Pioneer 633h-s Doesn't Boot

[BC-USA]

I am in desperate need of help with my Pioneer 633h-s. I brought it in 2005 and it's had light to moderate use. I transferred all of my 8mm family movies to it and was planning to write them all to DVD. However the unit will no longer boot, it just shows "Wait" on the LCD then reboots after a little while and/or shuts off. I assume the hard drive is corrupt. I've ready a similar post though it didn't get a response, and have read the post on 520 hard drive replacements ... which may be my last resort. I'm a techie but need guidance on this one as info seems slim.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Brian

[wabjxo]

Try a hard reset:

Turn unit on and simultaneously press the STOP and ON buttons on the front of the unit.

[BC-USA]

Tried this route. The unit doesn't appear to respond. The best I can get it to do is press the HDD/DVD button rapidly while it's boot and I'll actually get a display on the TV saying "Please Wait". Oddly enough If I put a DVD in the tray it'll show the chapter screen, but the won't take any commands beyond this.

I expect the only approach will be similar to the 520H hard drive replacement, though I'm wondering if I can somehow re-write the boot portion of my existing drive and restore my lost video.

[BC-USA]

bump...

Can anyone point me in the direction of the tools to put a new drive in this unit? Service disk or image, a programmable remote, etc...?

Thanks!

[belder]

Have you tried removing the HDD and seeing if your computer can read the contents? I had my Pioneer 420H die a couple of weeks ago too. I'm waiting to see if I want to get it repaired. Now that I have the Philips 3575H there's less urgency. But I'm going to try the USB input using the Pioneer drive to see if the Philips will see it and at least play it. Maybe even "real time" record it to the HDD so I can make a disk of things. I'm not sure that any of this will work.

[BC-USA]

To my knowledge the contents of the drive are in a proprietary format. I've seen other posts on this. I'm hoping someone that knows this stuff real well can give me some guidance.

[wabjxo]

Try this page on Pioneerfaq.info... top of page, ENglish version 3.8. Says its a guide for the 53x/63x series and others..

[orsetto]

I have home-serviced a number of 531-533-633 units, replacing hard drives and/or repairing optical drives as needed. This specific "stuck-in-a-loop-won't-boot" issue has been widely reported but I have never encountered it personally. The consensus does seem to be it indicates HDD corruption and your recordings will probably not be salvageable. (Supposedly it was recently discovered that some variant of Unix-Linux is able to pull files off Pioneer drives, but I have not yet seen a detailed report on how to do this- it may turn out to be urban legend.)

If all else fails and you are willing to risk losing the drive contents, you could try removing it, connecting it to a PC running Knoppix, and deleting/replacing the TV Guide-Timer system programming (this gets corrupted fairly easily during power spikes). Go to the "Pioneerfaq" website for details how to do this and assistance obtaining the service disc and remote emulator. You may need help from someone who knows Linux/Unix commands: the instructions are basic and do not include information on how to delete the corrupt software from an existing drive, only how to install it on a fresh drive. I think its worth a shot to reverse-engineer a delete-reinstall: if I came across a unit with this boot-wait problem I would definitely try it. If the Knoppix command line is edited correctly, it should be possible to delete the damaged TVGOS-Timer software from the boot partition and re-install a new copy WITHOUT touching the partition that has your recordings on it. Then you might be able to reinstall it in your 533 and get it to work long enough to copy the contents to DVDs.

Chances are the drive is completely hosed, tho. I have had both earlier Pioneer models, 510 and 520, pass thru my hands with similar symptoms. Those units do not have any Pioneer software on the HDD that would get corrupted: the drives simply tank. Once replaced with new drives, both recorders worked perfectly for their owners and are still going strong a year later. DVD recorders are not full-scale PCs with semi-automated maintenance routines: their operating systems are very crude and all it takes is a couple of bad sectors to appear on the drive for the recorder to totally trash it. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

[belder]

Orsetto, thanks for your post.

I'm assuming my HDD is hosed on my Pioneer 420H.

I have had both earlier Pioneer models, 510 and 520, pass thru my hands with similar symptoms. Those units do not have any Pioneer software on the HDD that would get corrupted: the drives simply tank. Once replaced with new drives, both recorders worked perfectly for their owners and are still going strong a year later.

Since the 420H is the 520H without the firewire input, if I put another HDD in the unit it may work again? Would the Pioneer format the drive? There is nothing on the old drive I need to keep.

[orsetto]

Since the 420H is the 520H without the firewire input, if I put another HDD in the unit it may work again? Would the Pioneer format the drive? There is nothing on the old drive I need to keep.

This sounds familiar- I think maybe I responded to a separate earlier post you had regarding your 420? If I remember correctly, you said it got stuck in a similar power-on loop after a power surge. Unlike the 633, your 420 does not have any crucial Pioneer software embedded in its HDD, so its worth a try replacing the HDD to see if that solves your problem. This is much easier to do on a 420, all you need a is a good HDD you can drop into it, no pre-programming with Linux is necessary BUT as with all Pioneer DVRs you will need the service disc and a a remote that can emulate the Pioneer service remote codes. You can contact Pioneerfaq.com for advice on getting these items, or feel free to PM me. Note if replacing the HDD does not solve your power-on-loop, the unit probably blew a vital processor during the storm surge and that can only be repaired by Pioneer. In that case, I'd recommend you sell it for parts on eBay: it is no longer cost-effective to repair a model 420 professionally at the going rate $125 or more because a better, brand-new model 450 or a Phillips 3575 costs under $300. (The Pioneer model 520 with the firewire input on the other hand is highly sought-after, worth the repair cost because it still has unusually high resale value- it has a unique combination of features which some Pioneer fans prize.)

[BC-USA]

Thanks for the info Orsetto, this was just what I was looking for. Even if I can't restore the videos, I still have them on 8mm and will recopy them onto the unit once it's fixed ... and then immediately to DVD this time. I'm not familiar with Knoppix, but I'm sure there's info on the Pioneer FAQ or elsewhere. I'm heading off to check out the faq now ... thanks again for your help!

Brian

[BC-USA]

The procedure from the Pioneer FAQ was a success. I'm at the point now I need a service remote and CD. Can someone give me best bets without blowing a lot of cash for the remote? I'm looking for the cheapest solution that will work. I don't have a Palm and the Pronto remotes are expensive. Also, can anyone point me to an image for the service CD if available, or do I need to purchase this from Pioneer directly?

Thanks in advance.

[orsetto]

The procedure from the Pioneer FAQ was a success. I'm at the point now I need a service remote and CD. Can someone give me best bets without blowing a lot of cash for the remote? I'm looking for the cheapest solution that will work. I don't have a Palm and the Pronto remotes are expensive. Also, can anyone point me to an image for the service CD if available, or do I need to purchase this from Pioneer directly?

Not quite sure how you determined "success" if you don't have the service disc and service remote? AFAIK, those are require to get the machine to even recognize the new HD? Anyway, PM me for ideas on the remote and disc you need.

[pio433]

Hy everyone. I did not see, if you can save or recovered some of your old videos?

I was succees to copy some of the portions of my videos.
I took the HDD from the Pioneer DVR 720 and put in a USB rack.
First I did a image clone with Norton Ghost.
After I connected to my laptop (WindowsXP) and I used the Stellar Phoenix BSD -
Data Recovery Software. This copies all the data to one large file.
You have to rename it "myvideo.mpg". The video stream is in mixed mode in the file, so you have to reorder it in a video editor... This video some have problems with time code.
It is not the best method, but if you lucki you can recover some section of your video.

[Seeker47]

(Supposedly it was recently discovered that some variant of Unix-Linux is able to pull files off Pioneer drives, but I have not yet seen a detailed report on how to do this- it may turn out to be urban legend.)

If anything like this that is conclusive ever comes to light, I hope the info will be widely disseminated. Hopefully in some guide format. But, in that event, I expect Hkan would be one of the first to have it.

[EDIT: I don't know if there is anything unique about the Pioneer DVDRs, but this issue comes up also in regard to other DVDRs. If it was merely a matter of extracting .VRO files, there are some programs that claim to be able to do this. https://www.videohelp.com/tools/CD_Roller. Also saw this recent post: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic347943.html
And Cyberlink Power Producer supposedly has some ability to work with .VRO files. I thought this was the format used for storage on DVDR HDDs, as well as being used for VR format DVDs. If the HDD file system is some proprietary Unix deal, however, it may be very difficult to even get that far. Still, one might suppose this would have some implications for all that unfinalized DVD content people are always inquiring about rescuing.]