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Teacher

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7 Messages

Tuesday, May 5th, 2020 6:54 PM

Increasingly strange behavior from Genie and minis

Hello - I have a Genie HR54 and two wired minis - one 1080 and the other 4K. We usually watch the minis, mostly the 4K. Recently, the 4K mini has stopped responding or is erratically responding to the remote. There is often a very long delay between pressing the fast forward button and having the mini respond, for example. More recently, neither mini will display DirecTV closed captions, but will display regular closed captions. Restarting the mini has them working again, but soon stops. Also, recorded video on the genie freezes on the minis for 15 or so seconds and then unfreezes. Given all of these anomalies, I'm wondering if I have a failing HR54. Do any of these symptoms sound familar to anyone here on the forum? Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

ACE - Expert

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22.9K Messages

5 years ago

What are the model numbers? All Clients support 1080, and though there is only a single 4K model right now (C61K), other models would be expected sometime in the future.

Verify coax is finger tight to every box.

Reset the Genie and only when complete the Mini Genie Clients.

The reset order is important as the Genie sends the info to the Clients.

If needed unplug power for up to a minute, same order as the regular reset.

Power cycle would dump residual memory and guide data from Genie, but downloaded again within 24 hours.

Seems there is a communication issue with the Genie. Since both Clients are affected (not just one), then it most likely an issue in the cabling from the Genie before it splits to each Client or with the Genie itself. Hopefully it is a simple sync issue that the specific reset (or power cycle) suggested above will clear, instead of being a hardware issue.

Teacher

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7 Messages

@Juniper Thanks for the very fast response. The 4K mini is a C61K-700, the other is a C51-500. The coax connection seemed finger tight - gave them all a turn anyway. I'll try doing the resets in the order you suggest. The whole installation is about 4 years old and cabling should be untouched since then, but one never knows! I'll try the resets and, if necessary, the power cycles as I can get to them and report back.

ACE - Expert

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22.9K Messages

You're welcome. To be clear with the reset/power cycle, make sure one box is complete before moving to the next in the chain. Also check how much hard drive space is in use on your Genie. If you get to under 10% free, clear some stuff as there can be issues when close to full. Hope these suggestions fix the issue.

When you next have a free upgrade available, I would consider replacing the C51 with a regular HDDVR. In addition to 2 tuners and 500GB recording space, being a full receiver gives you some more processing power instead of completely dependent on the Genie. No difference in the monthly cost, but gives a more reliable setup.

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Teacher

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7 Messages

@Juniper - success! I decided to go all the way to power cycle. I unplugged all of the minis, then power cycled the Genie. It kept the guide data/to do list but that may be because it wasn't unplugged very long. At any rate, I powered up the Genie until it was back up completely, then plugged in each mini, waiting until each one connected before going to the next. Now the C61K, which was the big problem, is back to being really snappy and responsive again and DirecTV captions are working. I'll monitor it, but it looks like your suggestion really did the trick! Thanks for your help.

ACE - Expert

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22.9K Messages

Looks like you confirmed it was a sync issue between Genie (server) and Mini Genies (clients). Hope it stays synced for a long time to come. Nice it didn't dump the guide data this time.

Well then enjoy and stay safe.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Included after every post)
I am a customer, not an employee. This is a public forum.
For official support call DirecTV 1-800-531-5000, DIRECTV STREAM 1-888-429-4023
www.directv.com 

(AT&T has sold off their share in DirecTV)

Award for Community Excellence Achiever*
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.


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