the pirates, maybe we could get some more useful features for our boxes:mad:
 
Don't bother with 3rd Party Firmware, only a few FTA Channels have any Guide info. Usually that info is added by the Provider.

I think he said OTA guide, not FTA guide. The guide info is definately there, but the Coolsat doesn't seem to decode it for some reason, and I keep hoping that a new version will fix that too. The 3rd party firmware is unfortunately the only way to get some of the bugs in these receivers fixed.

....

The resulting file can be reloaded into your cleared CS8000, and it will be complete.
Even my motor settings ( but not saved Diseqc 1.2 positions, since they are stored in the motor) come back . The newer firmware has been a big improvement on this one score.
:)

I'm curious whether you've had any problems going between the firmware versions that use the 31 sat format and the new 3rd party versions that seem to give you access to the whole sat list? Since the old channel data file definately had those 31 sats as part of the file, and the new version (which I haven't yet looked at with a binary editor) probably doesn't, it made me think that the file format must have changed, and I wasn't comfortable loading channels from one version to another.

I'm also a bit annoyed that instead of giving you a way of creating a new satellite (such as AMC21), and giving it a longitude position, that it seems like you now have to use one of about 4 or 5 "USER" sats. I thought that I would just re-name an unused sat, but you don't seem to be able to change the longitude so it would be in the right place, unless I'm missing something.

Right now I have the Coolsat 8100 (saving channel data is MUCH easier with it, as you do it to a thumb drive), and a Diamond 9000. These two receivers drive me crazy. Both of them will work perfectly for a week or two, then start to go beserk, freezing or rebooting for the Coolsat, and video stopples for the Diamond, then after a week or two they will start working perfectly again. Luckily, about 75% of the time one of the two is working, and during the time that both are not working, I just stream from my Twinhan to a Roku. But it's really annoying that these things just seem to have a mind of their own.

The darn Coolsat HAD been working perfectly, until on Jan 1, I tried watching an ABC feed of the Rose Bowl, and it froze up the Coolsat so bad that even cycling the power switch wouldn't bring it back. I had to disconnect the lnbf coax, and disconnect my hard drive, to get it back to life, and now it's starting to go through it's rebooting thing again.
 
I had the same issue the other day and I have the latest factory software in my 8000. Turned it on and it rebooted and started from scratch. Erased all channels. Alot of the satellites in the dish setup said "null" and would freeze if I selected it. I had no choice but to do a factory reset which sucks for reasons above.

Also, the sat list is outdated with names so renaming them took some time.
 
I think he said OTA guide, not FTA guide. The guide info is definately there, but the Coolsat doesn't seem to decode it for some reason, and I keep hoping that a new version will fix that too. The 3rd party firmware is unfortunately the only way to get some of the bugs in these receivers fixed.



I'm curious whether you've had any problems going between the firmware versions that use the 31 sat format and the new 3rd party versions that seem to give you access to the whole sat list? Since the old channel data file definately had those 31 sats as part of the file, and the new version (which I haven't yet looked at with a binary editor) probably doesn't, it made me think that the file format must have changed, and I wasn't comfortable loading channels from one version to another.

I'm also a bit annoyed that instead of giving you a way of creating a new satellite (such as AMC21), and giving it a longitude position, that it seems like you now have to use one of about 4 or 5 "USER" sats. I thought that I would just re-name an unused sat, but you don't seem to be able to change the longitude so it would be in the right place, unless I'm missing something.

Right now I have the Coolsat 8100 (saving channel data is MUCH easier with it, as you do it to a thumb drive), and a Diamond 9000. These two receivers drive me crazy. Both of them will work perfectly for a week or two, then start to go beserk, freezing or rebooting for the Coolsat, and video stopples for the Diamond, then after a week or two they will start working perfectly again. Luckily, about 75% of the time one of the two is working, and during the time that both are not working, I just stream from my Twinhan to a Roku. But it's really annoying that these things just seem to have a mind of their own.

The darn Coolsat HAD been working perfectly, until on Jan 1, I tried watching an ABC feed of the Rose Bowl, and it froze up the Coolsat so bad that even cycling the power switch wouldn't bring it back. I had to disconnect the lnbf coax, and disconnect my hard drive, to get it back to life, and now it's starting to go through it's rebooting thing again.

You cannot go back to the 31 Sat format without a complete start-over . That is the problem with the 31 Sat format. Can't reload a saved configuration UNLESS you've never changed their sat table from the defaults ( which are ridiculous).

I renamed Galaxy 14 to GAL14/AMC21 and put the Ku tp's on it. If you COULD insert a satellite into their list, it would screw up the index ( which is now apparently by orbital position, instead of 31 place sat table ) and you couldn't restore your old stuff and keep the new AGAIN. Frustrating that it's not perfect, but I like the newer software better than the older fixed table software.
:)
 
.......
The resulting file can be reloaded into your cleared CS8000, and it will be complete.
Even my motor settings ( but not saved Diseqc 1.2 positions, since they are stored in the motor) come back . The newer firmware has been a big improvement on this one score.
:)

.......
I renamed Galaxy 14 to GAL14/AMC21 and put the Ku tp's on it. If you COULD insert a satellite into their list, it would screw up the index ( which is now apparently by orbital position, instead of 31 place sat table ) and you couldn't restore your old stuff and keep the new AGAIN. Frustrating that it's not perfect, but I like the newer software better than the older fixed table software.
:)

Since my 8100 started rebooting again :( I decided to clear everything out and start over, but this time, I decided to try reloading the old saved channels.
Previously, I had been using the most recent factory firmware, which had been the first factory firmware that my receiver wouldn't reboot on, but then it started rebooting, so I switched to the newest hacker software, which initially didn't reboot, and it also had the new channel configuration rather than the 31 channel deal talked about above.

Well anyway, and I had noticed this once before, but I decided to use the "clear" software to supposedly clear out the memory, then loaded up the most recent factory firmware. When I did this, out of curiosity, I checked, and there were no channels loaded. Then I loaded in the newest hacker software, which was what I was using before my unit started rebooting.

The interesting thing, is that after re-loading the hacker software, my previous channels came back, even though I had supposedly cleared the memory. At first, they didn't work, because even though the channels were there, the satellite parameters (lnbf type and LO freq and switch settings) were not correct, but after I changed them, the channels came back!

This is both a great improvement, and also a bit interesting. It's interesting because I would have thought that doing the "clear" thing would have wiped out any saved channels, and after loading the factory file, they WERE gone. But I guess that the channels were still in there, but in a format that the older firmware couldn't read. I did NOT erase the channels before or after reloading the firmware, so perhaps I should have done that.

Re the great improvement, and why I've been hesitant to try re-loading saved channels even though you've posted that it works, is that with the old 31 channel firmware, the saved channels had all the satellite parameters, and that couldn't be changed. Ie, if I saved a channel with say diseqC port 3, but then went outside, and switched the coax over to port 4, then came back inside thinking that I could go into the Dish setup, and change the sat parameters, and get my channels back, that would not work, because the port 3 info was stored into the channel data. I would have to re-scan the channels, and I'd end up with duplicate (except for switch port) channels, one set which worked, and the other set which didn't work.

Well this looks like now, the channel data is referenced to the satellite settings in the DISH setup. This is the way most other receivers work, and it's a great improvement. I only wish that they would come out with a real factory file that works like this. The most recent one on their web site is like from back in September, and it still uses the old 31 channels format.

Anyway, so far so good with respect to the reloading software fixing the rebooting, at least temporarily. Hasn't rebooted once.... yet. I'm sure it will start again, but if I can recover by reloading software without having to put all my channels back in, that won't be too bad. I've been afraid to load more than just AMC-21 , G25 and G28, which are the main sats I've been watching.
 
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