Loss of One Satellite Input

[welchwarlock]

My 4th replacement receiver worked for 3 days before it lost reception on one satellite input. Performing a check switch did not fix the problem, nor did a soft reboot followed by another check switch. The check switch results would show the dish type attached, but it would not say "OK", but instead left the box blank.

After the soft Reboot it would complain that the two inouts were not configured the same.

I had to perform a power cord reboot to get the second input to work. This never happened on my original receiver. Is this a common problem?

WW

[Larry Caldwell]

My 4th replacement receiver worked for 3 days before it lost reception on one satellite input. Performing a check switch did not fix the problem, nor did a soft reboot followed by another check switch. The check switch results would show the dish type attached, but it would not say "OK", but instead left the box blank.

After the soft Reboot it would complain that the two inouts were not configured the same.

I had to perform a power cord reboot to get the second input to work. This never happened on my original receiver. Is this a common problem?

WW

At this point, you should contemplate the aphorism that repeating an action over and over while expecting a different result is a sign of insanity. Now that you are on your 4th receiver, and still encountering problems, you need to troubleshoot your entire installation.

One suspicious area is the dish installation. Your receiver may be getting spiked by ground loops from the dish. Standard residential grounds just have to show less than 25 ohms between the entrance panel and the earth. At 25 ohms, a 20 amp breaker would not trip when connected directly to the ground. It is easy for a residential electrical service to produce spikes of over 100 v. on the ground. If the dish is grounded to the telephone ground or a separate ground (quite common) a ground loop can be trying to push several amps through the coax. This can also result in strange voltages on the LNB, causing intermittent failure, just as you are describing.

The first thing to do is to trace the ground on the dish and make sure it is bonded to the system ground of your house. That will cut ground loops out of the picture. The grounded potential at the dish and at the receiver will be the same, even if the house ground is not great. While you are at it, check your service entrance grounding electrode for adequacy. Older homes were often just bonded to the plumbing. Then someone replaced the old iron pipe with plastic, or copper with a dielectric union, and destroyed the ground bond of the plumbing. The current NEC accepts two grounding electrodes driven at least 8' into the ground, located at least 6' apart, and bonded together with unspliced 6 gauge copper wire. If you are in doubt about the service ground at your house, it is a simple matter to install a new one.

Once you have established a good service ground, commercial surge suppressorsn will provide good protection. The kind with twin coax terminals and telephone protection (about $35 retail) will protect your receiver.

Larry

[welchwarlock]

The Dish and switch are installed outside (within a few ft of the power service connection) The ground is provided by a long copper pole stuck into the ground near the service (The same ground that the service uses). The Switch, and both dishes are connected together through a ground block which is attatched to the copper pole. I had been running my Satellite inputs through a surge supressor, until Dish told me that may be the cause of my problem.

I will run the dish feeds back through the surge supressor as I had been doing the previous 11 months until the Dish tech told me that was a contributor to my problem.

Regards,
Robert Cook

[welchwarlock]

Update: 4th Receiver Now Dead, 5th receiver being shipped.

Apparently I have used up my "Overnight Shipping" allotment, and they will no longer ship it 2nd day unless I cough up $25. Thanks Dish.

Satellite Input 1 finally hard broke. Power Cord reboot will not revive the input.

On the bright side, I did not have to go through any obligatory reboots or button pressing with the Dish Tech. I explained the problem, the fact that I had power cord rebooted 3 times, the fact that I had switched the input cables and the problem followed input #1.

I did not explain that I had re-attached the surge supressor to the inputs as has been suggested here. If anything, that should have helped it out, not sped it into the grave.

Anyways, 3 DOA receivers, and 1 that lasted about a week. Maybe the fifth time will be the charm.

Regards,

Robert Cook

[welchwarlock]

Since one of the satellite tuners is toast, I thought I would have a look inside the box, and perhaps I could find out what was wrong.

After taking a look around, it was obvious that this receiver was in for repairs for the same or similiar problem before. The two tuner cards were of different manufacture, and one had more dust and crap on it than the other. During the re-furb process it appears that they try and clean all the pwbs, but apparently only with air. Under some of the larger components I found thick dirt/fuzz.

If the tuner cards weren't soldered in place, I would have been able to check them for poor solder joints, etc. I am not confident enough with my soldering skills to remove the tuner boards, but I understand why they are soldered in place...so they don't come loose during shipping, and so there are no issues with the contacts.

I did finish the cleaning process that was started during the refurb, but that did not fix tuner 1. Oh Well. I also tryed torqing the card a little to the left, and a little to the right using the play that is available between the antenna input and the hole that it lines up into, just incase there was a crack at the motherboard interface, but the results were the same.

Hurry Up and Wait.... I might be tempted to go down to the store and buy a 942 if I don't get a working replacement this week.... my frustration limit has nearly been exceeded.

WW

[lujan]

[QUOTE=.... my frustration limit has nearly been exceeded.

WW[/QUOTE]

Mine would have been exceeded a couple of receivers ago...

[tech_biz]

I'm trying to rally enough people for a try at class action.

tech

[tnsprin]

I'm trying to rally enough people for a try at class action.

tech
For everyone who hates the machines a much larger number have not found the problems that terrible.

This is not to say that we wouldn't like to see fixes. But a class action is fairly extreme.

ps: a have lots of unused coupons for previous class actions (free pay for view coupons from DISH and Directv). And assorted other worthless coupons for services a will never used from some other companies.