My 9200: Fubar 2 Weeks In... Error: 0551

[Q]

Originally Posted by Analogman

First one was death by "0551". It was working flawlessly up to that point.

The last two have had varying degrees of audio and video stutter on recorded programs and audio drop outs on live TV. Pausing live TV and watching it delayed resulted in intermittent pixilation.

I find it hard to believe that I've gotten three lemons in a row but without any other explanation...?

well you may have got 1 lemon which many people have had that error.
the other 2 were lemons already. hence the reason many people like to keep it with the 0551 error and do a manual format.

hopefully your fourth works out. If not I would demand a new one and not a refurb.

joe

[North_of_Calgary]

Originally Posted by Analogman

... and speaking of FUBAR, BEV is overnighting a 4th (is that a record?) 9200 to me today.

As I was packing up my 3rd casualty, I wondered about the proximity of my other equipment to the receiver. Since unshielded speakers can cause distortion on CRT televisions, is it possible that the 9200's are susceptible to magnetic interference from large speakers?

Does anyone more technically savvy than I have any thoughts?

I got my 0551 with no speakers anywhere near it and a RP-LCD TV above it. So there weren't any magnets anywhere close.

[Analogman]

Okay, but... could unshielded speakers cause serious problems for a hard drive/electronic appliance like a satellite receiver? Curious minds want to know.

[kingrat]

analog...the large magnets(unshielded) on your speakers could really wreak havok with a hard drive since drives are using magnetic recording media(platter)but would would have to be within a couple of feet to your 9200. I would not relay this info to bell as they might use it as an excuse not to honour your warranty.Have you tried moving them apart?

[wptbay]

I purchased my 9200 in early December. It is installed within a foot of the lower portion a floor standing Paradigm Studio 100, which has a couple of bass drivers with over sized magnets. These are not shielded and my 9200 has been glitch free so far (knock on wood).

Analogman...does your 9200 have sufficient ventilation? You do seem to have a high failure rate.

[Analogman]

Originally Posted by kingrat

analog...the large magnets(unshielded) on your speakers could really wreak havok with a hard drive since drives are using magnetic recording media(platter)but would would have to be within a couple of feet to your 9200. I would not relay this info to bell as they might use it as an excuse not to honour your warranty.Have you tried moving them apart?

I've come to the same conclusion. My 9200's were within 1 foot and that was close enough to cause slight interference on my old CRT. I placed the latest one another foot or so away from the speaker and so far (knock on wood) no problems.

[Analogman]

Originally Posted by wptbay

I purchased my 9200 in early December. It is installed within a foot of the lower portion a floor standing Paradigm Studio 100, which has a couple of bass drivers with over sized magnets. These are not shielded and my 9200 has been glitch free so far (knock on wood).

Analogman...does your 9200 have sufficient ventilation? You do seem to have a high failure rate.

I've got Paradigm towers as well. I can't be sure, but I think they were the (partial?) cause of my problems.

9200's were on an open shelf so ventilation was not an issue.

[disco277]

Well I had hoped I was one of the lucky ones but alas it was not to be... All my Battlestar gone!

My 9200 died yesterday with the dreaded 551 error. I read the reformat post but figured since I purchased the 9200 I might as well get it replaced in case the drive is actually failing.

My unit is in the basement (cold) and on a glass shelf below my tv. No obstructions around it.

I'm obviously not pleased, but I'll remain civil with them unless they send my a refurb, then I'll gonna lose it.

[Orpo]

Originally Posted by disco277

Well I had hoped I was one of the lucky ones but alas it was not to be... All my Battlestar gone!

My 9200 died yesterday with the dreaded 551 error. I read the reformat post but figured since I purchased the 9200 I might as well get it replaced in case the drive is actually failing.

My unit is in the basement (cold) and on a glass shelf below my tv. No obstructions around it.

I'm obviously not pleased, but I'll remain civil with them unless they send my a refurb, then I'll gonna lose it.

Mine died last night too. Odd... I dont know if I'll call for a refurb or just do it myself. I've taken very good care of the unit... not near speaks, well ventilate and on a Voltage Regulated UPS... Wife calls me at work this morning and says the pvr is dead! Doh!

[Shortside]

Knocking on wood here as well. So far I haven't had the 0551. But if I do end up getting the dreaded error, I would definitely try to do the DIY reformatting first.

From my previous experience with warranty exchanges of various electronics equipment, I think you're likely to get someone else's problem if you exchange your unit for a refurb. For the 9200, you may be getting a unit that has had the 0551 error and has been reformatted; or worse, you may end up with a unit that has some other error that the technicians could not identify and/or fix. In either case, you're better off keeping your original unit and doing a reformat yourself. You know your own unit is new and know it's been taken good care of.

Only if it fails again in a couple of months would I consider an exchange. But that's just my opinion.

[ltldevl]

Originally Posted by Shortside

Knocking on wood here as well. So far I haven't had the 0551. But if I do end up getting the dreaded error, I would definitely try to do the DIY reformatting first.

From my previous experience with warranty exchanges of various electronics equipment, I think you're likely to get someone else's problem if you exchange your unit for a refurb. For the 9200, you may be getting a unit that has had the 0551 error and has been reformatted; or worse, you may end up with a unit that has some other error that the technicians could not identify and/or fix. In either case, you're better off keeping your original unit and doing a reformat yourself. You know your own unit is new and know it's been taken good care of.

Only if it fails again in a couple of months would I consider an exchange. But that's just my opinion.

But if you launch the re-format yourself, would you still be covered by their warranty? Has anyone suggested this to a support person on the phone and let them walk you through it? You know the way these warranties work, if you break a seal or do something that is not stated specifically in any manual, you could potentially void your warranty. Also, is it tracked anywhere on the unit (NVRAM or EPPROM) on how many times you have attempted a re-format?

[North_of_Calgary]

Originally Posted by disco277

...I'm obviously not pleased, but I'll remain civil with them unless they send my a refurb, then I'll gonna lose it.

Well disco, I'll wish you a genuine "good luck" with that but I think your chances of getting a brand new unit is next to ZERO. The question will be whether based on the casing and packaging you can tell whether it is new or used. Regardless I'll bet you anything that it will be a refurb and as shortside mentions, who knows what other problems it will have had?

Remember, they put all of the clear plastic stickers back on over the front pannels, and seal it in plastic, etc to make you think that it is new (or very near new).

However as you can see in this forum, everyone is getting a refurb. And remember, that regardless of what the CSR or second level tech tells you, they have no control over the RMA inventory (yes I too was told I would be getting a "brand new one"). Also, it doesn't matter how old yours is: there are people on this site that had the 0551 within the first few weeks and they got refurbs.

So if you bought yours new last week, you could be trading you one week old HDD in for a 9 month old HDD that experienced the exact same problem, but was reformatted by Bell and sent out to you (or worse).

Anyway, that's just my thought on it. I think by sending it in, you are doing a disservice to yourself. But at the same time you are helping the rest of us because the more people who send it back and call up all pissed off, the more of a priority it will become for Bell to fix!

[disco277]

Well here's hoping! But now that they've sent out the new one they'll most likely be able to track if I sent it back and keep my original no? They said I had to call in to register the new one.

Question for people who've had this error, once reformatted, how often are you getting these errors? As nice of a unit as it is I will not tolerate loosing my recordings every week! Ridiculous!

[disco277]

Also, I'd be fine with reformatting it myself, but how do I know ifmy hard drive is actually experiencing problems or dying?

[clayface1000]

Since I wiped out the partitions and re-formatted a few weeks ago, the problem has not returned.