Magester, Hi. I have not confirmed a solution to the lock-up problem to which you refer. Clearly, many of the problems that have been discussed on this thread are software issues related to the TV Guide. However, my feeling is that the Please Wait lock-up is very likely a hardware problem, such as the one discussed this year by: "Repairman", 6. January 2007 @ 12:05, page 54 or perhaps a hardware problem identified late last year by: "leslie61" on post: 20. September 2006 @ 05:36, page 50. In fact, they might both be referring to the same problematic chip. leslie61 was very specific, whereas Repairman was a bit vague and said that some diodes need to be replaced in addition to a chip. If they're both still lurking around, then perhaps they can agree or disagree with whether both of their posts concern the same physical device. Only one other poster wrote about what I believe to be the same problem I have with that one DMR-E85H unit. kmkaty was seeking guidance. It must not be a very common problem, because no else has posted about the specific symptom and none of my other units have exhibited it. Sorry, for the delayed reply, but I have the forum send e-mail to my work e-mail address and I only check it during the weekdays.
Thanks repairman. I took the drive out, and plan to service unit, and put drive back when I get the unit back. Q: 1) So based on your reply, what should I request them NOT to do? Install firmware? (You said they might update pcb code etc.) . It seems that alot of posts here indicate that 1)once drive is removed=data lost or-2)once drive re-enters unit=data lost -or 3)once drive re-enters unit= re-formatting drive, making the rewiring necessary. Q: 2)I tried mounting the drive on a couple pc-s. No luck. I guess the os isn't windows compatible? or is my drive wrecked? Thanks i.a.
Hi uunowhoo.If you are taking your unit in for repair,then send it in with the hard drive because if the repair agent fits a hard drive in the shop even for a short time then the data on your drive you have taken out will be lost. The unit needs to go in complete with stearn instructions not to fit another drive untill they have rung you to confirm that the drive is faulty. If your drive is made by Maxtor and the agent gets your unit working , get yourself a new 80 gig(fitted in U.K. models)drive as soon as possible and remove as much of the data to re-recordable disks as possible and throw the maxtor in the dustbin. I try to fit Seagate or Western Digital drives as replacements--seem to have a longer life than the Maxtors. I did read somewhere in a Panny Tech document that they had some software to read recorder drives using a P.C.--I`ll have a nose around on the panny site as soon as I get chance As to the long arguements over what causes U99 I can only go on what I find here in the U.K--we don`t have this show view system here, we use another Gem Star product called Video Plus. By using codes published in newspapers that relate to programme switch on and off times U.K. recorders programmed with these codes will turn on a short while before the show starts and turn off at show finnish.This data is sent out in the field blanking interval along with teletex data and as a whole we don`t get any real problems with it.A lot of posts seem to be saying that U99 is caused by problems with the programme guides--we don`t suffer this in the U.K--most problems we get is failed recordings due to customer error or on rare occasions the clock data goes out and the recorder diplays the wrong date or time and the timer recording fails Repairman
The other day I went into my Playlists on my DMR-E85 and found a troublesome new bug. I have seven playlists, currently, so it begins on the second screen with just the last playlist and the "Create Playlist" option next to it. If I click on "Create Playlist," select the "Previous" or "Next" options, hit one of the skip buttons on the remote to move to the previous page or hit the Erase button on the remote when that seventh playlist is selected, the unit freezes up. I can select the seventh playlist with the Pause button, but when I hit the Erase button or try to access the submenu to erase it, nothing happens at all. A similar thing happens in the Dubbing mode if I go into the Playlists section. The first page (with the first six playlists) appears fine in Dubbing mode and I can select any of them to be added to a dub list, but if I move to the second page that contains the last playlist, the unit freezes. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the problem, but I realized I had accidentally erased all of the titles that were used in the most recent playlist. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? I can't create new playlists or access any of the previous ones because of this. Thanks in advance.
Well, it did it again, U99 on Tuesday morning. Could not get the unit to come back up. Tried again when I got home that evening. Finally it powered on fully. After tomorrow, the Guide will be completely blank. Thanks GemStar!!! Robert
I just bought an E85H on ebay thinking I'd be able to fix the U99 problem. The problem I am having besides the U99 error is that I am not getting any sort of picture from the deck. I have one cable going from the outputs of the deck to the inputs on the back of the tv(RCA type). When I turn the deck on it says 'Please Wait', then it shows channel 1 on the deck and then it says 'Guide' and the blue HDD light is lit. After a time it then displays U99. It became a little more responsive after I initialized all parameters to factory defaults. Then I was able to get the DVD tray to open. I swapped in another 120gb drive but it didn't seem to behave any differently. Any ideas out there about why I don't have any picture or any other advice? Thanks, Dan.
I upgraded the firmware. Reading the messages that I was seeing leads me to believe it was successful, but the unit is still not functional. It has gone back to it's earlier behaviour leading me to believe that the firmware had already been upgraded. I don't think it goes to the U99 readout anymore after saying 'Guide' on the player. It just sits there. And I also have to force it to turn off every time by holding the power button which I didn't have to do after the first time I swapped drives. I am able to get the guide to go off on the readout when I hit that button on the remote, but that is it. I've tried reinitializing the settings, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. I'm going to try swapping drives again and see what that does. I also went into 'Service Mode' to see what the firmware version is but I couldn't get it to respond to any of the codes.
I have a picture now. Am able to access the menus onscreen. This is going to sound pretty stupid, but I didn't have the RCA plugs pushed far enough onto the plugs on the back of the dvr. I was wondering why they seemed so loose and then it finally dawned on me after ages and ages. They go on harder then I realized. Now I am just trying to figure out how to turn off the tv guide since I don't have enough RCA plugs. Well, I guess I do have one I can use to try to download the info. I think the disk is bad though. The player isn't able to finish formatting it. Things are looking good though. : ) I can't believe I saw someone pay about 350 bucks for one of these on ebay and no remote. I think my 125 dollars may be well rewarded. I hope. Fingers crossed.
metal, It sounds like you don't have the manual. Here is a link: http://panasonic.com.au/content/library/files/F000766.pdf I am not certain what you mean by "turn off the tv guide". Do you mean so it won't automatically open when you power on the machine or to prevent the download of the listings? Both are documented on this thread and in the manual.
What I meant was I wanted to turn it off so it wouldn't be trying to download data, but I found an extra cord to plug into the video out on my cable box. So now I'm waiting to see if it gets populated with listing. Too bad I'm such a night owl. Going to make it a lot harder to have consistent download perhaps. We'll see. I have been referring to the manual. Not as easy though as a hard copy. Thanks for the info.
Hi, please HELP me. I have this model and when dubbing from HDD after a couple of programmes/clips are written to the DVD-R the system crashes and restarts. I called Panny and they said it needs repairing and I may loose all the stuff on my HDD. I don't wanna loose this stuff. Is there anyway around this problem? Advice would be welcome and cheers.
kashka, My first thought concerns the quality of your DVD-R media. Is it cheap? Have you had a problem in the past with this exact same media? I use a Verbatim DVD-R. I have burned 75 or so DVD's and never had a problem. This thread contains several posts about recommended manufacturer DVD-R's and reports of media from certain manufacturers that have caused a variety of problems.
Hi well first off I bought the wrong discs dvd-rw and system would not recognise. Then I got panny dvd-r and all looks good dubbing from clip to clip, then as it's just about to write the recorder shuts down and self-checks. The previous x2 clips are saved but not the third. So any further advice? I cannot loose this stuff off HDD. I suppose I could record back onto VCR then if the HDD is wiped I could then get it all back on then burn onto ram for keeps? Cheers
kashka, Well, the problem you're experiencing could be for all kids of reasons at this point, even though the media problem has apparently been eliminated. For example, does the dubbing always bomb on exactly the same clip? Or does it always bomb on the 3rd clip regardless of which clip happens to be the 3rd clip? If it always bombs on the same clip, then you could dub every other clip except that one. That one might be corrupted in some manner. Does that clip always play through fine from the HDD? Or, the problem could be a function of the clip and the recording mode you've chosen. I've dubbed in regular and high speed in XP mode and SP mode with no problem. I do recall having a problem at one point when I attempted to dub in FR mode. I never used that mode again. Note: You cannot dub in high speed if you didn't record the show with high speed enabled. So, you have the option of reading this entire thread for inspiration to solve your problem or play around with some of the dubbing settings.
Ok, I have a problem with my Panasonic E85H. Last night, I was noticing that the remote control was not responding really well. I replaced the batteries, but it seemed like the box was running really slow, very non-responsive before it would finally execute whatever command I wanted. I unplugged it, and when I plug it back in, after doing the self-check, it shows the "L1" input and then powers on, then finally goes to the clock. This morning, I cannot power it on, either with the remote or the power button on the machine. I am thinking something is wrong with the hard drive.. does anyone have any thoughts, or do I need to take it in for service?
Oh, this is really weird, keatonbri. The exact same thing has been happening to my E95 unit for about the last two weeks. Slow response. From turning it on, to using the TV Guide, even in the navigator section, everything is slow. I suspected the same as you that the remote batteries were weak, so I changed them. But I also found that the same thing was happenning by using the controls on the unit itself. I did several hard resets and that didn't seem to help either. It is really a nuisance but so typical of a panny. If ne1 has some knowledge of why this is happening please let us know. Thanks.
Ok, this just occured to me -- in the US and (most of) Canada this weekend we are switching to DST. I doubt there is a patch for these panasonics -- so I guess I need to disable automatic DST and get used to manually switching the time twice per year. We should really just get rid of DST all together ... C
My E85h switched DST just fine this morning. I am guessing GemStar has been sending updates to the unit in preparation. I have been getting about two U99 errors each week for that last two or three weeks. Annoying for sure. Hmmmm....just checked the unit....damn...another U99. Robert
I really don't get this. I've haven't been able to get any TV Guide info to download. But strangely enough, My Panasonic updated the the time on it's own this weekend. Pretty strange.
