Do updates disable all dvr recievers?

whatusernamesareleft

On Vacation
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
137
1
Wisconsin
I heard the fan blaring this morning on my 612 dvr. Another update apparently to a old reciever for what reason? It also doesnt respond to remote or the buttons on the unit until its reset. Why is this? I bet it causes a high volume of calls.
 
What time do you have set for updates? Could be it was still in progress, and it would not respond until it's done. Otherwise, updates, do, from time to time, need the reset to complete. But it is rare. You are probably and isolated case. Also, a good time to ask, is your 612 in an open, well ventilated area? Could be an overheating problem instead.
 
I get the feeling you don't understand updates. Why would the remote work while the receiver is updating? No different than a computer. When updates are being installed (not just downloaded) you can't use a computer either. Why wouldn't you want new features. Most people complain a company does not support past equipment, you are complaining Dish updates their receivers with the latest software! There are updates to the guide and other minor things for the nightly update.

I'm not sure the VIP612 is considered an old receiver, it is a frontline receiver installed everyday. The 612 was buggy when it first came out, through updates it is a very solid receiver now.
 
What time do you have set for updates? Could be it was still in progress, and it would not respond until it's done. Otherwise, updates, do, from time to time, need the reset to complete. But it is rare. You are probably and isolated case. Also, a good time to ask, is your 612 in an open, well ventilated area? Could be an overheating problem instead.

Nope when the fan whizzes like that I know an update has been pushed through. I never have over heating problems.
 
I get the feeling you don't understand updates. Why would the remote work while the receiver is updating? No different than a computer. When updates are being installed (not just downloaded) you can't use a computer either. Why wouldn't you want new features. Most people complain a company does not support past equipment, you are complaining Dish updates their receivers with the latest software! There are updates to the guide and other minor things for the nightly update.

I'm not sure the VIP612 is considered an old receiver, it is a frontline receiver installed everyday. The 612 was buggy when it first came out, through updates it is a very solid receiver now.

I am not complaining they update it, I am complaining about it either having to be reset or unplugged for it to work again. It shouldnt take 12 friggin hours or more for an update to complete! I didnt just fall off the turnip truck yesterday buddy.
 
I am not complaining they update it, I am complaining about it either having to be reset or unplugged for it to work again. It shouldnt take 12 friggin hours or more for an update to complete! I didnt just fall off the turnip truck yesterday buddy.

You also didn't say anything about it taking 12 hours in your post. If you read the first reply by KAB, he thought the same thing I did, that you were trying to use the remote during a normal update. To me, when you say "Another update apparently to a old reciever for what reason?" that sounds like complaining to me. And I explained why it gets updates. It also wasn't clear you had to reset it when you say "It also doesnt respond to remote or the buttons on the unit until its reset."

In any event I was honestly trying to help, and I would take the advice given and check for overheating.
 
You also didn't say anything about it taking 12 hours in your post. If you read the first reply by KAB, he thought the same thing I did, that you were trying to use the remote during a normal update. To me, when you say "Another update apparently to a old reciever for what reason?" that sounds like complaining to me. And I explained why it gets updates. It also wasn't clear you had to reset it when you say "It also doesnt respond to remote or the buttons on the unit until its reset."

In any event I was honestly trying to help, and I would take the advice given and check for overheating.

I heard that fan going crazy at 3am it was still doing it at 8am. I will try the button commands from KAB mentioned.
 
It's becoming a little clearer what happened to your 612. I have two 612's and this has (very rarely, like once/year) happened to me too. 3AM is the normal default time for these receivers to reboot, reacquire the sats, and download a completely fresh copy of the EPG and set themselves back up to record your timers. The 612 fan on high is rather noisy, and the only time I normally hear this is if I'm awake at 3AM. In regular operation, it never spins that fast, unless it has crashed or failed to reboot properly. I think that's what happened to yours, for reasons unknown. Glitch in power at an inopportune moment?

Nobody in Dish engineering has come forward to explain why they have their DVR receivers reboot daily. I don't remember this happening to my old 301's or 311's, but I think my 501 and 625 did. I used to leave my 4900 on all the time, and I never found it in need of rebooting. I speculate that Dish DVRs all have memory leaks, and the longer you run it, the more bogged down or glitchy it gets. So... Rather than fix the bugs, they reboot the receivers every day. I repeat this is pure speculation.

Now, I completely disagree with you that the 612 is an "old receiver" that does not need firmware updates. It needs updates, and the next one I sincerely hope it gets is the new EPG where you can select HD only. This will spare my wife and I needless conflict on our bedroom TV. She always scans upward in channel number while surfing, and stops on the first channel she sees with something interesting. This drives me crazy because I hate looking at a little postage stamp picture on our 32" HDTV. Why exactly did we buy all this HD equipment if we're going to look at a crappy picture-framed SD picture? :rant: Other things I would love to see on my 612's is GoogleTV integration, 3D, or Sling Adapter capability. Or heck I'd settle for some form of MRV off the other 612 or 722 or shared storage on a NAS.

The current firmware for a 612 is still L642. Is that what you have?
 
It's becoming a little clearer what happened to your 612. I have two 612's and this has (very rarely, like once/year) happened to me too. 3AM is the normal default time for these receivers to reboot, reacquire the sats, and download a completely fresh copy of the EPG and set themselves back up to record your timers. The 612 fan on high is rather noisy, and the only time I normally hear this is if I'm awake at 3AM. In regular operation, it never spins that fast, unless it has crashed or failed to reboot properly. I think that's what happened to yours, for reasons unknown. Glitch in power at an inopportune moment?

Nobody in Dish engineering has come forward to explain why they have their DVR receivers reboot daily. I don't remember this happening to my old 301's or 311's, but I think my 501 and 625 did. I used to leave my 4900 on all the time, and I never found it in need of rebooting. I speculate that Dish DVRs all have memory leaks, and the longer you run it, the more bogged down or glitchy it gets. So... Rather than fix the bugs, they reboot the receivers every day. I repeat this is pure speculation.

Now, I completely disagree with you that the 612 is an "old receiver" that does not need firmware updates. It needs updates, and the next one I sincerely hope it gets is the new EPG where you can select HD only. This will spare my wife and I needless conflict on our bedroom TV. She always scans upward in channel number while surfing, and stops on the first channel she sees with something interesting. This drives me crazy because I hate looking at a little postage stamp picture on our 32" HDTV. Why exactly did we buy all this HD equipment if we're going to look at a crappy picture-framed SD picture? :rant: Other things I would love to see on my 612's is GoogleTV integration, 3D, or Sling Adapter capability. Or heck I'd settle for some form of MRV off the other 612 or 722 or shared storage on a NAS.

The current firmware for a 612 is still L642. Is that what you have?

Yep I have That exact firmware. Thanks for everyones help in clearing up why this happens. Does power line noise affect these dvrs? I sometimes hear my ups click during the night. No data recorded for those short events.
 
It's becoming a little clearer what happened to your 612. I have two 612's and this has (very rarely, like once/year) happened to me too. 3AM is the normal default time for these receivers to reboot, reacquire the sats, and download a completely fresh copy of the EPG and set themselves back up to record your timers. The 612 fan on high is rather noisy, and the only time I normally hear this is if I'm awake at 3AM. In regular operation, it never spins that fast, unless it has crashed or failed to reboot properly. I think that's what happened to yours, for reasons unknown. Glitch in power at an inopportune moment?

Nobody in Dish engineering has come forward to explain why they have their DVR receivers reboot daily. I don't remember this happening to my old 301's or 311's, but I think my 501 and 625 did. I used to leave my 4900 on all the time, and I never found it in need of rebooting. I speculate that Dish DVRs all have memory leaks, and the longer you run it, the more bogged down or glitchy it gets. So... Rather than fix the bugs, they reboot the receivers every day. I repeat this is pure speculation.

Now, I completely disagree with you that the 612 is an "old receiver" that does not need firmware updates. It needs updates, and the next one I sincerely hope it gets is the new EPG where you can select HD only. This will spare my wife and I needless conflict on our bedroom TV. She always scans upward in channel number while surfing, and stops on the first channel she sees with something interesting. This drives me crazy because I hate looking at a little postage stamp picture on our 32" HDTV. Why exactly did we buy all this HD equipment if we're going to look at a crappy picture-framed SD picture? :rant: Other things I would love to see on my 612's is GoogleTV integration, 3D, or Sling Adapter capability. Or heck I'd settle for some form of MRV off the other 612 or 722 or shared storage on a NAS.

The current firmware for a 612 is still L642. Is that what you have?

While I can't cite official from Dish to confirm this: my understanding is that in the old day, a great many people NEVER put their sat boxes in standby to allow for critical updates. I can say that I do know that large numbers of people were calling in to complain that their boxes weren't functioning. As it turned out, these people hadn't put the boxes in standby for months and the solution was to turn-off (put in stnadby) the box for a half-hour. And, yes, that solved the customers problems as the box was finally able to download critical updates. WHAT A WAST OF CSR TIME AND GREAT COST TO DISH PAYING FOR ALL THOSE TOLL-FREE CALLS.

Now, the daily "Updates" is also a maintenance program that runs a few tests, and confirmations and is often the time the box contacts Dish if connected to phone or broadband and will later send status info should there be a problem or not. Of course, this forced reboot also means that if there is any critical update, the box will receive it whether one leaves the box on or not. However, I can tell you that if you defeat this by cancelling the daily update when the prompt pops-up, you will have problems as often experienced by my young, nocturnal nieces who have had to contact Dish relating to problems that are solved once the CSR tells them to let the box proceed with the daily update. Now, I'm talking about defeating the Update for WEEKS or longer (as my nieces have), not occasional or a few time a week, etc. The nieces are aware of this now and being nocturnal TV lovers, they have come to respect the Daily Updates and let it do its thing at least a few times a week.
 
Why don't you change the update time to later in the day when your nieces go to sleep, or is your TV on all of the time? My wife works nights so I had mine set for 5AM so she would never have to deal with it.
 
Yep I have That exact firmware. Thanks for everyones help in clearing up why this happens. Does power line noise affect these dvrs? I sometimes hear my ups click during the night. No data recorded for those short events.
If your DVR is plugged into a UPS you shouldn't experience any power line noise. I have always used UPSs for all of my DVRs, and had a 622 from 2005 that never had an issue.
 

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