[bold]Bonus2[/bold]: We're hoping, but don't count on it--[bold]timdf[/bold] went for a week with no U99, and I'm at six days, full listings (took 5 days to get them all) and using the TVGOS normally, recording and all, but we'll see how long it lasts. [bold]RX7Fan: Thanks for all your hard work![/bold] [bold]timothyg[/bold]: Interesting theory; but I think others have established that they can show up during ANY download. [bold]Mossler[/bold] clocked one at 12:40AM, eastern. BY THE WAY, if anyone has any friends/relatives who have this unit and do NOT get a U99, please post it! Wish Ann Coates would peek in here...
Coyote and all, no problem, I've got a strange job (technical instructor) with no classes going right now, so I get to sit and ...... develope courses, yeah, that's it!! But anyway, I agree, I think Tim's seeing it at certain times of the day is just a result of when he does his, and everybody else does theres , resets that is. Usually, from what I'm seeing resets are being done in the evening, next days asks you to pick a line-up, maybe with promos, the next day you get listings, then the next day you get the u99. so about 3 days from the reset to the first U99. for instance, reset on monday night, pick lineup tues morn, wed. morn you loose the promos and get listings for wed, thur, fri, and next wed, then thursday morn is a u99, and the data you got yesterday never changes, adn the u99's continue on forever (my experience from last weeks reset that I did) This time table may change by 12 hours either way, depending on when the reset is done, adn when the d/l from Gemstar is done, but pretty close.
my u99 errors started in august or september of this year. had no trouble prior. had upgraded firmware about 6 months ago. don't think it had anything to do with u99 error happening later. have reset machine (channel up/channel down) and unplugging, etc. do not really use the "divide" feature. do shorten many shows by taking out commercials. also called panasonic and was told (as others were) to bring the unit in for service. the tv guide software (if it did indeed change over the summer) sounds very much worth the investigation. please keep updating this problem. the unit had been a pleasure to use up until sometime this past summer. i am a san francisco resident if that helps with locating regional problems. getting really tired of missing scheduled records because of this error then turn machine back on, see "please wait", see "self check" and then wait for the u99 code to happen in an hour or a day or a week. one never knows. just spoke to cheryl at tv guide (see coyote24 post on october 8 for how to reach). very nice person. should be pulling her hair but is not. apparently is not a regional problem, or cable box or cable company. it is a problem with the tv guide download and many many different models of panasonic dvr's. cheryl says they are trying to fix the problem. she says it is not a firmware issue and resets do not solve. i think the more people calling them might get them to move a little faster. i guess i might as well give her contact info as well. it is 1 800 386 7380, option 2 then option 5 to reach cheryl. please call her! Zip-94131 City-san francisco State-ca Cable-comcast Box-No Model-DMR e85hp-s thanks coyote24!
Stan: Glad you posted the number again, but for a different reason. Folks, I would like to make a suggestion, having worked in Customer Service before myself, I know how it can be very un-rewarding. Before the problem gets fixed, and everybody goes there seperate ways, .... once it's all done, adn fixed, I would like to ask everybody to take a minute, call the number and find out how to get Chryl's supervisor's ear, and tell them how much she has helped each of us with this. I know the U99's are a head-ache, and not a real big deal if you can work-around them, but it's part of the machines options. Panny has left us out in the cold, "bring it in for service". Gemstars policy (in the warantee) if I remember right is ... we're not responsible if the data is messed up, ... heck, it's free (so-to-speak). But Cheryl has re-newed my faith in Gemstar as someone who cares about the people that use there product. So when it's all over, don't forget Cheryl, let her boss know your opinion of how well she did. I guarantee you, I'll be sending a letter to Gemstar's corporate office.
good idea RX7Fan. not your average cs contact. believe me i know from dealing with various manufacturers of our graphics equipment and software that we use in our business. she was great to talk to and took all info she could from me regarding, box, region etc., even had me check something on the guide screen. not the id number but when you get to the screen for the id number she had me put in (via the remote) 753159852 to give her some of the readings. she is trying. you all be nice to her.
Hey folks looks like this isn't just a Panasonic issue. I have been googling and found some other forums discussing TVGOS issues like ours. I could be wrong since I skimmed over the messages but it looks like we might of been fed a load BS saying it's just on Panasonic machines. Being a programmer, I must say that this TVGOS software was horribly written, thats my opinion though. http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/153394.html http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/show...0827700ff8b4ee55496072b&p=6349640#post6349640 http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,14412549 http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/showthread.php?t=19290
Got a U99 yesterday afternoon at 2pm just when the channel scan from 02 to 99 reached the PBS channel. Today, at 1:25pm (time probably irrelevant) my first U99 today occurred as it reached the PBS channel. After resetting and turning it off, the PBS channel appeared a couple more times, but nothing since, and no U99 yet, but it's been only 15 minutess. And, of course, my ads were gone but the listings I had were still there. Other than the 01 to 99 channel scan, the other event that occurs (listings download??) comes from repeated appearances of the MSNBC channel number, every minute or so. I was going to try the new firmware that timdf and photoman2 have tried, but they have now reported U99s since that firmware upgrade. So guess it's up to Cheryl.
[bold]UPDATE 2.0[/bold] - I just called the repair shop that replaced the digital board on my E95. The tech has since spoken to Panasonic and was told there is a revised digital board and that the one he put in was the old version. The new one is on back order with no ETA. He is going to call me and let me know the ETA on the board when Panasonic calls him back. @
Add me to the list of U99 victims: own: panasonic E95H (purchased in march/april) buy.com zip code: 01060 comcast cable analog service no cable box started getting error around mid-end september nothing posted on here has yet to work brother has same unit in santa barbara and has never had the error I think he has cox digital cable.
That's what the tech is saying. I used to work there so I am keeping tabs on what's going on with it. I feel helpless because I am used to fixing this stuff and talking to manufacturers myself. I would have tried the firmware he got with the bulletin just to see if it took it or not, but I don't work there anymore and I'm at the mercy of the tech working on it. @
If this is true then I'll have to take mine out and send it in to get the new board in hopes of fixing this issue once and for all but right now I have little faith that this will even work. I'll have to burn the shows I have on the HDD to a dvd-r because I get a feeling they won't be on there when I get it back.
You are correct. The digital board has a unique key that must match the hard drive so as soon as the new digital board is put in it will force a format. Panny told him he is about 50th on the list for the board, but the shop is a select service center so they get higher priority. EDIT: Actually it only causes a reformat when the hard drive AND the digital board are replaced at the same time for, but you never know what your tech might do to try and fix the problem (reset, reformat, etc...) so definitely back up your important stuff. @
Folks, I wouldn't jump the gun yet, I know it's been a while with this problem but, give Cheryl a chance to see what she can do, they just re-produced the problem at Gemstar on a Panny of there own (I forget who said that), I believe they'll be able to move a little faster towards fixing it, if it is a TVGOS problem now.
RX7: I have the Panasonic 85H that most of the people here are talking about. Astound cable only supports the following areas: St. Cloud Area, Minnesota Concord, California Walnut Creek, California Concord borders Walnut Creek.
RX7Fan requested that I post this. The serial number range for the Sept. firmware is KU4CAxxxxx - KU4DAxxxxx. Mine was KU4EAxxxxx so according to the bulletin I didn't need it. The bulletin reads something like this: "U99 is a general error caused when the digital PCB cannot communicate with peripheral devices such as the hard drive. But more commonly it is caused by corrupted data being received during a TVGuide download. This firmware corrects a problem that was caused by a TVguide patch that was deployed in June." This adds some interesting things to the mix. First, I remember in June that some people were talking about getting a screen when they turned on their recorder about a TVGuide patch that had been applied and that it needed to be unplugged to reset. I never got that message, and that would make perfect sense if it was being deployed only to units that fell into that serial number range. Does anyone have a recorder that received the TVGuide update in June that falls outside that serial number range?
I agree. I was actually calling the shop to let them know that I was gonna go ahead and pick my recorder up since they have had it since September 10th and the board didn't fix it. That's when the tech told me they had the revised digital board on order. I decided to go ahead and let them keep it for a while longer in case the board comes in soon. Otherwise I am going to pick it up and just take it back in when the new board arrives.
GRCompton : Gotcha, I understand, never heard of Walnut Creek Calif., ... I thought I remembered the name from "Little House on the Prarie", Got ya down as to the 85. I just think it's strange that Astound covers Calif.(Part of it anyway) and St. Cloud area in Minnesota. Guess it must be a corporation thing. anyway, Got your info GR. GDoggy : Way to go man! good info, not sure if it will apply, but that's what I was hoping we could get info-wise. ... Remember gang, GDoggy has a 95, so the Serial numbers may not even apply to the 85's, ... I believe mine starts KU4EA (I have KUEA written down, probably missed the 4) but I might be wrong now that I look at it. My Manuf. date was May 2004. It sounds very interesting though, I did see the stuff about the patch back May-June, guess this sept firmware is the fix to the patch, sheesh, my head is spinning.
is that a panasonic firmware upgrade? i have never seen that displayed on my unit. my unit is the dmr-e85hp and i was advised by panasonic for some other issues about 5 months ago to upgrade the firmware. i did and those problems were fixed. is this a newer firmware update. does anyone know? my serial number is indeed KU4CA. where can i get that update if it is a newer one than the one i installed months ago.
vulcanusa: Thanks for your recommendation. After 8 days of trying to get SC-HT1500 work with TVGOS, I already typed bogus ZIP: 00000, and TVGOS stop switching the cahnnels on my digital cable box. I think I will stay in this status until the problem will be resolved. When I tried to disable TVGOS (even I made channel up/down reset), I did not get any channel lineup with auto channel setting. I followed the manual, but it did not help me. I think it is a issue of a cable box. I had no problem to get channels directly from cable, but it did not work from digital cable box. Typing ZIP 00000 and using IR Blaster have one advantage - I can manually set timer recordings from different channel, and the IR Blaster switches cahnnel for me. (I did not have this option with my DMR-E80H - I had to leave my cable box on the channel from which I wanted to record and I was unable to schadule timer recording from different channels without manually switching the channels before recording). I also received an e-mail response from Panny website - sending me to suport page for downloading the firmware for my recordable dvd home theater system, but my model is not listed. I already did it before I sent e-mail to Panny. They proved to be really uselless in support.
