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Bronze Member Username: R1t1jobyPost Number: 21 Registered: Oct-04 | If you own a Panasonic DMR-85H DVD Recorder, you desperately NEED to be aware of this information. Most owners are not. Last night, I was "Dividing" a title just as normal as always only it took an unusual amount of time. After about 5 minutes of it still trying to Divide a title, & not being able to do anything with the machine I unplugged it. Now ever since, when turning the machine to On, it goes through a "Please Wait" then "Self Check" process then suddenly dies down with the "U99" message displaying on the machine. I did a lot of internet researcg on this last night & found that this is not only happening with the Panasonic Recorders but with hard drives in computers as well. It is a hard drive malfunction. Which explains why if you call Panasomic up, you will get absolutely no help at all other than where to tell you to bring your machine to. They do not know anything about fixing hard drive malfunctions. So a lot of posters on messge boards said they were taking their machines to Best Buy, who were fixing their problems on the spot charging $25 Service Charge. Others were saying their Best Buy techs werent familiar with how to fix the problem & it would have to be sent off to one of the head manufacturers which would cost $25 to send off, anywhere from $30 to $150 to have it fixed depending on the problem and then approx $25 in COD charges to have the machine returned. That is a lot & that is y situation-----all derived from simply trying to "Divide" Title. So the bottom line is this: Avoid "Dividing" titles when you have more than 50% of space used in your machine. -That- is when the machines are getting jammed causing the "U99" message to freeze your unit's usage. When it happens, you are totaly screwed. |
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Bronze Member Username: R1t1jobyPost Number: 22 Registered: Oct-04 | I'm sorry, it's the Pansonic DMR-E85 unit----but as I said, it could happen on any editing hard drive that "Divide" Titles. |
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xvxvxvx Unregistered guest | Joby, Did you know you can replace the MAXTOR hdd yourself and the E-85 will automatically reformat and you'll be good as new? Be sure to purchase one with the same specs (5400 RPM), not faster since they will run hotter and fail much sooner. Only buy the same size unit since the Panny firmware will format the E-85 to the original size no matter how large a replacement HDD you install. This specific unit works as a replacement in the E-80: Maxtor Diamondmax 16 80 GB ATA/133 (4R080L0) They make a comparable 120GB unit that works fine in the E-85. xvxvxvx |
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Bronze Member Username: R1t1jobyPost Number: 23 Registered: Oct-04 | So if I do that, will I still be able to use my previous hard drive that has all the TV programs on it I still need? |
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xvxvxvx Unregistered guest | Nope, unless you recover them using some other method. Right now those programs are pretty mush lost unless you send your old HDD to a recovery specialist. Hardly worth it for TV shows but your mileage may very. Remember if you remove your hard drive and then reinsert it into your E-85 it will be immediately reformatted and you will still lose your data. xvxvxvx |
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Bronze Member Username: R1t1jobyPost Number: 24 Registered: Oct-04 | Hi again xv, Well, I bought a brand new DMR E85H and switched drives. With the new drive in the old machine, the very first thing it said was "Unformatted" forcing me to formt the drive. Having no other choice of rejecting the command, I did so. That set the old machine back to working properly. Now it was time to take the new Hard drive out and put the old one back in. I did so and the very first thing it said to me on the old hard drive still full of former data of about 100 gigs is "Unformatted" asking me to format the old hard drive, which of course, I do not want to do. There has got to be some way to retrieve the data or whatever it's called off of the old hard drive. I know how to put the machine in the Service Mode: With machine on "Off" press, "Time Slip", "Stop", and "Open/Close" all at the same time for about 5 seconds. Then you will enter what is termed "Service Mode". But I have no idea if that will help me in any way or not. I am suppose to be talking to a Best Buy tech Wednesday (who was off from working Tuesday--they said he knows a lot about that stuff). We'll see if he can shed any input. As of now the old hard drive has not yet been Re-Formatted & still contains the old data (TV shows, etc) I just need to figure out how to retrieve it all. |
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Unregistered guest | This is a really helpful forum! - Thanks for all the top advice. Just bought a panny e85hs - like it a lot, cost about $400. Am english living in USA. Anyway... Would really like to know if anyone has any hacks for it, specifically multiregion, macrovision and copy-protection. Please email me. howitee@hotmail.com I will be very pleased to hear from you! Best regards, Howard |
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New member Username: WbarnesPost Number: 1 Registered: Mar-05 | Hmmmm . . . Does anyone know if doing the "shorten" command for titles, in order to edit out commercials, will have the same problem as "dividing" the title into multiple titles? I am fairly pleased with this unit, but am starting to get nervous as my hard drive approaches being halfway full. Is the key to just make sure it never gets that full - offload to DVD's before that point? The only thing I have had happen is a couple of times the opening "Program Guide" sort of frizzes out on me (turns negative-colored green or something), and then I am frozen there. I have to "reboot" and everything is fine, but I wonder if this could happen and stop a timed program from recording when I am not around. |
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Anonymous | I have a E85 and it used to get the U99 code and Panasonic told me to unplug it from the surge protector and plug it directly in to the wall. Well I am an electronics tech and I know that this will not help. But I did unplug it and plug it back in and I had the problem 2 more times then I have not seen any problems for 4 months and I record 5 showes a week and burn allot of them to DVDs. |
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New member Username: BrazmanRio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil Post Number: 2 Registered: Jan-05 | Hi to solve divide and U99 Problem go: http://www.dxcc.com/dmr-e85h.htm |
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Filli Unregistered guest | I asked this elsewhere, but if I run the firmware upgrade, will that wipe out the shows saved on my hard drive? I've had problems with the timer recordings, but everything else works properly. I've had more than 50% of the hard drive used for months and never had a problem with dividing before. |
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New member Username: BrazmanRio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil Post Number: 5 Registered: Jan-05 | Hi, Upgrade the firmware Will NOT Clear the HDD...The upgrade only changes "the Software" that makes the machine works... all the data will be there after upgrade. Only thing that you have to consider is that if something goes wrong during the upgrade you can loose the recorder... |
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Filli Unregistered guest | Thank you for answering my question, Leonardo. Forgive me, I am new at this. Are you saying that there's a chance an upgrade attempt would break the machine? Does that happen often? I'm assuming if I attempted to upgrade and something went wrong, the warranty would no longer be valid. The original post mentioned taking it to Best Buy to get it fixed at cost. If I attempted the upgrade and it fails, would the Best Buy people (or anyone) still be able to fix it, or would the machine just be permanent toast? |
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New member Username: BrazmanRio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil Post Number: 6 Registered: Jan-05 | Hi Well it's not Often but you have to consider... What you can do is plug the panny in no break so if the power goes off during the process you will be saved by no break... I don't know About warranty because i don't live in the USA... I am only warning you but acctualy everything will be ok when you do the upgrade bye Leo. |