Serial tuning Directv H21 receiver freezes

[jtimmes]

I've done a little forum searching and haven't found my exact problem, so I figured I'd throw out a new thread.

I recently switched from analog cable over to directv (I summarized steps I've done and my config here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...3&postcount=16 ).

What I'm finding now is that after less than 24 hours, the directv receiver stops changing channels, and in fact the receiver is totally frozen (although it still puts out video on the channel it's tuned to most of the time... once the screen went black). But the receiver no longer responds to the OEM remote control, nor do the buttons on the front work at all (including power). I have to do the red button hard reset. After that, it works fine for another 24 hours (or less).

I'm very happy that I'm not having any problems with my new HD-PVR, but it's driving me bonkers that the built in serial tuning in sage seems to be locking up the STB (and the wife is getting impatient for a fix).

Any ideas? Should I contact paterson to see if they've seen this?

UPDATE: Emailed paterson; we'll see what they say.

Meanwhile, I hadn't looked at the sage log recently since I'd discovered that resetting the STB resolves the issue (temporarily), but I did find something in the sage log when the STB isn't changing channels:

Tue 4/13 22:04:30.168 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:30.676 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:30.676 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:31.176 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:31.176 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:31.680 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:31.680 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:32.180 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:32.180 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:32.684 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:32.684 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:33.186 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:33.501 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial opened handle on port COM5
Tue 4/13 22:04:33.508 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:34.014 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:34.015 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:34.516 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:34.516 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:35.020 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:35.020 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:35.522 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:35.522 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:36.024 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70, poking the receiver...
Tue 4/13 22:04:36.024 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] DTVSerial Valid Command Recognized for handle 70
Tue 4/13 22:04:36.526 [DirecTVAsyncChannelTune@674bf1] Incomplete COM Read on handle 70

Searched the forums for "Incomplete COM Read". Found a few other reports like mine, but none had responses/fixes... which doesn't give me warm fuzzies...

[freedml]

You might want to switch to USB channel changing. An off-the-shelf solution rather than the proprietary Patterson device.

[jtimmes]

In case anyone else runs into this same problem, I thought I'd post the response I got from paterson:

Sorry you're having trouble. We've had a few reports of this kind of
problem with the H21-200 receiver; unfortunately, we have no suggestions
to offer to keep it working reliably. Our own H21-200 has run
continuously for months without a glitch, so we haven't been able to
reproduce the problem to track it down.

I've also opened a ticket with sage support; we'll see what they say.

The only other thought I have is to poke around the menu on the H21 and see if there are any options there I can muck around with (I haven't really modified the options since DirecTV came out and did the initial installation).

Seriously considering trying an IR blaster at this point... going to start a new thread to see what IR blasters people recommend under linux...

[Skirge01]

Have you tried forcing a software update on the receiver? I never had freezing issues, but I did have problems with the channel changes simply not happening. I went through about 2 or 3 software updates and then it started working reliably.

[bcjenkins]

How do you do that?

[freedml]

when it starts up hit 02468 on the remote

[bcjenkins]

So - I finally got to the firmware screen (I have all equipment in a rack no TV) and initial tests are positive! Thanks for the tip!

The full instructions I used to force a firmware upgrade on a DirecTV receiver were:

1. Press the reset button next to the access card (usually on the front)
2. After the first screen appears, press 02468 on the remote control.

B