GEOSATpro Geosat HDVR 3500 no memory

wagonman76

SatelliteGuys Guru
Original poster
Nov 11, 2006
148
96
Northwest Lower Michigan
I have a Geosat HDVR 3500 which I have been using for about 4 years. I love it and it still works with one problem. It won’t hold memory when you power it down. Even with a soft power down, leaving the switch in the back on, it loses its entire RAM and you have to totally start over. It also takes a long time to boot up, like 5 minutes or so. But once it’s going and you don’t turn it off it’s fine. Only issue is when my power goes out I lose it all again. So when I want to watch something I just scan in that satellite. I’m about ready to get a UPS for it but I wanted to see if there was a more proper solution, maybe a software reflash? Not that I’d know how to go about that.
 
Just put in a blank thumb drive. The one in it, is 64GB.
 
Hmm so the box must not like reading from a drive. I had a 4gb drive that would fit the space, confirmed it was FAT32 and functional, and still the same, it won’t save after power down. 4GB should be plenty to save one bird and a few channels. Oh and on both drives the LED comes on at boot and flashes a few times at load just like it always has. So it seems it is acknowledging that drives are present.

I then took the existing drive to my computer and it’s functional too. FAT32, 64GB, and all the 30GB of stuff I recorded over the last couple years is still on there. As well as a USB Update Bin file and a Lost Dir (empty). I copied it to my computer just so I have it.

I guess next thing is make sure the pins in the jack look good. Both drives fit nice and snug. But I gotta work early so I’ll do that tomorrow night.
 
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My guess is it is not the flash drive.
 
So I couldn’t help it I checked the pins and fired it up again. Saved a bird and some channels. Turned it off and yep it’s gone.

I noticed my recorded stuff is accessible and I can even watch it. So it can read from a flash drive. I just won’t write to a flash drive. Assuming that’s where the birds and channels and configuration settings are saved. I haven’t tried recording anything else yet.

If I have to send it in for repair then I’ll just put a UPS on it and backup everything to a large flash drive so I can just put it back if I lose power. But it would be nice to find what’s going on.

Ok sleep for real this time. Thanks all for the help so far.
 
So I couldn’t help it I checked the pins and fired it up again. Saved a bird and some channels. Turned it off and yep it’s gone.

I noticed my recorded stuff is accessible and I can even watch it. So it can read from a flash drive. I just won’t write to a flash drive. Assuming that’s where the birds and channels and configuration settings are saved. I haven’t tried recording anything else yet.

If I have to send it in for repair then I’ll just put a UPS on it and backup everything to a large flash drive so I can just put it back if I lose power. But it would be nice to find what’s going on.

Ok sleep for real this time. Thanks all for the help so far.

IF there's a firmware download available
for it, even if it's the same one, reflash the receiver and see if that fixes it.

This is Hypermegasat's forum for this receiver, and he has firmware and all sorts of info specifically for it. IF you don't have an account there, I GUARANTEE you its a safe forum, and there's no issues registering and using it: Login

Code:
http://legalfreetoair.com/index.php?board=80.0
 
IF there's a firmware download available
for it, even if it's the same one, reflash the receiver and see if that fixes it.

This is Hypermegasat's forum for this receiver, and he has firmware and all sorts of info specifically for it. IF you don't have an account there, I GUARANTEE you its a safe forum, and there's no issues registering and using it: Login

Code:
http://legalfreetoair.com/index.php?board=80.0

Thanks for the info. I’ll join the other forum and make sure I know exactly what I’m doing first so I don’t brick it.

It’s weird. I just tried recording a few minutes of another show and it wrote to the drive doing that. Just won’t save the settings.
 
I'd be surprised if the settings are saved to the thumbdrive. All I've seen save settings to a memory chip. The smallest Skhynix chip on the board is an Sdram memory chip (2GB?) and is likely where the settings are saved. The first thing I would try is reflashing the firmware.
 
Correct, user settings are not saved to the internal USB, but are written to flash. A broadcaster that I occasionally work with had noted that the failing internal USB caused many operational issues including corrupted settings.

wagonman76, No need to join a forum to find a solution. For a hardware support issue, contact the manufacturer, Satellite AV.

On a side note, I wonder how large of USB drive is recognized in the internal slot? :)
 
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I had issues similar to those after I had a storm pass by and lightning strike very close by. It still worked, but was locking up or not saving settings. I contacted Satellite AV and they sent me a replacement and returned my damaged one after I received it. Also a bad power supply, surge protector, or an over loaded electrical outlet can cause strange things to these receivers.
 
I contacted Satellite AV and they said to flash with the latest firmware. I did that and still no difference. I’m not even sure what’s changed in the firmware from the old one.

But I did learn that not only can I save my settings to a flash drive, but can save them to the internal drive, and it’s easy to restore them after I lose them. Just a few button clicks to do both. That gives me some confidence back, and tonight I started loading up channels again.

I have noticed my Ku isn’t working right. Either a voltage block coupler is bad, or my multi switch is bad, or my receiver isn’t putting out the 13/18 volts.
 
I contacted Satellite AV and they said to flash with the latest firmware. I did that and still no difference. I’m not even sure what’s changed in the firmware from the old one.

But I did learn that not only can I save my settings to a flash drive, but can save them to the internal drive, and it’s easy to restore them after I lose them. Just a few button clicks to do both. That gives me some confidence back, and tonight I started loading up channels again.

I have noticed my Ku isn’t working right. Either a voltage block coupler is bad, or my multi switch is bad, or my receiver isn’t putting out the 13/18 volts.
If I were you I would replace that HDVR 2500 with an OS Mio from Titanium, You can get excellent support on this forum and over the phone with Brian. Its a very capable receiver. Loving mine so far -- best FTA receiver I have ever owned.
 
If I were you I would replace that HDVR 2500 with an OS Mio from Titanium, You can get excellent support on this forum and over the phone with Brian. Its a very capable receiver. Loving mine so far -- best FTA receiver I have ever owned.

Thanks I’ll keep that in mind. I figured out my Ku issue was just a bad 13/18v splitter and I have some spares.
 
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