Since my last post here, it's been long since I'd said something about the 530. So after that long I can said that even if sometime I have to reset by pushing the front buttom 5s. I'm kind satisfaction of the new cc code. When I have to reset it it's because my son push to many buttom at the same time. From my side it's been rare that it's happen to me.

So, glad to read all your thread about it...one day The Star will give us a final result and a good one.....

Well my old 530 has been locking up more and more frequently. I thought perhaps the old recordings dating back to May of 2005 were causing some problem with the CC code. I deleted these and it's still locking up fairly frequently. I'm wondering if I'm headed for major failure. Should I call and get a factory reset and erase all recordings? Does anyone have a copy of that letter saying *C would warranty it for 1 year after the CC code intro in case I need it to get a new 530?

Maybe it's just a phase it's going through.

Certainly you'd want to watch or archive any shows.
Of course if a *c advised factory reset kills the box, then they are kinda on the hook for a replacement anyways.
Nothing better than having them do it and feeling a little guilty. :)

Enough reboots over a short time will likely finish it off, so best get that done before the grace period expires.

Does anyone else have this problem with the 530? Anytime the power goes out which lately is almost daily with the wind storms we've been getting out here, I have a hell of a time getting the DVR to start up again. I have to do a soft reset sometimes up to 30 times just to get it going. The blue lights will flash continuously or they'll flash briefly and then stop. I keep doing a soft reset and I have to do it until I here a destinctive sound of the disc powering up. When that happens I know I've got it. When I first got the DVR, now over a year ago, if the power went out I would just have to reset it and everything was a go. Other that this issue, I've been as happy as possible with this model and I am reluctant to demand a replacement for fear that I'll get a real lemon. Comments?

Chances are a replacement is in your near future due to the number of resets.
It's quite likely it will soon die a horrible death.
So do keep up on your programs on the DVR list just in case.

DO NOT tell *C about all the power outages or you may have to pay for a replacement as that's a customer abuse, non-warrantable item when in fact, the machine is just plain not suited to handle this type of environment when it ought to be.

Generally the reports a of replacements have been very positive with new A0/A4/A8 warehouse units being shipping and taking CC in the first few days.

The problem IS:
When the power fails, any outstanding writes to the flash are incomplete.
This is because flash writes occur only every 5 minutes so as not to shorten the limited life span of flash memory.

Now don't get alarmed, the life span of flash in 'normal' use is well beyond the life of the unit and is many many years, but IF, bad coding were to write the hell out of it, we'll, you do the math, see my point.

Recent code has added a 'chkdsk' routine to the boot process and this is why it's slower to start up as it tries to recover from corrupted flash after a unexpected reboot/power failure.
In many cases, several chkdsks are required to fully recover and some never will.

Something I try and observe on the rare occasions that I need to do a reboot is, if the unit can be powered off from the remote/front panel, WAIT for the clock display to re-appear after several seconds.
This signifies that the write flush has been completed and the box is in a quiescent state.

Does anyone else have this problem with the 530? Anytime the power goes out which lately is almost daily with the wind storms we've been getting out here, I have a hell of a time getting the DVR to start up again. I have to do a soft reset sometimes up to 30 times just to get it going. The blue lights will flash continuously or they'll flash briefly and then stop. I keep doing a soft reset and I have to do it until I here a destinctive sound of the disc powering up. When that happens I know I've got it. When I first got the DVR, now over a year ago, if the power went out I would just have to reset it and everything was a go. Other that this issue, I've been as happy as possible with this model and I am reluctant to demand a replacement for fear that I'll get a real lemon. Comments?
You are a prime candidate for UPS. They are cheap now.

I was thinking exactly the same thing - getting a UPS I mean. Can you suggest what I should be looking at to get something to suit the 530? Any ideas of where I should look? Thanks very much.

Costco has a nice one in store for $144, which might work for several HT components....been looking it at getting one myself. Looks like one of these...pretty sure it was a model 1050, but I don;t see it listed on the APC site....might be a Costco exclusive:

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=23I see they also have dedicated HT models, but am not sure the major benefit...I know they cost much more. O kow the power conditioning may be a benefit?

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=310

I spoke to a person on another AV forum, who said he had this model, and was happy. Has a digital display, and can be vertically or horizontally mounted with a switchable display/screen:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1543959&CatId=234

Check thesourcecc.com and look for their clearance items both in store and online. I got one in November that has UPS, power conditioning, surge protection and enough power to run both my 530 and my SXRD 50" for a few minutes to allow me to shut them both down properly. Mine was item#6118508 for $100. Works perfectly at 60%capacity.

My 530 died a slow death today and *C is sending out a refurbed unit. I tried to talk the TSR into sending me a new unit to no avail. Will the refurb be any better than my old receiver which worked fairly good when it was working. Are the refurbs the same as if you were getting a new one. What is done to refurb a used receiver. Is it more to it than if *C does a master reset to it while you still have it hooked up. The reason I asked is that *C wanted to do a master reset to the one that I have and I couldn't get it to boot up at the time, but if I unplug and plug it in enought times it will usualy boot up after a while. So I was wondering if I should have waited to see if I could have gotten it to boot up and then done a master reset.
Wade

Check Canadian tire. They periodically have UPS units on sale.

I wouldn't worry about the refurb. They could be anything including a fully functional unit that was returned. I would have tried the master reset. I prefer a "known" product to an "unknown".

I believe they use a special probe to clear the memory and basically do a fresh factory load, which is CC, so in a sense, it won't have all the possible cobwebs from being update via the satellite.

Thanks for the info. Makes me feel better about getting a refurb. The TSR said that I had a 90 day warranty on it so I will be able to put it through the paces by that time. The warranty on my old receiver since CC must be soon running out so I guess I don't have a lot to lose.
Wade

I got a refurb as a replacement for the fried 530. It came with the CC code. Has been very stable for the last 3 weeks....knock on wood...

Recived my first "freeze" early this morning. Here is what happened. I had on a music channel. I hit "favourites" on the remote and the TV screen went black and I had a red sat signal. Here's the strange part. When I powered off, the clock would come on as normal but when I powered back on (red sat signal), the clock would change to a number like a channel number with the same numbers as the last time on the clock. For example if it was 1:01, I would get 101 and it would just sit there like that. I called SC to play it safe and they had me to a reboot (soft reset). All was back to normal. I had fully expected that if a freeze took place, it would be a picture freeze. I have had no trouble running fast forward and rewind.

Watch Dell for UPS units. During the Dell Days of Deals and sometimes on their Tuesday Deals they will put these on for a big discount.

I have had two 530s. The first died a horrible death gadually sickening and then finally becoming terminal. The replacement arrived promptly with the only charge being the freight. Once it had CC installed it has been reasonably reliable but then I treat it with kid gloves and never try to do anything that would make it work. As an old programmer, I always worked on the presumption that there was no law against slavery for silicon, so there was no penalty for making microprocessors work hard.... It doesn't apply to the 530. It is a delicate piece of work, easily upset and hard to console if you make any attempt to work it hard.

My 530 still locks up, loses its tiny mind and generally misbehaves if I attempt to skip forward and back while watching a recorded program at the same time that it is recording another program. It seems to be especially sensitive if you start to watch a program before it has finished recording and then it switches to record a new program on a different channel set by the timer.

Now I can see some possible issues which could cause problems which would involve the swapping from one sateliite input to the other and this seems to explain a lot of the symptons, but without access to the code it's hard to figure it out. It shouldn't be too hard for somebody with access to the innards of the machine though considering the problem is easily reproducable.

So how about it guys. All you need to to is set the timer to record several shows (preferably in HD) back to back on different channels and then start watching the first one before the recording is finished. Skip forward and back occasionally as anyone would during the playback and hey presto, before the first hour is up you will have locked up the 530 running CC code!

Now try some diagnostics or just a good look at the code involved and you will almost certainly find a solution.

Not too hard, is it? :p

I have not posted for some time as my 530 was running fairly well even before the CC update . Mine went straight from A8 to CC .
After several months of just the odd freeze up , last week, it started to lock up and do odd things on the re boot . It went from being a nuisance , to locking up every 10 minutes , for no apparant reason . I soon needed to pull the power plug to unlock it and after a few days , it would not power up again . I can hear the hard drive running BUT absolutly no display at all and no output to the TV .
I bought this unit for $ 600 from FS exactly 1 year and 1 week ago . I would have been up Sh**t Cr**k had I not purchased a 2 year plan . Are the units designed to die 1 day after warranty expires ??
Can you imagine buying a new car and having this kind constant unreliability hanging abouve your head ? Not knowing if it is actually going to run the whole day to day . And the dealer promising to fix it maybe next spring ???
Enough venting !
Does any one out there believe as I do now , that the CC update can and will eventually destroy your 530 ?? ( by making it more vulnerable to re boots and power drop out , which are inherently un avoidable )
We have had only one power out in the last month but that should not destroy all 530's on the grid .
For us that payed $ 600 for these units and getting an unwanted update that ensures an eventual death for the 530 ; we can not return them to *C for a free repair . These updates are forced into both rental and purchased units .
What are your experences/thoughts on this subject ?
Is there a *C letter out on this " death by CC " subject ?

Other subject : can I just split one of the 2 coax cables and run my old 401 off it after activating it also ?? This would at least ensure reliability in case the 530 went to silicon heaven again . ( I have the older twin type dish with a 2 in and 2 out box attached )

I paid more then 600, pre-ordered :)

You would have been fine without the extended warrenty. Star choice replaced mine twice after the one year warrenty, last one was november 2006. I didnt even get charged shipping (I like haggling). last time was for a faulty component video input.

Personally i've only done 3 resets since CC. The BC code killed me once though.