Unusual H3 Problem

[scoob83]

Well, this is great news. I assume that this number is normal business hours only? If so, I can try it Friday.
Thanks again.

Worst case, just pay the $95 service call fee. All the companies charge this, even Comcast. If it’s your first time in over two decades you’ve been lucky to not need them out sooner.

 

[HipKat]

After replacing the H3, the issue appears to be gone. I can no longer make it happen by going into standby and coming out of it. It was also working fine this morning after it did the nightly reset and went into standby on its own. Time will tell, of course, but right now, it looks good. The only issue that I had during the swap was that although I backed up timers and settings, and although during the setup process, it said it was restoring them, they were not restored. Also tried restoring them manually from the Tools menu, and still no luck. Luckily, I did make note of the timers that I had, although I won't be able to get back the ones for programs that are not currently airing. I might try doing a backup and restore again before I pack the old H3 up and send it back.

It's a known issue concerning transferring recordings.

 

[joegr]

Worst case, just pay the $95 service call fee. All the companies charge this, even Comcast. If it’s your first time in over two decades you’ve been lucky to not need them out sooner.

No, it's the principle here.
I'd sooner buy a new H3 (at least that way I would get a new one, not refurbished). Would I save anything on my monthly bill if I did (1 H3 and 1 J3)? If so, maybe I could justify that. Otherwise, they replace it at no charge, or it's time to jump ship.

 

[ethanlerma]

Would I save anything on my monthly bill if I did (1 H3 and 1 J3)?

Not really. Owned and leased Hopper 3’s are $15 (because apparently you are paying for DVR service rather then the box itself), and Joeys are $5 owned vs $7 leased.
Only good reasons to buy your equipment is if you want to disable your boxes without needing to send them back to dish (for example, I’ll disable my Hopper/Joey system at home if I’m on vacations and just leave my Wally enabled, which the first box fee is free and use sometimes while away as well) or you want a second Hopper on your account.

 

[navychop]

I doubt there are any NEW H3s left anywhere.

 

[joegr]

Well, scratch off that option then.

 

[TheKrell]

I doubt there are any NEW H3s left anywhere.

How do you figure? I would expect them to produce a few just to replace those that break. You could be right of course if subs drop precipitously enough.

 

[navychop]

Low volume production = expensive unit costs = Charlie’s wallet hurting.

IIRC, some years back a reseller of Dish equipment changed their product description to reflect that there were no more new, all they could get from Dish was refurbished units. And we were alerted to that here.

 

[TheKrell]

Low volume production = expensive unit costs = Charlie’s wallet hurting.

Sure, but what are you saying? Dish ordered some number such as $15M units in the remote past and then quit producing them? Could be, but if so I don't know that.

 

[navychop]

Why keep in production a unit that you probably have enough of, especially as subscriber numbers go down?

 

[naptime]

I just had a few days of mostly the same issues with my H3. A very helpful Dish Tech went through everything this morning with me and was leaning to sending a tech out for a service call, when he said he would try one more thing. He remotely put the H3 into doing a partial reset, which took the better part of 30 minutes to complete, and the H3 came out of this performing beautifully so far. Faster in all regards, and so far no dropped audio, which was the most persistent problem, although I lost video also. A red button reset usually fixed these issues, but they would come back. Fingers crossed this fix is the real deal.

 

[joegr]

... He remotely put the H3 into doing a partial reset, which took the better part of 30 minutes to complete, and the H3 came out of this performing beautifully so far. ...

I hope that does work out for you. I would have rather had that than a replacement H3.

Anyway, the call went easier than I thought, and a no-charge replacement is supposed to arrive today. They also offered that I had some discounts available. I said that I would call back about those in a week or two. I assume they would involve a two year commitment. We got so far into the streaming comparison during all this, that I don't know yet if we'll be staying with Dish.

 

[joegr]

Update: I connected the replacement (refurbished) H3. The settings and timers did not restore from the remote to the H3, as expected. I can deal with that, and it looks like I may have needed to recreate the timers anyway (guide changes). I did not try to copy the recordings over. I could not get it to activate from the H3 itself. I also couldn't log in to Dish on my PC to do it. Are they having problems, or am I singled out for some reason? Anyway, I called in and got the auto-attendant to activate it.

The Good: The original problem with the H3 is completely solved.

The Bad: It will not link with my Joey, so now I can't watch anything from it. It says that coms are good, but it is unlinked. The Joey does see the H3, because it does give the new number on the info screen. It also says it is correctly connected to the internet via the H3 through the Moca. I tried the suggested fix of resetting both the H3 and the Joey. I guess I will be calling support tonight and trying to resolve this.

The Annoying: My harmony hub/remote was paired to the old H3 via IP. When I try to pair it to the new one, the harmony app crashes, both on my PC and on my phone. The hub and remotes are no longer supported, so I don't expect help from Logitech. I think I can deal with this by switching to IR control, but that means deleting and re-adding the H3 as a device, which means rebuilding my remote buttons and activities. It's a pain, but doable (assuming the harmony software still works for that).

All in all, as my wife said, this is making it easier and easier to just jump to streaming.

Update: My dish login is working now. Interestingly, it says that the H3 is on, but not connected. It says that the Joey is on and internet connected. Weird...

 

[Jim5506]

Did you need to call dish and have the new receiver activated?

 

[joegr]

Did you need to call dish and have the new receiver activated?

Yes.
It was just hanging at the step where is was supposed to do it after I entered the zip code and the old receiver number and the account number.

 

[ethanlerma]

The Bad: It will not link with my Joey, so now I can't watch anything from it. It says that coms are good, but it is unlinked. The Joey does see the H3, because it does give the new number on the info screen. It also says it is correctly connected to the internet via the H3 through the Moca. I tried the suggested fix of resetting both the H3 and the Joey. I guess I will be calling support tonight and trying to resolve this.

On the Joey, get into the diagnostics menu (Home button x 3), navigate to home network (or press 4) then highlight the Hopper, it should show up as Unlinked-Strong. Select it, and you should have an option to link if you select again. This has to be done from each Joey, not the Hopper itself.

 

[joegr]

On the Joey, get into the diagnostics menu (Home button x 3), navigate to home network (or press 4) then highlight the Hopper, it should show up as Unlinked-Strong. Select it, and you should have an option to link if you select again. This has to be done from each Joey, not the Hopper itself.

Thanks much. I'll try that tonight. I did see where it said Unlinked-Strong.
You'd think they'd put that on the quick instruction card that came with the replacement H3.

 

[Jim5506]

The Joey says it is on the internet because it is connected to the Hopper and assumes the Hopper is connected to the interne.

This sounds like a problem with the Hopper's connection to the internet.

Is it a wired or wireless connection?

 

[Bobby]

The Joey says it is on the internet because it is connected to the Hopper and assumes the Hopper is connected to the interne.

This sounds like a problem with the Hopper's connection to the internet.

Is it a wired or wireless connection?

He has placed a new H3 in place of the old one. All Joeys must be relinked to this new Hopper. What ethanlerma has suggested is the correct fix.

 

[joegr]

On the Joey, get into the diagnostics menu (Home button x 3), navigate to home network (or press 4) then highlight the Hopper, it should show up as Unlinked-Strong. Select it, and you should have an option to link if you select again. This has to be done from each Joey, not the Hopper itself.

Thanks again. That worked perfectly. The Joey now works with the hopper.

The Joey says it is on the internet because it is connected to the Hopper and assumes the Hopper is connected to the interne.

This sounds like a problem with the Hopper's connection to the internet.

Is it a wired or wireless connection?

The connection is hardwired, and it is working (it did from the start). I have downloaded some on-demand episodes, and DishAnywhere shows the hopper and what I have recorded on it.
It's just interesting that the dish website under my equipment, says "not connected" for the hopper, and says internet connected for the Joey. This does not seem to cause any problem for me, though.