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Dumping Memory in StarChoice?

26K views 37 replies 12 participants last post by  ARR 
#1 ·
Is it possible to Dump/Reset/Reboot the memory in StarChoice? Say that you lose/forget your password and want to put your Reciever to the factory original state.
I am not sure if the model of receiver is important or not in this procedure,if possible.
Help would be appreacated.
Thank you. :)
 
#2 ·
Its best to get Star Choice on the phone for that one, because they need to send a signal through to reprogram the receiver for your channel information and such.

Options 6-7-7-8 (type it in, trust me, you'll get a new menu), and there is a "reset factory defaults" option there.

It will reset the reciever, you'll have to turn it back on, go to channel 284, and call Star Choice for a signal to get everything downloaded again.

Proceed at your own risk for the above.

If its just the password you need cleared, Star Choice can do that from their end. Give them a call.
 
#5 ·
Are there many of these hidden menus?

I got to wondering after I tried your tips if there were more so I started pushing buttons and I found the following:
Note that these menus can be access by other keys other then the ones I shown.
Options 6-7-7-0 (Advanced System Status)

Options 6-7-7-9-8
(Press NEXT to edit memory or GOBACK to exit)

Are there any more. I got a tendacy to want to know everything bout everything.,lol.
Thank You. Newfieplayer.
 
#10 ·
Do you have to have there help to Reset your Reciever?

So, from what I understand, you can do the reset by yourself but SC got to get your reciever up and working Via phone call and having your reciever on a specific channel. No way to do this procedure 100% by yourself?
I am a previous Bell Xpress vu customer and I often reset my reciever/dumped the memory to get rid of old channel list's, forgotten password, and to get rid of the movies that I purchased over the past months(Family movies Keep in Mind),lol.
Now with SC I got a large number of phone number stored on my reciever, and a bunch of movies I purchased in the past weeks. Dumping the memory will get rid of all this but I don't want to have to phone them. They probley would have a dozens of Questions for me.
So, yah, if there is a way to do a mem. dump withou tthe aid of SC of if there is another way to get rid of the jumk on my reciever, It would be great to get some help. Thank a lot.
Newfie_Player.
 
#11 ·
You can set a password on the receiver (Options-3) which will need to be entered before you can view the PPV Purchases screen if you don't want people viewing it. There isn't an option on the receiver to clear it out easily.


Here's why you need to call Star Choice:
Your reciever gets authorization keys from Star Choice which tells the reciever which channels to decode for you. (Based upon your package, etc.)
When you reset it (or if you leave it unplugged for long enough), it looses those keys so has no idea which channels it can decode for you. Therefore, you just get the free ones, like channel 298/299, and an error message on any other channels.

Here is what you can do if you want the process to be as easy as possible:
1) Do the factory reset. Turn the reciever back on.
2) Go to channel 284. You should have a green "signal" light.
3) Press [Options] [6] [4]. The "trip count" should be "0".
4) Call Star Choice (1-888-554-7827). Press 1 for english, 2 for customer service.
5) Tell them you've reset your reciever and need a signal sent through to it.
6) They will do that, you'll see the trip count move up.
7) Say "thanks", and hang up.
8) Wait 5 minutes and you should be able to change channels and have all your programming back.
 
#12 ·
You can leave the receiver sit for a day/overnight, tuned to a valid vertical F1 channel (eg 299). Everything will get set in a daily hit, except for PPV authorisation, which might get reset when a call home is initiated. Your channel authorisations do not get cleared in a master reset.
 
#14 ·
There's another hidden menu on the legacy receivers:

Options-6-0

This will bring up a menu with 5 options:

Display Virtual Channel Map
Display Sat. Information Tables
Display Carrier Definition List
Display Modulation Mode List
Display DigiCipher Diagnostics

You can get a lot of information on what these screens are for at:

http://home.austin.rr.com/drlev/Diagscrn/diagscrn.htm

4dtv uses the same receivers that StarChoice does, so there's probably a lot more information to be found. Did some work on this a while back.
 
#18 ·
4.5 4.9 4.2 4.7 and 5.0 from the Russian judge...

You're most welcome and hey, what makes this a 5 star thread?

I haven't seen much of those lately.

There was some old posts a while ago that got 5 stars that contained a ton of good switch and install info.
 
#19 ·
I didn't rate the thread.

Just as a side note,

When I went back into the hidden menu for the first time in about a year, I saw a few new entries:

The 6-0 menu has changed to the following:

Installation Type (Home / Business)
Display Virtual Channel Maps
Display Carrier Definition List
Display Modulation Mode List
Diagnostic Data
Hide Non-Preferred Channels

Does anyone know what the difference is between a Home and Business installation, and what "Hide Non-Preferred Channels" does?

These weren't in the menu a year ago.
 
#20 ·
ARR said:
You're most welcome and hey, what makes this a 5 star thread?

I haven't seen much of those lately.

There was some old posts a while ago that got 5 stars that contained a ton of good switch and install info.

There is only 1 vote and it is a 5, from 1-5, That gets the average up, lol. I made that vote. I asked a question and got a ton of answers so I rated it a 5.
 
#22 ·
classicsat said:
Buisness installation installs a slightly different channel map.

"Hide Non-Preferred Channels" does nothing perceiveable.
I found the following in a PowerPoint Presentation:

Motorola said:
If the receiver is activated on the same day as installation, there is one final step needed to complete the channel- mapping process…

Press Options 6 - 0 & Select “Hide Non Preferred Channels”

This keeps customers from accessing channels which your system has chosen not to offer.

This same step happens automatically, during the first overnight period.
So it probably doesn't do much on a StarChoice receiver except maybe before activation.
 
#23 ·
The screen shot of that menu above ( 6-7-7-9-8 ) looks like a bunch of hex... and if I'm reading the screen write, you can edit that?!? that looks kinda dangerous, but I can't get my 401 to respond to those button presses. Is this only on certain models?
 
#24 ·
re Authorizing 401

classicsat said:
You can leave the receiver sit for a day/overnight, tuned to a valid vertical F1 channel (eg 299). Everything will get set in a daily hit, except for PPV authorisation, which might get reset when a call home is initiated. Your channel authorisations do not get cleared in a master reset.
IS this correct? I lost not only the reported PPV history memory but the channel map as well as the dish settings ( quad vs stacked settings ) overnight. I phoned up after waiting one hour for it to reauthorize. TSR hit the receiver in the stream and restored the subscription so all is well.

Does anyone know what can be editted in the sram's menu?

Thanks
 
#25 ·
Yoshi said:
IS this correct? I lost not only the reported PPV history memory but the channel map as well as the dish settings ( quad vs stacked settings ) overnight. I phoned up after waiting one hour for it to reauthorize. TSR hit the receiver in the stream and restored the subscription so all is well.

Does anyone know what can be editted in the sram's menu?

Thanks
You'll be waiting a heck of a lot longer than an hour to ger the receiver to re-authorise itself without a direct hit from Starchoice. All of the receivers are on a virtual 'carousel', essentially a list of the Unit IDs for every single active receiver on the Starchoice system. The unit has to wait until the SAC (the receiver/account database) gets to your particular receiver on the carousel and then it'll get a hit to the unit to ensure all the configurations that are on your account for the receiver (authorisations/channel maps/dish settings) are up to date. I've seen this take over 3 days or more in some cases.

This is why sometimes when a new channel is added to the system (and hence a new channel map is required), some customers get the channel a good while before others. The SAC simply got to their receiver on the list before the other people.

It's a lot quicker just to call and get the hit.
 
#26 ·
cellarboy said:
You'll be waiting a heck of a lot longer than an hour to ger the receiver to re-authorise itself without a direct hit from Starchoice. All of the receivers are on a virtual 'carousel', essentially a list of the Unit IDs for every single active receiver on the Starchoice system. The unit has to wait until the SAC (the receiver/account database) gets to your particular receiver on the carousel and then it'll get a hit to the unit to ensure all the configurations that are on your account for the receiver (authorisations/channel maps/dish settings) are up to date. I've seen this take over 3 days or more in some cases.

This is why sometimes when a new channel is added to the system (and hence a new channel map is required), some customers get the channel a good while before others. The SAC simply got to their receiver on the list before the other people.

It's a lot quicker just to call and get the hit.
Sounds like you know the *choice protocols... R U employed by them in technical?

So... from what you've said, the SAC will premutate through all the receivers addresses with the latest keys/hits and it can take up to 48 - 72 hours, depending on the receivers qued position.

Does anyone know what can be edited in the memory windows?
 
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