I would try burning a copy of the firmware update to a CD from a non vista machine before trying anything else. You did say you were in the U.S. right? And you did download the update from here right? http://www.dxcc.com/dmr-e85h.htm If so, I would just try it again on a non vista machine. I hope this helps.
There are two main reasons for getting the "UNSUPPORTED" message while trying to upgrade the firmware. 1. You already have that version (or a newer one) installed. 2. The model number of the machine doesn't match the model number the firmware was designed for. Most likely it is reason #1. The CD you made is working correctly. If not, it would just ignore it and you would not get that error. Good Luck, Roger
I had the same situation - the two 680 microfarad capacitors were bad and replacing them solved the problem. Thanks for posting this! $4 sure beats paying $150 for the extended warranty! One thing I noticed was about every second, the please wait on the display dimmed slightly and then immediately went bright again, so that might be an indicator of the capacitor problem.
OK, got my unit back from the repair shop that kept it for 14 weeks and failed to fix it. I read all the post on the caps, but I cannot find them on the board. Any clues or pics. I have the"$130" price fix from Panasonic and got the return RMA letter today. Any help on this before I send it off would help.
Wre46: Look carefully at the power supply board: You'll see to identical 'mid-sized' capacitors with C1270 and C1271 printed onto the board. I believe it's printed on the face of the board and on the underside as well. Those are the two problem caps. I think Roger solved my problem with the UNSUPPORTED message when I tried to Flash the machine with the firmware upgrade. My machine was built in late 2004, and must have the upgrade already on it (although the upgrade file shows that it was last modified in March 2005).
Is the Power supply board under the HArd Drive? And if it is, with the plug at the rear of the board, where are the caps? I have looked at every circuit!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to SJShmitty, repairman et al. My E85H is fixed! The magic capacitors 1270/1271 had failed and replacing them was the answer to a lot of problems: 1. Frequent 'failure' to finalize 2. Infinite please wait loop 3. And finally, the 'Please Wait' death spiral where the unit won't do anything - mine finally ended up with this. My old caps measured less than 10% of the rated value - they probably lost most of their capacitance out thru the bulge in the top. When capacitors lose their value they increase the power supply ripple and often exceed the DC regulator input range. This can create all kinds of havoc. I suspect weak caps caused many of the intermittent problems I have been seeing, especcially as they drifted more and more out of tolerance. Failure to finalize errors are caused by out of tolerance DVD's, according to Pana tech support. However, after changing the caps to 2 1000uF my 'failed to finalize' issues went away even with the 100 pack of Verbatims from Sam's. My hard disk was fine. If you, or someone you know, can solder components to a board you should try the relatively easy disassembly of the hard disk to locate the caps and replace them. The only thing I would watch out for is the connector that joins the power board under the HDD and the main board - it's a little tricky. Once again thanks to all!!!
Thank you to all who have written information here. Here is my experience: I have a DMR-E95H DVR with a 160 GB HD that was in perpetual "Self Check" mode. I tried shutting it down, unplugging it, the reset codes - all did not help. I was really reluctant to call Panasonic tech support because of all the negative press about them (here and other forums). I was getting ready to order a new HD, install it, and hope for the best - then I decided Panny tech support was worth the price of a call (free). The guy that answered the phone was very knowledgeable. He was a technician that owns several models of DVRs and had a lot of experience trouble shooting them. He said that there are several reasons that these units go into "Self Check" mode. When the units start they run the DVD drive to check if there is a readable DVD inserted. They check to see if the hard drive is working properly, etc. A bad reading of any one of these start-up checks could cause the unit to go into the more diagnostic "Self Check" mode. The tech said on of the most common reasons is a dirty lens on the DVD player. He suggested to perform a lens cleaning once per month to prevent the lens from getting dirty causing the lens to potentially trigger a "Self Check". He recommend, since my unit is now out of the warranty period, that I take it apart and clean the DVD lens. He is the procedure I followed: 1. I turned off the unit by pressing POWER for 10 seconds. 2. I unplugged the unit for 30 minutes so the capacitors would be discharged. 3. I removed 3 screws from the back of the case and 1 from each side. 4. I removed 4 screws from the top of the DVD drive cover and carefully removed it. 5. I removed the DVD that was in the tray. (it was very dirty) 6. I carefully cleaned the DVD lens with a Q-tip without any cleaner or solvent. 7. I replaced the DVD cover and 4 screws. 8. I put the top of unit back on and replaced the screws. 9. I plugged the unit in and when the clock showed I hit POWER once. It has worked ever since. No cost (except time and a Q-tip). No parts. No waiting for the unit to come back from the shop. Kudos to Panasonic tech support!
I've been lurking for a bit since I hadn't had any problems, well, that is until recently. I noticed that some of the show I had in my schedule weren't recording and since I don't check the TVGOS everyday I never noticed. First it asked me to redo the channel lineup with some new channels and channel numbers. Then a couple of weeks later the same thing with different channel and channel numbers. While the channel lineup is correct I'm not receiving anymore TV guide listings. This problem seemed to happen almost exactly 2 years ago in August when TV Guide did some new programing. Anyone else experiencing the same problem (for those of you who use the TV On Screen Programming?
Read through the posts relating to TVGO from about page 58 on and try the suggestions listed there. I recently lost TVGO for about a week. My unit was sitting with the guide channel set to zero and unable to find a TVGO signal during searches. Apparently my cable company was not passing the TVGO signal on from the local network feeds. If you have this symptom and can actually get in touch with a technician at the cable company distribution office, ask them to verify that the TVGO feed is there. Cal
BudinMA: Oh, no, I hope it's not a repeat of 2 years ago! It's been a couple of weeks since your post, and I've had no problems here with my TVGOS. I haven't even had to select a channel lineup in over a year, at least. Sounds like your provider is screwing with things which is throwing the TVGOS off. I have to get moving and burn some DVD-RAMs as I have about 40 hours left on the hard drive at lowest quality...and as people have reported and I have experienced, the unit DOES start having major problems with the HD that full!
Well, I did the reboot (channel up and down, unplug, etc) and redid all the set again. Now I am getting the promotions from the TV Guide (isn't that nice) however my TVGOS listing is spotty. I went into the channel line-up under "setup" and I found out that a lot of the channels that I do have (HBO, Showtime) were off because their was no channel number associated with them. This morning I started going through and started to numbering them all again so I will have to wait until this morning to check it. I think it is most definitely a programming error either on the Cable service's side or TV Guide's side of things. You'd think they would leave well enough alone and now, right at the beginning of the fall season.
My TVGOS has been completely non-functional for months and months. I have been using the manual record, and it was working (just a big pain in the neck to have to go to TVGuide.com, find listing and manually plug in the variables when the system was designed to avoid such an antiqued VHS-days process). Until a few days ago, when the TVGOS suddenly came on. It recorded some shows that were still in the list (and didn't record a show I had set to manually record on the same date and same). I turned the unit on, the TVGOS was broken again and suddenly couldn't deleted any of the files. I would go into the list and hit 'erase' and it would just freeze until I hit "back" on the remote. When I tried to erase a title while it was playing, it would just freeze for a split second and then resume playing. Every way I tried to erase the titles, it wouldn't work. I finally tried to reformat the HDD, but it wouldn't even let me into that menu. So I did a factory reset, set the TVGOS back up and left it for 12 hours or so. When I came back, no information was on the TVGOS at all, the clock wasn't even set. So I switched it back to to manual mode, reprogramme4d the date and time, etc. Then I set up a manually timer recording. Lo and behold it says "This title cannot be recorded because it has already ended." Well, no, it didn't. I tried like 3 times until I started changing the year. Get this: It won't let me record anything until 2017. It thinks we're in the future, regardless of the fact that I set the year to 2007. So I switched BACK over to TVGOS, this time making sure that the unit's tuner was set to my local PBS. That time it set the time almost right (2 minutes off). TVGOS still never showed back up, and the unit's internal clock STILL thinks it's 2016 or 2017 or whatever. Bottom line: this piece of hardware was the worst 500 dollars I have ever spent. It's never worked properly, and now it's basically a useless paperweight. So I threw in the towel and got HD-DVR from Time/Warner.
I know for my unit, I usually need to keep it turned off continuously for 24 hours or so until I get channels. From my past experience it also tends to get its information in the morning as I can see it switching channels on my cable box early in the A.M. I have also always shut off the feature that automatically turns the TV guide on when the machine is turned on. If I don't shut it off when I try to get out of the TV guide screen the whole picture fades and I cannot exit the TVGOS screen.
Hello, everyone. Here is my story so far. Bought a DMR-E85HP, s/n KU4EA004157 manu May 2004, from a guy on ebay, 100% feedback but had not sold anything before,claiming that it was given to him by his neighbor. He stated that(through photos also) that the unit had no remote, ir emitter, manual or power cord, that the unit had a tv display of format hard drive and after pushing all the buttons on the front of the unit he was unable to make the unit format. Seemed logic to me, but I had my doubts. I asked him to ask his neighbor to look for the remote again and then he replied, still no luck. I then asked him to ask for the ir emitter, same answer after saying he had no idea what that was. Sounded genuine that he would not know as he did not own the unit in the first place. Anyway I received the unit and pluged it in with another power cord(standard item). The unit powered up and as I did not have a remote, my next plan was to order one from panasonic with the emitter and power cord. I decided to first try use a remote from another panasonic dvd player that I own to see if the 85h would recognise the remote at least to format the hard drive.Though this was not mentioned at all in the instruction manual(downloaded from panasonic) It did and I was able to have the 85h accept the enter button from my remote and the unit started to format the hdd. I walked out of the room. I returned and the unit was about 50 % formatted. Then the unit shut down and restarted. The unit then showed u99. I had already read quite a bit of the 63 pages here about this unit, one of the reasons that I bought it, so I decided to remove the hdd and replace with an unused one I had and then I was going to flash the firmware as directed by Roger's web site. I had already burnt it and was ready. I restarted the unit and the u99 did not appear but I had please wait instead. I removed the old hard drive and replaced with the original one received in the unit(Maxtor 120gb). Still same message. No noise from anything. No hdd, dvd player or fan. I do not remember hearing the fan ever. I removed the hdd to look at the two caps 1270 and 1271. They do not appear bulged and have no stains including on the underside of the hdd mount, but were warm to touch compared to others around them. Now buttons on front do nothing, only the power button powers off after holding for a period. It will start with the power button but just says please wait. Sometimes it will show the "knight rider" lights with please wait, sometimes just please wait. Cannot open tray or enter service mode or other hidden feature. I toggle from locked to unlock and that's about it. The new panasonic remote arrived and the remote does not make the unit do anthing. I have cleaned the dvd lens but still nothing. Questions: What is the sequence of start up? Hdd then dvd then fan, or fan, hdd then dvd or what. Does the fan operate all the time or only when hdd is in use or temp sensor activated ? If the fan does not work will the please wait message show ? What are the values of good v bad caps 1270 and 1271 ? What are the panasonic part number for the caps, there are too many confusing choices on the parts list at panasonic.com Looks like I need to replace caps, but they appear ok to look at ??? Sorry to be long winded, any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you Martin Gorman
Bannlad: Replace the capacitors. The symptoms you describe are EXACTLY what I experienced for which replacing the C1270 & C1271 caps was the cure. They filter the voltage that feeds the +12v that is necessary to run the HDD and DVD. The original HDD is probably OK. The Panasonic part numbers for them are F2A1C6810023 (16v, 680 uF)--although any capacitor greater than 680 uF will do (many people use 1000 uF). A rating of 25 v would be better than the 16v that the Panasonic uses, but using the Panasonic part at least assures that the cap will fit (the height, lead spacing, wire diameter). The F2A1C6810023 can be found on the UED online catalog (https://www.ued.net/ued/addItems.do?itemCode=MSCF2A1C6810023). It will probably say 'out of stock.' That just means it will take a few days longer for them to obtain it and send it out. The shipping (about $7) will cost more than the parts . If you need any other Panasonic parts (fuse?) it would be good to order at the same time.
Thank you for your prompt reply. I will proceed and post my findings. Good luck and all the best. Martin Gorman.
Bannlad: Ditto what Yankee10 said. My caps showed a slight amount of bulging - however, even if not bulged or obviously damaged they still may be out of spec. My caps showed ~ 40uF instead of 680uF. My E85 has been running smotthly ever since I replaced them. The 1000 uF's I got from RS would not fit precisely - lead spacing OK but dia too big. One would fit OK but I had to bend the leads of the other and mount it horizontally. I have since ordered 680uF's of the right size from Mouser. Good Luck. GPaBob
Thank you for your time and input. Greatly appreciated. I will report upon install. Best of luck. Martin Gorman.
I had the same problem with the bad capacitors, just fixed it today. I also used the "closest match available" from Radio Shack, 35V 1000uF... I took a couple of pictures of the process and put it up on our website : http://vassfamily.net/projects/DMRE85H/dmre85h.html Thanks for all the help from you guys! Cheers, Attila
