Fortec Classic NA started asking for a PIN.

[WildeComputers]

Ok, I thought this happened once before with my receiver and what I thought I did to fix it didn't work this time...

Some history:
Once a month or so I like to Power Scan (Blind Scan) on my receiver. I also like to keep a clean/neat receiver, so if I Power Scan a satellite I delete all the TPs on the satellite I plan to scan instead of it adding to the active/inactive ones it previously found. I decided to Power Scan Galaxy 18 last week, but figured I'd take a chance and do ALL instead of FTA. Only thing this gave me was audio in-the-clear for Reuters NWS. Nothing special, but the rest of the FTA channels on Galaxy 18 were found, but now when I power on the receiver I need to enter a PIN (0000). I tried clearing the satellite and even redid the delete of the TPs and Power Scan. It still is asking for a PIN after I turn on the receiver. It does not ask for a PIN with each channel, just when it's powered on. I have not done a factory reset (which I am thinking *may* help). Any thoughts to have it stop asking for a PIN? I did not set up any parental controls, and no other 4-digit numbers work (just 0000).

Thoughts/suggestions?

 

[brentb636]

Well, I think I'd go into parental controls and setup a pin, then exit, then go back into parental controls and turn it off. Maybe that will toggle the bit, and get rid of the pin necessity. Hard to guess what happened here. I suspect that if you do a factory reset, you're very likely to have to use a pin for some of the operations. It's been a long time since I've had a Classic NA.

 

[gabshere]

the coolsat has a security setting and you can disable it , this sounds like the same type of setting .... look in the menu for security setting and see if it will let you disable the password protection for the system

 

[WildeComputers]

Well, I think I'd go into parental controls and setup a pin, then exit, then go back into parental controls and turn it off. Maybe that will toggle the bit, and get rid of the pin necessity. Hard to guess what happened here. I suspect that if you do a factory reset, you're very likely to have to use a pin for some of the operations. It's been a long time since I've had a Classic NA.

I went into the Parental Control and entered the old PIN and created a new PIN, but left it 'unlocked'. Now everything is locked down and my PIN doesn't work. I'm going to check the manual for a way to force a factory reset (as that's now locked down too). No idea what this thing is doing, but I don't think it has anything to do with the way I scanned the satellite (which is what I initially thought).

 

[WildeComputers]

I wonder if I've got the Satellite Lock turned on (in Antenna Setup). Now if only I can get a PIN to work...I wonder if there is a way to reset the receiver without using the menu (hard reboot)?

 

[andyb2]

Try 1010 or 1668.Those are master codes I believe of some other fortecs

 

[WildeComputers]

I'll try those codes tonight. Worse case scenario, I need to reinstall the firmware I got from the Fortec site. I did this a while back to (hopefully) resolve the 'fast time' issue. Every so often the receiver would not turn on with the remote and the time was adjusting faster than 60 minutes per hour. If I disconnected power and restored power it was fine. I only recall it doing this once since I updated the firmware, but it's been months (if not over a year) when I did that. If I recall, it was fairly straight-forward. But my fear is this won't reset the PIN issue.

 

[WildeComputers]

Well, this just went from bad to worse. Neither 1010 nor 1668 worked. I found my RS232 cable for I reinstalled the firmware and it's still asking for a PIN. What baffles me is it won't take the PIN I setup in the Parental Control...so it makes me think something else is wrong with it.

Anyway to force a factory reset on this, or a way to clear out the PIN/Parental Control?

 

[gabshere]

if you set the Parental Control to unlock and gave that one a pin # and then its still asking for a pin when you power on try the default 0000 sounds like the system is still locked not the parental controls....

Ref: this thread on the matter

 

[andyb2]

Reinstalling the factory firmware should put it back to factory default with a 0000 code.

 

[WildeComputers]

I am pretty sure I have the 'lock satellite' turned on...but I can't get into it to turn it off, nor can I get into the Parental Controls. Here's what I did:

1. Decided to blind scan Galaxy 18, so I went in to Manual Scan and deleted the TPs.
2. Went into Automatic Scan and chose FTA-ALL and set it to 4 (instead of the default of 6)
(this scans for 250 possible TPs, but it found 18 or 19 when it was done)
3. Edited the channels and sorted them by name.
-- This is basically what I do a month or so --
4. The next few days when I powered on my receiver it would ask for a PIN.
5. I would punch in 0000 and it would work.
6. After a week of this, I decided to rerun through steps 1 to 3 thinking I messed something up.
7. It still would ask for a PIN, so I did a search here...found mention of the 'lock satellite'.
8. Checked the settings but didn't see it on (showed Lock Sat = No)
9. Decided to post here.
10. Tried the Parental Control recommendation:
A. Put in the "old" PIN of 0000
B. Put in a new PIN of 0000, and reentered it.
C. Pressed OK on the 'Unlock' and it said it saved it.
11. Tried to bring up a channel, and it asked for a PIN, but 0000 didn't work.
12. Powered off the receiver and even left it disconnected from the power for a few hours.
13. Tried the PINs recommended on this site for Fortecs.
14. Decided last night to reload the firmware from Fortec (LifeClassicFTA_375SUA_XPA_NOX_XL_060206)
15. No luck. Still asking for a PIN and no PIN I found works.

I even e-mailed Fortec last night taking a chance they'd reply. It ran through the firmware update with no problems. I figured this would clear everything but it didn't appear that it did (ask it's still asking for a PIN). I never turned on Parental Control (lock). I was taking a chance just setting a PIN would be the trick.

I know this happened to me some time back where it was always asking for a PIN. I thought once I did a factory reset it fixed it...however, no PIN I enter gets me into anything, except Tetris and Snake (the games). Anything else prompts for this mysterious PIN.


Now, I wouldn't be surprised if it's gone to that Clark Belt in the sky. I don't exactly have a lot of space between all the receivers I have under my TV, so I could see how over time this eventually would fail due to heat exposure (it's the top receiver in the group). I think heat played a factor in my HD receiver dying some time back. Plus, it's always done some weird things, namely how it keeps track of the time or how it won't turn on with the remote and I need to switch the power switch off & on to reset it.

 

[WildeComputers]

Well, I gave it a shot to reload the firmware again, in case it never took the first one. I loads fine but keeps asking for this PIN (that doesn't work). So I figured maybe you can't reload the same firmware on-top of itself, so I thought I'd cancel the update to corrupt it and make it reload it for sure. After a brief scare (was dead, no lights, nothing) I left the uploader "waiting for receiver" and powered it off & on, it finally took and started to reload the firmware...but same thing. My last hope (I am thinking) is if I open up the receiver maybe there's a battery or some switch (like PCs have) where I can reset the box.

 

[guapoharry]

Let's see.... When it will ask for a PIN?

• If you select Sat Lock in the Antenna Setup Menu. This *will* make it ask for a PIN upon power up.
• If you press the Green button for a channel in either the Favorites Manager or the Channel Manager.
  
• If you enable the Parental Lock.
  
• After resetting the receiver to Factory Defaults in the Clear Data menu.

If neither 0000, nor 1010, nor 1668 work, you might try other four digit numbers all the same. 2222, 8888.

Can you try to select a different satellite using the SAT button? Or, try different channels.

 

[WildeComputers]

Great news!

I had e-mailed Fortec a day after I initially posted here. They got back to me this morning. They recommended 1004 and it worked!

Every satellite had 'Lock Sat = Yes' and Parental Control was 'Lock'. I know I didn't lock every satellite down, but suspect I may have with Galaxy 18. I am also very confident I never turned on Parental Control, but maybe when I gave it a new PIN it automatically locks itself (I know I left that unlocked).

But, I am willing to accept that I screwed up and somehow locked down my receiver pretty good. The happy ending here is my RTN is back!!!


Thanks to all who replied, I tried all the suggestions.

 

[gabshere]

one thing i have happen with my coolsat ( and it didn't lock me out ) but it did something like what you are talking about it changed all my motor settings from USALS to diesqc 1.2 and it did it like a surge or malfunction of some type . but i always download a channel list and it saves my settings so i uploaded the last channel list and it overwrote the bad information.

we may need to compile a master password sticky for all receivers ( its always good information)

glad you got it working again