Help a Newbie: 502 switch error, etc

MLHendrick

New Member
Original poster
Jan 31, 2008
3
0
BIGGEST PROBLEM: Getting stuck in two different troubleshooting screens...

(1) The "502" error message, even after hard/soft booting ("okay" or "enter" or whatever is only option/response -- which keeps dumping us into this second screen:

(2) "Installation Summary" and "test switch" screens:
Can only get/run "Test"/058 -- OR navigate to "Details" and "Help" along the bottom. "Done" is grayed out. When hit "Test, it runs a "1 of 3" test for one satellite -- and never gets around to testing the second (which stays at "running 1 of 1). Upon which I get the above 502 message. About the only thing I'm able to do, by myself, is "remove the satellite connection" and then try/test again (which did a 50-part test for each last night, but still no fix)
SHOWN ON INSTALLATION SUMMARY: one block each, for satellites...

Satellite Input 1 (info in three columns):
Port = 1 2 3
Satellite = 110 121 119
Trans = ok ok ok
Device = Dual Feed Feed
Status = Reception Verified
Switch = DP34

Satellite Input 2 (info in one column):
Port = 1
Satellite = 110
Trans = ok
Device = Feed
Status = Reception Verified
Switch = DP Feed

Below that, two buttons/options:

* SuperDish (which is "checkmarked")
* Alternate (which is not checkmarked or highlighted)

Below that, the three buttons I already referred to:
* Test (highlighted in orange, to select)
* Done (grayed out, can't select)
* Help (white, can select)


BASIC INFO:
= We have a SuperDish (viewed outside) but inside the TV says something like "Dish 500" or "500+"
= two receivers (322) that look identical but perhaps aren't? Here's where install got messy, to old cable TV lines, botched phone line install, tangled mess
= Don't totally get what an LBN/F (or whatever) is...but our setup on the roof doesn't look like any pix or diagram on the Dish website. We appear to have 2: there's one of these babies that's very big/chunky pointing back at the dish, in a light gray casing/cover (only one "eye" but it's not round, more like a sideways bell-shape) -- and one smaller one that protrudes from it without a small dark gray casing/cover on it
= With all our "switch" and "check switch" prompts we see an SW21

OBSERVATIONS:
* Son's TV runs off exact same cabling, receiver, etc -- and it is just fine, time after time. Even tried to copy/add same settings from his TV to this TV, from the menu button, but this TV seemed to get worse instead of better.
* We didn't do anything physically to this TV or its cabling. We had some wicked windy weather outside, and snow, but wouldn't that have affected son's reception, too? All snow melted the other day, too, in the middle off all this.
* First sign(s) of a problem: Being unable to get ANY LOCAL CHANNELS, and when troubleshooting that, got the local channels but NONE OF THE OTHER/NATIONAL channels. Even lately, when reception suddenly resumes, we can get one or the other downstairs -- never both.

CAVEAT(s)
+ Yep, I am a newbie -- so pardon me if I'm missing something really obvious. But please know that I've tried: all the booting, all the on-screen prompts, instruction book, Dish's tech portal, and the more I read the more confused I get. (Give me PC problems and wireless networking glitches any day...)
+ Admittedly, haven't called Dish yet. Have had trouble on that front, including an initial very botched installation which had to be redone by their quality control folks.
+ One of their fixes says to hit "menu" and/or "view TV" but I can't get unstuck from these two error screens. After having the TV off for a long time, I can sometimes navigate to a real channel, but often as not, you only get the channel/program info in the box up top but NO PICTURE, maybe sound but I can't remember.

Thanks in advance! As I said, our install two years ago was SUCH a mess, that I can't even be sure we have an optimal configuration going on here...
 
Would be better to have a few pictures instead of amorphous phrase "We have a SuperDish (viewed outside) but inside the TV says something like "Dish 500" or "500+""; for the dish and switch test screens.
 
Ok, I just moved. The house I moved to had what appears to be to the casual observer, the same super dish setup as my house I just sold. After three days of moving set up the t.v. entertainment center, etc. I hooked the two cables up to my Dish receiver. Everything seemed to be working great. But I noticed after about 24hrs that none of my scheduled shows were recordeing on the DVR. At this point I switched over to Sat 2 to see what was up. It said the check switch test needed to be run. Well, I did that and now I am locked into the same screen as the poster above me. I can't get out. I have tried re-booting, hard and soft, un-hooking cables, switching cables, hooking up one or the other at a time and such and such. I tried to call Dish but in about thirty seconds the customer service rep had already hurt my feelings and made me mad all at the same time. My wife thought that was funny and I didn't but anyway he basically called me a novice moron who has now caused alot of problems that I am going to "pay" to have them come fix. But to make a long story short, I am stuck in the same screen after SAT 1 was working fine, and now I can't get back out to check any setting or anything. Can anyone help me please?
 
So you have a Superdish that is running to a 34 switch (http://www.satelliteone.com/dish/images/sw34_switch.gif)... Are there two lines running to each of your 322's, one for each satellite input? Are they all RG-6, preferably swept to at least 2.25 GHz (would be written on the cable sheathing)? If you have a DP34, the only way you can get your system to correctly check the switch with two 322's is if you run two feeds from the satellite to each receiver's satellite input. A 322 has two inputs, one for each TV, so you'll need two signal lines from the DP34, wherever it may be located. You then have to run a third coax line to the second TV from your 322, or diplex one of the signal lines.

Another option is to acquire a DPP44 switch, run one line to each receiver and use a Separator (DISH PRO PLUS SEPARATOR).

The Dish Pro Plus Separator is NOT compatible with the DP34 switch, so make sure you're not using one in this setup. About that shot of the TV... that's only a specific channel that lets you know you're aimed correctly at the 110 satellite (or 119? I dunno). There are similar channels for the 121, 129, and 148 satellites. :)

Also, do you need the 121 satellite for locals? Otherwise I'd say try a whole new dish setup. :D Man, I hate working with Superdishes...

Hope this helps!
 
PapaLittle & Skibum - Thanks for help so far. Skibum, I do indeed have two incoming satellite cables for each receiver -- and of the type/weight/speed you specify.

Interestingly, I also have hanging nearby--on the basement wall--two pieces of hardware that are supposedly from the first/botched tangled mess of an install. Not plugged into anything at all are: (1) A four way splitter, and (2) Some kind of a channel amplifier (Archer brand?)

WHAT PUZZLES ME: If it's a SW21 switch, wouldn't my son's TV, off the same receiver, also fail? It's fine each and every time. It's only the TV in the living room that's in this frustrating stuck mode. And so, if it's cable that's perhaps at fault, where in the world would one start looking first? Nearest the TV in the living room, even tho nothing there got moved?

I've looked around inside and have determined that the switch is probably up on the roof with the SuperDish et al. Knowing what I know now, that's probably a dumb place for it, eh? Hard to get at -- along with everything else that's up there. I can't imagine that it's good for the switch to be exposed to the elements like that...

All of this, of course, is to figure out what a repair bill would likely be. If it's the switch, and the goofball put it out on the roof like that, is that a bill that we'll have to foot--or Dish?
 
OK, here is what you need to do:

You need to determine which lines at the DP34 switch are to your problem receiver and which two are for your son's room. Label them as you will be moving them around.

1. Take the receiver from your son's room and connect it to your problem receiver's location and move all connections up to the test receiver. Then go into the menu and do a check switch on this receiver and see if you get the same result.

A. Same result:
You have either a problem with your DP34 switch or you have bad cabling going to your problem location. To diagnose this, you will have to disconnect the wires at the DP34 switch that go to the problem location and put them on the connections that serve your son's room. Run the test again. Go to Step 2 for the subsequent procedures.

B. Different result:
You have good cables and good switch as evidenced by a passing result on your test receiver. The result should say at the bottom "Satellite Reception Verified". If you have this, then you need to call DISH and have them send you a replacement receiver. Be prepared for them to have you run the procedure over again so they can confirm that one receiver isn't working at a known good location.

2.
A. Same result:
You obviously don't have a bad receiver as the other receiver produced the same results at the same location. Also, you likely don't have a bad switch as those same ports were working fine in your son's room. This leads to a conclusion that one of your two wires serving that problem room is bad. If one tuner has a good result but the other has a bad result, try switching the two incoming wires on the back of the receiver to the opposite satellite ports. Run the test again. If the tuner that has a good result now shows a bad result, then only one of the wires is bad and you will need to replace it. To determine which wire is which, just unhook one of them and run the test again. This will be a long test but when it is done you will have your answer. If you have one good result and one completely "X" out, then your good line is still connected. If you have a bad result and a completely "X" out situation, then your bad wire is still connected.

B. Different Result:
This will be a tricky one to solve and you should report back here if it happens as it is pretty uncommon and we can then work out alternative troubleshoot procedures for you.
 
I went home Thursday and un-hooked everything from power to satellite in cables. Then I checked all the cables. I found the #2 cable to have some of the silver lining wrapped around the copper center. I fixed that and finished checking the rest of the cables. I hooked it all up, ran switch test and VIOLA!! It worked like a champ. I read about that in a post on one of the million pages I read. I probably never would have found that. Thanks to all. I hope MLHendrick gets his solved soon.
 
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