Pan EX85 faulty tuner now U61 error!

[fly-catchers]

Hi,
I finally had my Pan EX85 repaired for its know faulty Freeview tuner. It had also been getting numerous U80 errors before the tuner packed up. Thanks to this forum I was able to direct the repairers in the correct direction!
Today I got the unit returned. They had replaced the back-end pcb and 680uf cap. And updated the software to the latest version. So far so good!

But on switching it on it now keeps displaying a U61 error on the unit and on the TV screen saids it must affectively reboot. So you either press "enter" or just leave it and after a while it saids "bye" and switches off. After a while it switches back on with "hello" and briefly seems ok before the error message comes up again. It just keeps doing this. Will it eventually settle down and work or is it toast again? Currently I have switched it off at the mains and will give it an hour or so before trying again.
It was repaired under an extended guarentee but the setup to that is most annoying as I am in SE Kent and the repairers D&G use are in Blackpool! So all you see are a courier company picking up and delivering the machine and no engineer to talk to!
According to the Panasonic instructions the U61 is not a fault and it restores the unit to normal operating mode. But it just keeps recycling this message!

cheers

bill

 

[Gavtech]

Evidently something is generating a repeated error... which the micro detects and generates this U61 error and then goes into the restore routine... only to catch the error again when it next appears.

I'm afraid it will have to go back.

Frustrating.

 

[fly-catchers]

Still carried on rebooting and coming up with the U61 error. Got through to an engineer who said it was due to a faulty DVD drive in the machine. So I decided to to concentrate on that and finally got it to open the draw. After inserting a number of different DVDs it eventually came up with a message about the disc being scratched or dirty. After that different error message it has started to work again- phew! Left on this afternoon no more errors and so far Channel 4 has not produced any U80 messages either! So fingers crossed its back in business...

cheers

bill

 

[Gavtech]

That's good news.

 

[fly-catchers]

Well it did not last long!!
After testing all the functions I now find that there are two pages on the hard drive which cause the DVD recorder to crash! You get a U88 error this time. All the other 55 or so pages on the hard drive seem ok and play their contents. When you highlight a prgramme on one of the affected pages you still get the sound & picture being played behind the error message on the screen. If left playing after about 2 minutes it switches the unit off.
If you have a DVD in the drive you simply get this U88 message and after rebooting the unit works again. If you go to either of these two pages without a DVD in the drive you get the U61 error instead and the original cycle begins again. Only stopped once a DVD is put in the drive.

Does this mean the hard drive is corrupted at that point or faulty? It had been fine prior to the tuner repair. Or could the DVD drive still be playing a part as both error messages refer to discs rather than the hard drive and are described as not defects by Panasonic in the instructions!! As my extended guarantee runs out shortly I wonder if this further fault will be covered by the original repair?? If Panasonic machines are the best on the market I would hate to encounter the worse!!

Annoyed
bill

 

[Gavtech]

These error codes are exactly the same error...the only difference being that one describes the error when a disc is present in the drive and the other when one is not.

As it has been returned in this condition I would say this is a 'bounce' : an issue arising from the repair.


To avoid this sort of problem it is supposed to be routine to reformat the hard disc when a machine is in for service... but naturally customers don't like this because it means losing all recordings.

You may find this will become necessary in this case.

 

[fly-catchers]

These error codes are exactly the same error...the only difference being that one describes the error when a disc is present in the drive and the other when one is not.

As it has been returned in this condition I would say this is a 'bounce' : an issue arising from the repair.


To avoid this sort of problem it is supposed to be routine to reformat the hard disc when a machine is in for service... but naturally customers don't like this because it means losing all recordings.

You may find this will become necessary in this case.

I am sure you are right. I did backup copies of all my most important recordings. The very most important being ironically the ones on the two glitched pages that currently crash the system. But as I have loads of "Lovejoys" I have recorded but yet to watch had hoped to avoid reformat if possible. If I did the reformat and it worked would it still be best to get the repair company to check the system do you think?
At the moment it would appear as if the "fault" is the recorder thinking there is a fault and putting into place the restore operation rather than there being any real fault.

bill

 

[johnjr]

HI everyone, I picked up a dmr-ex85s from a local recycling centre (£10) thinking that i could fix it with the help from the forum members, as i already have ex75 in a bedroom working great (£15.00) from a car boot sale. when i got the unit home and powered it up it started with a u61 error, i checked the forum and they suggested ram-drive head could be stuck/dirty , I cleaned the head and checked the movement, tried the machine again, still the same error u61. I read in The forum that the hd may be faulty. I tried a different hd (Seagate 160gb) but when I tried the hd in the ex85 the u61 error disappeared to be replaced with a hdderr, i reinstalled the old hard drive WD2500bb with a new cloned EX-85 boot loader (posted by a forum member) installed on it, but still hdderr so i tried a the Seagate 160gb hard drive with the (jumper set to cable select) with the cloned boot loader installed on it, (i was able to write the boot loaders using winhex on my pc and a usb drive caddy), It still had the same hdderr, so after checking on the forum the members said that i need a firmware update disc. I contacted Panasonic via email:

dear, sir or madam, my trusted DMR-EX85 is experiencing colour fading/pulsing issue on the channel 4/Dave Ja Vu and one or two other channels). I searched on the internet and found that this is a common problem and that your company have released and firmware update disc "XY-322 (13/4/2010)" to fix my problem. Please could you send me a copy of this disc.

Two weeks later my free copy arrived (i refused to pay £9.99 on ebay) i installed the disc (CD-R) but in only ran for 30 seconds showing that it was installing firmware and then spat out the xy-322 disc, only to find that the machine returned with a hdderr so i thought that the main ide controller board maybe faulty (where the hdd ide connector ribbon/foil fits to the pcb). So after a bit more head scratching and with nothing to loose I tried the 160gb Seagate again but this time I changed the jumper setting on the hd from cable select to master. I tried the machine again Bingo the machine started up but with a different boot sequence than previous, showing dvd in the front display, I put the firmware disc into the machine and after 6-8 minutes’ the machine sprung to life asking to format the hdd drive and now it’s working a treat.
I hope this post helps..

JUST TO A RECAP

1. Yes you do need firmware disc XY-322 CD-R to format your hdd it is free from Panasonic,
It is only 8.4mb file (PANA_DVD.FRM 21/07/2010)
2. You can use a different size drive as I did Seagate 160gb db35.2 from a old sky box (cost me 50p)
Set the new hd to master and NOT CABLE SELECT
3. My machine firmware is now version 1.20 (old version 1.16)
It’s a shame that Panasonic didn`t list this firmware on their website
But you could buy it from eBay (copyright???)
I think these are great machines, much better than my crappy old Philips dvd/hd recorder Thompson PVR

Thanks john

 

[Sidneymack]

Thanks for the info Johnjr.
My EX85 gave me the U61 error this morning and keeps cycling through the self test.
Luckily i've got the XY-332 disc from panasonic so will try a new hard drive today and see what happens.

 

[johnjr]

hi sidneymack,
i hope all goes well with the u61 error, could you post your outcome
thanks john

 

[Sidneymack]

Unfortunately my dvd drive doesn't seem to be working.
It won't open so i have no way of running the firmware disc.

Any ideas?

 

[Gavtech]

Unfortunately my dvd drive doesn't seem to be working.
It won't open so i have no way of running the firmware disc.

Any ideas?

Unpower the unit for 5 minutes.

Reconnect. Resist all temptation to press buttons.

Let the unit settle for several minutes and note everything that is in the display.

Is the disc-in symbol illuminated?

If the unit ceases all activity and remains in the standby condition press and hold Stop and Channel Up simultaneously for 5 seconds - [on the main unit]


This will perform a forced eject. This is really just to check there is no disc in the drive - A U61 fault is not supposed to be possible with a disc in the drive but other factors suggest there might be.

If during the above procedure you get a U61 fault, again resist all temptation to press buttons and wait.
Let it go through the reset procedure at least three times.

If it will not restore itself and continues resetting, you will probably need to replace the hard disc before you can attain a normal state where you can introduce a software disc.

 

[Sidneymack]

Ok, i've plugged it back in at it shows please wait for about 30 seconds, it clicks once then goes into standby.

I 've tried the force eject and you can hear the hard disc spin up for about 20 seconds before powering down.
Its gone through the seldf check cycle about 5 times and there is definetly no life in the dvd drive.

 

[johnjr]

hi sidneymack,
sorry to hear thet your still having problems, have you taken your ram drive apart yet! to check for stuck/dirty lazer head, theres more info on the forum about this problem or maybe a seezed/jammed disc tray/loose wires connecting the ram-drive to the digital/controler pcb, if you do take your ram-drive apart becareful as i had to take my working dmr-ex75 apart to confirm where a part came from (peice of white plastic) and have you checked the forum for any other suggestion with ram-drive faults, i hope this info helps.
Keep us informed of your progress thanks john

 

[Gavtech]

Do not assume there is a problem with the RAM drive.

If there is a problem with the hard drive then the unit cannot boot ... and if it cannot boot you cannot get control of the RAM drive.