Hopper 3 keeps losing EHD connection

[BobMurdoch]

I have two hard drives plugged into my Hopper 3. They worked fine for months after I got the Hopper 3 in February. About two weeks ago or so they stopped showing the drives as a tile on the dvr screen. I can bring them back by unplugging and replugging and then doing a hard reboot, but they disappear again. Anyone else seeing this issue?


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[Tony S]

I had that problem a long time ago with Seagate drives. When the drive went to sleep, the receiver would not be able to 'wake up' the drive. I had to unplug/replug the drive multiple times for the receiver to recognize the drive. At the time (many years ago) Seagate had a firmware update that helped. What kind of drive is it? If it always worked before, could a recent Dish firmware update have cause the problem?

 

[BobMurdoch]

They are both Western Digital My Book drives. Been rock solid on my 722, and 622, and worked fine when I ported them both to my Hopper 3 when I upgrade earlier this year. There must have been some recent update that created this issue as it hasn't been a problem until recently. It is annoying to have to keep unplugging and replugging the drives and then plugging them back into Hopper 3 and then rebooting. There is no hub in between, they are plugged directly into the hopper.

 

[kwindrem]

I have two hard drives plugged into my Hopper 3. They worked fine for months after I got the Hopper 3 in February. About two weeks ago or so they stopped showing the drives as a tile on the dvr screen. I can bring them back by unplugging and replugging and then doing a hard reboot, but they disappear again. Anyone else seeing this issue?


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I have never seen my external drive show up as a tile on the DVR screen where the programs are shown. I need to go into the Sources menu, select the external then return to the DVR page.

In my case, I get a list of programs right away but without tiles. It takes some time -- maybe 30 seconds for program tiles to show up. Then, selecting a program and attempting to play right away doesn't work. I need to exit the DVR menu then go back in, select the external and the program I want to watch. Then it always works.

I'm not sure if that is the same as you are seeing, but this has always been the way it worked on H3. There has been no recent change in EHD behavior on my H3.

 

[BobMurdoch]

For most of the year, there was a tile that said "External". You'd click on it and get to choose between the hard drive built into the Hopper 3, External Drive 1, and external hard drive 2.

Now the tile is gone. I have to keep removing the USB cables and reinstall them. Sometimes it pops right up, sometimes I have to do a reboot. Then comes the nightly reboot and it disappears again.

Anyone else running into this? Is it a new bug that a new software version introduced, or is it just something weird going on with my receiver alone?

 

[ErikB]

Bob, I have the same problem, exactly as you describe. When I initially set up my H3 a few months ago the EHD was visible, then a couple days later it was gone and the only thing that would bring it back was a hard reboot of either the EHD or Hopper or both. When the EHD is not visible, that means there is no Sources option on any menu, and if you try to use the save to EHD function you get a message that there is no external drive.

For some reason in the last few weeks it has somewhat improved. The EHD will become visible again from time to time without me doing anything. I was hoping this meant there had been a software fix, but it seems odd that the behavior is sporadic if it's a software problem.

Like you I have a Western Digital drive that worked fine on my 722. I would suspect the problem is related to the drive model except that my friend has the exact same hardware (same WD model and H3) and never has had this problem.

 

[BobMurdoch]

OK, I will just have to keep rebooting things to clear until they can figure it out.

 

[docdaddy]

Yeah, same here, using a My Book EHD. I usually have the Sources icon, but almost always, the first time I pick a program to play on the EHD, I just get a black screen. I have to exit, go back to live TV of some kind. then back to the EHD, then the program will usually play.

The other problem I've been having is that, when I move programs to the EHD, later when I try to access the EHD it shows transfer in progress, with 0 seconds left. when I hit stop, it will show something like 4 minutes 58 seconds left, but that's static - never changes. A reboot is usually required to fix this.

 

[guruka]

Yup. Confirmed with Hopper 3. I use an external USB 3.0 dock. Tried both a WD Green drive as well as a Seagate Red drive. It's not the drive. It's the Hopper. Rebooting the Hopper enables it to see the EHD again but after a while it no longer sees it. Unplugging and replugging the USB cable does not fix the issue. Turning off the drive and turning it on again does not fix the issue. Only rebooting the Hopper works. Bummer. This certainly needs to be fixed.

 

[stardust3]

Happening pretty regular here too. Doesn't bother me but what does drive me crazy is the wife constantly complaining about it.

 

[KAB]

FWIW, I have two docks with no problems. Always present.

 

[docdaddy]

Yup. Confirmed with Hopper 3. I use an external USB 3.0 dock. Tried both a WD Green drive as well as a Seagate Red drive. It's not the drive. It's the Hopper. Rebooting the Hopper enables it to see the EHD again but after a while it no longer sees it. Unplugging and replugging the USB cable does not fix the issue. Turning off the drive and turning it on again does not fix the issue. Only rebooting the Hopper works. Bummer. This certainly needs to be fixed.

Exact same thing here, with two different drives. One directly plugged into the USB 3 on the Hopper. Tried another drive using an external USB 3.0 dock. Same behavior with both EHD systems.

I can't seem to find anything in common with those having the issue and those who report they don't have the problem.

 

[docdaddy]

FWIW, I have two docks with no problems. Always present.

For data gathering what are the details of your system? I assume a Hopper 3 - what EHD hardware are you using?

 

[JS_racer]

Wd USB 2.0 drive from my 622 722 and now h3 is seen all the time. I just get the black screen trying to play the first show. Have to hit dvr, then select the same ehd show and it plays fine. The sources icon thing is always shown.

 

[docdaddy]

Wd USB 2.0 drive from my 622 722 and now h3 is seen all the time. I just get the black screen trying to play the first show. Have to hit dvr, then select the same ehd show and it plays fine. The sources icon thing is always shown.

That's really interesting. We've had some similar issues in the past, like the black screen/first play issue, and others, but I'd LOVE to not have to do a red button reboot every morning (often it takes two red button reboots in a row.)

I've got a full WD MyBook Desktop External USB 3 drive with it's own power cable, which is what I've used most of the time, and on the recommendation of someone here also tried a Seagate USB 3.0 drive powered via a USB dock. Both have the exact same problem. I've also tried connecting the drive via the USB 2.0 connection (just trying everything) and that doesn't help.

So I don't think it's the specific drive since I've tried two very different drives. And once I get it recognized, it will stay recognized all day and through late night. Just something that happens between when we go to bed and get up in the morning. VERY frustrating, If I thought a replacement H3 would fix it, I'd go for that, but I'm afraid that I'd go through all the hassle of moving timers and recordings and would have the same problem.

 

[guruka]

For data gathering what are the details of your system? I assume a Hopper 3 - what EHD hardware are you using?

Dock One: Thermaltake BlacX Hot-Swap SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station
Dock Two: Plugable Technologies USB 3.0 SATA III Vertical Hard Drive & SSD Docking Station

Drive One: WD Green 2TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5-inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, IntelliPower, 64MB Cache WD20EZRX
Drive Two: Seagate 4TB Enterprise NAS SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive (ST4000VN0001)

Yes, Hopper 3 receiver running latest public firmware. Both drives are partitioned by the Hopper as 2TB. Tried both docks (separately) with each drive inserted. All worked fine for 24 hours or so then got dropped by the Hopper requiring a receiver reboot to become visible again.

BTW, the ViP 722 receiver and the Hopper 1 never lost sight of the drives (using the USB 2.0 dock.) The problem only started when I began using the EHDs with the Hopper 3. That's why I say it's a Hopper 3 issue.

 

[Almighty1]

Dock One: Thermaltake BlacX Hot-Swap SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station

Just to make sure we have the same thing, what is the P/N on the product label on this one?

 

[guruka]

Thermaltake model number ST0005U

 

[KAB]

For data gathering what are the details of your system? I assume a Hopper 3 - what EHD hardware are you using?[/QUOTE}Two Thermaltake docks, two WD bare bones drive, a 500Mg Black, and a 1T Blue.

 

[Almighty1]

Thermaltake model number ST0005U

There should be something after the ST0005U like ST0005U-x where x is some letter that follows it.