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Symptoms of a Bad Hard Drive

post #1 of 10
2/18/07 at 8:50pm
Thread Starter 
Would someone please tell me what are the symptoms of a RCA UTV hard drive that is going bad. What should I look for so that I will know the hard drive is failing. I have started getting very bad pixelation with my recordings. I don't see any pixelation during live show viewing only when I view recordings. The pixelation resembles the type you might get during a heavy rain storm. This July I will have had my unit for 6 years with no problems. As you can see she's been a good friend for many years. What should I do? Someone please help.
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post #2 of 10
2/19/07 at 3:14pm
Hi,

Welcome to the forum. New UTV members are a nice sight. If you have additional UTV questions or comments we are here to talk about them. The UTV FAQ is an excellent resource so be sure to give that a read to help get the Basics.

If you haven't already... Making sure your UTV is staying cool (internal fan working and vents clean)... is out in the open and maybe elevated (Plastic Bottle Caps are popular) slightly is an excellent way to keep heat problems from effecting the picture.

With that taken care of an occasional "reboot" (power down or reset code) and/or a few minutes/hours/over night cool down... Is helpful in resolving many "odd" glitches. Microsoft once recommended a reboot ever month or so... I personally do it randomly when I remember too...

If you are concerned that a Tuner may be going bad... You may want to spend a few minutes looking at your UTV's Signal Strength Menu and the History Log (in My Shows) to see if there have been/is unexpected Tuner Status changes. If your Dish has a clean shot at DTV... It's just a matter of figuring out if the problem is with the LNB,Cable Run(s),Multi-Switch, or UTV itself.

Let us know what you discover and get back to us... We can help troubleshoot a possible Tuner problem if that is it.

Outright Hard Drive failures are obvious... so hopefully it's just a heat related problem and a simple fix.
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post #3 of 10
2/19/07 at 4:42pm
Thread Starter 
Lgodave thanks so much for your help and response. I first check the signal strength by going to the signal strength meters on my menu screen. I found the strength good on both tuners averaging about 95 to 97 on each satellite and tuner respectively. However I noticed that one of the tuners (tuner 2) signal occasionally drops to zero and unlocks then comes back up to 97. It does this sporadically on all satellites (AB&C). Tuner one has a constantly strong signal. To see the effect on the picture I tuned in two channels using PIP and watched both pictures and found that the picture for tuner 2 is the one with pixelation. I even swapped the dish wires for tuner 1 and 2 and found that the picture for tuner 2 was still pixelating. I called Direct TV and the technical support person told me that it might be the access card. They are sending me a new one. I don't think this is the problem but at the point I am willing to try anything. Given these crude unscientific tests I conducted, what do you think the problem might be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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post #4 of 10
2/25/07 at 8:39pm
Thread Starter 
Well latest update. I received the new access card the Direct TV representative promised to send me. I installed it only to have nothing change as I had expected. I called Direct TV technical support to get the next installment of "What now". This time I got transferred to the Advanced Technical Support department. The fellow was quite nice and immediately was amazed at why the other rep. was trying to replace the access card when clearly that had nothing to do with this problem. He also check my account and found that I was being charged for the replacement card. He never told me how much but did remove the charge. Well when I explained the tests I had tried, he came to the same conclusion I had come to before the other tech. rep. sent the new access card, The Tuner was the problem. He explained that they do not have any replacements for the UTV but would send me a DVR Plus as a replacement for a shipping fee of $21.95 and I could keep the old UTV. The catch "2 year Contract" which if canceled early I would be charged $2.95/ month for the remaining months of the contract. I loved my UTV which is almost 6 years old, but its time to let the past go and move into the present. Thanks everyone for your help and I hope my post will help someone else in my situation.
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post #5 of 10
2/26/07 at 10:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guy5 View Post

I first check the signal strength by going to the signal strength meters on my menu screen. I found the strength good on both tuners averaging about 95 to 97 on each satellite and tuner respectively. However I noticed that one of the tuners (tuner 2) signal occasionally drops to zero and unlocks then comes back up to 97. It does this sporadically on all satellites (AB&C). Tuner one has a constantly strong signal.

FWIW, mine started doing the same thing a few weeks ago. I unplugged it for a day to let it cool off. After plugging it in again, it worked fine for about 15 minutes then the symptoms returned. I had a similar problem with an old PC, and it turned out that the CPU cooling fan had died ... I suspect there may be a similar process going on here, but I haven't bothered to crack the case to find out. It could be a good excuse to disconnect the UTV and save the $15/mo.
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post #6 of 10
2/26/07 at 10:23pm
Well, too bad, you can get your utv fixed if you want:

http://www.ccscorporation.net/index.htm

They fix broken tuners, and can put in a larger newer disk drive as well.
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post #7 of 10
2/27/07 at 9:27am
True enough, but it still won't record/receive any HDTV which is where 95% of my DVR interest is these days.
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post #8 of 10
2/28/07 at 4:42pm
Just pixelization is usually a tuner issue. The reason it normally only occurs on recordings is because you're often using tuner two to record since 1 may often be occupied.

If your hard drive were failing, you'd be more likely to experience video freezes and lockups anlong with some pixelization. It doesn't sound like that's your problem.

To test it, change your channel to 1020 (my shows) prior to a recording happening. That will force the unit to record on tuner 1. If it is indeed tuner 2 that is failing, the recording should, in theory, be fine. Another option would be to tune to any channel when no other recordings are in progress and hit record. Once you've recorded a decent amount, go back and check it.
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post #9 of 10
3/1/07 at 5:33am
Thread Starter 
Thanks Rocket, HDTVchallenged and Network TV for your input and help. I have received my DVRplus 100 unit and I notice the picture quality is not as crisp and bold as the UTV unit and the menu and navigation is a nightmare. The UTV unit has such an intutive flow to the menus, but the DVRplus 100 has a disjointed menu system with the back button taking you to live TV in some instances. Also the schduled showes and series recordings are called a ToDo List and will only hold 100 shows, unlike UTV which does not seem to have this limit. It took me a while to set up the recording of all my favorite shows. All in all I like the UTV better but like HDTVchallenged said I'm saving the $15/month UTV charge and I did not have to pay the nearly $200.00 charge to get the UTV repaired.
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post #10 of 10
3/3/07 at 8:10am
The UTV doesn't have a phyical limit for number of scheduled recordings, but too many can bog the system down a bit. You have to a have an usually high number for that to become noticeable, though.

For me, the extra monthly cost is worth it for me. Despite being SD only, UTV is still the best interface out there.
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