Please give me advice 625 hard drive

ageism

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Dec 2, 2006
95
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I have a 625 receiver. I record everything I watch. So therefore I put a lot of wear and tear on it. I have had this 625 for about 3 years. That is much recording. The problem I am having is the recorded programs sometimes will freeze, The picture will stay but the voice continues as if everything is ok. Another problem is the picture will get all full of pixels and skip. Fade out but after a while will return ok. Something like rain fade. But it is not rain fade. Sometimes the recording will skip ahead. Not far but a few words. There are other problems but I think you can get the picture of what is happening . Wondering if the hard drive is going bad and the receiver needs replaced . Also wondering if like a computer that acts up that a defrag will fix the problem sometimes. So if I watch all the programs and do a clean disk will this fix the problems? If you guys think that will work how would I do it?. Looked at menu and found no such fix. Your advice is much needed for I know a bunch of you all are smarter than I. Thanks
 
check your signal levels,
and have you tried a hard reboot? (pull ac plug for 5 minutes)
run a switch check after receiver "completely" restarts.
 
Ours does the pixel/skip/freeze thing as well. A tech replaced the previous receiver, a 625, did it also. We've given up and resigned to the fact it is either the receiver's being buggy or the signal or both. We've been told the signal is as good as it'll get. Something about duel tuners not ever being able to have a full signal because of the split duel tuners have in them. When they replaced the last receiver they did say the pixel/skip/freeze shouldn't be happening. We did notice when they set this one up the signal dropped from 98 to 70. It actually dropped from what it was before they made the replacement.

We've decided to wait till it fries, we're afraid to lose any more signal than we did last time the replacement was made. I'm marking this thread though because I'm curious as to what is really causing the issues.
 
That is a lie about dual tuners splitting the amount of signal. It doesn't work that way. Sounds like you may have trees or other things in your signal path. In any case if your signal is dropping off then it will cause these problems. You need someone who can peak your dish or move it to better location to improve your signal strength and more importantly the signal stability.
 
Ours does the pixel/skip/freeze thing as well. A tech replaced the previous receiver, a 625, did it also. We've given up and resigned to the fact it is either the receiver's being buggy or the signal or both. We've been told the signal is as good as it'll get. Something about duel tuners not ever being able to have a full signal because of the split duel tuners have in them. When they replaced the last receiver they did say the pixel/skip/freeze shouldn't be happening. We did notice when they set this one up the signal dropped from 98 to 70. It actually dropped from what it was before they made the replacement.

We've decided to wait till it fries, we're afraid to lose any more signal than we did last time the replacement was made. I'm marking this thread though because I'm curious as to what is really causing the issues.
Sounds like when you changed receivers you new receiver took the download for the upgraded signal meter. The only thing you actually lost was the display values on the meter.:) You probably have a refurb unit that is still BAD.
 
ageism, Go to diagnostics, counters and tell us what the temperatures are. I'd wager it is overheating. I had a 522 that exhibited the same symptoms until I took the top cover off so the heat could escape. If the hard drive overheats there will be problems with the filesystem, if the signal processing overheats there will be problems with the signal.

Bad cooling design persists through the ViP series of DVRs where there is no real way for the heat to escape. And if you never unplug it or have a power outage, the thing just continually generates more heat.

There's a good discussion around here where somebody took pictures of the bottom of the board under the tuner chips of a 522 (same mainboard as 625) and there were visible burn marks. If you do take the top cover off of yours, be sure not to reach in and touch any of the chips on the board, you might leave part of your flesh in there as it sears to the chip surface. :)
 
We had a similar problem with our 625 after the in line amp died. Before that no problems. Put up with it for about a month. Replaced the amp and artifacts and audio skips went away. Total distance from antenna to receiver 150'+.
 
That is a lie about dual tuners splitting the amount of signal. It doesn't work that way. Sounds like you may have trees or other things in your signal path. In any case if your signal is dropping off then it will cause these problems. You need someone who can peak your dish or move it to better location to improve your signal strength and more importantly the signal stability.

I figured it was a lie. We have absolutely NO trees in the LOS of the dish either. Then again when the guy tells you "I'll call you on the phone you tell me what the signal reads so I don't have to get out the..." I should have known to get the shovel out. Also mentioned don't call anyone else just call them to come back. As far as we know per the receiver it came out of a sealed box with all the parts still in plastic. The other receiver was only about 20 months old and as far as we knew all software was up to date as it had the 150 hr patch. Looks like a call to Dish is in order instead of the local retailer.

Do you think a usb powered laptop cooling mat would keep temps down on the thing? Just a though. Ours is in an open air tower plenty of space just thought of this as a possible option though.
 
Thanks Guys, I have the temps. high 114 low 102 adv 105. Are these temps ok?
 
I would say your 625 is bad. Mine has run for nearly 3 years with various recordings, etc. (I still have 2+ year old PPV stuff from when Private was still carried by Dish.)
 
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