Pioneer DVR-420H Problems

[belder]

For the past two or three years I have used and enjoyed the Pioneer DVR-420H. Today there was a power interruption at my home. Tonight when I tried to turn on the power it wouldn't power up. It blinks between the Power On display and the time. There is a number "3" that is displayed above the time. I looked this up in the Operating Instructions and online and can't seem to find what that means. I also tried unplugging the power for a few minutes and then for a half hour with no positive results.

Any ideas or suggestions? The hard drive was about half full. Thank you.

[orsetto]

Two or three years is a healthy run for these DVRs- they generally burn out one of their drives or some other part at around that point, so you've had decent use from it. The good news is that its not completely fried: you're at least getting a display on the front panel. The "3" is meaningless- this just indicates you have the unit's remote code set to "3" (it can be 1, 2 or 3- they give you this option in case you own more than one).

The bad news is its stuck in a POWER ON loop, which can be tricky to solve. Have you tried the factory reset procedure in the manual? On the front panel, while holding down "stop", press "power" for ten seconds and see if the unit reboots. Alternatively, you could try unplugging it for a longer period of a few days to a week and see if the memory purges itself. If it still flakes when you plug it back in, theres a hardware problem and you'll need to have it looked at by Pioneer. Could be a simple transistor or cap blew, or it could be the SYSCON firmware chip needs to be reset. In a way this would be easier if the unit were totally dead: you could then simply check out the Pioneer.faq website for details on how to repair the power supply yourself, you'd have nothing to lose. With a unit that's getting power but stuck in a loop, you have more pressure to decide if its worth the money ($125+) to have it diagnosed and repaired professionally. Hopefully it will just start working again- sometimes you get lucky and these things just fix themselves after a couple weeks. If not, you might want to think about buying a 2007-model mint in box Pioneer 450 from one of the several Canadian dealers on eBay who ship them to the US for $239-289. Or head to Wal*Mart for a Phillips 3575, which tunes in the new digital broadcasts and runs about $300.

[belder]

orsetto,

Thanks for your fantastic reply. The 420H is unplugged now and I'll see what happens the next couple of weeks. It was plugged into a surge protector but it was not in the part with battery backup.

Sadly, the Stop/Power reset did not work. I'll leave it plugged in and see if it fixes itself. I bought the Pioneer when DirecTV did not offer local channels where I live and I wanted a way to record local channels and have the Tivo experience. The Pioneer won't be able to do that after Feb. 19, 2009 anyway. The problem is easily solved by changing to DISH Network with their PVR. I'd hope the Pioneer could "revive" itself enough to use it to record programs I want to save.

Also, your recommendation of the Phillips 3575 is much appreciated. I'd like to have a HDD on the next DVR and that model or the Pioneer 450 may be the answer if I don't need the tuner part.

Bill

[belder]

This all started when my satellite company DirecTV couldn't deliver my local channels because they'd have to install a second dish and trees were blocking the way. I called Dish Network and signed up with them because they offered locals all in one dish. However, they couldn't get a clear shot so that option was completely out.

The Philips DVDR3575H saves the day. Now I get to keep DirecTv and get my local channels in digital including the sub channels.

Can you get the Wal-Mart extended warranty after the sale? Is it a decent warranty?

Thanks for the continued help.

[wabjxo]

Yes, we added WM's extended warranty a week after buying the unit. My wife went to the Service Desk with our receipt and bought it there, $17.88 for 2 years... price was under $300, if over $300, it's $25.xx something.

I read it and it covers everything, including lightning strike.

For future ref., here's a lot of detailed operating info on the 3575.

[belder]

Sorry, orsetto, about commenting on this thread as it was probably inappropriate. But the post did open my eyes even further on possibilities. Thanks for that.

Now I know it is the Hard Drive of the Pioneer 420H that is bad. I removed and unhooked the drive (cable and power) and the unit started up, although telling me I had a bad HDD. Then I replaced that drive with another Maxtor I had around and the drive whirred as it should. Out of curiosity I plugged the original 420H drive in a computer and I started smelling electric burn. Pew!

So now it looks like I have a Pioneer 420 (minus the H) and it was able to power up and finalize my DVD-R's that I had neglected. So the machine seems to be working. I'll go back to PioneerFaq to see what I can find.