Hopper black screen issue

[DW7000]

Hey guys!

I've been experiencing a frustrating issue with my Hopper. I have one Hopper and one Joey. The problem is this sequence, which lately has become a daily occurrence:

1. I'm watching live TV
2. The screen goes black and the audio cuts out
3. I press "Guide" and can see the guide. I press "Menu" and can see the menu, but under that it is still a black screen.
4. I change the channel. The programming resumes.
5. I can go on watching TV, however I am now in some kind of malfunction mode. When I press PAUSE, I get the pause icon on screen, however the programming continues on without pausing. I press REWIND, and the rewind icon appears, however the programming continues on in live mode. I go to my DVR recordings and play one of them. The on-screen graphics react as if I were playing a recording, however the live programming continues. I've tried switching tuners, but that doesn't help.
6. I press the red reset button; the Hopper resets and all the functions return as normal. All is well, except steps 1-5 keep happening at least once per day.

The other odd thing is I just got this box about a month ago as a replacement to my previous Hopper. They had to send the replacement because the previous one kept deleting all of our recordings. The really weird thing is I experienced the problem I described above a few times with the old Hopper (just not every day like I'm experiencing now). Could it be an issue with my Joey? They never replaced that. Otherwise I just don't know why I'd keep having this issue even with a new Hopper.

I do use the Netflix app a lot, which itself sometimes hangs. I'm wondering if that could be a cause?

I keep contacting Dish customer support, but can't seem to get them to understand the problem. They keep walking me through their flowchart and coming to the conclusion that if I'm pressing PAUSE and it's not pausing then the problem is with the remote. That's not it, because obviously the box is responding to the remote input and displaying the pause icon, it's just not pausing.

Thanks for any advice!!

 

[KAB]

Bad hard drive, IMO. Contact DIRT to get their feedback. Is your unit in a WELL ventilated area, and are you plugged directly into a wall outlet or a power strip or UPS?

 

[DW7000]

It's pretty well ventilated. It's on a wooden media shelf with several inches of space all around. It is plugged into a surge protector power strip. My suspicion is that, since this is a replacement for another Hopper with a defective hard drive, maybe they ended up sending me someone else's problem. Maybe someone else had these issues, sent it in, they did their diagnostics which didn't show any problems, and ended up sending me that unit. On both this unit and my last defective one (which kept deleting recordings), the HDD field in the diagnostic screen show green ("OK").

 

[SQUEEZON]

My Hopper which is about 4 yrs old just experienced the same thing last night. My picture freezes and goes black . I have to switch to another program and come back to it. This happens on all channels, and also watching a recording . Checked all signals --fine-checked for error codes-none-also reset Joeys, Hopper etc
Will be contacting DIRT tomorrow

 

[dennispap]

If I remember right they advise to plug the box directly into the wall, not a power strip/surge protector. I would try plugging directly to the wall for a few days and see if that helps.

 

[Quinn3]

I just had this problem and I will share the solution that worked for me.
Go to the Hopper box, flip down the front panel.
Press the red "reset" button
Go back to the Joey that you are having problems with and hold down the "Power" button the the front of the box for 20 seconds.
The screen will flash from black to Dish Joey several times but just hold that button down.
After 20 seconds, let go and wait. It worked for me. I hope it helps others.

 

[bookworm370]

I just had this problem and I will share the solution that worked for me.
Go to the Hopper box, flip down the front panel.
Press the red "reset" button
Go back to the Joey that you are having problems with and hold down the "Power" button the the front of the box for 20 seconds.
The screen will flash from black to Dish Joey several times but just hold that button down.
After 20 seconds, let go and wait. It worked for me. I hope it helps others.

Yeah, that will generally always work but not a good thing if you are currently recording something to reset your Hopper or are in PrimeTime Anytime hours. Losing 10 minutes of programming that you were hoping to record is a bummer.

IMHO, and I've seen the same thing as well, is that the darn screens should not freeze up! Luckily it only happens to me about every 2 weeks. If it does, I just leave it if I'm recording something or until after PTAT hours to do the reset.