I wonder if the hard disks are not start to fail due to the heat and the fact that the fan is turned off?

While a lot of the issues that affect the 530 seem to be random, there are a couple of sure fire ways to hang the machine. As I have suggested before I am sure that there is an issue with interrupt routines and/or buffer overflow destroying pointers and corrupting the executing code.

The surest way I know to demonstrate this is to start a timed recording (on a HD channel seems to be best) and then start watching a recorded show. If you happen to attempt to fast forward the recorded show at exactly the time that the timer recorder is finishing then WATCH OUT!

Anything can happen and usually does.... At the very least you end up with a broken recording and a frozen machine that needs a reset to recover.

Another interesting A8 issue that I hadn't struck for a while occurs after pause, fast forward or skip back on a recorded program. Just once in a while the sound doesn't come back on when the video resumes. It can affect any or all of the video outputs but seems worse on the optical connection. Fiddling the forward, reverse pause, play etc. for a few cycles will usually fix this one....

It seem obvious that when the machine had a couple of concurrent operations or interrupts in quick succession that it gets hung up. That's almost certainly bad software.

There is no law prohibiting slavery in microprocessors, so you can throw as much work at them as you need, but you have to make sure the chips work schedule is managed and prioritized properly and they don't lose their way due to stack faults and buffer overflows; that's what programming is all about......

The same thing happens if you press skip forward or back just as a new show is starting to record. The entire machine locks and needs to be reset. So it seems that whenever the 530 is busy starting or ending a recording, it loses its mind.

Long time no post...

I have experienced a new bug with my DSR-530 since being upgraded to CC. This bug was not there with any previous code I've had (A4, A8 or BC). I use the DVI interface with my Plasma screen, but since being upgraded to CC, the image is extremely poor on start-up (usually in the morning). The image is very red as though the TV is not getting all the color data and the image is very grainy.

This seems to go away after a minute or two and doesn't return. Changing channels, or activating menu's doesn't seem to correct it.

I haven't done a factory reset since getting CC, but I'm going to get StarChoice on the line and try that next.

Hve you tried using component or another device connected to the screen to see if the issue persists? If I'd heard your description, I'd immeadiately think it was a TV issue, but it could be an issue with a component in the 530 that appears to rectify itself as it warms up (bad solder joint, for example).

Well, no lockups in 4 days since the factory reset. Of course this has been without any timers on. I've done everything with the machine that I could do, short of recording anything (watching live TV, watching previous recordings, FF, RR, skip, etc.) and haven't been able to make it lock up.

Now I've set some timers again so I'll see if it's still as robust with the timers set.

Hve you tried using component or another device connected to the screen to see if the issue persists? If I'd heard your description, I'd immeadiately think it was a TV issue, but it could be an issue with a component in the 530 that appears to rectify itself as it warms up (bad solder joint, for example).

The problem doesn't occur with the component connections, and it doesn't do it if I use the DVI interface on my TV with my HDMI DVD player. The problem started when I was upgraded to CC. I doubt that was a coincidence.

In the last two weeks, I've had about 20 Front Panel reboots, 1 soft reboot, two factory resets and it didn't make any difference! In fact, after the first factory reset, it locked up four times in four hours. After the second factory reset, it locked up during the night, then three more times the following day. Since then, it has locked up each day at least once. There is nothing to explain the behavior, as I am never doing the same thing each time, except the new CC code.

However, any conversation with a tech at *Choice begins with, "Everyone else is very happy with the code".

Have you emailed Jim?

However, any conversation with a tech at *Choice begins with, "Everyone else is very happy with the code".

Yeah, same thing you'd here them say when A4 and A8 were released.

My receiver has had 17 reboots since getting the cc code.

I didnt think I had that many to be honest. :)

Someone should start a poll to see how many reboots have on their receiver so far. :)

However, any conversation with a tech at *Choice begins with, "Everyone else is very happy with the code".I noticed that myself. I guess we don't count quimbysjody because the tech told me that too. I guess you and me and the several others are not part of everyone else? It's their way of nicely saying, "Buzz off!"

I noticed that myself. I guess we don't count quimbysjody because the tech told me that too. I guess you and me and the several others are not part of everyone else? It's their way of nicely saying, "Buzz off!"

When the tech told me that, I said that I have gone on an internet forum and lots of other people are having problems too, so it can't just be me. And he got a bit snippy with me at that point and said that in his experience, with the phone calls that he'd had, they were all happy. Whatever. ;)

I shouldn't complain too further, though. After many conversations, my machine is being replaced. Good thing too, it froze up spontaneously last night again. I mean, the machine was off for goodness sakes! :o

I have been reading all these posts and thinking how lucky I have been that since the cc download my 530 has been running well, when it occured to me that I have not seen a single call displayed since the download.

Having read the posts again, it seems that the caller id function has suffered most. I dont even want to try a factory reset incas I jinx what seems to be a relatively stable code, for me anyway. Other than the caller id, my box seems to ok. Timers and trick modes seem fine, but I have been recording minimally. I guess the next few weeks will test the machines with the new fall shows et al!

Question: is the CC code still outhere, or is it in hold b/c of errors. Still unsure. I guess we wont know if the testing crew are still testing eh? ;)

Any pm's would be greatly appreciated.

Still frustrated but looking hopeful....

For my part, my machine has been a rock since getting CC.

However, other than the known bugs, I didn't have that many reboots with A8 (I didn't have BC) neither. Once in a while only, especially when doing multiple records (i.e., recording a show and pausing live TV or watching a recording before the end).

Could the number of lock ups and subsequent reboots be related in any way to the hardware? My hardware was relatively stable with A8 (when comparing to others and how they went through hell!), and is still very solid with CC.

Maybe I don't use it as much as some others, but I still watch TV (live or recordings) almost every evening.

Anyway, I'm no hardware guru, but it's just a thought that came to me as I was reading how much trouble some people still had with CC.

Cheers.

Could the number of lock ups and subsequent reboots be related in any way to the hardware? Cheers.

Yes, that could be possible, and in fact is almost certainly the case in many of the problems reported here. My first 530 (which was replaced by *C) was about average until a couple of months ago when suddenly during a bout of hot weather it suddenly become so unstable as to make it impossible to watch anything, live or recorded, for more than a few minutes. Reboots, power down etc. never cured the problem and *C replaced it.

The new machine is about as good as the old one was before it deteriorated. My guess is that there are one or more critical timing paths in the operation of the 530. Any deterioration in the hardware, even without complete failure could tip the balance and create unstable operation. It only takes a few nanoseconds in the operation of some critical chip to lock up the whole system. Chips change speed when operated out of temperature specs or when software setup operations are not properly timed.

Obviously the changes in the software have attempted to circumvent these critical timing points, but they are clearly not sufficient, or cannot do more than reduce the conflicts caused, not eliminate them. As a result, pointers are corrupted, stacks are not returned properly and interrupt functions fail.

The classic test of operating skip forward and skip back on one program while a recording is being started or stopped from the second tuner, always seems to cause reproducable problems. We can do it amost every time! Why can't *C and Motorola?

I returned from holidays 5 days ago to find that my 530 had the new CC code.
We started experiencing lock-ups within an hour of turning on the machine. In the past 5 days I have had to do a front panel reset 9 times and finally phoned *C tech support yesterday and had them do a factory reset and totally wipe the hard drive. Since then I have had 3 lock-ups and a failed timer on the pre-ordered PPV. I had very few problems with the A8 code and now I find it very frustrating to have to continually doing a front panel reset.

I returned from holidays 5 days ago to find that my 530 had the new CC code.
We started experiencing lock-ups within an hour of turning on the machine. In the past 5 days I have had to do a front panel reset 9 times and finally phoned *C tech support yesterday and had them do a factory reset and totally wipe the hard drive. Since then I have had 3 lock-ups and a failed timer on the pre-ordered PPV. I had very few problems with the A8 code and now I find it very frustrating to have to continually doing a front panel reset.

Try turning off the live recoding feature and see if you get lockups after doing that. The setting is in the DVR recording setup. I know we should not have to do this but see if that helps.

After CC was installed, I have had to do a number of resets mainly resulting from using the FF control on a recorded program when a new one is beginning recording (I now check). The lastest problem was the strangest; after rebooting my most recent recorded progams would not play back even though they showed on the DVR list but some progams recorded 3 weeks or more ago still worked.

So I called CS and their response was factory reboot; there was nothing really special in the programs that I could still access so I went ahead. THe CS story was you need a factory reboot to clear out any residual old software issues and also recorded programs might cause a problem so let's wipe them as well. Given it was only programs recorded after my first factory reboot with CC, that did not make a lot of sense but who knows. I doubt if the average Rep has any deep understanding of the problems that are occuring; I think they just get a script and give us whatever stock answer lines up with our symptoms. I remain convinced that there are some clear problems with the record function; I just hope they have got some people behind the scenes looking at the problems that I am sure they must hear about daily from us poor 530 owners.

When I got the CC code last month, the first thing I did was a "factory reset" with "erase hard disk" option. And in the last 6-7 weeks since the upgrade, I have had total 2 front panel resets.

It's clear that there are hardware and software issues with this box, but a factory reset does purge some of the old info which could be corrupting the new operation....who knows!