jcyuen
join:2002-07-23
Arlington, VA |
jcyuen
Member
2011-Jul-8 10:24 am
SA 8300HD - new guide & drive keeps spinning up/downOur 8300HD was recently updated to new guide. Ever since then if the box is in standby, it will wake up (drive spins up) for about 10 minutes and then shut itself back off (drive spins down). It seems like it is doing this at least once an hour. Nothing is set to record at this time.
Any one have any idea of what it's doing? (Or how to fix it!)
Thanks! |
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 beachintechThere's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06 |
Try a power cycle? |
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jcyuen
join:2002-07-23
Arlington, VA |
jcyuen
Member
2011-Jul-8 11:21 am
That was the first thing I tried...thanks. |
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beachintechThere's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06 |
to jcyuen
Only other option would be to format the drive (will loose all settings, recordings, etc.) |
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wdsnls
join:2003-06-19
Palm City, FL |
to jcyuen
said by jcyuen:Our 8300HD was recently updated to new guide. Ever since then if the box is in standby, it will wake up (drive spins up) for about 10 minutes and then shut itself back off (drive spins down). It seems like it is doing this at least once an hour. Nothing is set to record at this time.
Any one have any idea of what it's doing? (Or how to fix it!)
Thanks!
I may be wrong but I thought this was normal. I don't know if it happens as frequently as every hour but I have heard the drive doing this quite often when in standby. Over the years I've had the SA 8300HD and now the SA 8300HDC and both have done it, only the latter is much quieter. It also did this before I was updated with the new guide. I have also read posts on some forums as this is a reason people don't like DVR's in bedrooms, as it wakes them. |
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jcyuen
join:2002-07-23
Arlington, VA |
jcyuen
Member
2011-Jul-8 1:19 pm
It used to do it every night around midnight. But it wasn't this frequent until the new guide. Of course, the other option is to leave it on all the time, but that will probably use more electricity.
I may have to format it and see if that remedies it. |
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beachintechThere's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06 |
Not a whole lot more power.
Mine will spin up/down every few hours and has always done it. Not really a bother. Just like any device with a drive, it has to do maintenance sometime. |
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mjw703
join:2005-02-24
Arlington, VA |
to jcyuen
I live in Arlington too and I have the 8300HD, and also notice the same thing. The drive seems to spin up (quite noisily) every hour. Before the guide change it would just spin up after midnight, I assume to get the new guide data. Now it's spinning up so often I'm afraid it will probably burn itself out. |
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beachintechThere's sand in my tool bag
Premium Member
join:2008-01-06 |
said by mjw703:I live in Arlington too and I have the 8300HD, and also notice the same thing. The drive seems to spin up (quite noisily) every hour. Before the guide change it would just spin up after midnight, I assume to get the new guide data. Now it's spinning up so often I'm afraid it will probably burn itself out.
No. It will be fine. The computer you are on spins the drive up more in an hour than the DVR will sitting idle in a few weeks. |
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Russ6
join:2011-03-17
Houston, TX |
to jcyuen
said by jcyuen:It used to do it every night around midnight. But it wasn't this frequent until the new guide. Of course, the other option is to leave it on all the time, but that will probably use more electricity.
I may have to format it and see if that remedies it.
said by Ted Hodgins, Comcast Sr. Director, Video Product Development - Navigation, in Media & Entertainmen :
Leaving the DVR on allows for your cable box to easily get software and firmware updates as well as updated TV listings. This should not significantly impact the lifespan of the cable box or the hard drive. A lot of our customers leave the DVR on and turn the TV off. There is a slight power variance between the SA/Cisco box and other set top boxes being on and off (most consumer electronic equipment is never really all the way "off" unless it's physically unplugged.). The variance I see between power on mode and sleep mode on a Cisco HD set top is roughly 0.3 W
At 9 cents per kwh that would equate to about 2 cents a month to leave the cable box on 24 hours a day. Better DVR power management is something that is also being reviewed.
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 panth1The Coyote
join:2000-12-11
Port Saint Lucie, FL |
to jcyuen
My 8300's do the same thing. Spin up, spin down every hour or so. The one in the bedroom is noticeable as it's the most quiet place. Scared the crap out of me the first few nights.
Sometimes the drive will spin up for a minute and spin down then it will spin back up a second later.
I just figure it's the DNCS pining all the boxes every so often so they wake up. |
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to jcyuen
We got the "new" guide last September and my drive spins and stops every hour, too. It appears to be normal from what I can tell. |
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to jcyuen
Sounds annoying. I wonder why they don't just leave the drive idling like the Motorola's? Is there really that much of a power saving? |
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mjw703
join:2005-02-24
Arlington, VA |
mjw703
Member
2011-Jul-10 7:50 am
Last night our cable was out for about four hours, and the box spinned up every ten minutes until it came back on. Very annoying as I kept thinking that the cable was back on and we could go back online. |
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deannnnn
join:2011-07-12
Fort Lauderdale, FL |
to jcyuen
My SA 8300HD on TimeWarner Cable with the Navigator guide does the same thing. It's crazy annoying. So it's not limited to Comcast and the iGuide. |
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mowogo
Anon
2011-Jul-31 5:49 pm
This is a normal process on all Cisco DVRs. There is a fix and it is slowly being rolled out across Comcast markets with no impact to the customers. |
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to Russ6
said by Russ6:said by Ted Hodgins, Comcast Sr. Director, Video Product Development - Navigation, in Media & Entertainmen :
Leaving the DVR on allows for your cable box to easily get software and firmware updates as well as updated TV listings. This should not significantly impact the lifespan of the cable box or the hard drive. A lot of our customers leave the DVR on and turn the TV off. There is a slight power variance between the SA/Cisco box and other set top boxes being on and off (most consumer electronic equipment is never really all the way "off" unless it's physically unplugged.). The variance I see between power on mode and sleep mode on a Cisco HD set top is roughly 0.3 W
At 9 cents per kwh that would equate to about 2 cents a month to leave the cable box on 24 hours a day. Better DVR power management is something that is also being reviewed.
That is some misleading math... It costs about $2.50/month to simply have a cable box plugged in (on or off). |
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Russ6
join:2011-03-17
Houston, TX |
Russ6
Member
2011-Aug-10 8:02 pm
On August 10, 2011, Comcast's Ted Hodgins posted in his "New Guide for Scientific Atlanta Cable Boxes" blog: quote:
We recently instituted a configuration change in all locations that removed the automatic overnight DVR spin down mode. The DVR spin down was unintentionally interrupting overnight linear and On Demand TV viewing.
»blog.comcast.com/2010/05 ··· nt-40071
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mjw703
join:2005-02-24
Arlington, VA |
mjw703
Member
2011-Aug-11 8:11 am
I don't know when it stopped, but I haven't heard my DVR spin up in a while unless I actually turn it on now. |
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jcyuen
join:2002-07-23
Arlington, VA |
jcyuen
Member
2011-Aug-11 11:10 am
Now that you mention it, I haven't heard the DVR frequently spinning up/down anymore either. I must have just mentally blocked out the noise.  |
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panth1The Coyote
join:2000-12-11
Port Saint Lucie, FL |
to jcyuen
Not sure what he means by the overnight spin down mode. Maybe they newer Cisco boxes did this?
The DVR liked to spin up and down randomly throughout the day and night. It used to spin down a few minutes after the power button was pressed no matter what time it was.
My SA DVR now is humming along too just as the poster he was replying to had mentioned. I guess a constant noise is better then the slide whistle effect waking you up every hour or so. |
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Russ6
join:2011-03-17
Houston, TX |
Russ6
Member
2011-Aug-11 11:22 pm
said by panth1:Not sure what he means by the overnight spin down mode. Maybe they newer Cisco boxes did this?
The DVR liked to spin up and down randomly throughout the day and night. It used to spin down a few minutes after the power button was pressed no matter what time it was.
My SA DVR now is humming along too just as the poster he was replying to had mentioned. I guess a constant noise is better then the slide whistle effect waking you up every hour or so.
The overnight spin down mode would display a message on the TV around 1:15 a.m. saying press a key to continue and if a key wasn't pressed within 5 minutes the drive would spin down. This was on both SA and Cisco boxes. There might have been some Comcast systems that didn't do this. This happened on both the old guide software (SARA) and the new guide software (S25, Phase 1). With the new guide software, additional drive spin downs would happen at other times when the drive was idle. It sounds like both spin down types have been disabled. |
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panth1The Coyote
join:2000-12-11
Port Saint Lucie, FL |
to jcyuen
Ah, ok. Yes, I have seen the early a.m. message with the new guide but never saw it with the SARA guide. Glad they disabled it. |
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