So I'm sitting here a couple of days ago watching TV. No big deal, I suppose. I flipped over to the PS3 to watch a movie and when I flipped back I had an odd "Guide hasn't refreshed for over two hours" message and could not get a picture.
I attributed it to just a weird error and went to bed figuring it would be fine the next morning. It wasn't. I did the standard box reset...nothing...unplug for awhile...nothing. I then noticed it was flashing a message on the reset just before it loads the guide that it was trying to get the signal and had the error message 771 there. Hmm...that's odd.
I was able to get into the menu so I checked out the signal strength settings. Tuner 1 was showing 0 on everything and tuner 2 was okay. A quick internet search led me to the possibility that maybe something was wrong with the cabling or even worse the tuner itself was bad.
So, I switched the cables and reset the box...same exact error.
At this point I was really worried that the tuner itself was bad so delayed a couple of days before calling them while trying to get the DVR stuff we hadn't watched yet cleaned up.
I decided to call tonight and now lo and behold the thing is working, but I don't understand why.
Basically, we ran a system test that revealed a few error codes (sorry, don't remember what they were off the top of my head).
The tech had me go in and change my satellite type from Swim 5 to Swim 3.
After a few minutes of whirring, the box came back and said that sat 119 had been detected but that the dish type was not set up properly blah blah blah.
I was told I could just hit continue and that's when everything started working. We checked a few of the channels I watch regularly and everything seemed to be in order. He said that sat 119 was used mostly for locals, general interest and some foreign channles. All of my locals were working and in fact, every channel I have checked to this point works just fine.
So, yes, I'm happy it's working, but I don't understand why changing the sat type fixed it.
I asked him if he thought there was an actual issue somewhere and he said yes. When I asked if he thought it was the box or the dish, he said either the box had a problem or my cables were bad.
Again, don't get me wrong, I'm happy that we got it working. But how could changing the sat type suddenly allow everything to work as it should.
Since we got it working, they also aren't going to replace the box and he said he didn't think I'd have another problem for at least 4 months.
This was fine with me because he told me I was eligible for an upgraded DVR and I was hearing prices of 300 - 500 dollars and install fees, etc etc etc. Sure, you can talk them down on that, but who wants to buy a new box.
I did find out that whatever happened, happened in the middle of recording a show. It lost the signal and didn't finish recording the last half our and also falsely recorded three additional shows after that (the list said they were there, but when I tried to play them, they immediately asked if I wanted to delete them).
There's one other thing I know of that I didn't mention to the tech because I forgot all about it until just a few minutes ago.
Anyway, just thought I'd post here what got my box working again just in case some time during the future, this should happen to you. Again, I don't understand how/why it fixed it. But for now, it saves me time and money, so I'm not complaining!
I attributed it to just a weird error and went to bed figuring it would be fine the next morning. It wasn't. I did the standard box reset...nothing...unplug for awhile...nothing. I then noticed it was flashing a message on the reset just before it loads the guide that it was trying to get the signal and had the error message 771 there. Hmm...that's odd.
I was able to get into the menu so I checked out the signal strength settings. Tuner 1 was showing 0 on everything and tuner 2 was okay. A quick internet search led me to the possibility that maybe something was wrong with the cabling or even worse the tuner itself was bad.
So, I switched the cables and reset the box...same exact error.
At this point I was really worried that the tuner itself was bad so delayed a couple of days before calling them while trying to get the DVR stuff we hadn't watched yet cleaned up.
I decided to call tonight and now lo and behold the thing is working, but I don't understand why.
Basically, we ran a system test that revealed a few error codes (sorry, don't remember what they were off the top of my head).
The tech had me go in and change my satellite type from Swim 5 to Swim 3.
After a few minutes of whirring, the box came back and said that sat 119 had been detected but that the dish type was not set up properly blah blah blah.
I was told I could just hit continue and that's when everything started working. We checked a few of the channels I watch regularly and everything seemed to be in order. He said that sat 119 was used mostly for locals, general interest and some foreign channles. All of my locals were working and in fact, every channel I have checked to this point works just fine.
So, yes, I'm happy it's working, but I don't understand why changing the sat type fixed it.
I asked him if he thought there was an actual issue somewhere and he said yes. When I asked if he thought it was the box or the dish, he said either the box had a problem or my cables were bad.
Again, don't get me wrong, I'm happy that we got it working. But how could changing the sat type suddenly allow everything to work as it should.
Since we got it working, they also aren't going to replace the box and he said he didn't think I'd have another problem for at least 4 months.
This was fine with me because he told me I was eligible for an upgraded DVR and I was hearing prices of 300 - 500 dollars and install fees, etc etc etc. Sure, you can talk them down on that, but who wants to buy a new box.
I did find out that whatever happened, happened in the middle of recording a show. It lost the signal and didn't finish recording the last half our and also falsely recorded three additional shows after that (the list said they were there, but when I tried to play them, they immediately asked if I wanted to delete them).
There's one other thing I know of that I didn't mention to the tech because I forgot all about it until just a few minutes ago.
Anyway, just thought I'd post here what got my box working again just in case some time during the future, this should happen to you. Again, I don't understand how/why it fixed it. But for now, it saves me time and money, so I'm not complaining!
