Hopper Crash - Won't turn on

[voripteth]

Last night the Hopper had the red recording light on but I couldn't get it to respond to the power button. I tried both the remote and the front panel. Finally I hit the orange reset button, figuring I could at least watch what was recorded up to the reset. As it turns out there was nothing recorded prior to the reset. The Hopper resumed recording after the reset but there was no recording prior to the reset despite the red LED showing.

I'm starting to wonder if I really do need a replacement Hopper and this isn't just a software glitch.

 

[voodootroy]

I saw the same thing this week. Hopper would not turn on till i hit the reset. It must have happen Tue night. I'v been so busy that i haven't had time to watch anything. So that's where the Hopper comes in handy...BUT...It didn't record ANYTHING sine Tuesday night..!! Hummm... this thing has been more problems then help. I understand it's new and has bugs. But its bad bugs, because the bugs are affecting the reason to have a Hopper. I'll stick it out a little wile longer. But not much longer....

 

[GaryPen]

This happens to me almost every day since the 217 SW update.

 

[copperavery]

This happened to me a week or ten days ago, but I don't remember the record light being on. First thing in the morning, I tried to turn on the Hopper, but got no response with remote - just dead. Reset did nothing, so I unplugged it, plugged it back in and it's been working OK since. I asked a Dish employee on this forum about it and he said heat may have played a part, but as I said, this was first thing in the AM, and ambient temp was about 71 deg. As far as I know, the box had been off all night.

 

[voripteth]

Now that I think about it my 722k was doing something similar if I didn't reset it on a weekly basis. Even if the 722k wasn't misbehaving I would reset it to keep it from failing. Eventually the software got stable enough that it didn't have to be done as frequently. The difference was that recording programs interrupted by the reset were still saved on the 722k. I was surprised they weren't on the Hopper.

My Hopper failure was the first time it happened for me. Then again with my SD audio failures, I've done resets about once a week anyway so it's hard to tell about the stability.

 

[voripteth]

My Hopper suffered another crash on Sunday. I was replaying a show and hit the search button to set a timer for something mentioned during the show. No screen appeared and buttons were non-responsive for about 10 seconds yet the show continued to play. After 10 seconds the screen turned black. I pressed the reset button to reboot the Hopper. When it finally came back it did resume the show at about the point where I hit the reset. My Hopper is still on 217.

 

[GaryPen]

My Hopper is still on 217.

As is mine. And, I too suffer from freezing and lockups, most often when in standby.

The thing that concerns me is that the reason my (our) SW may not be updating is because the unit is locked up at the time it would normally download.

Of course, if they would simply update all receivers of a specific model at the same time, and make it possible to manually start an update, it would take all of the guess work out of it.

 

[voripteth]

I presume that the updates happen early in the morning around when PTAT auto-hop info gets downloaded. If I reboot my hopper as I go to bed hopefully it will be stable long enough to get the update.

 

[GaryPen]

I presume that the updates happen early in the morning around when PTAT auto-hop info gets downloaded. If I reboot my hopper as I go to bed hopefully it will be stable long enough to get the update.

I was up watching TV at 1am last night, when these updates are supposed to happen, and nothing happened. Very disappointing. I thought it was supposed to DL guide info every night.

 

[rogerpl]

My install is thursday- i assume with 221 SW. Marriage will be in shambles if too many problems! I've seen software updates at any time usually 3-4 in the morning

 

[GaryPen]

My install is thursday- i assume with 221 SW. Marriage will be in shambles if too many problems! I've seen software updates at any time usually 3-4 in the morning

That timing was true with VIP models. For some reason, they happen at 1am with the Hopper. I'm not sure of their logic in choosing a time when many people are watching TV. But, quite frankly, I can't figure the logic behind many of their decisions.

 

[rogerpl]

That timing was true with VIP models. For some reason, they happen at 1am with the Hopper. I'm not sure of their logic in choosing a time when many people are watching TV. But, quite frankly, I can't figure the logic behind many of their decisions.

Yup 1:00 - I'm usually watching something.

 

[MikeD-C05]

My first hopper seems to want to update around 3:30am central time , right when my wife is trying to watch tv before she goes to work at 4:30am. I got tired of her bitching about it ,so i set a timer up for 3:30am till 4:30 on channel 101. Hoping this will force the hopper to update before 3:00am. I get new guide data for 8 days, so I know the guide is updating ,but I wonder about the software updates ,since the older hopper is stuck on 217 still.

 

[GaryPen]

Yup 1:00 - I'm usually watching something.

My first hopper seems to want to update around 3:30am central time , right when my wife is trying to watch tv before she goes to work at 4:30am.

Hmmm. 1am Eastern, and 330am Central. Weird.

BTW Mike - Are you having any issues with the one still on S217?

 

[MikeD-C05]

Hmmm. 1am Eastern, and 330am Central. Weird.

BTW Mike - Are you having any issues with the one still on S217?

To be honest with you Gary, I didn't get my dual node with my second hopper that I ordered , so I just installed the new one in the place of the
old hopper, because I knew I would get the latest software if it was new. My dual node will be sent to my house by Wednesday around 5:00pm. By Thursday morning I can re-install my old hopper and see if there is any problems. Saturday I spent an hour or two re labeling the coaxes under the house and dug up my old coaxes ,so I could re do them at the dish with no barrel connectors etc. I would do the hopper re-install Wednesday night if I wasn't working 1:00pm to 9:00pm. But I will let you know if I see any problems ,once I'm all connected again.

 

[dontpanic]

The update time for both of my Hoppers changed from 1:00am (Pacific) to 1:30am on S217 (didn't get S215 or S216). Just got S221 on both this morning, so we'll see if that changes.

 

[voripteth]

I just got 221 as well. Hopefully stability will be much better.

 

[GaryPen]

I, too, just got S221 over night. Let's raise our coffee cups, and toast to the hope of a stable Hopper.

 

[rogerpl]

I, too, just got S221 over night. Let's raise our coffee cups, and toast to the hope of a stable Hopper.

HIP HIP HOORAY!
My install is thursday- stability with hopper will keep marriage stable.

 

[GaryPen]

To be honest with you Gary, I didn't get my dual node with my second hopper that I ordered , so I just installed the new one in the place of the
old hopper, because I knew I would get the latest software if it was new. My dual node will be sent to my house by Wednesday around 5:00pm. By Thursday morning I can re-install my old hopper and see if there is any problems. Saturday I spent an hour or two re labeling the coaxes under the house and dug up my old coaxes ,so I could re do them at the dish with no barrel connectors etc. I would do the hopper re-install Wednesday night if I wasn't working 1:00pm to 9:00pm. But I will let you know if I see any problems ,once I'm all connected again.

You're a better man than I. I have often thought about redoing the coax under the house. But, I just can't bring myself to crawl around under there.

I still might do it someday. It would be a beautiful thing to have new coax and add cat6 to every room. OTOH, I could do it through the attic, as well. So, I may go that route. It's hot as hell up there. But, it beats squirming around on my back with subfloor in my face for hours.