Ka/Ku Dish, 4 lines running, 2 not working

[bootylactin]

I have 4 lines running from the dish to a junction box outside, and up until earlier today, three of them coming inside the house. Two go to an HD-DVR, and the third up to a SD receiver in the bedroom.

Several months ago one of the three quit working, so I opted to disconnect the SD receiver as we didn't watch it much anyway. Now I need a third "live" line to get this receiver up and running again. Figuring I had one bad run, I decided to bring the fourth wire inside the house from the junction box.

Hooking the fourth up, I have no signal. The four lines are run in connected pairs, And while you would think that one pair would be bad, it's actually one line from each pair that appears to be carrying no signal.

Could the source of this problem be at the dish? Something to do with the sidecar LNB? This is entirely a guess, as I don't know what magic happens between the side car and the main arm to spit out the four signals? Also, I don't know in what configuration those two pairs are hooked up inside the main arm. I can say that, on the two working lines, all channels are coming in just fine from the multiple different satellites.

Thanks in advance for any assistance or information you can share.

[litzdog911]

Check the connections inside the dish LNB arm. My guess is that a couple of cables are loose or not properly connected. It doesn't matter what order those four cables inside the dish arm are connected.

[joe diamond]

After that......if they still do not work, replace the LNB. All four lines should produce the same meter result.

Check the cable for dings etc but sometimes one port just locks up. Beating on it will sometimes get is working for awhile.

Joe

+ the sidecar is not seviced anymore....they just replace them with a slimline.

[Chip Moody]

I recently had a tech visit because one of my four lines coming in from the dish was NFG. He not only found that the LNB was bad (or, more likely, the switch built-in to the LNB) but the ground block outside the house just before where the cables run inside was also bad. YMMV.

- Chip

[David MacLeod]

did I read somewhere here that they were replacing sidecar styles for symptoms like this?

[joe diamond]

I recently had a tech visit because one of my four lines coming in from the dish was NFG. He not only found that the LNB was bad (or, more likely, the switch built-in to the LNB) but the ground block outside the house just before where the cables run inside was also bad. YMMV.

- Chip

Yup,
That i the procedure.....run a known good line from the LNB to a receiver......if it don't work ....replace LNB..........or change to another port but test that one also.

If it does work connect through the ground block And then go around the interior wire.Double faults can be tricky....sometimes the receiver ot TV is the problem. And an intermittent problem will make you truly nuts.

Joe

[eakes]

Intermittent problems can drive one up the wall. I worked on a sound problem on a personal TV off and on for about 3 years before fixing the problem. Wound up replacing the socket for the sound tube (this was in the 60's when TVs were not all solid state electronics).

[satjoe]

Leave the ground block alone and go to the dish and swap the two working for the two not working. If swapping the lines makes the good lines bad then it is the LNB and not the feeds.

Satjoe

I have 4 lines running from the dish to a junction box outside, and up until earlier today, three of them coming inside the house. Two go to an HD-DVR, and the third up to a SD receiver in the bedroom.

Several months ago one of the three quit working, so I opted to disconnect the SD receiver as we didn't watch it much anyway. Now I need a third "live" line to get this receiver up and running again. Figuring I had one bad run, I decided to bring the fourth wire inside the house from the junction box.

Hooking the fourth up, I have no signal. The four lines are run in connected pairs, And while you would think that one pair would be bad, it's actually one line from each pair that appears to be carrying no signal.

Could the source of this problem be at the dish? Something to do with the sidecar LNB? This is entirely a guess, as I don't know what magic happens between the side car and the main arm to spit out the four signals? Also, I don't know in what configuration those two pairs are hooked up inside the main arm. I can say that, on the two working lines, all channels are coming in just fine from the multiple different satellites.

Thanks in advance for any assistance or information you can share.

[bootylactin]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their responses. I haven't gotten a chance yet to try the suggestions, but will report back when I do.

A question about the LNB, if I determine it's bad, will DirecTV replace that for free or are they going to try to charge me? If the latter, I'm guessing it would be cheaper picking something up myself?

[carl6]

A question about the LNB, if I determine it's bad, will DirecTV replace that for free or are they going to try to charge me? If the latter, I'm guessing it would be cheaper picking something up myself?

If you have protection plan, or if the install is relatively new (90 days?), then it should be covered. Otherwise, you would be charged for the service call which would include the LNB.