DSTV Explora rebooting continuosly

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Notorius

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Hi. Is anyone else experiencing reboot problems with the DSTV Exploras? I called the dstv call centre today and was told that they are aware of the problem since Friday and dont know when it is going to be rectified.
 
Apparently sometime on Friday, a fibre cable break between MC disaster recovery site in Midrand and their Sandton Campus, triggered off a situation where some Explora decoders started rebooting constantly.

Then this morning MC released the below statement, quoted word for word from their help forum, which triggered of a bit of a panic amongst Explora owners. A few of us challenged the allegation stating that is very hard to believe that a fibre cable failure can lead to such behaviour of only a few decoders and that more information is required.

The advice is DO NOT reformat the HDD in an Explora as a matter of course and that the process should only be followed if the Explora does not settle down after doing the following:

Leave the Explora decoder off for at least 60 minutes, and allow it to then start up again. remember a reformat will see to it that every recording will be lost, all CU content and BO content will be lost and ALL scheduled recordings and other customisations will be lost! Write down ALL settings before following the process.

Fix for DStv Explora decoders rebooting

If you’re experiencing continuous reboots on your Explora, we have a fix for you. Your Explora hard drive needs to be formatted – below are the steps you need to follow.

Please note that you will lose all existing recordings, and your Catch Up and BoxOffice titles will have to load again. You’ll also need to reset all your scheduled recordings.

Please accept our apologies for this experience – we’re working on addressing the root cause.

DStv Explora hard drive format
Hold the POWER button on your remote down, till the front panel shows a blank screen
Then hold down the P+ button, until CODE appears on the front panel
Then press: P- (0 will appear on the front panel)
Then press P+ (01 will appear on the front panel)
Then P- again (010 will appear on the screen)
Then P+ again (0101 will appear on the screen)
A blinking HDDF will appear on the front panel of your Explora
Then press P+ to confirm (hold down for 5 seconds)
Do not interrupt the process until you see PASS displayed on the front panel
LOAD will appear on the front panel. Please wait for the process to complete which will take a few minutes
You’ll know it is done when your pictures starts playing again
Click to expand...

Later on, MC released this information also quoted from their forum:

Our BTD team have not managed to pinpoint the root cause of this rebooting issue yet. What they have established, is it seems to be linked to Friday night's cable issue. So the cable that was damaged brings in data from our Samrand location. Catch Up for Compact and Extra customers also comes in through Samrand on that cable.

They have tried a number of other less extreme and invasive fixes but it does not fix all the Exploras that present with this problem. We completely understand that it is not ideal.

At present, less than 1% of the total Explora base have got this problem. The team continue to work to pinpoint the root cause so a better fix can be put in place
Click to expand...

Hope this helps.
 
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Don't have the rebooting problem, but have lost some of the channels. Some channels give me an E48-32 no signal error, others play fine. Phoning Nochoice is futile as you get dumped into an endless queue.
 
So how exactly does a fiber break cause satellite based decoders to constantly reboot?
 
Segg said:
So how exactly does a fiber break cause satellite based decoders to constantly reboot?
Click to expand...

Maybe some decoders were in the middle of a patch/update which then corrupted, causing reboots? Happened to my decoder a few years back. Had to take it in to have the updated rolled back as the update received was corrupted. Not because of a cable break obviously.
 
mercurial said:
The biggest POS device, ever. The older HD PVR is the best decoder.
Click to expand...

What? I had one of those, it was a POS, it was slow, it overheated, it randomly rebooted, the power supply packed in twice, the hard drive got corrupted. This was on two different ones, as Multichoice replaced the first one in warranty.
 
MightyQuin said:
Maybe some decoders were in the middle of a patch/update which then corrupted, causing reboots? Happened to my decoder a few years back. Had to take it in to have the updated rolled back as the update received was corrupted. Not because of a cable break obviously.
Click to expand...
But don't the things verify the update content before installing?
 
Lupus said:
What? I had one of those, it was a POS, it was slow, it overheated, it randomly rebooted, the power supply packed in twice, the hard drive got corrupted. This was on two different ones, as Multichoice replaced the first one in warranty.
Click to expand...

Which one is that? I have the one before the Xplora came out. It's awesome. The Xplora is the biggest POS. Slow AF and so buggy.
 
mercurial said:
Which one is that? I have the one before the Xplora came out. It's awesome. The Xplora is the biggest POS. Slow AF and so buggy.
Click to expand...
The first HD pvr and I think the Explora you used is faulty. As the one I've got isn't slow or buggy. Also the Ui is so much better than that yellow on grey/blue from the older pvr
My dad has the pvr before the Explora and yes it's a massive improvement over the older ones, but it's still no where near the Explora
 
The last really decent PVR decoder was/is the SD PVR. The view 2 record 1 decoder.

There are all sorts of theories running around as to how a terrestrial cable break can cause a small random number of Explora decoders to start rebooting. And then to suggest that a reformat of the HDD in those decoders is the only solutions is very hard to accept by anyone with even the slightest bit of technical knowledge.

NO, the reformat "solution" should be viewed as a last resort action. The best is to simply allow MCs systems to settle down for a few days and then do a controlled reboot, and then allow the decoder software to complete its internal backup write to the HDD undisturbed.

There is a known issue with the Smart Cads that cause loss of some channels at times which is supposed to be fixed by a new software download in the next few days. I think this particular "bug" is the cause of the issue.
 
MightyQuin said:
Maybe some decoders were in the middle of a patch/update which then corrupted, causing reboots? Happened to my decoder a few years back. Had to take it in to have the updated rolled back as the update received was corrupted. Not because of a cable break obviously.
Click to expand...

No, there were no patches under way at the time. What does happen all the time is changes to the CA system. It is possible that some decoders were affected by an incomplete CA system change, which then led to a mismatch between the data stored on the HDD and that being downloaded at any one time, which then leads to decoder reboots.

That is why the way to handle problems of this nature is to NOT PANIC, wait for the CA systems to settle down, and then allow the decoder to reboot and restore flash memory records and restore the HDD backup. There is absolutely NO need to reformat the HDD drive to achieve this UNLESS you are in a hurry and want the decoder back on the air in a hurry.
 
The latest on this saga from MC .......

We have a better fix for your Explora reboots

We have an update for you if your Explora has been continuously rebooting.

Our team has found a software fix, which does not involve deleting your recordings. We’ll start implementing this fix later this afternoon. Your Explora will have this update no later than 11pm tonight.

You can check for the Explora update by following the steps below.

Again, please accept our apologies for this, and we sincerely thank you for your patience.

How to check software update
- Press the HELP button
- Choose “General Information”
- Select “Loader Status”
- The “Load ver/var” information on the top right corner will display “57/2”
Click to expand...
 
Hi there
My DSTV 2A explora is also giving me the same problems. I do have warranty active on my explora. I would like to know, if I take it in, do they swop it out for a new explora or do they send it away as I know my HDD is corrupted

Thank you in advance
 
Ey gays I need help with my decoder dstv model 65 it switch off and on pls help me
 
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