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I need advice from somebody who knows Dish Network equipment. I have the model that is used to run one TV only. From the day they installed it, I have had nothing but trouble. Their answer to the problem is to replace the unit. It has been replaced 5 times.

What happens is: Screen goes blank, unit turns itself off, window stating "no signal" comes up, then after about one minute, it turns itself back on and goes through the satellite search, window comes up says "searching for satellite" and then it searches for the TV guide. After all the searching, picture comes back. This happens sometimes once per night, sometimes 5 times one after the other in one night. It has crashed 38 times in one month. It screws up the DVR recordings and makes me miss part of the program I was watching.

There have been 3 techs out who physically checked the outlet (it's within tolerance) the setup inside (cableing). They can't find anything wrong. Their answer is that the unit is defective and needs to be replaced. One tech said they don't have as much trouble with the units that run more than one TV as they do with the model I have. But they won't upgrade the equipment unless I pay $200 or sign a new 2 year contract.

I got as far as the Vice President level and that is the best they can offer. They said they have thousands of this model out in the field and have not had any problems like this from any one else. They said they would replace the unit one more time (5th) and if this one turned out to have the same problem, it is something with the wiring in my house. I would have to have an electrician come out and check the circuits and the wiring because it has to be something in my house that is causing the problem, not their unit. But nothing else on that outlet fails to operate, the TV, the DVD player, the VCR player. They said "But those items don't have a hard drive". (What difference does that make???)

They said once I receive the new unit, plug it into a surge protector. Now, I had it plugged into a surge protector before and somewhere around the 3rd unit, they said, take it out of the surge protector and plug it directly into the wall because Dish's equipment is sensitive and needs to have a constant flow of electricity. And now the VP is saying plug it into a surge protector. They ran an ethernet cable from my computer to the unit which was supposed to tell them if the unit began malfunctioning. But nobody monitors that signal.

To test if it is the wiring in my house, I ran an extension cord from my art studio which is on an entirely different electrical service (with separate billing each month) and plugged the unit into that electrical source. It ran for about 4 days without an issue. Then bam! The unit crashes again. I have continued to leave it plugged into this source to see if it would crash again and so far it hasn't, 2 days. But my life doesn't revolve around the TV so some days/nights the TV isn't even on, so I don't know if it might have crashed those nights of inactivity or not. I don't want to sign another 2 year contract (I am 76 yrs old, I may be dead in another year....who knows?.....I don't want my husband saddled with a 2 year contract if something happened to me) and I don't feel I should have to pay for an upgrade when I pay for a warranty each month and pay my bill on time and pay for the service of a constant source of TV.

I would like to know if the LNB would have anything to do with it crashing. They say that wouldn't have anything to do with it crashing. FYI, I have a Hi Def antenna on a pole which I can receive good pictures and the LNB is supposed to be a Hi Def.

Does ANYBODY have any idea what is going on with this unit? All I want is a unit that will stay on instead of crashing.