More Panasonic DMR E85 problems HELP!!!!!!!

[MOTUfan]

it froze when I switched from dvd to hdd on friday, then it took forever to open, then it went into selfcheck and now it come on but only to the last channel it was on, 10. and it like freezes where the channel square thing doesnt leave the screen, the remote won't work, the buttons on the machine won't work. The only one that does is the power and then it freezes at the last power down block and doesnt shut down. I have had it unplugged twice over the weekend for over 16 hours each time thinking itll fix it as others have said it can help.

Can anyone help me??

Or should I take it into my repair shiop and get it fix thus losing all of my stuff on my HDD again

This is like the 8th time Ive lost stuff on this machine, the first time was 18 days after I bought it, a hdd failure

I bought this thing the first week of August and it was in the shop the third week of August

Brent

[Captain Satellite]

Sounds like a lemon, unfortunately. I have two Panasonics with hard drives and after thousands of recordings, they've never flinched.

[MOTUfan]

Sounds like a lemon, unfortunately. I have two Panasonics with hard drives and after thousands of recordings, they've never flinched.

And this is the fourth time I have had it in since I bought it. I got all the invoices right here.

I bought it on 8-4-04

It went down on 8-24-04 I brought it in the same day.

It was fixed on 8-30-04 the problem was U99 error. they replaced the digital pc board.

Then it wouldn't read any discs on 2-21-05, not store bought not recorded or unfinalized ones, they fixed it by clearing thprogramming it checked out ok they said. brought it home on 2-23-05.

That night I plugged it in, it did the same thing. So I brought it back down there on 2-24-05 they then replaced the DVD RAM Drive. I picked it up on 3-2-05 it worked.

Until this last time on Friday

My warrenty is up in August. I am buying a extended warrenty through Panasonic I believe if its not to spendy on WEDS. I got their number for the customer care service I talked too a tech and they said I could I just had to call the care dept. I will keep this as a back up with the extended warrenty. BUT I am buying a JVC DVD recorder with a HDD i have heard there is only one flaw with the JVC and its fairly easily fix

So as of right now my E85 is at the repair shop in Bloomington again.

Brent

[spacepiggy]

I've had two E95's and both failed in nearly the identical fashion as you describe, in exactly 1 month of use.

I got a refund and bought a Liteon 5045 instead. It's been rock solid.

Not nearly the bells & whistles, but it works.

An older Pana DMR-HS2 (or something like that - 40gHD) at work has been going strong for 3 years.

Sometimes they gets it right, sometimes they's stinkers.

[MOTUfan]

I've had two E95's and both failed in nearly the identical fashion as you describe, in exactly 1 month of use.

I got a refund and bought a Liteon 5045 instead. It's been rock solid.

Not nearly the bells & whistles, but it works.

An older Pana DMR-HS2 (or something like that - 40gHD) at work has been going strong for 3 years.

Sometimes they gets it right, sometimes they's stinkers.

This is what i am thinking of getting: http://tinyurl.com/e474j

i can get a extended two year warrenty for it for a additional $50 I think. Anyone have any luck with this unit??

Brent

[handyguy]

Try to unplug it for a minute & plug back in as this resets any appliance.

I hope you have your recorder on a surge protected outlet

[spiderman2k1]

I have the E80 some times ever six month I get a lock up. I just unplug it and it's fine.

Remember these DVD recorders use Linux. Like any OS sometimes you need too also have a reboot.

[MOTUfan]

I have the E80 some times ever six month I get a lock up. I just unplug it and it's fine.

Remember these DVD recorders use Linux. Like any OS sometimes you need too also have a reboot.

The thing is I did try to unplug it as I mentioned in my first post. But I left it unplugged overnight both days over the weekend for 16 hour each time and tried to plug it back in and it did the same thing. I took it into the repair shop yesterday. I contacted Panasonic today and I can buy a extended warrenty. So I will very soon

Brent

[Captain Satellite]

You're now sinking more money into an obvious lemon and will still have to deal with the frustration of a recorder that is not operating properly. I've recorded thousands of clips and programs on my E80 wihout a glitch, this is the kind of performance you should expect. Be a thorn in Panasonic's side and get them to replace this unit.

[handyguy]

I also have to clean my lens with canned air now & then.

[MOTUfan]

You're now sinking more money into an obvious lemon and will still have to deal with the frustration of a recorder that is not operating properly. I've recorded thousands of clips and programs on my E80 wihout a glitch, this is the kind of performance you should expect. Be a thorn in Panasonic's side and get them to replace this unit.

Yeah I still havent boght the extended warrenty. Its still under the one year warrenty though which is good

Brent

[handyguy]

New Pannys only come with 90 day guarantees. They changed it.

[bbyrd]

I have searched far and wide researching this error but have not read what afew others discovered with this problem and their solution.

1. Power up DMR-E85 stops with message "Please Wait"
2. no fan is running.

Seems to me this may be a board problem. I mention this because I removed the Samsung disk drive and replaced with a old hard drive and experienced the same problem. I powered up the DMR-E85 without a hard drive connected and experienced the same error message.

There are afew people that have seen this error on other forums but never updated what they eventually found to be the problem. One metioned the hard drive probably needed replacing and another message included to also replace the power supply.
I have not located the power supply but seems I would not see the message "PLease Wait" if a bad power supply.

Can someone share any experience with this error ?
thanks,
bbyrd I have searched far and wide researching this error but have not read what afew others discovered with this problem their solution.

1. Power up DMR-E85 stops with message "Please Wait"
2. no fan is running.

Seems to me this may be a board problem. I mention this because I removed the Samsung disk drive and replaced with a old hard drive and experienced the same problem. I powered up the DMR-E85 without a hard drive connected and experienced the same error message.

There are afew people that have seen this error on other forums but never updated what they eventually found to be the problem. One metioned the hard drive needed replacing and another message included to also replace the power supply.
I have not located the power supply but seems I would not see the message "PLease Wait" if a bad power supply.

Can someone share any experience with this error ?
thanks,
bbyrd

[trhouse]

It can be a power supply problem and you can still get the "Please Wait" message. I do not have service manuals for a Panasonic but I have two for JVC's. A typical recorder has about 12-15 voltages including some that are the same and switched on/off depending on any power save modes, etc. Any of the non-switched ones can independently fail leaving some functions and not others.

The JVC problem was not actually a failure. It was caused by voltage levels between integrated circuits not quite being adequate causing intermittent failure. The factory fix was to add pull up resistors to increase the drive level between the IC's.

[bbyrd]

thanks for the feed back and sorry forum for the double post above. I may bite the bullet and let circuit city send it back to their Atlanta service center. I will be sure to post back if I do.

[handyguy]

Hopefully you don't have it in an entertainment center. Sounds like over heating. It needs space in back for the fan too.

[bbyrd]

well, you are right, it has been in a entertainment center for 2 yrs. And it would run hot at times. Now it is cold and just "please waiting".

bb