My 522 Saga

maximum

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
482
0
Phoenix
I've had a 522 since the end of May . . . actually I've had three of them. The first one had most of the same problems as many people have posted here, plus we were getting a lot of lost signal interruptions. Even though I ordered service directly from Dish, they sent out a contractor from a local satellite company to install it. The same guy came to swap out the receiver after our first complaint and said they were having a lot of problems the 522. When the new receiver started having the same problems, I sent an email to DishQuality@echostar.com to let them know about it.

They replied saying they would send my email to the "Escalations Department". I then got a call from someone from Dish HQ. He said the problems were unique to me (yeah, right) and that they should be able to fix them.

The original installer then came out and swapped out the LNBF, which didn't solve the problem. So he came out again and switched out the 522 again. An interesting thing with the last two 522 units is that when we go to the Point Dish screen it seems to have trouble locking the signal. It will lock, then lose the signal, the lock again, then lose it again . . . two or three times before finally locking and staying locked. The installer didn't know why it did this but figured it must just be a glitch with the Point Dish screen.

A few days after each service call we would get a phone call from Dish asking if our problems were fixed (so they could close the trouble ticket). We would tell them the problems still exist, and they would set up another service call. This last time, I asked them to send someone who actually works for Dish, since the contractor had tried everything he could think of. So, last week they sent someone from a different satellite co. I pointed out the locking problem to him and he said it shouldn't be doing that and it looked like there was a break in the line somewhere. FYI, it happens on both tuners. He checked the connections, replaced the LNBF again and made sure the dish was properly grounded. All his efforts didn't solve the locked signal problem so he decided that there must be a problem with the cabling, thinking maybe a staple pierced the wire or something. He said we needed to call the original installer to have it re-cabled.

So I call the original satellite co. again and passed on the info. The manager had the original installer call me back. He said that I'm the only one who has problems (contrary to what he told me on other visits) and then started blaming it on electrical wiring or the phone line or something (grasping at straws). I reminded him that my 522 is connected to a UPS with an automatic voltage regulator so even if there was a problem with the electrical system the UPS would compensate. He also thought it might be because the box was getting too hot in the entertainment center. So I said I would put a fan blowing on it to make sure it was staying cool (I was willing to try anything at this point). Unfortunatly that didn't solve the problems (I was really hoping it would at least solve most of them). It still would lose audio during playback (where you have to stop and go to live TV to get audio back) and the usual audio/video freezing, etc. We had a timer set to record a 1 hour program run for over 13 hours before we finally noticed it and stoppend it manually. We also were still getting the occasional lost signal and the "guide of death."

Anyway, he came out this morning to run new cabling. I'm at work so my wife calls to tell me that he is steaming mad. He was really reluctant to do this because each time he swapped out our 522 he took it back to the shop and it would do the locked signal boucing thing there too. He said he would only do the cabling and would not replace the box again and said this is the last time he's coming out. If we still have problems he'll pay back the money Dish paid him to do the installation if he has to but he won't come out again.

I don't blame him for being frustrated but so are we. I wonder what's going to happen if we still have problems. I really don't want to have to go back to cable and lose the DVR but my wife is about ready give Dish the boot.
 
Waht a story...


Do you have other recievers?



If the things were bouncing at the Shop then he should have told dish that instead of running new cable... Hmm the lnbf wasnt it and everything else tests fine but the thng is doing it at the shop... sounds like they got a bad batch of 522's I have never had this problem with mine... I had the guide of death once and the audio drop out happened a few times but otherwise mine has been great
 
We just have one 522 and no other receivers. He said the third 522 was from a different batch than the other two.
 
maximum said:
We just have one 522 and no other receivers. He said the third 522 was from a different batch than the other two.

I dont know what to say.... if they have to come out again (if the 522 is the problem they will) Tell them to bring another reciever to test with... a 311 or 510 would work. all they have to do is hook it up and let the program download then they will be able to see the point dish screen.. if it bounces or doesnt anything weird on that screen then its the cables (thats all thats left) if not then its the 522s... beats the hell out of me though.
 
My guess would be that the dish is just slightly off - balance. I'm betting that the contractors never took the dish off and checked the foot.
 
MrJingles said:
My guess would be that the dish is just slightly off - balance. I'm betting that the contractors never took the dish off and checked the foot.
I don't think they did. They just checked the signal levels which looked good on most transponders. The only one that is weak is transponder 6 on 110. It's signal strength is 60 or less but I don't think any of the channels I subscribe to are on that transponder. The others' strength are all over 80.

The original installer replaced the cabling with a new double cable. It has two RG6 cables joined together with a ground wire running down the length. He grounded it to a water pipe and used plastic brackets to attach it to the house instead of staples. Unfortunately it didn't fix the signal strength bouncing problem and we did get another short loss of signal while watching live TV last night. We were watching a local channel which is on transponder 5 on 119. I checked the signal strength which was 124 so I don't know what to think.
 
maximum said:
An interesting thing with the last two 522 units is that when we go to the Point Dish screen it seems to have trouble locking the signal. It will lock, then lose the signal, the lock again, then lose it again . . . two or three times before finally locking and staying locked.
I've noticed this on occassion with my 522 as well. Can't say I ever thought this caused a problem for normal viewing ... I've just noticed it sometimes when using the Point Dish screen. Sometimes mine just won't lock on a certain transponder (after a wait of 10 seconds or so). I go to a different transponder, then back, and it locks.
 
haertig said:
I've noticed this on occassion with my 522 as well. Can't say I ever thought this caused a problem for normal viewing ... I've just noticed it sometimes when using the Point Dish screen. Sometimes mine just won't lock on a certain transponder (after a wait of 10 seconds or so). I go to a different transponder, then back, and it locks.
Mine does the same thing, and it doesn't effect viewing. I think the signal is ok and its just the way the 522 acts.
 
Here is a new "glitch" we've had with this latest box. Three times now it has recorded a program that it can't play back. In the list of recordings it shows the program name and the time (2:03). We've tried several times to play the same recording but when we do, the screen just goes black for a couple of seconds then comes back to the screen as if it finished playing with the options to start again, etc. It's happened on different days recording from different channels.
 
My 522 does this as well, a reboot will clear the problem but it will come back, I have noticed only on TV 2 so far.
 
I haven't had this problem since I got my 522 replaced. If you're still under warranty you'll want to get yours replaced before they start charging you shipping.
 

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