Please Healp Zmodo

Hello everyone, I'm Bryan and new here. Last October I purchased a Zmodo PKD-DK1656-1TB DVR system.

I am having nothing but trouble with this dvr. I also have a Netrome 4 channel that has run flawlessly for 5 years without any problems. FYI.

Some of the issues with the Zmodo are

1 Randomly stop recording,

2 Randomly Turn Off and On.

3 Freeze where you have to reboot to get the remote or face buttons to work.

Randomly wont let you view recorded footage.

When watching video, when you fast forward, it will only let you do it for a matter of minutes then 1 or 2 cameras will go black, then a few more, then all of them and it stops fast forwarding and playback.

I first thought that I didn't have enough HD space.. So I went to Best Buy and bought a 1TB HD. So now the system has 2 TB total. I have called and complained to Zmodo many times and never get any where with them. So I have 2 basic questions. First what company do you recemend for DVR's and does anybody know how to transfer and entire days worth of footage from the DVR to a USB? I read and did exactly what the book tells me to do, but when I get to the files, it only has minutes of each camera at random. In my camera settings, I have them set to record constantly 24/7/365. And I can watch a entire days worth so I know the footage is there, but it wont let me transfer it over.

I am very tired of this and would like to get another brand.

Appreciate any and all help.

Bryan

Have you checked you FW version to see if there is an update? May be the issue. Below is the instructions:

If the DVR model is a ZMD-DR-SFN6:

Firmware Update

Warning do not use this if you are running on a Mac! This firmware will make the DVR no longer work with your Apple Computer!

1. Download the folder SFN6-Firmware-Update under the Manual tab: http://www.zmodo.com/downloader/index/productView/id/2408/

2. Download the folder ActiveX Reset Script under the Software tab: http://www.zmodo.com/downloader/index/productView/id/2408/

3. Open the folder containing the downloated SFN6-Firmware-Update

4. Right click on the SFN6-Firmware-Update folder and select Extract All

5. Select, Browse, Desktop, Make New Folder

6. Name the folder SFN6-Firmware-Update, select OK

7. Select Extract

8. Open the SFN6-Firmware-Update folder on the desktop

9. Copy the three files onto an empty USB drive

10. Power OFF the ZMD-DR-SFN6

11. Plug the USB drive ino one of the two USB ports on the front panel of the ZMD-DR-SFN6

12. Power ON the ZMD-DR-SFN6

13. The ZMD-DR-SFN6 will update, do NOT unplug the USB drive or power off the DVR

14. Open the folder containing the downloated ActiveX Reset Script

15. Select, Browse, Desktop, Make New Folder

16. Name the folder ActiveX Reset Script, select OK

17. Select Extract

18. Open the ActiveX Reset Script folder on the desktop

19. Right Click on Erase_IE_Control_V0.2 and select Run as administrator

20. When prompted press any key and wait for the scan to finish

21. Open IE, Firefox, or Chrome and log into the DVR

After the firmware update, in order to view from the desktop application again, you will need to uninstall the old version of NetDVR and install the version located here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/72446397/NetDvr.msi

Don't attempt this if you don't feel comfortable doing it, as a mistake will "kill" the DVR!

Yes, the DVR is up to date as I had asked Zmodo already.

Bryan

Dennis.

I've been trying to update the firmware on my zmodo vmd-dd-san8 and following your directions exactly and always get "NO UPDATE SOFTWARE" : I've downloaded the correct file several times.

Is the USB thumb drive supposed to be bootable? Mine is not and I go through the SETUP menu >advanced>maintain and I have set to system defaults.

I've tried 3 different usb drives and win7 and 8 both 64 bits with the 64 bit verion of 7-zip. I resoldered poor solder joints where the USB plugs attatches to the board and and the activity light on the drive flashes and I have all cameras and mouse unplugged

Thanks for any help you can provide

Joe

The SFN6 is different than your model.

Here's is what I found on the website regarding your model DVR. You may already have this info:

hxxp://kb.zmodo.com/index.php?sid=117806&lang=en&action=artikel&cat=2&id=1&artlang=en

Replace the "xx" in the "hxxp", with "tt".

If you still can't get it to work, maybe I can find some extra help. The "format of the USB might be the problem".

Dennis

Thanks Dennis

That's where I down loaded the file from, (the second of the two) many times including using "save as" to put it straight to the usb drv. But they say to just copy the file to the USB drive. I tried that first. Years ago I played a little with Red Hat and worked on small multi user computers with the Zenix version on Altos computers. I remember tar is a archive file and I think I remember gz files are self extracting. But don't recall about a tar gz's file???

I have tried the usr, root and web folders. The file as downloaded and a 7-zip extraction of the downloaded file.

Any idea what formatting I should use? I tried fat, fat16 and fat32.

I'm retired and have tried just about every combination, I've been on this for a day and a half and am loosing tract

Joe

UPDATE. I found on the SWANN dvr site to use fat32 with the "fast format" option unchecked for their firmware updates.