Help, my new 508 just blinks @ me?!?

[FreakOfTheWeek]

Help, Just hooked up a 508 and all I'm getting is a blinking red light, i.e. the record light just blinks... the box is not functioning. It appears to be in some state that I've never seen one of these boxes in before. Don't have a warranty, does anybody know how to recover???

 

[AppliedAggression]

Did you try to do anything to it? hack?

 

[FreakOfTheWeek]

Did you try to do anything to it? hack?

No, not at all.

 

[David_Levin]

Where did you get it? Contact the seller....

Is the hard drive spinning?

If you're not concerned about warranty, open her up and check for lose ide and/or power cables.

There are some special 50x codes that test and initialize a drive... I'll have to get them from home.

You could plug the drive into a pc and run the vendor diagnostics (BUT DON'T REFORMAT IT - some sectors contain box critical information).

If the hard drive is ok, your're probably sol. If the hard drive is bad your just 'mostly' sol.

It's possible to replace it, but DEFINATELY NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dishmod/
(read, read, read - then, read some more)

 

[AppliedAggression]

I've had the blinking red light, but a hold of the power button fixed it. Levin knows what he's talking about, follow his advice.

 

[David_Levin]

Actually, after more thought. I've never herd of a hard drive problem resulting in a flashing light. Though it never hurts to check for lose connections.

You might want to post to the dishmod group. Those people have messed up thier 50x's in ways you probably couldn't imagine.

 

[MikeHDTulsa]

The 508 is in Dish Networks lock down mode, I had bought a 501 from Ebay that did not have a smart card that used to be a retail display and it did the same thing. I called Dish Network and gave them the receiver number and told them I had a spare smart card from a 2700 model I quit using and they helped me get it up and going. I had to remove my smart card first and let the unit get the latest download and then they married my smart card to the 501 and it has worked from that time on. Just give Dish Network a call you may have to talk to advanced tech support.