Bell TV 9242 HD PVR Discussion thread

[habfan777]

Well Bell surprised me by sending out another 9242 via Priority Post. Got it the next day, not 5-7 working days like it usually takes for Newfoundland. However, the same issue arose. The replacement would not start properly either. Now I have two replacement 9242's along with my original. My family room looks like a Bell warehouse. Called Bell and they are now sending out a technician, free of charge. We'll see what he discovers. Stay tuned as the sage continues.

[RDC1]

After the daily update occurs my 9242 fan runs non stop and the receiver will not function until I unplug it and re-plug it. Bell has sent two 9242 replacements and they both do the same thing. I don't think this is a heat issue as I've tested the unit in a wide open area and it does the same thing. Could there be a software problem or something with my feed? Otherwise Bell is sending out refurbished 9242's with a very visible and common problem. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[m3repair]

All I can say is try and keep swapping, your situation seems strange but once you get one that works its truly worth it! Might be annoying right now but Bell did have quite a bit of problems with these units but like I said before keep trying till you get one that works, as well ensure you run check switch on the new one that you get, Good Luck! (and I been though this frustration before till I got one that worked!)

[jumpy27]

It is strange for multiple 9242's to keep having the exact same faults--I wonder if there is a problem with the lines going to the dish, or the LNB at the dish.

[careh]

My 3 month old 9242 can get the HD version of the fireplace on channels 891 and 892 and those are what I regularly use. It also gets the French SD version on channel 151.

The English SD channel 285 does not appear in the 'all channels' guide listing nor can I tune to it. That got me to wondering if I am missing other SD channels - I checked and it seems I do get them all - except for 285.

I have had Bell try various diagnostics with me including a check switch , a receiver reauthorize on their end and a receiver reset on my end. No change.

My other SD receivers do get channel 285.

I am wondering if other 9242 owners have the same issue -which is no big deal- but I just wonder if it is just my receiver.

[Pinza]

Burning just fine on all 4 of my 9242's.

[tvnut64]

Maybe you have 285 locked out?? Just a thought.

[Stan Dev]

As I just reported in the receiver swap thread, I have a month-old 9242 that recently developed the constantly-rebooting problem, and a refurbished 9242 sent to replace it, which fails to start up because of being "too cold to initiate operation" despite sitting at room temperature for more than 24 hours.

Are there any known home fixes to either the constantly-rebooting problem or the too-cold-to-start problem? I have two misbehaving 9242s and two perfectly fine 9200s from which to assemble a single working 9242, if there's some part-swapping that would do the trick. Otherwise, it's more fun fone time with Bell.

[HiroPro]

I just thought I'd share a recent problem a relative had with a new replacement 9242 (Thanks Bell for sending 9242 and not a 9241!!!) that started rebooting it's self over and over.

I believe Bell issued a software update that caused this though I'm not certain, other can chime in, if this was the case or if it was simply a 3AM reboot.

Anyway the receiver would go into reboot cycles every morning according to my relative. They made three calls to bell and took hits etc. Problem persisted.

I came over and did a master reset and a HD format (service menus) and then I also gave it a smart card hit (trans 13 signal screen then power off on front of IRD).

This completely fixed the issue! In the past as a third party installer I also did this and it fixed rebooting 9200s. A great analogy would be flashing a motherboard BIOS or router and NOT resetting the BIOS/router settings to power on 'boxed' defaults. This can cause issues due to memory address space changing between firmwares in NVRAM settings address space. It can result in an IRD that works but not well or properly.

Anyway I just thought I'd share this advice with anyone with a rebooting receiver. As for how to get into those menus and perform such I will not post it here as customers shouldn't do it unless a tech directs them to do so.

[HiroPro]

If any of you ever need to do what I spoke of above please do the following.

(Don't do any of the following UNLESS your 100% CERTAIN your cables, switches, LNBFs and dish alignment are working 100% properly)


Accessing the memory dump screen:
Press Menu, 6 (System Setup), 3 (Diagnostics).
Within 5 seconds press Info, Browse, Theme.

Clear NVRAM:
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press TV/Video.
A different screen will pop up telling you that you have erased the NVram.
Then just press the power button on the receiver.
You will lose all favorites, timers and customized settings. I also yank the power cord and wait 40 seconds.


To format the drive.

Format HDD:
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press Play, Play, Recall
You will lose all recordings!


If the receiver reports HD errors try this.

HDD Long Diagnostics (DST-2):
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press Pause, 2
If errors are found it may format the hard drive!

If you did a full reset then this isn't needed but sometimes if error states are in NVRAM var mem space this is the only solution to fix the receiver.

Diagnostics + Reset LBA Failure Condition:
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press Pause, 8
You may lose all recordings!

That will perform a complete reset and also run full diagnostics including HD testing and clearing sectors marketed as bad if the drive has bad sectors. It will reformat if sectors marked bad BUT it will do a sector level diagnostic and mark bad sections so they are not used. This is a great way to recover a failed 9200 due to some bad sectors actually.

This can fix screwy HD temperature errors.

HDD FET Diagnostics:
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press Pause, 6

If you ever take out an old receiver that has old smartcard revision that might be screwy with IRD firmware version perform a smartcard "hit" or "flash" by doing the following.

Enter signal meter screen and change tuner 1 (if multi tuner) to sat 91 and transponder 13. Then hit the power off on the front on the receiver. The remote will not work. You will then have to wait a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour before turning it on again as this will cause the smartcard to take new software!

If you can't even get into the service menus it's best to disconnect the l-band cable and only have composite video out. At one point, and it might take multi reboots, you will see the signal acquisition screen. At this point pound the menu button over and over again. As soon as you see the menu stop pounding menu. You have to be quick! just like entering a motherboard BIOS. There is also an easter egg to enter the bootloader menu but I won't share that.


(Please note entering these service menus can cause unrecoverable problems and errors that will require the receiver to be sent in for repair. DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK)

[lightbender]

Would this operation have the same result as performing a "program syncrhonization" from the online bell site?

"Enter signal meter screen and change tuner 1 (if multi tuner) to sat 91 and transponder 13. Then hit the power off on the front on the receiver. The remote will not work. You will then have to wait a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour before turning it on again as this will cause the smartcard to take new software!"

[careh]

Originally Posted by tvnut64

Maybe you have 285 locked out?? Just a thought.

You are RIGHT!!!!. Dunno how it happened - but I went in to Menu - Locks - unhide locked - and - that made 285 appear. I then went into channel locks and saw that there were 5 or 6 other channels flagged to be locked out - even though I don't recall doing that. I selected 'clear list'. Thanks for the suggestion!!

[HiroPro]

Would this operation have the same result as performing a "program syncrhonization" from the online bell site?

"Enter signal meter screen and change tuner 1 (if multi tuner) to sat 91 and transponder 13. Then hit the power off on the front on the receiver. The remote will not work. You will then have to wait a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour before turning it on again as this will cause the smartcard to take new software!"

No it's not a hit for service. It makes the nagra card take an update if it's available.

[don820]

I was sent a 9242 to replace my 9200 a few weeks ago. My 9200 has been working flawlessly for 5+ years, but for the first year I had it there was nothing but trouble. Software upgrades, corrupt this that and the other, countless "programming credits", etc.

So far my 9242 has had 3 incidents. First, it spontaneously rebooted while watching TV one morning within it's first week. No worries, just a fluke probably (I hoped). A plug-pull reboot, I'm sure it's fine.

Then last week we were watching TV when all of a sudden everything froze, and we lost most of our channels (about 90% of them just randomly disappeared from the guide). Reboot - no fix. Had to call Bell, and an hour or so later the channels had arrived again.

Then the night before last, I had a big freeze up -- but no lost channels.

I called Bell -- and here's the interesting part -- he said I *must* plug the TV directly in the wall. That the 9242 is "particularly sensitive to power draws by other devices, especially so if on a power bar".

So, I've plugged it in the wall directly -- so far, so good. I happen to recall that my 9200 was actually plugged directly in the wall, not on a shared power bar, so I do hope it's as simple as that....

- Don

[HiroPro]

Hi Don,

That sounds like BS to me. Perhaps if the power bar etc could only take a certain amount of load. Are you connected via HDMI or component?

I think it has to do with software updates myself....

I'd do the following if it's new and you don't care about recordings on it's drive.

Clear NVRAM:
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press TV/Video.
A different screen will pop up telling you that you have erased the NVram.
Then just press the power button on the receiver.
You will lose all favorites, timers and customized settings. I also yank the power cord and wait 40 seconds.

Format HDD:
You should be at the Memory Dump screen.
Press Play, Play, Recall
You will lose all recordings!

Then after you've done that and rebooted and have all the channels etc going.

Go to the signal meter screen and change it to sat 91 transonder 13. Then hit the power button to turn it off. Only use the power button on the front of the receiver. Wait an hour and it should now run a lot better!