Error 771 Signal Loss on Satellite 2! (Driving me crazy!)

[johnkitchens]

Hello,

I have 6 DVR's. Some are HR24/100's and some are HR/500's. For the past few days I have been getting Error 771 Signal Loss on Satellite 2 on all 6 of the receivers.

They are not going out at the exact same time. One may go out for a minute or so the others working and vice versa. As you can tell this is driving me nuts.

Nothing at all has changed concerning the setup in over a year. 13 months ago DTV came out and installed two new DVR's and at that time they had to install a new dish.

There are no obstructions to the dish. I have done a hard reset on all receivers. I have unplugged the small grey box that provides power to the dish. So far nothing has helped. I did run a test on two of the receivers and it said I need a dish alignment. (Maybe that is all that is wrong). I am not sure, but I think that when it goes out I can switch to a non hd channel and it will work. This does lead me to believe that it may be the dish is out of alignment. We had major winds a few weeks ago.

I ran a signal test and this is what it showed. Any ideas??? Please help!

 

[texasbrit]

That screen does not tell us anything. It shows the SD transponders for Sat1.

Look at the 99c, 103ca and 103cb screens for both tuner 1 and tuner 2 and post those numbers.

Also with 6 DVRs that's 12 tuners. What type of dish and multiswitch do you have? An SWM dish will only support 8 tuners. Similarly a standard multiswitch will only support 8 tuners.

 

[johnkitchens]

I have a slimline dish and a SWM 16.

Here are the pics showing the screens. Sorry for the poor quality.
















I hope you guys can make sense of these numbers. I can't!

 

[texasbrit]

Those signals are great.
The SWM16 is split into two sides each supporting 8 tuners. Do you have more than 8 tuners (4 DVRs) on any one side?

Your problem could be caused by a problem with one of the cables from the dish to the SWM16, but it's really difficult to know because if its intermittent it might not show up on any of the signal screens. But it would result in messages saying your dish needed alignment if you checked while the problem was occurring.
Less likely is a problem with the LNB itself, but again it would have to be intermittent because the signals are OK.

All I can suggest is that you check each of the cables from the dish to the SWM16 to make sure the connectors seem to be OK.

 

[johnkitchens]

I don't have more than 8 tuners on one side.

I don't know if it makes a difference or not, but the DTV phone support guy had me unplug the grey box inside that gives power to the dish. That did nothing. About an hour ago I unlplugged the box again AND disconnected both coax cables and the put it all back.

Since then it hasn't gone down once. I ran the system test on two receivers and they both said the dish needed alignment. I have a tech coming out tomorrow, but I was hoping you guys could help me point him in the right direction.

Thank you for your help texasbrit.

 

[texasbrit]

If system test on a receiver shows alignment issue then check out the signals again. see if they are different from the ones you posted already.
Post your signals from 119 both tuners if you are showing 119.

 

[johnkitchens]

I am at work and can't test. I will try when I get home.

 

[johnkitchens]

I am not showing 119. Any other ideas?

 

[johnkitchens]

Update:

The tech arrived this afternoon. He did a quick test on one receiver and said the signal strength was great and that it wasn't out of alignment.

I told him I unhooked both coaxial cables from the SWM power inserter late last night and it has been fine ever since. He said he thought that probably solved the problem. I told him I was under the impression that the power inserter could be bad or going bad and give those results where it would come and go like that. He said that it couldn't. He said it would either work or not work and not act like that. I asked him to replace it anyway and he did.

He was there maybe 10 minutes if that. Anyway I guess time will tell if that is what it was.

 

[Hutch1814]

Update: The tech arrived this afternoon. He did a quick test on one receiver and said the signal strength was great and that it wasn't out of alignment. I told him I unhooked both coaxial cables from the SWM power inserter late last night and it has been fine ever since. He said he thought that probably solved the problem. I told him I was under the impression that the power inserter could be bad or going bad and give those results where it would come and go like that. He said that it couldn't. He said it would either work or not work and not act like that. I asked him to replace it anyway and he did. He was there maybe 10 minutes if that. Anyway I guess time will tell if that is what it was.

Sounds like you got the shaft to be honest. I'm pointing to either the 16 is starting to go bad or the LNB or lines from the dish are going bad. You say all receivers randomly show this, correct?

 

[texasbrit]

Sounds like you got the shaft to be honest. I'm pointing to either the 16 is starting to go bad or the LNB or lines from the dish are going bad. You say all receivers randomly show this, correct?

I agree with you, my guess would be first, a cable/connector, second the LNB and third the SWM16. A faulty PI would normally not cause this problem.

To the OP, does this happen when the weather is particularly cold? Does it happen to DVRs on both "sides" of the SWM16?

 

[johnkitchens]

I don't like getting the shaft. I have the protection plan so it didn't cost me anything extra. I am in Georgia so it doesn't get that cold here. It has happened when it was 20 degrees or like last night when it was 50 degrees.

When it happens it happens on all of the receivers but not all at the "exact" same time. For example the den may go out for 5 or 10 seconds and then a few minutes later the office may go out. I don't honestly know if any of them have ever gone out at the exact same time. It seems to happen on all of the channels. Last night I had the receiver in the kitchen on and it went out for a few seconds. I had it on TV Land (304). When it came back Family Fued with Steve Harvey was on, and it had the Game Show Network (233) logo on the screen. I thought it must have changed channels, but when I pressed info it was still on TV Land. I pressed channel up and back down and it was back on TV Land. This happened earlier in the week on a different receiver as well right after it went out.

So far it hasn't gone back out. I hope this will resolve it. I saw another post here from a guy that had the same problem and a new power inverter solved his problem.

If it goes back all I know to do at this point is call them back and have them come back out.

Any suggestions? I am open to any and all ideas here. I am addicted to tv. I will admit it!

 

[Hutch1814]

I don't like getting the shaft. I have the protection plan so it didn't cost me anything extra. I am in Georgia so it doesn't get that cold here. It has happened when it was 20 degrees or like last night when it was 50 degrees. When it happens it happens on all of the receivers but not all at the "exact" same time. For example the den may go out for 5 or 10 seconds and then a few minutes later the office may go out. I don't honestly know if any of them have ever gone out at the exact same time. It seems to happen on all of the channels. Last night I had the receiver in the kitchen on and it went out for a few seconds. I had it on TV Land (304). When it came back Family Fued with Steve Harvey was on, and it had the Game Show Network (233) logo on the screen. I thought it must have changed channels, but when I pressed info it was still on TV Land. I pressed channel up and back down and it was back on TV Land. This happened earlier in the week on a different receiver as well right after it went out. So far it hasn't gone back out. I hope this will resolve it. I saw another post here from a guy that had the same problem and a new power inverter solved his problem. If it goes back all I know to do at this point is call them back and have them come back out. Any suggestions? I am open to any and all ideas here. I am addicted to tv. I will admit it!

I'm leaning towards. Bad LNB or switch, not as much cabling after reading this post. I'd say the power inserter prolly won't change anything but it's possible but I see the problem showing its head again

 

[johnkitchens]

Thanks Hutch. I was afraid of that. If it goes out it will of course be when I am trying to record my shows!

 

[texasbrit]

That's a good clue and reinforces what we are suggesting.
Just to give you an idea how things work. Let's take satellite 101. The satellite has two sets of transponders, odds and evens. To switch between them, the tuner puts a voltage on the cable. 13v for odd transponders, 18v for evens. What you were seeing is the dish delivering an odd numbered transponder instead of an even one. The receiver thinks it's getting the even transponder (so the channel banner is correct) but the picture is from the corresponding channel on the odd transponder. And if there is no corresponding channel on the odd transponder, you will see a 771.
This can be caused by:
A fault in the SWM16
A fault at the dish
A cable/connector issue (by far the most likely)
So we're no better off in knowing which of these is the problem, but it's almost definitely one of them.

A suggestion. Go to the SWM 16 and check the cables/connectors that are connected to the two connectors on the SWM16 marked "18v". You might find that one of these is faulty. Make sure all the connectors are tight. Also check the connectors (all four of them)outside the house on the grounding block, that's where corrosion often occurs. If the dish is within reach, check the connectors at the dish.

If you still can't find the problem, get DirecTv back in. Make sure the service guy checks all the connectors at the SWM16, at the grounding block and at the dish. Ideally persuade him to change the SWM16 and the LNB at the dish, since you can't be certain the problem is not in one of these pieces of equipment, and there's no way to be certain except by replacement.

 

[johnkitchens]

Thank you so much TexasBrit. I will try that and keep you posted.

 

[kattheaunt]

That's a good clue and reinforces what we are suggesting. Just to give you an idea how things work. Let's take satellite 101. The satellite has two sets of transponders, odds and evens. To switch between them, the tuner puts a voltage on the cable. 13v for odd transponders, 18v for evens. What you were seeing is the dish delivering an odd numbered transponder instead of an even one. The receiver thinks it's getting the even transponder (so the channel banner is correct) but the picture is from the corresponding channel on the odd transponder. And if there is no corresponding channel on the odd transponder, you will see a 771. This can be caused by: A fault in the SWM16 A fault at the dish A cable/connector issue (by far the most likely) So we're no better off in knowing which of these is the problem, but it's almost definitely one of them. A suggestion. Go to the SWM 16 and check the cables/connectors that are connected to the two connectors on the SWM16 marked "18v". You might find that one of these is faulty. Make sure all the connectors are tight. Also check the connectors (all four of them)outside the house on the grounding block, that's where corrosion often occurs. If the dish is within reach, check the connectors at the dish. If you still can't find the problem, get DirecTv back in. Make sure the service guy checks all the connectors at the SWM16, at the grounding block and at the dish. Ideally persuade him to change the SWM16 and the LNB at the dish, since you can't be certain the problem is not in one of these pieces of equipment, and there's no way to be certain except by replacement.

Thanks for that explanation about the transponders. I regularly have that issue in my bedroom SD receiver. I never understood why I'd have the wrong channel showing. When it happens I reboot, then it goes to the 771 error. After a couple of days or a week it works right again. I assume it's because someone comes out to fix it. I'm in an MDU. I got tired of reporting it and I don't use the bedroom TV that much. The HD receiver in the LR never has this problem.

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