vip222 problems

cs550ds1

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Apr 11, 2008
52
0
America's Dairyland
I have had a vip222 for about 2 months. I have been having a few problems with it. The first problem that I have with it is that when I first turn on my tv the dish screen saver is frozen and the receiver will not turn on. I then have to do a reset. This happens about three times a week. I also have been having channels missing in the guide. I will have to do a reset and they come back. This happens at least once a week. A new problem that came up over the weekend is that when I changed the channel all the channels went black. I still had all the onscreen stuff but no picture from the channel. I had to do a reset about three times and finaly all the channels came back. When they were black I did have a good signal on the transponders. I did contact dish and was told that there is a problem with the software for this receiver. The person said they are working on new software that should be done soon. Is anyone else having this many problems with this receiver, or was the tech just blowing smoke? Should I contact tech support again and try to get another vip222 that maybe would solve the problem? Thanks for the help.
 
I have same problem with mine being frozen when I try to turn it on and it's really starting to irritate me.
 
I finally decided to send an email to a contact in engineering and got this response.

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']"I received an email back from the engineering manager on the 222 project, he said it is a known issue and expect to have it fixed in the next software release which should be around the end of the month."[/FONT]
 
I finally decided to send an email to a contact in engineering and got this response.

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']"I received an email back from the engineering manager on the 222 project, he said it is a known issue and expect to have it fixed in the next software release which should be around the end of the month."[/FONT]

That seems to be the "answer of the month". I know several customers using 222 as 2nd receivers with NO OTA input and have not experienced "lock up". Wonder if there is any reason to believe that OTA could be a cause?????
 
That seems to be the "answer of the month". I know several customers using 222 as 2nd receivers with NO OTA input and have not experienced "lock up". Wonder if there is any reason to believe that OTA could be a cause?????

2nd receiver with NO OTA is exactly how I'm using mine and I still get the lock up. It never locks up while I'm using it, only when powered off. This really ticks me off when I'm out in the garage and have to run in the house and upstairs to reset the receiver.
 
On occasion I still get the screen going blank for a few seconds then the picture returning via HDMI. This will happen several cycles per minute. This ONLY happens after I start using the remote to access the guide and PIP and generally using the box quite a bit. If I reboot, problem goes away. And if I don't make the box do anything by leaving the remote alone, it will display flawlessly. When are they going to fix this? That was a rhetorical question. I know they will fix it next decade.
 
I finally decided to send an email to a contact in engineering and got this response.

[FONT='Arial','sans-serif']"I received an email back from the engineering manager on the 222 project, he said it is a known issue and expect to have it fixed in the next software release which should be around the end of the month."[/font]

Thanks for the info. I hope this new release works. I am sure the new release will also include the support for the external hard drive, so you can turn the 222 into a DVR.
 
At first this was only happening once a month or every few weeks but over the last two months I've noticed that I've had to reset (takes about 10 minutes because of the reset and program download) my Vip222 at least once a week (sometime twice) and then every few days between resets I usually have to sit through a program schedule download (about 5 minutes).

This is our bedroom 222 which is usually powered off during the day and is connected to an OTA antenna so I can watch local stations during the monsoon storms we sometimes experience her in AZ. At night we usually set the timer on the TV to turn it off and let the 222 shut itself off during the night.

I did a search on this problem and have seen it discussed here in the past but not much about it lately. I wanted to see it other people were still having this problem and if not, what they did to correct the problem.

I figured I'd check here first before calling E* because they usually don't have a clue.
 
At first this was only happening once a month or every few weeks but over the last two months I've noticed that I've had to reset (takes about 10 minutes because of the reset and program download) my Vip222 at least once a week (sometime twice) and then every few days between resets I usually have to sit through a program schedule download (about 5 minutes).

This is our bedroom 222 which is usually powered off during the day and is connected to an OTA antenna so I can watch local stations during the monsoon storms we sometimes experience her in AZ. At night we usually set the timer on the TV to turn it off and let the 222 shut itself off during the night.

I did a search on this problem and have seen it discussed here in the past but not much about it lately. I wanted to see it other people were still having this problem and if not, what they did to correct the problem.

I figured I'd check here first before calling E* because they usually don't have a clue.
Check out post #4 on this thread.....seems like a "possible" cause "may" involve the OTA antenna?????? Might remove the OTA signal from the 222 and see IF anything changes?
 
I put in a 222 for a customer two weeks ago.. And in that two weeks he has called me 4 times with this very problem. Locks up on the "Press Select To.. " He does have OTA attached to it. About ready to go replace the receiver, but seeing as it seems to be an issue with the 222, I'm not sure what to do. Obviously there hasn't been a software update that has fixed this problem yet
 
I'll disconnect my OTA cable but I don't think that is going to correct the problem. The 5th post in this thread says that he doesn't have an OTA antenna connected and he is having the same problem.
 
I've had these same issues but, even more frequently, it switches to channel 101 all by itself. It CONSTANTLY looses the signal when I'm watching an HD channel - if I go to a non-HD channel, it works fine for the most part. I was keeping a log of all the issues and it got to the point where I was having daily problems of some sort and I'm ready to switch to Direct TV - but I don't know if I'd still have issues with them - so I am torn - should I wait and see if the software update will really happen at the end of the month? I truly hate the DISH VIP222 - it's been nothing but problems since it was installed
 
I've had these same issues but, even more frequently, it switches to channel 101 all by itself. It CONSTANTLY looses the signal when I'm watching an HD channel - if I go to a non-HD channel, it works fine for the most part. I was keeping a log of all the issues and it got to the point where I was having daily problems of some sort and I'm ready to switch to Direct TV - but I don't know if I'd still have issues with them - so I am torn - should I wait and see if the software update will really happen at the end of the month? I truly hate the DISH VIP222 - it's been nothing but problems since it was installed

I've been dealing with the same issues. The video skips are really annoying the crap out of me.
 
I have had the 222 just about since it came out. This is nothing new. It is a buggy POS just as bad as the 811 and 921 were. I have rebooted mine so many times my kids know how to do it. I am waiting for that power button to break. I talk customers out of it when I do installs.
 
I have had the 222 just about since it came out. This is nothing new. It is a buggy POS just as bad as the 811 and 921 were. I have rebooted mine so many times my kids know how to do it. I am waiting for that power button to break. I talk customers out of it when I do installs.


Same here... I try to convince them into getting 2 211Ks (they're sick btw if you haven't put any in yet... why the hell have our receivers been so ridiculously huge for so long anyway?).... on upgrades, if they definately don't want to pay any more money though I just put it in and run :p
 
I've had the VIP222 for several months. Initially several problems as listed above. Had more problems when in 2 tuner mode. For the most part I keep it in single mode, as I like the PIP and really not to many lockups. While I have it set up for two locations - one TV in bed room and the main TV in living room, only watch one channel or location at a time. :)
Have always used an OTA for locals. Do not feel I should pay for locals if I can get them FTA. ;)

Now just occasional - about once/monthly lockups. As for me, single tuner mode works well.
 
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I've had my Vip222 for a few month now and it seems like I have to reset the box at least once a week (mentioned in previous posts), sometimes more. I've tried disconnecting my OTA anntenna, setting it to single tuner mode, and disabling the automatic shutoff timer (this one came from *E technical support) and it appears that none of these have worked for me because I still have to reset it once or twice a week. This unit is in our master bedroom so we only use it at night.

In between resets I also usually have the do a download of the program guide the first time I open the guide if the receiver has been off for a day.

I have a Vip211 (owned), a Vip222 (owned), and a Vip622 (leased) and they all have all had their problems when they first came out and most of the problems with the 211 & 622's have been corrected. The 222 has been out awhile now and if I'm not mistaken is based on the 211 and 622 (looks like the same case as the 622) so you would think *E would fix the problem if it is, as they admit, a known problem.

For the record, the only reason I purchased the 222 was because it has been mentioned on past Tech Forums and Charlie Chats that there was a software upgrade coming to the 211 and 222 receivers that would add DVR functionality to them if an external hard drive was attached to them.

Maybe the fix to the 222 problem will be corrected when they send out the software update to add the DVR function ...... opps, sorry, time to wake up.
 
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