VIP211 DVR Reset

[SonThun]

Hi. I bought an external hard drive for myself and my grandmother to hook up to our VIP211's (she has a 211, I have 211k). Mine works flawlessly. Hers is another matter. Twice now, we have plugged it in and formatted it. It works great for the night and even records shows, but when she goes back the next morning the DVR option is gone. It's as if the hard drive has been unplugged and it has gone back to standard 211 programming.

If we unplug the usb cord and plug it back in it will re-format it and start over.

Does anyone know how we can get this fixed? Anyone else have this issue?

Thanks.

 

[PBX_Guy]

Did you purchase the same external drive for both receivers?
Is it possible the AC power circuit for your grandmother's setup is being turned off overnight? Is grandma possibly unplugging things at night? (some elderly people do this - fear of fire, lightning, etc)

Have you tried swapping your Hard drive with hers?

 

[SonThun]

I did purchase the same hard drive. Unfortunately, she is 12 hours away so I'm doing tech support over the phone.

I think you may have hit on something. I guess my dad plugged the hard drive power cord into a switched outlet when he installed it. So, when she went to bed every night she was turning off the lights and thus the hard drive. I got her to turn off the switch and the hard drive light went right off. Problem solved.

Thanks for the inspiration and the quick response.

 

[Juan]

You have to disable "sleep mode".. If the EHD goes to sleep it screws up things

 

[Jim5506]

Sleep mode is not the problem with the 211 that it is with the 722/622/612, because the drive is constantly buffering content to the drive.

 

[chester77]

What type of EHD works best with VIP211?

I have a Dish VIP211 receiver and would like to add an EHD. Anything specific I should look for? I know it has to be between 300 (?) and 750 GB. Recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[Symbol]

make sure the drive is connected along with a power supply
some hard drives have problems since they tend to work via USB but the power isnt always sufficient

also most external hard drives come in with sleep mode after a period of time
if this is the case you will need to plug it into a computer and program it so it doesnt go into sleep mode

try these things if not contact dish but I doubt they can offer much help since it is an add on to the receiver

Glad to hear you solved the problem