Dish TV Problem & Error messages

[JoAnn]

We have 2 Dish recievers..one in our bedroom and one in the Living room. Our LR Dish TV has been cutting in and out, giving various error messages from acquiring signal to anything else it can think of. Sometimes it is a short absence of picture, other times an hour at a time. Then it will run fine. The bedroom TV we have NO problem with. We had the local Dish repair man out and he couldn't find any problem in the outside connection, or direction, but he thought it might be the receiver. One night last week I put BR receiver in the LR and vise versa. The same thing is happening again, the BR TV is running fine, but not the LR TV, so it is NOT the receiver. I believe I have checked all the connections and they seem OK, but that doesn't mean they are. Has anyone else had this problem? Or does anyone have any other suggestions, besides calling the repair guy again and paying him another $90? And I know that somewhere on the web is a website for Dish TV problems, but I've lost the address..TIA.

 

[dfergie]

Could have a bad lnb or coax cable... how old is the system?

 

[JoAnn]

Just a little over 3 years old.

 

[Damian_1999]

joann,
when ya swap recievers and the problem stays in the same location, that means the reciever is fine. the problem is in the installation. could you tell me the type of reciever you have and I'll give you some info on where to go in the menu to give me more info

 

[Damian_1999]

or do this... press menu.. then 6-system setup, 1-instation, 1-point dish/signal.. on that screen highligh & select Check Switch.. on the instation summary screen.. DO NOT select Check.. at teh top of the screen it will say Installed Switch or Installed Model.. tell me what it says

 

[JoAnn]

Damian, it says 'Installed Switch SW21"

 

[dfergie]

Btw... A little late... Welcome to SatelliteGuys... JoAnn that means you have legecy lnbs on your dish ... what else does it say? ( Dish 500? etc)

 

[boba]

AT the dish you should have two boxes that look like splitters they have two cables connected on one side and 1 cable on the other those are the SW-21 switches. Swap the single cables and see if the problem moves from one location to the other. If it does the problem is probably the SW-21 switch a very common DISH failure.

 

[KE4EST]

I agree with boba, do what he said, I suspect a bad sw21, the repair guy must be new, he should have swapped out rxers. I have replaced a lot of sw21 switches

 

[JoAnn]

Thanks to all of you for your help. I called our local Dish store today (who we bought it from) and told her about all of your suggestions and she said 'yes, it definitely could be the problem'. (wish her hubby had thought about it when he was out here on the service call!) But we will have to wait until we come back from vacation before we do anything. We won't be able to do it ourselves...too old to be crawling around on our roof, so we'll have to pay to have it done and upgrade at the same time...or switch companies. I will try switching some cables first, but since one of the errors mentions something about a switch...I think you all are right.

 

[webbydude]

JoAnn, you didn't mention how long ago the repair-call occured. If it was really recent (as in the past few weeks) then you should still fall under the realm of that last repair-call.

I would give Dish a call and explain EVERYTHING. Emphasize that the last technician didn't find any problem, but that the problem was and IS still occuring. You may have to be a bit aggressive on the phone. It's shame you have to be in that mindset, but that's the way modern business. Not just Dish, but with any service provider. Good luck!!