OK, so I have my 5100 in my bedroom and it's getting older so the hard drive is getting a little bit noisy.

Problem is the F/W in the unit feel it necessary to run the hard drive about every 1/2 hour for 5 minutes or so even when the unit is off. The hard drive powers up twice an hour runs for a few minutes and then shut down again. Does not seem like a great feature to improve reliability plus it's annoying.

Unit is not recording during this time BTW.

Anyone know why this occurs and if there is any way around it?

Skippy31

I too am now experiencing this problem. For me it's every 15 minutes (or less!). It's extremely annoying (my 5100 is located in my office). As well it's really tough on the harddrive. This is my 4th 5100 over the last three years so these machines need to be babied.

I haven't called EVu yet (I doubt the CSRs would know why it's happening) but if it keeps up I'll have to. This has been going on now for the last couple of weeks when it just started happening out of the blue.

Before this, it was only coming on every 4 hrs or so (to update the guide I assume) which was fine. I'm assuming EVu has changed the frequency of the guide updates for some reason so hopefully they'll notice this problem + fix it.

For now, I've just powered off the receiver until I know I've got things to record.

Will

I'd agree that it is avery 15 minutes. I thought it was more often than 1/2 hour, but had not actually timed it and did not want to exagerate. If it keeps up I'll be calling as well. I also did not think it used to do this. I suspected something had changed. I guess we'll see if others notice this as well.

Skippy31

Same thing on my 5800. I put it in another room and use the UHF remote.

BTW, I just hooked up a DirecTV TiVo and it is much worse with the sound level - and no UHF remote! I ended up unhooking it and going back to my 5800.

The Echostar DVRs are better than DirecTV DVRs in my opinion.

Same here on the 5800. I assumed it was just my machine getting old. It's only been a couple weeks that this has been happening, but it goes on late into the night. Luckily, our machine is fairly quiet - I only notice it right before falling asleep. But it's definately different than the old pattern of once every 4 hours.

Is Bev sending out software updates?

I have a question for all you 5X00 users. I just bought my 5900 this weekend. I've noticed the hard drive "chirps" about every 10 seconds or so. Is this normal? Trying to watch TV at a normal volume, and all I can hear is the chirping.

Yes its normal.

I had a Rogers PVR (Model SA8000) for a few months and experience the same problem. While the unit was relatively quite (also in my bedroom), the thing would wake up each morning at 4am and beging defragmenting/downloading the new program guide for 1/2 hour. This would wake me up all the time....

My only 1-month old 5900 seems to want to spin the disk up every 15 minutes while turned off. Keeps me up at night.. -_- I wish they'd fix this annoyance!


Also yes, when the drive is running, the stupid thing does chirp every 5-6 seconds..

I've had to go and move my 5100 from my bedroom. I still see no reason the darn thing needs to power up and down the hardrive every 15 minutes. If the hard drive packs it in I'm going to be having a discussion wiht BEV.

Skippy31

could bev be deliberately wearing out our hard drives by software manipulation?
Does bev benefit financially from repairs and replacements to the pvr's?
If hundreds of pvrs suddenly start acting in a way that leads to equipment failure will Bell be facing a class action suit?

could bev be deliberately wearing out our hard drives by software manipulation?
Does bev benefit financially from repairs and replacements to the pvr's?
If hundreds of pvrs suddenly start acting in a way that leads to equipment failure will Bell be facing a class action suit?

I seriously doubt Bell would deliberately wear out the PVR hard drives. This said, for residents of Quebec there are TWO warranties on every item purchased. The first is the manufacturers's warranty and the second (lesser knowned) is the legal warranty. It is provided by article 37 and 38 of Quebec's Consumer Protection Act and no clause of a contract can remove any protection granted by law.

The show "La Facture" did an episode on legal warranties a couple of weeks ago.
http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/v2/lafacture/niveau2_1148.shtml
English translation by Google (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radio-canada.ca%2Factualite%2Fv2%2Flafacture%2Fniveau2_1148.shtml&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools)


38. Goods forming the object of a contract must be durable in normal use for a reasonable length time, having regard to their price, the terms of the contract and the conditions of their use.

If a PVR hard drive fails prematurely, even after the one year warranty, Bell can be held liable. A small claims court ruling might be needed , but if the court agrees a failure is premature, they have to fix it. The court decides what is the reasonable amount of time a good must last. The price that is paid is a factor. The more you pay, the longer it should last. Seing as the PVR's are the most expensive receivers sold by Bell, the courts should have little difficulty in expecting them to last more than the 3100's which usually last for much longer then the one year warranty given by Bell.

There is a similar case before the courts against Ford for their F150/250/Expedition/Navigator trucks. They have premature tie-rod end wear - in addition, the design is "faulty" since the tie rod actually comes loose, causing lack of steering control (not good). Ford have not issued a recall since they deam it "normal wear and tear"

Even though this happens after "several" years (some trucks as early as 40,000 km), it doesn't happen on GM, Chrysler, etc trucks and even when they wear out after much longer, the end doesn't "come loose". Therefore Ford is in the courts...

Interestingly just redid the tie-rods on our 12-year old Honda Accord last week... That's a lot different than 1-2-3 years.

(Was on this week's Marketplace.)

57
La Facture did two reports on the Ford trucks tie-rods end wear in October.
http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/v2/lafacture/niveau2_600.shtml
and the follow up
http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/v2/lafacture/niveau2_897.shtml

Regarding the warranty, Seagate claims a service life of 5 years for their disk drives. Other manufacturers make similar claims and/or warranty their drives for up to 3 or 5 years. If the disk drive fails before that time, you could have a claim under Quebec law.

Seagate claims their drives are capable of 50,000 start-stop cycles. That is close to 100 years at once every 15 minutes. However, this is just one of many problems that has cropped up with EV's PVRs since the infamous firmware update that took place last winter. You could have a case that EV damaged your PVR with a software download and claim compensation for damages. I have been considering going this route in small claims court. I certainly will not accept a refurb from EV since I am almost certain that it is a software, not a hardware, issue. You could also have a claim that EV has rendered your unit unfit for a particular use with their software download. If the issue is publicized and enough people are successful in making such claims, EV would need to address the issue.

Right now, I am working with someone at EV to address the issues that are brought to my attention. I will mention this to him.

I finally broke down + decided to call EV support about this problem. It took abt 15m to get thru to a CSR (Colin). When I described the problem he said this was the first he'd heard of it. He put me on hold and after abt 5m came back + said that tech support was saying that in fact the situation was just the reverse, the cycling of the harddrive was designed to lengthen its life! After I regained my composure I asked to speak to the tech support guy myself. I was put on hold again and waited for 35m.

The tech guy (Wesley) finally came on + said: this is perfectly normal, it's just the fan cooling down the harddrive?!? I kept trying to explain: no it's not the fan at all, it's just the harddrive + it's cycling every 15m or so. He kept telling me that he knows the PVR very well and that what I'm hearing is the fan + harddrive cooling things down! I tried to explain that I've had a PVR for over 3 years and this behaviour did not occur before 3 or 4 weeks ago and that it's only the harddrive I'm hearing. He just kept repeating the 'normal operation' thing again + again. Arrgh! I finally asked to speak to his supervisor + he reluctantly put me thru to Catherine's voice mail. I left her my name, phone number + an explanation of the problem. I'll be very curious to hear what she has to say. Total time on the phone: 1hr! Satisfaction: 0!

No wonder people slag the quality of EV support sometimes. It's really too bad. In general I've been very happy with EV, HiDef looks absolutely great (except for the few probs noted elsewhere in this forum) + I can't imagine life without the PVR for SD stuff (Can't wait for a HD PVR of course). Come on EV, let's get it together...

Will

I tried to explain that I've had a PVR for over 3 years and this behaviour did not occur before 3 or 4 weeks ago and that it's only the harddrive I'm hearing. He just kept repeating the 'normal operation' thing again + again. Arrgh!

Yeah, I agree with you 100%. I don't think it's a hardware problem at all, or the fan cycling on and off. I have the exact same problem, and it started quite suddenly, in early November. I kinda regret not calling Bev to complain, now. I guess if more of us with the problem don't take the initiative to make Bell aware of the problem, they won't take action to correct it! :(

No way is that just fan noise.

Stick to your guns, and keep us posted.

My 5100 has been doing the same thing since I changed all my receivers to the new cards.

It is definitely NOT the fan. If you want to hear what your fan sounds like (mine NEVER runs) try this. Wwith the power on pull out your smartcard then re-insert it. As soon as you re-insert it, the fan cranks up for a few seconds. You will then see what the fans sounds like......way louder than the hard drive.

But the drive cycling on and off every 15 minutes has become very irritating.

Same thing has been happening to my 5100 for a month or two now. The hard drive runs every 15 min or so even when turned off. And I have been missing some recordings and have to reset the receiver by pressing the power button for 3 seconds on the front panel (probably about once per week). This fixes the recording problem. Haven't called BEV.

come to think of it.. that fan NEVER runs, does it? I recall hearing it when rebooting, it blows.. then it stops, then the PVR starts.. lame!

Funny how the hard drive did start doing this starting and stopping just the past month.. funny because the software wasn't changed.. it's been E476 since the summer. I wonder what's up?? some sort of new anti-piracy measure? is it checking the integrity of some data somewhere every 15 or so minutes, requiring the disk to spin up?