Panasonic HD recorder stopped recording

[cloughie]

My Panasonic DMR HWT230 has stopped recording, and in fact the programme guide cannot be displayed. On the remote the only thing I can call up is the menu of my recordings which can be played successfully. The function menu freezes on the remote. Thinking this maybbe a remote failure I have replaced it but there is no difference with new remote. Anyone else experienced similar problems and id so how have these been resolved. The machine recorded fine until January 6th.

[Petrushka]

I have a Panasonic DMR EX83 DVD recorder and while not experiencing your exact problem I've had freezing and failed recordings. The simple remedy is to turn it off at the mains, disconnect then turn it all back on again. After much whirring and clanking it will come back to life.

You never know, it might work for you too.

[johnb]

Presumably you have tried switching off, allowing time for HDD activity to cease, then disconnecting the power for, say, 30 minutes.

If that doesn't work then another option, if you can access the menu option, is to restore the unit to "Shipping Condition" (Setup, Others, Initialize, Shipping Condition). Then re-initialize the unit. You will lose all preset recording times, network connection of course and these will have to be re-setup, but there are reports that this method has been successful in solving similar issues, however there is always a (hopefully small) risk with this sort of thing that the unit might stop working all together.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't apply to your situation (sorry - a bit OT) but these Hard Disk recorders malfunction in other ways when the hard disk nears being full. I now take care that my HDD has a good margin of "hours left" on the capacity of the disk.