Moxi HD DVR - Page 96

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From your original post I just assumed that is what it did (format hd, download latest software). If for example someone has a critical drive failure, the firmware can reformat the hard drive (presumably marking any bad sectors) and download the latest software from them and then they are back up and running without having to send their unit in.

Not that they couldn't have the software built into the firmware, but doing updates to firmware is a lot more risky than downloading it to the hard drive (i.e. if there were a power failure after wiping the old firmware you end up with a paperweight).

The install routine accessed via the install menu is in the firmware, but it downloads the latest software to the hard drive and boots into that. That design makes total sense to me and as i said, that is how I would design it.

They could turn it off, but then those who had real critical HD failures would have a paperweight instead of just losing the recordings they had.

Btw, you mentioned you had 2 defective 3 tuner Moxis? What type of failure was it? HD or something else?

It COULD be that the issue is also about what Cisco's customers for DVRs (which are bulk buy cable cos. with no end users) want them to deliver.

I do NOT know this for sure, but this is my best guess. There is a chip, an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory I think) in the unit... which CAN be written to, updated etc. It contains a basic bootstrap process that CAN make the unit come alive TO A DEGREE. It mostly provides the software to DO an OS install, so it contacts Moxi over your connection, downloads the suite and installs it.

My "guess" seems to be born out by the descriptions of the process. That process also pretty much guarantees the latest gets installed... because it is dynamically "downloaded" when the 4 button press is done.

Chances are that the EEPROM I refer to CAN be updated, but most likely rarely.

Truck rolls always seem to be about what the cable co. wants. Ya gotta remember, an awful lot of customers really prefer to have someone else hook it up, it kinda makes them feel that it gets done right and is NOT THEIR responsibility.

What becomes an issue is what THEY want... a while back, my sister had an issue (seemed an issue with her cable modem) and I told her to call them so a record was made and take her "cable modem" down and get a new one. They INSISTED on a truck roll... even though I had done the same thing without a truck roll.

Remember, "we" who participate in AVS are a very small subset of cable co. customers!

Yes, but let me throw in another thing... say a year or so from now you acquire a device that works 10 times better over a N connection. Damn, ya gotta go but a new router.

Few months ago I had a need for a router... I could easily have gotten one without any wireless support, the connection for the new device is much BETTER to be wired. But I went for a dual band N router. I got more capabilities (like I can hook up a 2T external drive and have it serve as a media center that does NOT depend on my running my desktop 24/7) than for a simple wired router.

The point being that it seems it can handle any needs I may have down the line that I may not have today.

Yes. It very well could be the internal drive as well. Try disconnecting the external drive and see what recordings remain.

thanks!!!

Thanks for the reply, PacketLosss. What you wrote makes sense. The firmware could be written to give the Moxi an IP address from one's Router and then format the hard drive and then call out to a pre-programmed IP address to download the latest Moxi OS, which would mean the Moxi original OS is not stored on a motherboard chip. So, instructions to anyone doing a hard drive replacement should include that the Moxi must be connected to the Internet when doing the 4 Button Press.

To answer your question: yes, my two replaced three-tuner Moxi's involved lost recordings after a freeze/crash and bad hard drives.

Thanks!

The reason I asked is I just ordered a 3 tuner and was planning to just replace the drive and not worrying about the warranty. If however, they had flaky hardware (for things other than the hard drive), I would wait the 90 days. I have found that most electronics if they are flaky will fail within the first 24 hours. I ended up ordering the WD20EVDS. I found it at Zipzoomfly for $159 and they have a $15 rebate. Supposedly this drive runs really cool so it should be better than their stock 500GB seagate piperline they seem to use.

I have a feeling that if you had gone into the install menu on your 3 tuner, and reformatted the HD after you encountered those freezes, it probably would have resolved your problem without having to send it in.

It's not uncommon to get some bad sectors on a hard drive, especially after it was tossed around while it was being shipped. Then again maybe they had a really bad lot of hard drives.

Just curious, when is Cox dumping SARA and going with Passport in your area?

I guess Cox is a different animal. For my DVR, I had three choices: 1) a truck roll & $70 charge, 2) an online order & pick-up the DVR at a Cox branch (no charge), or 3) an online order with UPS delivery (no charge.) I opted for the latter. Same choices with the modem.

This is the thing. On both of the returned Moxis, prior to them being returned the engineers checked the logs. Both Moxis exhibited unusual behavoir right out the box, where the took extra long for the setup. I would get a few boot loops. But they eventually set up successfully.

If a reformat of the drive would have fixed the drives as you suggest, why wouldn't the engineers simply have me do that after they examined the logs?

Instead, Customer Care contacted me to say after full examination of the logs, I was getting new Moxis, with Moxi paying the return shipping fees.

When you have freezes and crashes and lost recordings and the Moxi having trouble getting past the "Checking Hard Drive" screen, I think it's safe to assume bad hard drive and nothing else.

Good luck with your new 2 terabyte WD drive. As long as you do not get a lemon WD drive, and you have no issues with your cable card or signal from your cable company, I predict you will have a perfectly working DVR.

I suppose, based on your experience with this, I will certainly go through the setup with the stock drive and make sure it all goes smoothly first.

I'm not sure why they didn't have you try the format option. I guess it's possible they don't want end users doing this or perhaps based on the error logs they knew the drive was giving errors indicating a reformat was not going to help.

Still it's good to know it was just the hard drives.

Btw, how has your 2 tuner been working with the WD Green drive?

Great suggestion for troubleshooting drives! I disconected the external drive as you recommended and looked at my recorded shows and found only shows from the last few days on the internal drive. I then reconnected the external drive and now had shows from several weeks ago listed. So the drive that the MOXI reformatted to get the machine running again was the INTERNAL drive. My series program list was still there, so that info must not be stored on the internal drive.

1. Where is the series program list stored?

2. The internal hard drive has been noisy since I got the MOXI a month ago, but the MOXI techs didn't offer to replace it. I don't want to be without my MOXI for several weeks anyway, so if the drive needs to be replaced I'd rather just forget about the warranty and put one in like my external drive (WD15EVDS).

3. Do you think the internal drive had to be reformatted due to something wrong with it or maybe something was wrong with the MOXI software?

I'm not sure what my next step should be. This group is wonderful!

Nothing has been officially posted for PHX, that I have seen. I have not heard anything official since Day One of the San Diego roll-out (4/21/10). My understanding was that all markets would be complete by the end of summer, assuming the roll-out went smooth in San Diego. I believe PHX is the largest or second largest Cox market, with the largest number of legacy STBs. So PHX may take a little longer. Cox is launching several new HD channels in PHX June 1st, I hope they start the transition at the same time.

San Diego started their transition with the oldest STB's being first.
Another poster posted the following for San Diego "8300HD should be getting a new IPG May 11th, 8240HDC like mine he said May 25th" Source: http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages...tml?1272342440

In answer to #3, it could have been an issue with the drive or just corrupted data. If however, your drive has been noisy since you got it and it forced a reformat and it's still giving you problem you might as well get it over with and replace it with something bigger and not bother sending it back in and losing however long it takes to ship in both directions.

One other thing to note, you mentioned your scheduled recorders weren't lost. I would think those would be stored on the internal drive. Most likely the reformat that it did is not quite the same as the format that is done when accessed via the firmware. They probably have a backup partition and swap which one is active and reformat the inactive one as well as the partion where the recordings are. I can't say for sure, but that is how Tivo used to do their updates.

One last word about formats. There are different methods of formatting a hard drive. If they do a quick format it's just setting up the partitions and access tables but not checking each sector for bad blocks and such. To do a full format that checks and erases every sector on a 500GB drive would take around an hour or more to run.

From all these bad drive posts it's really sounding like moxi got a big batch of really bad drives. Then again if you read the reviews for both Seagates and Western Digitals up on newegg you will find plenty of good reviews mixed with an alarming amount of DOA reviews.

One more thing to keep in mind, packetlosss. I am assuming that when my three-tuner Moxis crashed with recordings lost, the hard drive was automatically formatted, which is why the recordings were lost. After the crash, it took like 15 minutes to come back up. In all that time, Moxi probably was both checking and formatting, since everything was gone.

So far, the Two-Tuner Moxi with the new WD AV Green Hard Drive is running smoothly.

Question regarding experience with TWC & CableCards: is it standard to be charged for TWC's requirement that they install & activate the CableCards rather than letting customers do it themselves?

In all my conversations with them, TWC never mentioned a charge associated with having a tech install the CableCards & it's not listed on our Rate Card. I also know a few local people who have CCs for other equipment, and they weren't charged when TWC came out to plug in & activate the CCs. Maybe the difference is they were new TWC customers who needed the CCs when they first started service?

My Moxis & Mates will be delivered Friday, so I called to schedule getting the CCs. That went smoothly with no mention of a charge.

About 5 minutes later, the customer service person called me back to tell me that her supervisor had told her I had to pick up the CCs at the local office. Which, of course, would have been just fine with me , and I told her so, but I told her it was my understanding that TWC requires a technician to do it. She said that's what she thought, too, so she was going to double-check and get back to me.

About five minutes later, she called back again to confirm that we were right & TWC would be out as scheduled on Tuesday, and that's when she told me there would be a charge.

It's not going to break the bank, but I think it's crappola that I wasn't informed of the charge during any of my previous calls, and I think it's pure crappola they require a technician to install the CableCard and then have the nerve to charge me for something I could do myself.

So, I'm just wondering if that's standard for TWC?

Yep. Seems to be.


And you probably don't want to do it anyway unless you like being bounced around TWC cable techs trying to find someone who knows what they are doing and why your channels are not appearing.

Chances are they won't know what a Moxi is nor where the relevant information is on the menus, so make sure you know how to get to the CC diagnostics.

Thanks for confirming that TWC is money-grubbing

I'm really hoping to get the same tech that was out here on 4/13 on an unrelated issue (that I wasnt' charged for, BTW). I took the opportunity to pick his brain a bit & get confirmation that I can get an M-CableCard in this area. Good thing I did, too, because for whatever reason, there aren't any for my area although they have them for the town 8 miles away across the state line. He told me that when I called to schedule them to come out to tell the person that they needed to move 2 M cards from WA's inventory to ID's inventory.

Anyway, he was familiar with the TWC Moxi boxes some markets have and had been disappointed we don't have them here. He'd also seen a non-TWC 2-tuner Moxi somewhere a year or so ago, and is excited to see the 3-tuners ones I've got coming . . . said he was going to Google them when he got off work

With my luck, though, I'll get someone different.

Charged me $42 as an "HDTV upgrade" or some such nonsense. Still as I said, the entire process was hardly streamlined for me. It took thirty minutes for the installer to find someone in support who could activate the card correctly and ensure all the channels (especially SDV) were coming through.

I spent a lot of time jumping through the diagnostics to check on the EMM counts.

So let me make sure I understand the procedure. I can just replace the internal drive with this WD20EVDS (just out of the box from zipzoomfly as is) and turn the MOXI back on and it will automatically format the drive and load the necessary software?

Thanks Bryan_CoxPHX, anyone know if the D-Link DAP-1522 will work with Windows 7 Home Premium. The specs only say Vista.

Kerry

As long as you hold down the direction buttons on reboot.

Anyone willing to help on items 1 & 3?

This poses an issue regarding the Moxi that has heretofore not been addressed. Namely, swapping a virgin drive into a virgin Moxi. A virgin Moxi might very well have its drive already formatted with the file system as well as being partitioned and containing the basic directory structure. You may very well need to implement a four finger press to bring that larger drive to life. I bet others here will have something to say on this matter.

J

I can now help with question 3.

I have Cox Cable's music channels on my Moxis. Cannot buffer. This is normal. I am guessing maybe something Moxi put in on purpose to placate RIAA?

Moxi knows it's a music station, so recording and/or buffering has been locked out.

I know the Cox DVR boxes cannot buffer OnDemand stuff. I never tested one to see if it can buffer their music channels.

Thanks again, midas89 ...i also suspected Moxi locked out the music buffer feature on its boxes, which i find really unfortunate

Moxi Updated!

Version 6.1.1.3R4BR-P.307850

Tuning Adapter option present in diagnostics!

Potentially great news for TA users.

Four finger press still operational.