Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

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

33K views 232 replies 55 participants last post by  stukonarock 
#1 ·
My 9200: Fubar 2 Weeks In...

Came home from work today to discover that I've had a hard drive failure on my 9200.."Serious Problem Detected With Your Hard Disk Drive Error Code 0551" was what greeted me when I turned on the receiver.The Bell tech drone to me do a factory default reset...after that picture in picture doesn't work, can't make shared mode work....geez, I feel cursed....
 
#102 ·
specific errors

Hello Zekes...

No, not specifically or exclusively but I did see that error number with a loose connection. I also saw other error codes with the same connection issues.

I think it's important to realize that an error condition which is listed as a specific number, is at best a guess by the software. There must be a set of conditions met, and then a few more, and then a quick stab by the software's logic to make a GUESS as to what is fubar. In other words you should not take the error condition to the bank unless it reflects a complete disk meltdown.

<rant>

This DVR is so far behind the latest versions released by Echostar it's like talking about the light arriving from distant stars. It's old news and we are all suffering for it. Stability should be the highest order bit.

This is not to defend Echostar or to claim their latest versions of firmware for the 924 (is that the model?) is bug free or even desirable...but it is way the heck ahead of the release we are running on the 9200 series.

This machine and this firmware is borderline as far as stability and reliability. I have my 9200 running on tightly regulated, filtered, uninterrupted power - the internal drive is spun down and the chassis vented and cooled by an additional fan, the external drive is connected via a SPEC SATA to eSATA cable of 18" (five inches longer than the internal SATA to SATA and well within SPEC) to a heavily cooled enclosure with an external drive of the exact same model as the one sitting dormant in the chassis. The external drive is itself connected to filtered, regulated and uninterrupted power and kept very cool.

YET THE MACHINE STILL GOES INTO DEEP OUTER SPACE, records 21 hour sessions of one show, loses large sections of the Guide, does disk diagnostics for no reason and none of the events are reflected in the useless Diagnostics menu which tells me my disk drive (not even spinning) is averaging 25 degrees F with a low temp of 21 degrees. I should keep beer on top of the not spinning drive. Talk about placebo effect. Talk about bogus.

I am completely convinced over 90% of this is a result of the software, the bad blocks written to the disk trigger all sorts of unwelcome behavior, resets, thrashing and confusion. Bad blocks and very poor error recovery plague this thing.

I don't know what Bell is doing to put some resources onto this and make this popular unit stable over more than a few weeks - but they are really blowing it assuming everyone will just sit happily and deal with the lack of features and stability available on the sister units at DISH.

My HD Tivo has run for around 6 months, on two internal 400GB drives, with a total of one reboot required (due to a firmware download). Let's not even go into the lack of name-based recording, or the lack of two weeks of Guide data. And yes the HD Tivos fail, massively with disks that large, but they are light years ahead of the 9200 insofar as longevity, stability and features.

I'd be happy to have the 9200 run cleanly for a month but I am not holding my breath. Just read all of the reports, and these are the folks talking the time to report the issues, and a nasty pattern emerges.

</rant>

Thanks for listening. I feel better now.

regards,

patrick
 
#105 ·
robtsk said:
I have a replacement DVR after a 551 failure, and it was fine the last three weeks,
but now I've just had my *third* instance of getting this when I've tried to watch a
recording:

"A problem was encountered when opening the files for this DVR event. Please note the Error Code: 07"

What's going on? Has anyone had this? Is the hard drive in this unit going south as well?

Rob
Rob, we've discussed this error thouroughly in the past. I strongly do not believe that it is cause by a weak signal (not going to go into the reasoning now). I think it's due to a corrupt index. A reboot usually fixes it although after the reboot the program description still displays the error utill you choose to "start over" when playing back the recording.

Mine did it all of the time for a couple of weeks. Recently it's been fine. It's something to do with the number of shows, number of partially watched programs, etc. Anoying yes, but not fatal like the dredded 0551 error.
 
#106 ·
North_of_Calgary said:
Rob, we've discussed this error thouroughly in the past. I strongly do not believe that it is cause by a weak signal (not going to go into the reasoning now). I think it's due to a corrupt index. A reboot usually fixes it although after the reboot the program description still displays the error utill you choose to "start over" when playing back the recording.

Mine did it all of the time for a couple of weeks. Recently it's been fine. It's something to do with the number of shows, number of partially watched programs, etc. Anoying yes, but not fatal like the dredded 0551 error.
Hi North,

Yup, that matches my recent experience. It was alarming as it seemed to be a
new failure mode on a new box with new firmware. Silly me - I expect flaws I see
to reduce at least a bit after getting a new version of software.

Rob
 
#107 ·
Dead 9200 Anyone able to Backup Timers????

:( Hi All, well after using the 5100 (Replaced 3 times), then going to a 5900 (Replaced 4 times), and now getting a new 9200 (Replacement #1 on its Way) I am getting really tired of resetting my TIMERS! It might sound like I have no life, but between my wife's Soap and talk shows, and CSI, well we use the PVR a ton... Now, I am forced to have to input my timers for the 9th time!!!! Has anyone found a way to "download" or backup the timers? If so, care to share how????
 
#110 ·
Firmware VS 0551

North_of_Calgary said:
So it seems like no-one has received the 0551 error in a while (knock on wood). There was a while there where we were seeing lots of failures posted to this thread but nothing lately. Coincidence? Or somehow related to what's in the steam?
Lets give it 90 days from firmware V142 and then i'll be convinced. Untill then...
 
#111 ·
I have firmware version 1.42 and this morning when I went to turn on the receiver for some Christmas music, the first thing I saw was a 0551 error. Called Bell, went through all the rigamarole and they are sending out a new receiver.

Looks like 1.42 didn't fix it for me... I have only had it for about a month, so the first firmware it really ran on was 1.42. I read the forums here before I hooked it up and had an external fan running almost right from the start. So much for that helping...

Anyone managed to get a free month out of this issue? I'm a little P***ed off that I can't use the pvr for the world juniors... At least I can still watch live TV for the moment.
 
#113 ·
Well, a friend if of mine just got the 0551 error as well. He brought it over to my house and we got to work. Powered up the 9200 and waited for the error to show. Then we pulled the red SATA cable from the motherboard side and plugged it into my nearby PC. Booted WinXP. Using 'Computer Management', we saw and deleted the 4 'unknown' partitions on the 9200 drive. Powered down computer and 9200 and replaced the red SATA cable. Powered up the 9200, it performed a disc diagnistic and after a reboot or 2, the problem was fixed. No more 0551 error. The only drawback is that all programs and timers are lost. I wish to thank Colossus for trying this first.
 
#114 ·
distox, did you not have to do anything to the drive (zero it out) when connected to the PC? If that is the case, then maybe just disconnecting and reconnecting the red sata cable is all that's needed to force it to re-initialize the HDD???

Please elaborate (and thanks for the update). As much as I don't like this error, the easier it becomes to fix the better. And although loosing the recordings suck, it's better than waiting for a banged up reburb again (been there - done that).

P.S. Did have failures that caused all recordings to be lost on the 5100 in the early days too.
 
#116 ·
551 error...

Today I woke up and discoverd a 551 error showing on my TV. Knowing this was a common issue, and having previously read this thred, I didn't hold out too much hope. However, on the off chance that a Bell CSR could do something other than send me a new 9200, I called it in.

He fixed it, but I was lucky, I think.

Basically, he had me do a hard reboot. I had to pull the power, and leave it pulled for a few minutes. Then I plugged it back in. I got a HDD diag screen, and the normal aquire signal, DL guide screens, and all was well!

My recordings seem to be intact and play too.

No refurb for me, this time...

I'm also on the V142 firmware, so I can confirm that 142 does not fix the 551 errors.

Cheers!
 
#117 ·
When I had the 0551 back in September, I tried that without success. Left it unplugged for quite a while but still had the 0551 error and had to get a reburb replacement.

I think you were really lucky. Did you first try a normal reboot without success? When you pulled the plug, both tuners were active?
 
#118 ·
Second tuner is down

Following up...

It has been a few days since my recovered 551 error, and all has been well. But today I wake up and tuner 2 is down. I'm getting check switch type errors.

With regards to the previous post, I assume that this is a possible error.
Any way to fix it?

(I'm going to flip the outputs from my sw44 tomorrow, and see if Tuner 1 goes off and Tuner 2 comes on. That'll prove that the switch is foobar...)

Will BEV replace my faulty switch?
 
#119 ·
It's dead, Jim...

...and tonight I spoke with 2nd level tech support regarding my missing tuner 2.

1) It's not the SW44 switch. My other recievers work fine. If I swap the 9200's tuner 1 and tuner 2 cables - and then do a check switch - it's still tuner 2 that's bad. So the cables are good too. That leaves the 9200 itself.

2) So, we go through the hard reboot again. This time, we disconnected both the input cables from the dish. After rebooting, we re-installed the cables and re-did the check switch. Same result. Tuner 2 is dead.

So, it seems like my 9200 is dying a death of 1000 cuts. First the recovered 551 error (VERY lucky, that), and now tuner 2 has failed.

Guess what?

A "new" 9200 is on it's way. Too bad, too. My 9200 is in perfect condition. (except it dosen't work :rolleyes: ) Let's see what kind of scruffy thing appears in the mail.

At least the support I got was very good.

Here's keeping my fingers crossed...
 
#120 ·
Me too

Add me to the "0551 with firmware 142" club.

Thanks to all who have posted earlier: I was able to lead the BEV tech through the diagnositics, get a 3 PPV credit, and launch my replacement unit on it's way. I noticed that they carefully avoid using the word "new" when referring to the replacement unit.

Now, we'll see if I can carefully zero out the drive and get it working a la Colossus - the twist here will be using a SATA bus on a Macintosh G5.
 
#121 ·
North_of_Calgary said:
... I strongly do not believe that it is cause by a weak signal (not going to go into the reasoning now). I think it's due to a corrupt index. A reboot usually fixes it although after the reboot the program description still displays the error utill you choose to "start over" when playing back the recording. ...
I think that weak and lost signals contribute to the problems. My reasoning? I kept getting errors after rain fade dropouts and weak signals in poor weather. In fact, the first time I got any error was on a day when the signal dropouts were bad while recording. Since going to a bigger dish the errors have virtually disappeared. The errors often clear themselves as well. There are probably a number of reasons that cause disk errors and corrupt indexes. I have no doubt that weak or lost signals are one of them.
 
#122 ·
robtsk said:
... Well, I'd viewed both of the first two programs (one all the way through, one for 20 minutes) before they gave me errors. That makes me think my case isn't about signal - though I could use more signal. ... The third program threw another error after a reboot, but I was then able to watch it, unlike the first two.
I have found another reason for programs that freeze or will not play back in full. Switching from the source can cause problems. I have had several recordings freeze when EV switched over to do a simsub. I have had this happen when a simsub was not done so other causes of errors in the HD stream can probably make the 9200 freeze during playback. The 9200 will often go past the error if the skip or FF are buttons are used before the point at which it freezes.

Also, the 9200 does not need to completely lose signal to cause an error. Weak signals seem to cause internal errors that invoke a guide update, check switch request or other events. Guide updates are especially disruptive to the operation of the 9200. On several occasions, I have seen my 9200 reboot while recording and updating the guide simultaneously.
 
#123 ·
Fubared 9200!

Bought my new 9200 on January 2nd. Hooked it up and all was working well until tonight. My mom accidently caused a timer conflict at about 7:00pm cst which caused the system to freeze and then reboot. Once it had rebooted I got the 0551 error. Spoke to Bell and my "guarenteed new" replacement unit is on its way.

I love this company!
 
#125 ·
The replacement is here.

Well, I got my replacement 9200 and it does indeed look new. No fingerprints, scuffs, dust, etc. Swapping it out was a plug and play affair. After activation, it is working flawlessly. This is great, because my old unit seemed to get every one of the problems reported against the 9200.

I had the:
Missed timers
Green pixilation
Failed tuner
AND
The dreaded 551 error.

The only difference with the new unit compared to the old one is that the new one has a faint, high pitched whine from the HD.
Perhaps the new unit has a different brand HD than the old one. The whine is faint, and within operating norms for a HD, so I'm not too concerned. I just hope that it's not a precursor to another 551 :)

I'll update everyone if something changes...
 
#126 ·
Just talked to the wife and the replacment 9200 is at home waiting for me to install. I'll update tomorrow on if it's new or a refurb.

I just had a quick question for everyone. Has everyone that has had the 0551 error been running the SW-44, or have some of you been running 2 SW-21's? Currently I have 2 SW-21's running the 9200 and am wondering if that could have caused the 0551 error.

Anyone have any comments?

Thanks
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top