I'm rather confused about this U99 error. For those of us who have never received this error, what's the difference between my machine and those that are getting the error? Is it the TV Guide data or is it the e85? I still use the TVGOS on my E85 every day with no trouble at all. Have I just been lucky and should I expect the U99 error sooner or later? I'm not sure I follow the reason that people are receiving it. Seems like no one really knows either way. Anyway, thanks for all your work on this Rx7Fan. Sorry you guys are having all this trouble.
My luck just ran out. I have been using my e85 for 11 months w/out any problems. Last week it failed to record Arrested Development on Monday and My Name is Earl on Tuesday: although, it recorded The Office which comes on immediately after Earl. This was the first problem I had had with tvgos. I kept an eye on it this week and noticed that my tvgos had no listings for Monday or Tuesday, but had listings before and after these days. On Sunday, the listings for Monday filled in and I set Arrested Development to record regularly. I checked tvgos Monday morning and I still had listings but Arrested Development was no longer set to record. I set it to record regularly again and when I got home that night it had done so. By this time, tvgos had filled in the listings for Tuesday. The tvgos had The Office marked to record regularly but not Earl even though I had programmed it to before. I programmed Earl to record regularly again. When I got home Tuesday night, I was greeted for the first time with the infamous "u99". I powered up the unit and it did a self check. My programs had all been recorded but I now had no tvgos program listings. Sorry this isn't more succinct. I am just wondering if anyone else has noticed a correlation between: the e85 erasing program recording instructions and the u99 error.
Morning folks, .... no new news here, still no listings, channel line-up is still there, .... will try a "Factory reset" on the TVGOS tonight and see what happens. Looks like some people (daughn) are seeing some days of data, and some still no listing, that is about what mine looked like going into the total loss, this may be the looks of coming out of the total loss also, not sure. Keith (kossello) : sounds good on the DVD's, the firmware update was supposed to address incompatability with some of the new media, it may have "mal-adjusted" some of the old media, but as long as it still works, .... albeit a bit slower ..... BudinMa : it may be possible if you are going through a cable tuner before the E85, that you need to leave it on a certain station (Somebody correct me on that, I don't use a box, I'm direct into the E85) (I'm pretty sure I'm wrong, but it's a possibility) timdf : the U99 according to the tech I spoke to the other day is a "communication error" ... this may be caused by faulty hardware (bad harddrive, not communicating cause it can't) or it may be caused by faulty data being stripped out of the TVGOS data. If the board that reads the TVGOS data sees something bad, it has no way of knowing if it's a problem in the E85H, or outside of it. (taking liberties in the explanations for any other techy types out here) overall, the U99 is a horribly generic error that has to be "guess Diagnosed" anncoates : teh U99 is horrible, in most cases when it's related to the TVGOS, you wake up in the morning and it's there, no apparent reason, but, it's apparently a problem between both the data and teh E85, the data is in a format that the e85 doesn't understand, but should, .... what cable company do you have ann, and your saying that you schedule recordings by just hitting the record button in the TVGOS? lawsuit : (counselor)? read back through the posts, there is a firware upgrade, ... well check the firware first, and see which you have, ... you may need it, if you've already got the latest firware, you may be in the same boat as the rest of us (sit and wait for it to be fixed by Gemstar).
RX7Fan, I'm consistently getting U99 errors when my e85 tries to down load the EPG. Strangely enough it was ok (no U99 errors) until I re-flashed the firmware. I have a hard time believing it's a problem with the hard drive as it records programs no problem - but due to the EPG problem I've had to enter the times manually. I'd like to flash the firmware back to the original, but have not been able to locate a source. This is really quite annoying ! A great machine crippled by a silly bug... Tim PS like your screen name - I'm a 911TT fan....
tim : you misunderstand, my ref to harddrive was a forinstance, ... the U99 is a communication error, the error might be with the harddrive, might be in the digital board, or might be the TVGOS data, .... just several possibilities, not specifically the drive. "downgrading the firmware was a thought at first, ... I'd be a little cautious about that though, ... moot point though, finding the old firmware may be impossible anyway. I had an '84 with the 12A engine, don't even talk about this poor excuse for a substitute (RX8) or the car that they tried to feed us that wan't even in the same class (Miata). 911's are good, I just want to borrow my brother-in-laws Miura (Lamborghini) he also has an '87 Countach ... I just want the wheels he recently bought for it $20k on Ebay. sheesh RX7 Fan
Hi RxFan, I think you misunderstood me also ;-) Clearly there's any number of reasons for the U99 message, it's just that I have a hard time thinking it's a hard drive problem in my case. None the less I think I'll swap the drive out just for the fun of it and see what happens. I've got a couple of 120G drives going spare, they are 7200rpm not 5400RPM like I believe are in the panny - but should suffice (I hope). Sure would like to down grade to the original FW to see if that helps though... As for the RX7 v RX8 - couldn't agree more. A long long time ago I had an NSU Ro80 ;-) way ahead of it's time and totally unreliable, unlike the later rotary engines. I have a '03 911TT - a rocketship ;-) and my wife has an '05 Mini Cooper S - I like forced induction engines !
Mini cooper??? eeeeeew, they're just wrong Just kidding, ... careful of the reformatting when you power up after the swap, also, any data on this current drive will go by-by when you put it back, ... let me know how it goes, if the current drive is a 5400, I may go with the 7200 I have floating around the house. .... side bar, ya ever see a cosmo? 2 liter 3 rotor , nice engine , .. what they should have tried in the RX7, would have screamed!!! Paul (RX7 Fan)
I noticed in the latest issue of Consumer Reports that their top rated hard drive dvd recorder is the DMR-E85H and second is the DMR-E95H (that's the model I have). I emailed them and told them about the trouble we've been having with the U99's. I think future buyers should be warned about this. If I had known about it I would not have bought it.
Mossler : true, something needs to be done about it, but killing the sales of the 85 and 95 will put Panny in a mode of, "We won't support it at all now because it's dead". I don't know that I necessarily agree with downing the 85's and 95's, but preasure needs to be brought on Panny and Gemstar, maybe throught everyone calling them, and telling them to fix it. Far as I know, nobody has a clear idea if it is a Panny problem, or if it's Gemstar's data that is the problem. They have to work it out first. Short and sweet, I love the 85, hate the TVGOS probs, ... I want to see them continue the line, and the support of it. RX7 Fan.
I agree RX7Fan, I love my E95 when it works and I wouldn't want to hurt sales of it if they get the bugs worked out of it but I would hate to see people buying it without knowing what they are getting into. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and they will get it worked out. Thanks for all the work on this subject you've been doing lately by the way.
"anncoates : teh U99 is horrible, in most cases when it's related to the TVGOS, you wake up in the morning and it's there, no apparent reason, but, it's apparently a problem between both the data and teh E85, the data is in a format that the e85 doesn't understand, but should, .... what cable company do you have ann, and your saying that you schedule recordings by just hitting the record button in the TVGOS?" I'm with Adelphia cable in NY state. Yes, I schedule recordings by scrolling through the TV Guide on screen and hitting record on the remote (well, the green chapter button on the remote to be technically correct) to place it in the recording list. I do this pretty much daily as I'm always looking through the guide and finding shows to record. I also have a lot of daily and weekly programs set to record. It's never once not recorded something and I've never received a U99. I guess I've been really lucky, but I'm just wondering what's different that has caused me to go error free when all of you are having such an awful time. I don't know if it's my cable company, but that doesnt really make much sense to me because one receives the TV guide data via TV guide, of course. The whole thing is really baffling.
Anncoates : I'm not 100% sure on this, was doing a littel research the other day, and it looks like it's possible that each cable company downloads the guide, and manipulates it, then re-broadcasts it. Like I said, I'm not sure. That may be what you are seeing. The reason we aren't seeing anyone else in here from Adelphia's neck of the woods is .... no problem to look for a solution to, ... don't take it the wrong way, but you are strange (in this situation) to be looking in a problem board, with no problem. More important, thank you for your input, ... I teach troubleshooting (in a trade school so to speak) and you have to have a good example to compare too, so... you are the "Control group". it may be as simple as that, all of us reporting problems may be localized, or even in a specific time zone. Overall, I'm glad to hear someone is still having great sucess with the 85, ... gives me hope that it probably will straighten out. RX7 Fan (Paul)
"The reason we aren't seeing anyone else in here from Adelphia's neck of the woods is .... no problem to look for a solution to, ... don't take it the wrong way, but you are strange (in this situation) to be looking in a problem board, with no problem." Am I? lol. Well, that's just me for ya. I read many video/computer forums on the net on a daily basis. Anyway, good luck, I hope you're able to find a resolution soon.
The "cable company manipulates the data" theory seems plausible and could account for some of the differences in the problems being described here. Unfortunately, the only person I know with an E85 in my town is working from satellite. With my E500 I had my last U99 on Sunday morning. No listings at all on Sunday. On Monday, we had two days of listings. Same thing Tuesday. Today the machine has listings through Saturday, no listings for Sunday and Monday, and listings for next Tuesday and Wednesday. I believe this was described earlier in the thread, and it could be a function of using the machine well after midnight on a regular basis. I'm hoping this is all a result of Gemstar or the cable company "fixing" the data as I know I haven't done anything other than read the many helpful posts here, but I have no confidence the U99 issue will stay gone, especially if we can't get an explanation for how it arose in the first place.
bns : U99's won't go away, ... I'd have to sadly agree with that, ... once they find out what the problem was, it'll go away for a while, but it'll crop back up. my hope is that by time that happens the next time, new technology will replace the firmware in the Panny's, and fix the issue before it becomes a U99 again. Just looked up the E500, .... man, I'm gealous, ... other than the couple hundred gig on my computer, and 400GB drive, wow, what speed do you normally record at? they aren't HD are they? RX7 Fan.
RX7Fan: I'm fairly happy with the machine other than the TVGOS/U99 issue, but I'm still not using it to its fullest capacity. I bought it because of the ethernet port, which should allow me to send video over the home network and use a Windows interface for some programming and titling. However, Operation Networked Home is stalled out right now, so I really can't report on this feature. The 400G drive is nice when everything is working, but it also lulls you into a false sense of security on burning stuff off. We normally record at SP, which works best for us in terms of archiving (cost and space vs. quality). The machine is not High Def, but I decided I couldn't wait for the HD-DVD format war to shake out. I also haven't had that HD conversion experience and am actively afraid of seeing certain actors and sports figures in High Def.
I have E95H with Aldelphia. I experienced the U99 problems since last weekend (related to TVGOS) but the problem went away by itself yesterday. I did not apply any firmware nor reinitialize. So I am quite sure it was a problem with TVGOS that has been fixed on their side.
timdf, I have a couple of DMR-E85H DVRs that I bought on eBay. I have a problem with one not completing the power cycle. I requested assistance with that problem several pages back in this thread (i.e. top of pg 7). Anyway, I took out that Samsung SV1203N drive and formatted it in a PC. It didn't solve my problem, but I wanted to mention that the Samsung drive is extremely quiet. It is advertised as being a super quiet drive. Any old drive, especially a faster one, will probably not be as quiet. I very much doubt the U99's are a drive related problem, so you'll probably end up re-installing the original drive anyway. Just an FYI.
Do not format the drive in a PC. It does no good. What you should do is use FDISK in a PC to remove any partitions from the drive.
Is there anyway to disable the TVGOS system and then program the shows you wish to record on the E85?
