Hopper 3 Hard Drive Failure

[AndrewFromID]

Last night I got a "Hard Drive Error: 311" on my new Hopper 3. After chatting with support, I've been offered a replacement, as well as a $5 credit for 6-months.

I had to go back and forth a bit with customer support. The originally offered me a $0.53 credit for missing 4-days of service. I have no idea where they get that number, but my rationale was, I'm a brand new customer, and I just lost about a week's worth of recordings, as well as the ability to record new shows or watch TV while I wait 4-days for my replacement. So that's 10 days of interrupted service, about 1/3 of a month. I pay $75/mo for service, so a $25 credit would be appropriate. It took a bit of chatting, but they finally agreed on the 6-month $5 credit.

But now I've got a couple of questions:

• My Hopper 3 is on an open shelf, with no blockages on the front, sides or top. Is there anything I can do to stop this from happening again? From looking at other threads, it looks like some people have bad luck with refurb replacements as well. Is it possible to have my recordings auto-backup to an external drive so if this does happen, I don't lose my DVR'd shows?
• My Hopper 3 is now totally nonresponsive. It won't get past the error message and let me watch TV (except for CNN that was the last channel I was tuned to, and only then behind the error message). It actually wont' accept any codes from the remote. Is there any way to fix this so I can at least watch live TV while I wait for my replacement DVR?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

If a hard drive does normally it is within the first few weeks of use.

I don't think that the way you had it stored had anything to do with it at this young age.

 

[Fiveft20in]

My Hopper 3 hard drive failed after about three weeks' use. However, it happened during a blizzard when the power flickered on and off continuously throughout the morning and was eventually off for well over an hour. When it came back on, I got the same error you did (311). Live TV was normal, but there was no DVR, pause, rewind, or anything else that depended on the hard drive - even channel icons in the guide.

The message said that sometimes the problem can be resolved by unplugging the Hopper from the wall and plugging it back in. After three failed attempts, I contacted Dish support via chat, who in turn had me call by phone and request Advanced Support. The tech had me try another power cord reset, followed immediately by a red button reset, but to no avail. He immediately made arrangements to send me a new H3, advising me that my recordings would be lost (which, of course, I already knew). He did mention that if it should happen to start functioning again before the replacement arrived, I could always back up my recordings on an external drive. (Yeah, right, I thought to myself.) He did not offer any credit, nor did I expect it.

Later that night, I tuned to Channel 370 to watch Netflix, not even thinking that it, too, depends on the hard drive. The Hopper froze on the Netflix splash screen. It was totally unresponsive and I had no choice but to do a red button reset. When it came back on, everything was back to normal. All my recordings were there and everything functioned properly. Dish had already shipped the replacement, so I went ahead and went through with it. I decided I'd rather not take a chance on a hard drive that had already failed once, even if only temporarily.

 

[jackdemcak]

One day after installation, my Hopper 3 displayed a Hard Drive Error 311, Ref 521 error message. When I ran diagnostics, it showed the hard drive 100% full. I don't think I could have filled a 2 TByte drive in less than 24 hours, so I assumed something went amiss with the Hopper's firmware.

I restored the system's state from the remote controller and the problem went away. The hopper has now been running flawlessly for 6 weeks since I restored the system.

 

[peterfan]

Same thing here after a simple storm power outage. Hard disk no go. New one on the way...

 

[DurnDog]

Mine did the same hard drive 100% full and I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Now more issues since.

 

[Northwoodsviewer]

One day after installation, my Hopper 3 displayed a Hard Drive Error 311, Ref 521 error message. When I ran diagnostics, it showed the hard drive 100% full. I don't think I could have filled a 2 TByte drive in less than 24 hours, so I assumed something went amiss with the Hopper's firmware.

I restored the system's state from the remote controller and the problem went away. The hopper has now been running flawlessly for 6 weeks since I restored the system.

When you say restored system's state, what do you mean? Did you restore to defaults or did you just do a reset?

 

[Bobby]

5 year old post. I doubt that you will get an answer.

 

[Howard Simmons]

5 year old post. I doubt that you will get an answer.

I think there's a conspiracy here of bringing up old posts.

 

[jackson85]

My Hopper 3 hard drive failed after about three weeks' use. However, it happened during a blizzard when the power flickered on and off continuously throughout the morning and was eventually off for well over an hour. When it came back on, I got the same error you did (311). Live TV was normal, but there was no DVR, pause, rewind, or anything else that depended on the hard drive - even channel icons in the guide.

The message said that sometimes the problem can be resolved by unplugging the Hopper from the wall and plugging it back in. After three failed attempts, I contacted Dish support via chat, who in turn had me call by phone and request Advanced Support. The tech had me try another power cord reset, followed immediately by a red button reset, but to no avail. He immediately made arrangements to send me a new H3, advising me that my recordings would be lost (which, of course, I already knew). He did mention that if it should happen to start functioning again before the replacement arrived, I could always back up my recordings on an external drive. (Yeah, right, I thought to myself.) He did not offer any credit, nor did I expect it.

Later that night, I tuned to Channel 370 to watch Netflix, not even thinking that it, too, depends on the hard drive. The Hopper froze on the Netflix splash screen. It was totally unresponsive and I had no choice but to do a red button reset. When it came back on, everything was back to normal. All my recordings were there and everything functioned properly. Dish had already shipped the replacement, so I went ahead and went through with it. I decided I'd rather not take a chance on a hard drive that had already failed once, even if only temporarily.

I tried watching Netflix on my Hopper3, and it did the same thing to me and my wife. If you are going to watch Netflix, and you have a smart tv, just watch it on the Smart TV Apps.