Is it my external drive or is this just the way the Hopper 3 works?

docdaddy

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 2, 2016
465
277
Birmingham, AL
I've got a WD 2T MyBook Desktop External HD connected to my Hopper 3. I really like that, with Dish, the external USB HD is additive to the H3's internal HD and doesn't replace it (which is how it works with the Genie.)

However - I've got a problem with the way it works, or better said, doesn't work. Whenever I switch to the external drive and select a program to play, I ALWAYS get a quick message too fast to read then just a black screen. I have to go back to live programming, then come back to it and try playing again, and then it will work (as will playing other programs on the external USB then.) But the first time I try to play a program from the external HD I have to jump through hoops, and my wife just gets frustrated and won't try to play anything from the EHD.

The other problem - often after I choose to move a number of programs from the H3 drive to the EHD, it appears to start just fine. I get an estimated time, etc. I go back to watching live TV. Then, a while later after the programs should have been moved (say, the next morning) I try to go to the external drive and I get a progress bar that looks like the transfer hasn't started - if I hit "Stop" I then get a green progress bar, showing something like "8 minutes 32 seconds left" but it's stuck there. I have to unplug the EHD and plug it back in or restart the H3.

Is the H3 just that quirky with EHDs, or is there something going on with my EHD? I purchased it new to specifically use with the H3 (about 3 or 4 months ago.)
 
Yes, the H3 seems to be very quirky with EHDs. I can't get my WD MyBook to work at all on my new H3 and was told by Dish to give them 7-14 business days for a possible fix or fix date. That was just over a week ago.

My guess is your WD may be powering down (into sleep mode) and the H3 is telling you it is unavailable or something similar when it tries to access it. Try this next time before trying to use the EHD, unplug the power to the EHD and then power it back on to spin up the hard drive. See if the H3 can access it. If it can then it is the powering down that is the issue. I think WD has a way to turn that off. I had my WD EHD connected to a ViP 622 for several years and could hear the hard drive spool up before the programs showed up on the screen when accessing it.The H3 may be be as forgiving to the delay.
 
The original Hoppers would show a message that it was preparing the drive for use and then play the selection, when first selecting a recording to play after a period on non use. It needs time to read everything if the drive has a lot of recordings. The Hopper3 has a minor bug in that it flashes the message and goes black if you try to play a recording too soon. You can either wait a bit before trying to play or just exit and come back. No big deal, just a minor nuisance. (My experience with WD drives)
 
I have had the same problems with my Seagate 2tb EHD's also. They go to sleep and it takes a second request to watch anything on them. I've had the problem copying any multiple shows with the first HWS and 3 replacement H3's. I have to only copy 2 or 3 shows at a time or it will lock up like yours. It's not the EHD as I've had the same problems with 6 different EHD'S by WD, Seagate and Toshiba and had the problems before the U331 update on all 4 Hoppers.

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Do not have a Hopper yet, thinking of migrating from my VIP722. btw, the EHD on the 722 does go to sleep, but wakes up normally after I try to access it after a short pause. I think both systems are linux based and can handle a sleeping HDs. IMO it must be a minor glitch in the Hopper software.
 
I have had the same problems with my Seagate 2tb EHD's also. They go to sleep and it takes a second request to watch anything on them. I've had the problem copying any multiple shows with the first HWS and 3 replacement H3's. I have to only copy 2 or 3 shows at a time or it will lock up like yours. It's not the EHD as I've had the same problems with 6 different EHD'S by WD, Seagate and Toshiba and had the problems before the U331 update on all 4 Hoppers.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

That's too bad. It sounds like an H3 problem, as I've not had this issue with my past 722 or 621 Dish IRDs nor the Genie. If I thought changing HDs would work, I'd go through the pain of moving things of the H3 and then replacing it with a different brand/model.
 
I think when we talk about EHD's, we should post the firmware version of the H3 you are talking about. On U336, I have a 4 port switch that disconnects the USB from the H3 so I can pick any two of the 4. All 4 are WD MyBooks so once USB is disconnected they spin down. Once the USB is connected they spin up and after about 15 seconds the Hopper shows that an External Device was connected. Then all is well to transfer or watch from them.

Other firmware releases might not do the same thing.
 
I think when we talk about EHD's, we should post the firmware version of the H3 you are talking about. On U336, I have a 4 port switch that disconnects the USB from the H3 so I can pick any two of the 4. All 4 are WD MyBooks so once USB is disconnected they spin down. Once the USB is connected they spin up and after about 15 seconds the Hopper shows that an External Device was connected. Then all is well to transfer or watch from them.

Other firmware releases might not do the same thing.

So you are saying once your EHD is connected, you can select it, say, 6 hours later and use it with no problems?

The other thing that seems problematic for me is that if I try to move a lot of programs to the drive, it will move some of them then stop. Then when I try to access the drive, I see a screen that shows indicates 0 secs left, if I hit "Stop" it shows something like "8 minutes 22 seconds left" but it is stuck on that. I have seen someone else post that also.

I can't believe everyone or even most people have these issues, or Dish would be flooded with complaints and this forum would be flooded with people complaining about this. I assume for most people the EHD works with no problems?
 
I used the WD utilities and turned off sleep mode and that solved my problems having to take all kinds of steps to simply play a program off the EHD. As for the transfers, it appears the advice to just do it in small steps is good; I still have the lockups if I try to move a large number of programs at once.
 
I have a Seagate 2T EHD I used to migrate from my Hopper to a Hopper3 in August. I've just finished a long round of EHD no longer working with DISH, a replacement Hopper3 and still no working USB ports. A senior tech tonight finally advised there were known issues and the tech team was working on the problem. Wait and see I guess.
 
Always check the recordings list to be sure that one of the recordings is not in progress. A colored dot will show beside a recording that is in progress and it or any in that list cannot be transferred.
 
I used the WD utilities and turned off sleep mode and that solved my problems having to take all kinds of steps to simply play a program off the EHD. As for the transfers, it appears the advice to just do it in small steps is good; I still have the lockups if I try to move a large number of programs at once.

Well - turning off sleep mode DID work and let me simply change to my external HD and play recordings as normal - for a while. Now, it's right back to where it was. I guess I'll check and see if somehow the sleep mode got turned back on, but I can't imagine how that would happen. :(
 
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