721 has loss of signal, screensavers, repeating timers since L1.11

[sneakymoose]

This is the strangest thing, but for the past three Saturdays from morning to sometime in the afternoon, I have been getting the loss of signal / acquiring signal screen on my 721. I have tried rebooting and so forth. Also tried calling tech support, which had me pull/insert smart card and other useless stuff, then eventually forwarded me to advanced tech support. They had me go through each and every possible transponder on both inputs and report the results, where all the odd transponders report low signals and no lock (if I remember correctly). But this is ONLY happening on Saturdays during day time, so far. Sundays are fine, and I'm not home during weekdays. The tech suggested that I replace the barrel connectors between dish and receiver with ones that allow very high frequencies... uh, these are just barrel connectors, there is no circuitry in them at all. What is he talking about?

ALSO, since this update, the screen saver has never appeared, even if paused for over an hour...

And, my repeating timers have all failed. Most interestingly, I can't even delete them or change their settings. Which means I can't just create new ones to replace them, since the box says the new timer I'm trying to create already exists (though it doesn't record). The symptom here is that during recording time, the red recording light comes on and the entry appears in the PVR list, but after recording is done, it disappears from PVR list.

Also, sometimes I lose the picture or the picture freezes during a channel change operation or a fast forward/rewind operation. Pressing play, back, forward, play or some combination similar to that will eventually get the picture (and sound) back. This happens both with live material and prerecorded material.

Very strange. I want 1.10 back! I had problems on that version (that still exist), but it was nowhere near this bad!!

ANY SUGGESTIONS?!?!

[Bob Haller]

Are you using SCREW on connectors? They cause flakey troubles.

I think your receiver is bad and they should replace it.

The screen saver is gone deleted. I always thought some troubles were it leaking into programming and causing troubles. Perhaps I was right????

[sneakymoose]

I am not using screw on connectors. They are all hex crimped. All were crimped by either myself or commercially. The ones I did myself are not perfect (some of the shielding mesh is sticking out here and there), but I never had any problems with the 4900 and no major problems (if you ignore less major things like spontaneous reboots) with the 721 until the last month or so.

Thanks for the advice on the receiver... I guess I will call back to advanced tech support and request a warranty replacement.

I am NOT looking forward to losing my recordings, and I don't have a VCR... Mainly, I recorded Good Eats (from Dish Network) and have been doing so for quite a while now, so there's easily 2-3 dozen episodes on there. I wish we could transfer them to our PCs like users of newer Replay boxes may do. Oh well, not the end of the world.

[sneakymoose]

Well, the acquire signal came back on at 10:03am MST today... We'll see how many hours it lasts this time. So I was wrong about it being just on Saturdays. This time I could see the picture pixelate for a minute before it finally lost signal.

[Jacob S]

This is the same problem that others are experiencing, one of the tuners is losing the signal, if you do a pip swap you will notice that the other one more than likely is not doing the same.

[sneakymoose]

Actually, both main picture and PiP report Acquiring Signal with different Satellite Input numbers (main is 1, PiP is 2). It will not swap when I press the Swap button, even though the main and PiP are trying to tune different channels.

If I do an NVM reset, will I lose my recorded programming?

[Jason]

sneakymoose,

It sounds like you have a defective unit. I would call and get a RMA going.

No, the NVM reset will NOT cause you to lose your recorded programming. You will lose all of your preferences such as channel favorites, etc.

[sneakymoose]

Argh... I'm torn now because the unit just started working again tonight, after I did another reboot (held in power button). I rebooted because the PIP stopped working completely, even though the tuners were again both working (verified by recording something then switching channels while still recording).

Anyway, after the reboot it started recording which surprised me... The unit picked up one of my weekly timers that happened to start during that reboot! So far so good... I even tried deleting one of the Mon-Fri timers and it actually worked (this was not working before this reboot). So things may be back to normal now.

For the record, I did not yet try the NVM reset, though I had planned to after this reboot (if PIP was still broken). Also, I noticed that the NVM is only 4 kilobytes, and that they are using 1 kilobyte of it at most. I wonder what they are storing in there...

If my box continues to work fine, I'd rather keep it then go through the RMA horror stories that I've read in other people's discussion threads. Sounds like some people get boxes in worse condition then the ones they are replacing, sometimes...

[Jacob S]

Well the trouble that other people are having, in which is in another thread, will sometimes not happen all the time. Your situation may be different in that it happened on both tuners, or it could mean that its something at the dish or lnbf due to it happening to both at the same time. The problem, however, could come back.

I doubt its in the wires because it would only happen to one tuner if it was that. Also have you checked your signal strength quality? Maybe the dish needs realigned.

[treiher]

Sneakymoose, see the other thread titled "721 Pixelation, Losing Signal". You will see lots of posts there regarding the same problem and what everyone has been going through to address this (myself included). If your problem follows the pattern, the problem will come and go. Sometimes just a little annoying, other times your programs will be totally unwatchable. For what it's worth, I went through the RMA process and found it to be quite painless. They were happy to do it, and didn't charge me anything for it, not even shipping. Ofcourse, as soon as they agreed to do it, my pixelation problem dissappeared, but I went ahead and proceeded with the swap out because I knew it would eventually come back. So far, I'm a week into my new box and no problems. Only time will tell. Good luck!

[sneakymoose]

Hey, good news everyone! Last weekend I called Dish and someone in ATR diagnosed my problem as a bad Dish Pro Twin LNBF. They mailed out a replacement and so far this replacement is working better. While waiting for the replacement I used my old Twin LNBF (non-Pro) and that was working fine, too.

Additionally, I've been able to trace down that the failed timer issue IS related to the loss of signal. If the 721 cannot tune to a transponder needed to record a programmed timer, then that timer as well as all other timers will fail until the system is rebooted. When I say the timers will fail, I mean no recordings will take place except those done on demand by the user, no existing timers may be removed or modified -- until a reboot. Pretty lame bug.

The problem with the lack of screensavers and the occasional black screen when tuning channels or hitting fast forward/rewind is still present. I believe these are bugs in L1.11 and L1.12, unrelated to my LNBF issues.

Just out of curiousity, I noticed that my old non-Pro LNBF was made in Japan. The Dish Pro Twin LNBF included with the 721 system was made in China. And the replacement they just mailed out was made in USA (and has a QC sticker on it). The three look different, primarily in the translucent plastic cover area. The new one has distinctive circles over the two eyes and they appear larger than the older models.

[Allamand]

So is this whole 721 issue LNB related? I just picked up a used 721 and so far no really big problems. A slow response now and then, but such is with computers.

I also didn't realize that I had a old Dual LNB and the switch wouldn't work, so i used a new Pro Dual LNB I had on hand(Not sure whee it was made, came with the 508) and I noticed a GREAT picture improvement on the 508 with the Pro LNB.

Before the blacks and other picture issues were really bad, now I'd say the picture is, well, like it was with DTV.

So, could a lot of problems be caused from a faulty LNB? They seem pretty complex compared to DTV's style.

[sneakymoose]

The ATR person I spoke with on the phone (Steve?) said that they have had problems with units sold around 6 months ago. He didn't really go into details. He said this after asking, "Out of curiousity, where did you purchase your 721 and when?". I purchased mine at Sears as a special order, and received it on December 5th or so; about 6 months ago!

I would say that some of my problems were caused by a combination of a faulty LNB and what I consider to be faulty software. I don't believe they tested the software well enough with failure conditions, or if they did, they are not considering these defects to be a high enough priority to be fixed yet.

[Bill D]

Originally posted by sneakymoose
The ATR person I spoke with on the phone (Steve?) said that they have had problems with units sold around 6 months ago. He didn't really go into details. .

WoW !! a tech person at Dish actually admitting to a recurring problem, this is great, maybe we should all ask for Steve.
That's great that they figured out the problem and it wasn't even a bad 721 for once

[BobMurdoch]

Anyone having trouble with their 721 and 3 year old SW-64s/Legacy LNBs? Mine seems to be fine other than an occasional lockup when I channel surf too quickly....

[delance7]

I have had the same problem since the new upgrade.
I have lost three Channels. 301, 302, and Showtime east.
It says on all three Channels that the channels has lost lock, please wait or Channel up/down. Satellite: 119
Transponder: 6
Satellite input: 1
I was able to get these until the upgrade, I was sent a new receiver, and the same three Channels.
A tech is coming to check out my sw64 switch this week.

[Jacob S]

I have also heard about a problem that was being experienced a while back with bad lnbf's.