DSTV customer care are liars!

Rickster

Rickster

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So my DSTV PVR Dual View I/1 has been screwing up for a while now, its been working for a few months then caught in a booting loop for days then it works.

So now its gotten worse were the decoder makes a big buzzing noise with a lot of vibration to the touch, I obviously assume its the hard drive because thats the only moving part in the decoder.

I wanted to do some troubleshooting by disconnecting the HDD to see if it was packing up.

So I phone DSTV technical support and i give the operator the error codes i get which is 816d and its a hardware fault.

Now we did the procedure of taking the LNB out and putting it back,no change, so she explained the whole thing about getting it tested which will cost R510 to get it fixed bla bla bla. So out of curiosity i asked her if the decoder will work if i take out the hard drive, she assured me that it would not work at all but then i thought to myself, how do non-PVR decoders work without one and will it not work if i format it?

So I removed it and i'll be a monkey's uncle, everything worked perfectly on the first boot!

Now i have to find a IDE hard drive :erm: they go for R1200 for 250GB at sybaritic :whistle: expensive...
 
So you expect someone working in the call center of an entertainment company to know the details of their products?! Preposterous! :p

They are most likely trained to say that if you change anything with the decoder that it will not work. This answer has also probably kept more than one person from ruining their decoders and blaming technical support. I wouldn't go as far as to call them liars ;)

Regardless, it's strange to think how the standard (IDE) from just a couple of years ago, is now so hard to get hold of.
 
You could probably use a SATA to IDE converter.

Powering it will be a problem, depends what kind of power is provided to the hard drive if it's a simple molex connector you could probably use a cable splitter that will power the SATA to IDE converter.
 
Last edited:
NomNom said:
You could probably use a SATA to IDE converter.

Powering it will be a problem, depends what kind of power is provided to the hard drive if it's a simple molex connector you could probably use a cable splitter that will power the SATA to IDE converter.
Click to expand...

Yes it is molex powered, but space is very limited in the decoder.
 
Im just going to plug that HDD in the old home pc and see what the health status is, if it appears "good" ill format and scan for bad sectors.
 
Heat is the enemy of hard drives.

Removing it and using it in an external (cooled) enclosure is way much better.
 
Ok, so i plugged it in the pc and i was shocked to see the hard drive health....100% :wtf:

Here are the stats:

Power on time: 1703 Days, 19 Hours
Expected remaining lifetime: ~121 Days
Stop/start count: 95,463 (i think i should disable hard drive preservation since Stop/start kills the HDD)

Now i need to know which partition to format, its split into 3 so ill also state the directory and folders.

partition 1: 1GB ->DEBUG (folder) -> 256MB LOG.nfo file
partition 2: 90GB ->Attract,SVOD,TVOD,Trailer, RHistory (Folders) Possibly for DOD/Catch up.

partition 3: 141GB ->GuidedB,Lists,Recordings,TS1,TS2 (folders)
 
Rickster said:
Ok, so i plugged it in the pc and i was shocked to see the hard drive health....100% :wtf:

Here are the stats:

Power on time: 1703 Days, 19 Hours
Expected remaining lifetime: ~121 Days
Stop/start count: 95,463 (i think i should disable hard drive preservation since Stop/start kills the HDD)

Now i need to know which partition to format, its split into 3 so ill also state the directory and folders.

partition 1: 1GB ->DEBUG (folder) -> 256MB LOG.nfo file
partition 2: 90GB ->Attract,SVOD,TVOD,Trailer, RHistory (Folders) Possibly for DOD/Catch up.

partition 3: 141GB ->GuidedB,Lists,Recordings,TS1,TS2 (folders)
Click to expand...

Why do you not format the entire disk, and then re-create the partitions again? Maybe also upgrade to a larger HDD to increase your available recording time? I have a very usefull tutorial in PDF format that gives you step-by-step instructions how to do everything needed. If you want this tutorial, PM me your e-mail address, and I will send it to you.
 
geezer said:
Why do you not format the entire disk, and then re-create the partitions again? Maybe also upgrade to a larger HDD to increase your available recording time? I have a very usefull tutorial in PDF format that gives you step-by-step instructions how to do everything needed. If you want this tutorial, PM me your e-mail address, and I will send it to you.
Click to expand...

No... I wouldn't do that. They may have a particular way of doing it.

Just format each partition individually.
 
Rickster said:
All of them? are you sure?
Click to expand...

If you format the 3rd partition, you lose all your recordings. You should be able to back-up them to your local HDD, and then after the format process, copy the files back to the 3rd partition.
 
Rickster said:
Dude, we talking about a DSTV Hard Drive
Click to expand...
It is a normal IDE hard disk drive. Just connect it back to your computer and do it there. However, on a HD PVR you cannot do this, but no problems on a SD PVR.
 
geezer said:
It is a normal IDE hard disk drive. Just connect it back to your computer and do it there. However, on a HD PVR you cannot do this, but no problems on a SD PVR.
Click to expand...

The question is "Which of the 3 partitions must i format"?
 
Rickster said:
The question is "Which of the 3 partitions must i format"?
Click to expand...
This is why I suggested e-mailing you the entire tutorial, all your questions are answered in there. Here is an excerpt from the document: "Background
Your PVR comes standard with a 250gig Maxtor HDD. The MPG compression used by DSTV uses 1.67 gig
per hour, thus giving you 80 hours recording + 2 hours TV1 timeshift + 2 hours TV2 timeshift on a 141.59 gig
HDD.
Because Hard disk drives rarely have the exact same capacity. Ie. A 160 gig is 160 gig +- a gig or 2, and
DSTV wanted to ensure that all their users have only 80 hours of recording (not a minute less or more), they
partitioned the drive with 3 partitions of which the 3rd partition is the one that contains all the recordings. This
3rd partition also contains the timeshift buffer for TV1 and TV2.
The 1st partition is always 1 gig (I have not been able to figure out what is used for – but it has to exist)
The 2nd partition is used as a filler and as the storage space for the on demand content. So if the disk is actually
233 gig the 2nd partition is set to 91.16 gig so that the 3rd partition can be made exactly 141.59 gig for 84 hours
recording time. (80 hours Recording + 2 Timeshift TV1, + 2 hours Timeshift TV2) .
Since August 2008 the 2nd Partition is used to store up to 20 hours of on Demand Content. This content is
automatically recorded by the PVR during times that you are not making your own recordings."
 
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