Dish was working fine. Then all of a sudden turn TV on and No recepetion

[Reckinball]

So everything was fine and has been for a long time. Now it is saying no reception and when I do the switch test I get one of the satellite inputs or switches is not connected properly. Normal operation will be adversely affected. Yesterday I installed a new DP44 switch and have the same results. Does anyone know if the DISH Network 185834 Solo Node could be the culprit? I also have no signal from any of the satellites.

 

[delta_charlie]

It's been a long time since I had Dish but trouble shooting should be mostly about isolating the problem and work back from there.

For example can you remove (temp bypass} some component?

If you have a DMM (volt meter) checking for voltage at the connections in the coax cable running from the receiver out to the dish might help quickly find the problem. Turn the receiver on and you should see 12 volts DC or more between the center wire and shield.

Not uncommon for a connector to get corroded and loose conductivity.

 

[pattykay]

So everything was fine and has been for a long time. Now it is saying no reception and when I do the switch test I get one of the satellite inputs or switches is not connected properly. Normal operation will be adversely affected. Yesterday I installed a new DP44 switch and have the same results. Does anyone know if the DISH Network 185834 Solo Node could be the culprit? I also have no signal from any of the satellites.

There are troubleshooting steps that you can try before replacing the Solo Node, though. Disconnect the cable from the back of your receiver, and run a Check Switch with nothing connected. This will clear out any problems that may be stored in the receiver's memory. Then, reconnect the cable and run the Check Switch again. If you still get the error message, then either something is not connected correctly, or something needs to be replaced. Since you already replaced the switch, the Solo Node is the next most likely culprit. After that, it could be the LNB.

 

[Reckinball]

Thanks for the replies and help... I might be interested in the solo node. Gonna check a few more things before I decide..

 

[grc]

Maybe a tree limb growing out and blocking one of the satellites?

 

[AntiMoz]

I’m going with a bad LNB or improper configuration of the DP44 and solo node. Can you provide a picture or schematic of your setup? One of the whiz-bang folks on this site can certainly help if they have this information.

 

[Reckinball]

Maybe a tree limb growing out and blocking one of the satellites?

I looked at that yesterday and its in a fairly open area. There are some trees to the left and right. Just don't think it would go from TV one day to no TV the next day and when you do the dish alignment all 3 satellites are zero signal.

 

[TheKrell]

I looked at that yesterday and its in a fairly open area. There are some trees to the left and right. Just don't think it would go from TV one day to no TV the next day and when you do the dish alignment all 3 satellites are zero signal.

1st of all, if your system was working fine and then went to zero signal, and you change something which doesn't help (like adding a DPP44 switch), you should reverse that change so that the change itself is not confounding your diagnosis.

Now I see you did a "dish alignment" too. How did you do that when you see zero signal? For all we know, something knocked your dish out of alignment. It doesn't take much for the signal to go to zero.

 

[Reckinball]

I’m going with a bad LNB or improper configuration of the DP44 and solo node. Can you provide a picture or schematic of your setup? One of the whiz-bang folks on this site can certainly help if they have this information.

Well, the setup has been working for over 7 years. I replaced the new switch 1 cable at a time to make sure it was exactly like the switch I was replacing. Not sure that all LNB's would have gone out at the same time. I have replaced the DP44 once before about 5 years ago. It's the original solo node.

 

[Reckinball]

1st of all, if your system was working fine and then went to zero signal, and you change something which doesn't help (like adding a DPP44 switch), you should reverse that change so that the change itself is not confounding your diagnosis.

Now I see you did a "dish alignment" too. How did you do that when you see zero signal? For all we know, something knocked your dish out of alignment. It doesn't take much for the signal to go to zero.

I didn't do a dish alignment with moving the Sat. I just put the dish alignment on from the menu to see if I had any signal at all, which I didn't. Last time I had this problem was 5 years ago and changed the DPP44 switch and it worked. This time it was not the problem.

 

[DWS44]

Have you verified the DPP44 power inserter is still plugged in and getting power?

 

[bchandler02]

I had this issue a few months back. Turned out to be a bad cable coming out of the LNB. Was shocked, but it was an easy fix and got me back up without paying for a service call.

 

[pattykay]

Come to think of it, the same thing happened to my sister's Wally several months ago. I tried replacing the cable from the wall jack to the satellite in port on the Wally. The first cable I tried did not help the issue at all. Then, I tried another cable, and suddenly the problem seemed to be fixed. Unfortunately, she completely lost signal again awhile after that. Coincidentally (?) someone had vandalized her dish, spray-painting it orange. The paint did not look thick enough to affect the signal, and there was no paint on the LNB, just the reflector. Still, no amount of changing cables (outdors or inside) would bring the signal back. We ended up having a Dish tech put in a new dish, and switched her to Eastern Arc. The problem has not returned since then.