110 missing-in-action

[long_time_DNC]

Is anyone missing everything on 110 tonight?

My model 111 in the bedroom is getting everything on 110/119 just fine, but my 811 in the livingroom is only getting channels off of 110. I've done a check switch and it can't find 110 at all. I've rebooted the box twice, still nothing off of 110.

Is my 811 haywire? Both receivers are being fed from the same Dish 500 dish and the same switchbox.

Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[mdonnelly]

Works for me.

Is anyone missing everything on 110 tonight?

My model 111 in the bedroom is getting everything on 110/119 just fine, but my 811 in the livingroom is only getting channels off of 110. I've done a check switch and it can't find 110 at all. I've rebooted the box twice, still nothing off of 110.

Is my 811 haywire? Both receivers are being fed from the same Dish 500 dish and the same switchbox.

Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I did a check switch and that was good (Quad DP LNB, Dish 500).
Point dish on 110 didn't work on TP4, but passed at 80% on TP5. The opposite was true for 119.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Is it a rain thing or a DN thing?

I did a check switch and that was good (Quad DP LNB, Dish 500).
Point dish on 110 didn't work on TP4, but passed at 80% on TP5. The opposite was true for 119.

It's raining here tonight, which it was doing the last time this happened to me, but my other receiver (the 111) is working fine, and it worked fine the last time it rained (which freaked my 811 out then too).

It's not raining all that hard and I've not had this problem with rains harder than tonight's (prior to last Wednesday). Am I losing an LNB? If so, why isn't it affecting the 111 receiver? I checked the cabling on the switch and the dish and everything is nice and tight.

I'm stumped. Anyone with any ideas/suggestions?

 

[dfergie]

Kinda a side track here but my friends on a ranch are... they had a dish 300 and I hooked them up another D* dish and a sw21 when the locals came... A Bull hooked its horn on the coax's and pulled both dishes down... I got 119 up and running yesterday for them but wind and a 10 year old that wanted to play catch prevented me from getting the 110 dish up...(I know they need a 500 but...) and when I left this morning the temp was 20 and was sleeting....not good installation weather(did get dish mounted and leveled)

 

[dfergie]

Did you try the switch check with nothing connected?

 

[long_time_DNC]

Did you try the switch check with nothing connected?

No...didn't try that. Guess that would tell me if it was my 811, wouldn't it?

Weird thing is, after the rain ended on Thursday, I did a check switch and the 811 picked up 119 again (110 was never a problem) and was fine until the rain tonight.

I'm getting around 94-95% on 110 and 92-93% on 119 (but no lock, wrong sat, red bar).

No cattle, no kids, no birds, bats or bugs.

Dang, but this is frustrating...

 

[SimpleSimon]

... I'm getting around 94-95% on 110 and 92-93% on 119 (but no lock, wrong sat, red bar). ...

Sounds like a switching problem to me. Time for a matrix reset, maybe?

 

[long_time_DNC]

Sounds like a switching problem to me. Time for a matrix reset, maybe?

Okay, what's a matrix reset?

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, after researching/reading about matrix resetting by searching the posts, I get the general idea. Just a few questions:

Do I disconnect the dish from the switch and then do a check switch on my 811, or do I disconnect the coax from the back of my 811 and then do a check switch?

I ask because some of the instructions I've read are a bit conflicting/unclear to me and I want to make sure I get this right. Thanks!

 

[ajohnson]

Unhook all receivers from the switch. Unplug the power inserter, if there is one. You shouldn't need to worry about the lines from the dish to the switch, there's no power in the system.

While the receivers are disconnected from the switch, do a check switch on both of them (they won't see anything of course). As long as it's been at least 5 minutes, hook them all back up again and do another check switch.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Unhook all receivers from the switch. Unplug the power inserter, if there is one. You shouldn't need to worry about the lines from the dish to the switch, there's no power in the system.

While the receivers are disconnected from the switch, do a check switch on both of them (they won't see anything of course). As long as it's been at least 5 minutes, hook them all back up again and do another check switch.

No idea what the power inserter is...if it's something for the switch, there's no power going to the switch that I can see.

As for the rest of it, that's exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks!

 

[long_time_DNC]

Well gang, I tried the matrix reset. It didn't solve the problem, so I called DN and they're sending someone out Friday morning between 8-Noon to fix it.

Thanks for the help anyway!

 

[long_time_DNC]

The tech showed up today, replaced my SW21 switch with a Dish Pro 500 and replaced a defective section of coax and *ding* everything works again! I be a happy camper.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I had a similar problem last night with my 811. I was getting a few different error messages. One was that the cable run may be to long or the switch has failed. I would try to watch FX and GSN and it would keep freezing after a few seconds and when I went to the program guide, channels that I subscribe to were red. I did a check switch twice. The first time it came back fine, then the second time it failed on 119. All this time, my other 2 rx's 501 and 510 were fine.

I called DN, went through a few more things and they said it was a possible failure in the cable. I swapped out the cable from the wall to the rx and didn't have anymore problems. Its weird that a cable could fail like that. But I think maybe because it was so warm in the basement and with the dryer running it may of caused some problem with the cable. Could heat affect the performance of a cable like that?

Thanks

Paul

 

[long_time_DNC]

I called DN, went through a few more things and they said it was a possible failure in the cable. I swapped out the cable from the wall to the rx and didn't have anymore problems. Its weird that a cable could fail like that. But I think maybe because it was so warm in the basement and with the dryer running it may of caused some problem with the cable. Could heat affect the performance of a cable like that?

Thanks

Paul

In my particular situation, this cable was outside and had been in-place for 6-7 years, having gone through as many summers and winters, so the latest rainstorm evidently did in both the cable and one side of the old switch. It's nice to have new cable out there! I think I'll begin replacing it every 3-4 years just to help eliminate the weathering issue. Heating and cooling, dampness and dryness take their toll on the shielding and outer sheath, that's for sure.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Actually, the common failure point is the F-connector.

It sounds like you had corrosion in the connector and switch port.

As for replacing the cable itself, the tech may have seen it was low-quality, damaged, or was just playing it safe. If it's an easy job to replace, I do it - cable is cheap.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Actually, the common failure point is the F-connector.

It sounds like you had corrosion in the connector and switch port.

As for replacing the cable itself, the tech may have seen it was low-quality, damaged, or was just playing it safe. If it's an easy job to replace, I do it - cable is cheap.

Actually, after he replaced the SW21 with the DP500, I had no signal at all on my 811. He'd replaced the F-connectors on the existing cables as well when he put in the DP500. When, after that, I had no signal at all on my 811 and everything was fine on the 111 in the other room, that's when the tech replaced the entire cable run to the 811, which fixed the problem.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Ah - the exception that proves the rule.

Still, I am glad you're running even though I was wrong this time.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ah - the exception that proves the rule.

Still, I am glad you're running even though I was wrong this time.

Thanks! I'm very glad it's back to normal now also. Getting only about 30% of the channels I usually receive/watch was really not much fun at all. It's surprising just how much is on 119.

As an aside, I was talking with the tech and if E* moves/adds more HD programming to the 121 sat in the near future, it looks like I'll be getting a superdish eventually. Evidently, 121 has a lot of the international channels on it at present?

He was also curious as to where I was hearing about issues with P282, PQ issues with the 811/921 and the price drop on the 921 to $549, etc? I happily referred him to www.satelliteguys.us and he said he'd definitely check this place out.

 

[SimpleSimon]

... He was also curious as to where I was hearing about issues with P282, PQ issues with the 811/921 and the price drop on the 921 to $549, etc? I happily referred him to www.satelliteguys.us and he said he'd definitely check this place out.

Good job!

One more CSR that will actually know something when the next customer calls.