Could hard drive be fried?

[Susied]

For the past week, my joeys have periodically gone to black screen when changing channels, and if I reboot the Joey it would come back. Even turning off the joey for a couple minutes would bring picture back. The DVR was acting weird when fast forwarding and skipping back, but I tolerated it, just thought there might be a glitch. Today, the Hopper3 started doing it. I unplugged a few times, then left unplugged for over an hour. After that, picture came back. But, no DVR. No pause, rewind, recordings, nothing. When I attempt to do anything, the message pops up “features using hard drive are not available at this time”. I’ve never heard of that message so I’m concerned. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[tjboston5676]

There has been software issuesrelated to dvr and black screens, that should of been resolved with latest update. As far as features using hard drive not available that's usually a bad hard drive. If it continues to pop up and your dvr shows a red 100% full and no recordings then it's gone and need new receiver.

 

[Susied]

Oh ok, thanks. That’s what it does. Says 100% and no recordings. I checked the software and it says 364, updated 10/23. Weird that it happened at the same time. I’ll try calling them again. Had no luck in the middle of the night with tech. They don’t seem very knowledgeable.

 

[That American Girl]

This may have been mentioned, but is your. Hopper plugged into a power strip/surge protector?

If so try bypassing that and plugging it straight into the outlet. Sometimes that helps.

 

[tjboston5676]

Oh ok, thanks. That’s what it does. Says 100% and no recordings. I checked the software and it says 364, updated 10/23. Weird that it happened at the same time. I’ll try calling them again. Had no luck in the middle of the night with tech. They don’t seem very knowledgeable.

So something weird is going on. Im a tech and I had two calls today that both the Joey's weren't displaying picture, both had hard drive failure, both occurred after software update to x64. Seems like the x64 software is somehow killing hard drives.

 

[HipKat]

My fix for the Black Screen is tune to ch 198, you'll see the Red Dish logo for a sec, then the channel will come in and after that, it's all good

 

[That American Girl]

My fix for the Black Screen is tune to ch 198, you'll see the Red Dish logo for a sec, then the channel will come in and after that, it's all good

Is that at the Hopper, and/or the joeys? or both?

 

[HipKat]

Is that at the Hopper, and/or the joeys? or both?

All the above but typically, it's the Joeys that have the Black Screen issue

 

[Jay50]

I have had the issues with black screens on the Joeys where nothing works. A program was being recorded at the time on the DVR so I didn't want to restart the Hopper. I disconnected the power to the Joey and when it came back, it worked "normally."

Both Hopper and Joey viewing result in black screens for 2 minutes when playing back a timer recording of Fox News, then another 2 minutes when attempting to skip in either direction. Fast forward and fast rewind still work, but the reported 15x speed is actually 60x because it will advance or retard 1 minute for every second you hold down the button. If you've had the Hopper/Joey on Fox News (or any program for that matter) for up to an hour, you can rewind to the beginning, again up to an hour. Their advertisement sessions are 6 minutes or longer. I used to be able to hit skip forward 12 times and it would advance 6 minutes, but now if you hit skip forward with more than 1 skip press at a time, it will advance to the end of the recording and you will have to do a fast rewind all over again. It is pretty obvious by now that all of this is to make ad-skipping very inconvenient after Fox News lost its lawsuit against the DVR suppliers including Dish Network. The last H264 (Hopper with Sling) update was 10/19 and the problems began before that. ***This has been going on for long enough for me to wonder whether it is really actually a software error that the engineers haven't yet figured out or, more likely, an actual, built-in feature.***

 

[tjboston5676]

I have had the issues with black screens on the Joeys where nothing works. A program was being recorded at the time on the DVR so I didn't want to restart the Hopper. I disconnected the power to the Joey and when it came back, it worked "normally."

Both Hopper and Joey viewing result in black screens for 2 minutes when playing back a timer recording of Fox News, then another 2 minutes when attempting to skip in either direction. Fast forward and fast rewind still work, but the reported 15x speed is actually 60x because it will advance or retard 1 minute for every second you hold down the button. If you've had the Hopper/Joey on Fox News (or any program for that matter) for up to an hour, you can rewind to the beginning, again up to an hour. Their advertisement sessions are 6 minutes or longer. I used to be able to hit skip forward 12 times and it would advance 6 minutes, but now if you hit skip forward with more than 1 skip press at a time, it will advance to the end of the recording and you will have to do a fast rewind all over again. It is pretty obvious by now that all of this is to make ad-skipping very inconvenient after Fox News lost its lawsuit against the DVR suppliers including Dish Network. The last H264 (Hopper with Sling) update was 10/19 and the problems began before that. ***This has been going on for long enough for me to wonder whether it is really actually a software error that the engineers haven't yet figured out or, more likely, an actual, built-in feature.***

If you're on h264, there's a new update out h265

 

[Susied]

Hello, I posted this, and tech was sending a new hopper3. I got a call from advanced tech and he told me this was not just happening with me. He had me do a manual update on the Hopper3 and my recordings came back, and it started operating normal.
I have a Joey in my master bedroom, it shows the last update is J266. I watch tv mainly in that room and the DVR has completely gone bonkers. Literally has a mind of its on. I couldn’t even begin to name all the bizarre things it does. If I skip 30sec, it will go to beginning. Sometimes it just sits there and does NOTHING. When it freezes, I am unable to change channels or operate it in any way. Rebooting the Joey does nothing. If I reboot the Hopper3 it will go back to operating normally for a while. So, my question is, since I have to resort to rebooting the hopper, could this in fact be a hopper issue? Or is it the Joey? Or could it be the software?
Tech does not seem to understand. They have me at the hopper, and it’s working, getting no errors, so what’s my complaint?
tThat the Joey DVR is useless.

 

[Susied]

I have had the issues with black screens on the Joeys where nothing works. A program was being recorded at the time on the DVR so I didn't want to restart the Hopper. I disconnected the power to the Joey and when it came back, it worked "normally."

Both Hopper and Joey viewing result in black screens for 2 minutes when playing back a timer recording of Fox News, then another 2 minutes when attempting to skip in either direction. Fast forward and fast rewind still work, but the reported 15x speed is actually 60x because it will advance or retard 1 minute for every second you hold down the button. If you've had the Hopper/Joey on Fox News (or any program for that matter) for up to an hour, you can rewind to the beginning, again up to an hour. Their advertisement sessions are 6 minutes or longer. I used to be able to hit skip forward 12 times and it would advance 6 minutes, but now if you hit skip forward with more than 1 skip press at a time, it will advance to the end of the recording and you will have to do a fast rewind all over again. It is pretty obvious by now that all of this is to make ad-skipping very inconvenient after Fox News lost its lawsuit against the DVR suppliers including Dish Network. The last H264 (Hopper with Sling) update was 10/19 and the problems began before that. ***This has been going on for long enough for me to wonder whether it is really actually a software error that the engineers haven't yet figured out or, more likely, an actual, built-in feature.***

Has yours since been fixed? Mine is doing the same as yours and it’s not just FOX. I have the problem on TCM, Locals, all channels.

 

[navychop]

There is a Joey. Several flavors, actually.

And there is a Hopper with a DVR function. Joeys depend upon the Hoppers for the DVR function. No DVR in the Joey.

 

[Susied]

There is a Joey. Several flavors, actually.

And there is a Hopper with a DVR function. Joeys depend upon the Hoppers for the DVR function. No DVR in the Joey.

Oh well, of course! I was actually typing without thinking. The software. i wouldn’t think they would update independentl, although my Joey reboots every night? The Joey says it hasn’t updated since 11/13, whereas the hopper shows updated on 11/17. I also have a Joey3 which shows updated on the 17th. Could the Joey be done for? It’s an older model which I chose to keep because of the function of the recall button switching between two channels.

 

[navychop]

Good luck. I have no understanding of Joeys to help.