It’s a good question. Here’s a better question: Should you ever have to manually reboot your receiver? Shouldn’t you just be able to rely on it?
In years past, conventional wisdom suggested rebooting the receiver about once a week or so to make sure things worked right. Receivers left on too long tended to be slow and cranky and a simple reboot tended to solve a lot of problems. In fact, DISH receivers used to schedule themselves to reboot as often as once a day (usually in the middle of the night) to keep themselves fresh. DIRECTV never had something as automatic as that, but in the early days of DIRECTV’s receivers, it was common for people to hook them up to timers to cut power once a day.
Things are a lot better now…
That wisdom has all but faded and truthfully there’s hardly a need to reboot the receiver manually as long as you’re satisfied overall. There’s no reason that you should have to even worry about it. If you’re experiencing some problems, a reboot will often solve them, but for the most part that doesn’t happen. DIRECTV equipment is so rock solid now that it comes as a pretty big surprise when you need to reboot it.
There is a “right schedule,” though
It turns out that with today’s receivers, clients, and DVRs, the right schedule for rebooting is about once a quarter which (not surprisingly) is about the same schedule as DIRECTV’s software updates. So what I’m saying here is you don’t need to manually reboot ever because the box will reboot itself when there’s a software update. Software updates come out to add functionality, but more often they are there to fix minor issues that you probably weren’t even aware of. A recent update added SignalSaver, which is a new feature for DIRECTV. With SignalSaver, the DVR will automatically switch to streaming if it’s available during a rain fade or signal loss event. It’s rare, but for folks who have struggled with rain fade it’s a real bonus.
What if you do have to reboot a lot?
Rebooting your receiver, DVR, or client will often solve a lot of issues. These are computers, after all, and sometimes they need that level of maintenance. Rebooting them does a lot of self-checks. Small problems are found and fixed in the first few minutes. You’ll generally see that screen that says “Running receiver self check” when you first start up. That’s a way of telling you that things are going to be fine.
If you find yourself rebooting a lot, it could be a sign of something else that’s really wrong. The device could be slowing down due to bad wiring, for example, and filling up system logs that slow down the whole device. Or, a hard drive could be failing and the reboot could repair and recover bad sectors temporarily. That sort of thing means it’s probably getting time to either replace the receiver or look at some of the wiring issues you may have.
Get the help you need from Solid Signal
Solid Signal is your home for the best DIRECTV tech support. We have trained technicians in our Novi, Michigan offices who can help you with practically any DIRECTV issue. Almost every call can be solved without sending a tech to your home. If you are having problems with your DIRECTV account, we can help too! We have access to the same computer systems that DIRECTV’s call centers use. The only difference, of course, is that we offer real personalized customer service. We don’t read scripts.
Give Solid Signal a try! We’re here for you during East Coast business hours at 888-233-7563. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below! Let us know when you’d like us to call you back and we’ll make it happen.
