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BellTV 9242: Firmware V183 Discussion (EHD fixes)

98K views 272 replies 96 participants last post by  jumpy27 
#1 ·
My 9242 just upgraded from V182 to V183! Can't find any changes yet though. Perhaps they've addressed the EHD issues?

-Mike
 
#145 ·
My first 9242 rebooted every time I tried to access the EHD. A level 3CSR tried to troubleshoot it, and confirmed that the EHD 'should' work (single platter, 160gb, 7200rpm) and replaced the 9242 since the EHD had functioned as advertised previously.

The drive works well with the new 9242, and the content was accessible on the new unit. Not sure if you are under warranty, just my $.02.
 
#146 ·
I have had disconnect problems since day 1. I have tried to use the feature on 2 separate external hard drives:

1. 1 TB WD mybook
2. 750 GB Lacie sanctioned from Bell

Neither drives works correctly, but ironically the unsanctioned 1 TB works a lot better than the sanctioned Lacie. The 1 TB WD mybook works fine in all respects expect for the fact that I get temporary 30 second freezes every 15 minutes or so when watching a program, but it never has the USB disconnect issue. The lacie reliably has a USB disconnect within an hour of use that requires a hard reboot of the 9242 to rectify.

I have gotten tired of waiting for v184 to solve this issue and think I will request a replacement 9242 from Bell. The only reason I haven't gone this route is I was leery of getting a refurbished unit.
 
#147 ·
I had a rental 9242 for a year that was brand new when I got it and when v183 came out, I decided to try an EHD. I went through three different EHDs and none of them would work (including the 750GB LaCie). I always got the disconnect problem when watching a show from the EHD.

Did the song and dance with Bell (both Canada and India). Did the cold boots and all kinds of other nonsense they were asking. Finally they said they were working on a fix and I should wait. Yeah right .

I called every few days and the story was different every time. I decided to buy one on a $299 retention deal and lo and behold ....it works flawlessly with all my drives.

My advice is to have it changed out for a new one while you still can. They may still have some 9242 as refurbs/warranty replacments. New ones are hard to come by.
 
#148 ·
9242 PVR, Audio problems

I am a new member and have had a 9242 for 2 months. The unit started to overheat so I asked for a replacement. I never had any issues with Audio before, but now I am getting no Audio (complete silence for various periods, SW Ver is 183).
After calling several times and spending several hours with them on the phone they admitted the HDMI cable is not compatible with my setup.

They have 2 choice, either they will fix it or refund the money I spend on that piece of junk.
What a scam. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
#149 ·
Have a read on this Forum, you will find many people with HDMI problems.

I am certain this is why the new models, 9241 & 6131 do NOT come with HDMI cables. So Bell can blame your cable, not the one they supplied.

I would call and get the receiver replaced again or connect the Component Cables.

After 2 months, I doubt you will get a refund on the receiver.
 
#150 ·
Front and back USB connector

The Bell 9242 drives my crazy. Couple weeks ago, I had EHD connected to receiver back USB. Two or three days, I could not access to any recorded program, and message came up asked to unplug power for few minutes. Several tries, I was able to bring PVR unit back to normal condition. The problems kept happens. I decided to connect USB to front unit. Then the USB disconnect problem occured for HD recording program (after few minutes play). Which USB do your guys use ?
 
#151 ·
Seagate internal drive working OK as EHD using USB adapter

Hi all,

This is my first post on DigitalHome forums so I would like to thank every contributor, and especially the admins for sharing (and organizing!) so valuable informations...

Now here is my report:

I have been using a BEV receiver for 18 months now, a 6100 at first and a 9242 for around 1 year now. Last week I intended to buy an EHD at Future Shop but realized that their cheapest brand was backorder in every store (comstar 1TB) and that its price was raising every 2-3 days (it is now 149$ and still BO) and the Maxtor 1TB rose from 159$ to 249$ overnight!!!

Quite irritated by this situation I chose to buy a Seagate internal Sata HD (139$ at Microbytes, BO in some stores) and plug it using a Vantec SATA to USB adapter I already had. I plugged it yesterday and was able to transfer hours of recordings without a hitch. I was also able to watch archived recordings (did not try a full program, but did try HD and FFWD, all OK). The drive is really cooler than those in my PC, even while archiving! I might buy an enclosure later though...

BTW I used the front USB port. I guess I could plug it to the rear one?

The adapter I use costed me 35$
Will report later on if I experience any problem!

Cheers,
Rem
 
#152 ·
External HDD

What I have done is used the Nexstar MX that holds 2 HDDs. In it I have 2 seagates 500GB in JBOD mode and works fine. I paid $35.00 for the encloseur off E-Bay, and the HDDs where 100 bucks each at the time, but that was some time ago, they are cheaper now. What I'm considering, is to replace two 500GB with two Seagate 1.5TB. See what happens, I wonder if the 9242 will see 3TBs of space?
 
#155 ·
What I have done is used the Nexstar MX that holds 2 HDDs. In it I have 2 seagates 500GB in JBOD mode and works fine. I paid $35.00 for the encloseur off E-Bay, and the HDDs where 100 bucks each at the time, but that was some time ago, they are cheaper now. What I'm considering, is to replace two 500GB with two Seagate 1.5TB. See what happens, I wonder if the 9242 will see 3TBs of space?
Does it see both drives as one large drive? What is handling that, the enclosure or the 9242's Linux?
Nexstar makes good products but I worry about this JBOD's. Is that a standard? What happens if one drive fails? Do you lose data on both?

philip
 
#153 ·
I purchased a 1GB WD Green drive and put it in a Vantec USB case. Total cost was about $165 with shipping and it works perfectly. It also saves energy and runs cool.
 
#154 ·
max hard drive size

Has anyone tried a drive larger than 1 TB on the 9242's? The 1.5 TB drives have gone down in price, if it's a ext3 compatability only then at least 2 TB should be allowed. I just wanted to know if anyone had tried and had any success with the 1.5 TB drives.
Thanks!
 
#156 ·
Interesting discovery I made this morning:
I have reconnected an EHD that was on the shelf for the past few months that I had not used because it was hit by the three-strikes sickness. I wanted to let my receiver reformat it but instead of prompting me to do so, it allowed access its original content again!
Scratching my head over this one :confused:
Is there a time limit on the three strikes? Or has the restriction been removed by a firmware patch?
 
#160 ·
Plugged in a WD Home Edition 1TB EHD. Transfered about 70 Hours of SD and everything went smoothly. Can't complain. Watched about half an hour of it and it's seems very efficient.

Will update if anything goes wrong.

Edit:

Tried it again this morning, Hard disk goes to sleep but wakes up in a flash, everything works fine. Transferred about 10hours of HD. Alls is well.
 
#161 ·
I wonder if some problems are caused when the drive goes into sleep mode.

I asked Lacie, the following question about their 750GB EHD (model 301303U):
- Bell recommends that the EHD cannot have a sleep mode. Does your EHD have a sleep mode?

Lacie's Answer
There is a sleep mode, when there is no activity on the computer it doesn't produce as much power thus not running much power through the USB interface causing the drive to preserve energy and "sleep." Does a PVR go to sleep mode though? If it doesn't the drive won't either.
 
#163 ·
I've tried three 160gb Maxtor One Touch drives, all go to sleep, and all wake when prompted by the 9242. There is a slight delay, but once they're spinning the 9242 works well with them. I think you have to take anything that Bell says about specs and product support and functionality of any sort with a grain of salt. The left hand does not talk with the right hand, and the head is so far up the *** that the only truly reliable source of info seems to be this forum. Every single one of Bell TV's subs is a beta tester of sorts
 
#164 ·
Newer hard drives have two power saving modes. They are 1) Standby - the drive spins down but the electronics stays active. Any drive access will spin the drive back up and resume normal operation after a short delay. 2) Sleep - this is a very low power state that requires special signaling from the host to restore normal operation. Resumption from this state is not supported by some systems. It is possible that your drive is simply going into standby mode, not sleep mode. There is a significant power saving with standby mode but not as much as sleep mode.
 
#165 ·
FWIW, the maxtor one touch drives are all at least 5 years old, not sure if they would have the dual power saving modes, but it's feasible I suppose.

I just started having issues with my 9242 and EHD (Nexstar dock and WD500gb drive). I have thirty + hours of HD on the drive (half full), and have been able to archive, restore, and watch programs from this drive to this point. Last night it disconnected. I could not connect any of my other EHD's (three SATA's via the dock, three Maxtor's via USB) until the machine was reset, at which point it would mount any/all of the drives, but would immediately disconnect with "unsupported USB device" error. The drives all work fine on my other 9242, at least they are working fine (impossible to say for certain, as the bugs take time to come out of the woodwork). Bell claimed that it was a problem with my EHD. They had issues with the 9242, but these were all corrected months ago. They were unable to identify what they did to fix the issue, but were adamant that it must be my EHD. After allowing them to talk themselves into a corner and admit to less than ethical business practices (selling Lacie 750gb drives that they know are problematic--"lemons" was the work he used), I interrupted his monologue to inform him that my EHD, which was used for a few weeks without any issue, works just fine on my other 9242. They are replacing the 9242 that I was having problems with.

One thing that we did last night that we have never done, perhaps a trigger to the problems, was delete archived items from the EHD. We deleted about 6 hours of HD which took about two minutes. Then we tried to delete another show, and the EHD disconnect problems began, and persist, on that particular 9242.
 
#167 ·
Lots of posts deleted. If you wish to discuss where to get the cheapest drive and post retail links then please use the shopping forum.

This thread is for discussing firmware v183 on the 9242.

We also have two separate thread for discussing what hard drive to look for with Bell receivers.


not to mention the owner threads for the 9242
 
#168 ·
until the machine was reset, at which point it would mount any/all of the drives, but would immediately disconnect with "unsupported USB device" error.
I've seen similar issues with the latest firmware. Unplugging the 9242 helped. The full drive bug is still lurking around as well. Bell has reduced the frequency of EHD problems with v183 but they are not totally eliminated. If the drive is corrupted, it is possible to recover the programs to another 9242 formatted drive by mounting them under Linux.
 
#172 ·
^ I honestly don't think it makes a difference. I would pocket the difference and go with the WD.

The original reason I bought the WD was because it was from costco (great warranty) and the lacie 1tb wasn't readily availible nearby.

Edit: Oh, by the way - I should add that while viewing Zoolander HD a couple days ago from my WD EHD, it froze 30mins in and I had to hard reset the 9242 because the EHD "wasn't supported". After the reset, I finished watching the rest of the film perfectly.
 
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