PVR Recording Fails

[Lightjug]

My Shaw PVR (ARRIS DCX3510-X) recordings are repeatedly failing.  I get a weird error message (see attached) - since it's off to the side of the screen I have no idea what's going on.  Would appreciate some assistance.  Thanks.

[budsgirl]

This has happened to our 3510 many times over the years we've had it.  Doesn't seem to be any reason for it tho it often happens when 2 shows are set to begin recording at the same time.  I just live with the fact that there is a good chance a show will not record.  If something is really important I do a back-up recording in another room.  Not a great solution but the reason has never been solved (done the power downs and re-sets).  This pvr has always been quirky unfortunately - recordings won't play at all or will stop playback suddenly before the end and ask to delete or keep.  Maybe you will be offered a solution, I haven't tried for a fix in years.

[shaw-tony]

@Lightjug that is certainly odd. Has this previously happened before? It may be a maximum number of active streams (2) if you are trying to record 3 things at the same time. What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?

[Lightjug]

It has happened before only once or twice.  It is now happening on a regular basis.  Recordings are failing 80% of the time.  The only thing I can do is disconnecting the power and the cable to the box and allowing a reboot.  I'm not trying to record several things at once.  Sunday evening a show records OK.  Early Monday morning a recording fails.  When I go to the recording, it goes for two seconds, then jumps to the last 10 minutes of a 1 hour recording

[shaw-valerie]

@Lightjug Is there any other trend that you notice as to when recordings are failing, such as being more common at specific times or on specific channels? If it is affecting specific channels, do you see any issues when watching those channels live? 

[Lightjug]

There is no specific time or channel.  it's all over the place.  The live TV is affected as well.  We can't pause a live show.  As I type this, it started working fine again.  Two days in a row and 3-4 recordings with no fail.  Live TV fine too.  Go figure.

[shaw-valerie]

@Lightjug Definitely strange, but I'm glad to hear everything is back to normal for the moment. If this issue does return, I would suggest to get in touch with our technical support team here so they can take a look at the box with you when the issue is occurring, and setup a service appointment if needed. 

[Lightjug]

Yeah it's back at it.  Was fine with Sportscentre recording at 1:00 AM several nights in a row, but failed on the Big10 network channel 157 four times in a row.  Live TV failed tonight for channel 2 CTV News.  Will take your advise and try Tech Support.

[mdk]

Since the failures seem to be "random", e.g., "unable to pause live recording", it is possible that the disk-drive inside the PVR is failing -- not recording correctly 100% of the time.

Given that the "warranty" for the PVR probably has expired, there's not much that you can do, except to replace it.

Given no warranty, an "adventurous" person may try disassembling the PVR, and then replacing the disk-drive, if you can find a compatible disk-drive to deploy.

[Matthew439]

I’m having issues of the same and it’s 2021, and been through 3 boxes already to try to fix it but it hasn’t been fixed each time with a new one. So something I wrong on shaws cable end I’m thinking causing the machine to have such a bad fault error.