8300 - Technician Says Keep Empty??

[reidry]

I've been having a problem with my 8300 HD, it randomly reboots. Seems to be related to changing stations while watching live TV, or switching from a recorded show to live TV or while fast forwarding/rewinding recorded show.

The Brighthouse technician claims it is related to keeping too many programs on the hard disk. We probably have it at 75% full one or two HD shows and a few shows for my daughter from digital channels. Only 1 or 2 shows are marked save until manually erased, everything else is erase as space is required.

Is there any fact in his claims? They are replacing the unit regardless, but he claims we will have no further troubles if we keep it cleaned off. He stated, "I'm suprised it is not constantly rebooting every few minutes." Also, "I'm the technician. I know. I'm telling you that you must keep the drive nearly empty for proper operation." Grrr. I'm an Aerospace EE, I design computer systems every day - doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

Thanks in advance.

Ryan

[57U]

The unit should work properly, no matter how full the HDD is - mine does.

Test the signal strength. See the HDTV FAQ "Tips for SA STBs"

A cold reboot (unplug/replug wait 5 minutes) once a month also helps.

I won't bother saying what I think of the "technician".

[reidry]

Well we are still experiencing the same problems. Just trying to watch a movie. Some segments are not recorded/replaying properly (3 occurances in a 3 hr HD recording) the unit seems to dither through the video with no voice at about double speed for 3 to 5 seconds. The unit has stopped playing a recording two times today while transitioning from fast forward to play - unit locks up accepts no commands then reboots.

Am I doing something wrong by having it set for 1080i only for my Samsung DLP? What can I do, these things seem near useless!

Unit is not full, just deleted a bunch of recordings, has only 4.5 hrs HD and 1 hour digital cable recorded. No recordings currently in progress.

Totally frustrated!

Thanks in advance.

Ryan

[57U]

You may have a bad box. Did you check the signal strength as I suggested in post 2? Did you do a cold reboot?

See the same FAQ on how best to set up the STB. 1080i only is NOT usually the best way, but that shouldn't impact the problems, only picture quality.

[reidry]

I used the link to measuring the signal strength over my broadband connection. The page shows:

Frequency: 609000000 Hz Locked
S/N: 35 dB
Power Level: -4 dBmV

Channel ID: 2
Frequency: 33008000 Hz Ranged
Power Level: 53 dBmV

I tried holding down the "Select" button to get the mail light. Does not work. Tried the "Guide" + "Info" to get setup menu, does not work.

I have an RG11 run to house and a +7 dB amp. Could I have a bad amp affecting the box? Why would this affect playback?

Ryan

[DoubleDAZ]

The Select/Info sequence (or Pause/- on the remote) is for cableco's using SARA software. If you are using Passport, then there should be a channel for diagnostics information. This may help:
To get to the multi-page Diagnostics screen, simultaneously press and hold the front panel's SELECT and EXIT buttons till DIAGNO appears then release the buttons, then press EXIT and the the box tunes itself to the multi-page Diagnostics channel. To exit press Ch + or Ch -

Just in case you didn't notice, Guide/Info have to be pressed with the 8300 turned OFF.

[reidry]

Yes I'm a Passport user, got to the diagnostics.

QAM SNR under Analog says NA, under Digital it says 34
BER under Analog says NA, under Digital it says 0

So with a good SNR and a zero Bit Error Rate, where do I go next?

I checked the current DVR Harddrive state. I just deleted a 3hr HD movie that I recorded from TNTHD, "The Negotiator" - good older action/adventure/suspense. Currently using 24.5 GB of 149 GB available.

Thanks,

Ryan

[57U]

Just as an FYI, there is a section in the FAQ for Passport users. Hope it's of some use in future.

Did you do a cold reboot?

[DoubleDAZ]

One other thing to look at is the signal level, it should be something like -5 dBmV. The generally accepted range is +9 to -9 or so. Sometimes too much signal is worse than too little, an amp can over-drive things if it's not needed.

Also, like 57U mentioned, it could simply be a bad box. I'm testing an 8240 that I am having replaced because it will reboot and I can force it to split recordings at will by simply turning it off for about 5 minutes while 2 recordngs are in progress. I'll find out tomorrow for sure if it's the box or the software or what.

57U mentioned the cold reboot, and you need to try that if you haven't already, but there is also a "hard" reboot where you press/hold the Power button while plugging the power cord back in. Sometimes it appears as if these both do the same thing, but it all depends on what is really wrong and if it can be fixed by rebooting in the first place.

If you haven't already figured it out, the technician is nuts, though some software versions can give you various problems. As far as I can tell, there isn't all that much Passport info here on HDTVoice, but there is a ton over on AVS. I don't keep up with all the problems in various versions though. If nothing we've suggested works, I think it's time to get a new box and see how that goes.