3 week for until service call

762 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Tom Robertson, Sep 29, 2008

Special Ed

Discussion Starter · Sep 28, 2008

I have two hr21s. So I have 4 lines coming in at my main TV.

Over the past month I have been getting lots of 771s but then things would clear up. Yesterday, nothing recorded and when I went to live TV pretty much all channels would not come in. I went back and forth to both receivers and found I could get some channels on each receiver but not all on both. I tested signal strength and found that each receiver seemed to have a dead sat input (all zeros on signal check).

So I took the two working lines and moved them to one receiver and that seems to help, but still I get 771s despite signal strength being good. I am suspecting a bad multi-switch so I called service. The weather is perfect here btw.

Bad news, no one can get out her until October 20th. The service center said it was Hurricane Ike problems (I live in Michigan). Anyway, I set the appointment, but I am thinking of going to Radio Shack and buying a multi-switch to give that a shot.

My dish is mounted rock solid and signal is good on the two working lines so my best guess is the multi-switch is flakey.

Two questions - One, is swapping out the multi-switch worth a shot? Two, 3 weeks for a service call is a bit ridiculous right?

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BattleZone

· #2 · Sep 28, 2008

Radio Shack won't have the Zinwell WB68 multiswitch you need; if they have a switch, it will likely be an obsolete model.

But in most cases, if you only have 2 HD-DVRs, you don't have a separate switch anyway (there's a 4-output switch built into the LNB pack). If the LNB is bad, or if the dish is out of alignment, a switch won't help at all.

Depending on how willing you are to do work on your dish, we might be able to help you.

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cantrellswire

· #3 · Sep 28, 2008

Try Craigslist friend. You can have someone out same day.

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Dad61

· #4 · Sep 28, 2008

Get the service call techs phone number before he leaves. If you have more or the same issues with in 90 days they will come back. Service calls are done by sub-contractors whos work is warrantied.

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Special Ed

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 29, 2008

IIP said:
Radio Shack won't have the Zinwell WB68 multiswitch you need; if they have a switch, it will likely be an obsolete model.

But in most cases, if you only have 2 HD-DVRs, you don't have a separate switch anyway (there's a 4-output switch built into the LNB pack). If the LNB is bad, or if the dish is out of alignment, a switch won't help at all.

Depending on how willing you are to do work on your dish, we might be able to help you.

You are right on radio shack, they had some old outdated multiswitch that was useless. The good news is that my problem is definitely is the multiswitch. After messing with this all day I moved two output cables from position one and two to position six and seven and one of my DVRs is working perfectly for now.

I still will get a replacement as I think it is dying a slow death. I checked Craigslist in Michigan and nothing. Found one on Ebay new for $20. These things have a wide range in price.

Anyway, 3 weeks until a service call??? What is up with that? 90% of the people out there would never be able to fix something like this on their own, so does dtv expect them to do without TV?

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Malibu13

· #6 · Sep 29, 2008

As IIP stated, with only 2 DVR's in the setup, you would not normally need an external multiswitch as all four lines would hook directly to the internal built-in switch. Can we assume correctly that you in fact have an external multiswitch installed possibly for future receiver additions?

If you have an external switch, just bypass it temporarily and run all four lines directly to the dish an see if this corrects the problem.

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Tom Robertson

· #7 · Sep 29, 2008

Special Ed,

Do you have any other receivers anywhere else in the house? If you don't, I'm surprised you actually have an external switch. I'd definitely try direct connects first.

And if you do have other receivers, I might try direct connects for a short time (as long as you can stand it) as a good diagnosis anyway.

Good luck. Sorry about the 3 wk delay. I know the Midwest got hit hard with lots of Ike rains on top of lots of rain saturating everything first. So what is unreasonable most of the time, might be understandable right now.

Cheers,
Tom

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