HELP! My new AZbox satellite list keeps getting messed up

[stanleyjohn]

Ok! heres whats happening!! I picked some satellites!Removed most of its TP and did a blindscan.All works well here! Channels and sat stored and shown normally on TV selection.I shutdown receiver!gives me the options!sleep,shutdown etc! i pick shutdown.AZbox shuts down then maybe 30 seconds later it reboots .I look at satellite and channel list on tv screen and as an exemple! 83 AMC9 becomes 95 AMC9.Channel list is still there but satellite title has changed.Satellite list reads ok in in set up section but 83AMC9 now is no longer selected for ku and all the tps defaulted back to the ones listed before i deleted thenm and did a rescan.So it seems unit rebooting messing up parts of my listings.What should i do now?? A factory reset??

UPDATE!!! After rebooting again All went back to where it was before problem happened.Would like to avoid this happening again! Any idea would be helpfull.Think i am shutting it down correctly now! Press turn off button on remote,!select shutdown wait for screen to say its ok to turn off and i then turn off back switch.I was turning it off before in sleep mode!I think that may of caused my head aches! at least i hope that was it.Sorry for the panic mode! now i can go to bed! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[AcWxRadar]

Stanley,

Hope you get a good nights sleep. You will need the rest to prepare you for the bad news. This glitch is an ongoing problem and the method of shut down you were using really has nothing to do with it. In this case I don't think it was generating your problem, although it is always wise to follow the most recommended procedure.

I have personally been battling this scenario since day one when I received my first AZBox. It has not changed (much) with the firmware upgrades or my model upgrade from the Premium to the Premium Plus.

We are not doing anything incorrectly as far as I can determine. It is a resident "quirk" or "glitch" in the programming itself. Opensat needs to address this issue on their programming end. We can do a few things to reduce the frequency of occurrence of the problem, but we cannot completely eliminate it.

Best rule I have found is to make a clean slate of your entire list to work from. This means deleting all the European and Asian satellites from the list and creating your own list with all the western hemisphere satellites ONLY.

I recommend that you add ALL the western hemisphere satellites that you can possibly achieve from horizon to horizon, even if you don't think you can get them. As long as you start with a list containing them ALL, then you won't be tempted to go back and enter something else later and risk the possibility of your list becoming fouled.

Look into the thread regarding how to North Americanize your sat list and follow those instructions and advice.

I made up a list entirely of all the Ku band sats and added one TP to each sat only (generically - I added TP 11700 Horizontal with a SR of 1000 and set the FEC to AUTO). Then, after I uploaded the list, I performed a BLIND SCAN of each satellite for the FTA ONLY channels, one sat at a time, and saved the found channels.

You can make up a list of Ku only, C band only or a combination, that does not seem to mess anything up. But if you mix USALS with DiSEqC 1.2 it appears to generate problems. I think this has something to do with how the address pointers are used in the firmware program. If you don't enter the DiSEqC position properly, it wants to move another sat out of position and alter its orbital location.

It is extremely beneficial if you can use USALS motor control for each and every satellite in the list. Therefore, I would set each sat in your created list to utilize USALS only first. Then upload that list to your box. Once uploaded, if you must revert to DiSEqC 1.2 motor positioning, start at your furthest east satellite and fine tune it with DiSEqC 1.2 and save the position using the AUTO STORE feature. Then, work your way west, one satellite at a time.

That is NOT a guarantee that you still won't experience a foul up in your satellite listing, but it may reduce the frequency of the errors.

If you detect one of these foul ups, don't waste your time trying to fix it. Just delete the satellites that are fouled and re-enter them, doing so manually would be preferred.

The sorry part of this whole ordeal is, when you think you finally figured it out, it fouls up again. But, once you get all the satellites in the list and accurate, then as long as you don't try to get fancy or add something new, they will remain there in their proper positions with their proper names. You may scan all you wish and it will be fine. Just avoid adding a new sat to the list or changing the position of an existing sat. This is why I suggest creating a full blown list of ALL the satellites right off the bat.

Even though a sat has no history of being active for your area, you just never know when they might turn it on. Then, you will be tempted to play with it and if it isn't already in the list, you will have to add it. That is when you start having troubles again. So go ahead and put every orbital position in the list right from the start. Once in there, you don't have to use it. But, if you want to experiment with it, you won't foul anything up since all you have to do is scan what is already there.

Well, that is just my personal reccommendations to help REDUCE the troubles.

Good luck and welcome to the AZBox club of bald guys with nervous twitches and tourettes syndrome. LOL!

RADAR

 

[stanleyjohn]

Thanks radar for the great help ! I guess i should of known that it would not be smooth sailing with a AZbox!I guess its the price we pay for getting the most complete FTA receiver you can buy.Dont know if this would do anything but should i do a factory rest first before i put in the complete North american sat list? So far i have stayed away from using any editor programs for changing a list due to problems others here have seen using them!so i have doing it all with the azbox remote in hand.If i do use a editor! which one do do you thaink would be the safest to use with my AZbox?.Om not a quitter and have tackled other problems like this with other computor related electronics. Now its time for work then ill start the new list this evening. Stan

 

[mr3p]

Just avoid adding a new sat to the list or changing the position of an existing sat. This is why I suggest creating a full blown list of ALL the satellites right off the bat.

This is the good advice and it was my solution to the issue as well. Other than rapidly progressing E2 development, there hasn't been new firmware for ~2months so I dont see it being fixed.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Ok! heres whats happening!! I picked some satellites!Removed most of its TP and did a blindscan.All works well here! Channels and sat stored and shown normally on TV selection.I shutdown receiver!gives me the options!sleep,shutdown etc! i pick shutdown.AZbox shuts down then maybe 30 seconds later it reboots .I look at satellite and channel list on tv screen and as an exemple! 83 AMC9 becomes 95 AMC9.Channel list is still there but satellite title has changed.Satellite list reads ok in in set up section but 83AMC9 now is no longer selected for ku and all the tps defaulted back to the ones listed before i deleted thenm and did a rescan.So it seems unit rebooting messing up parts of my listings.What should i do now?? A factory reset??

UPDATE!!! After rebooting again All went back to where it was before problem happened.Would like to avoid this happening again! Any idea would be helpfull.Think i am shutting it down correctly now! Press turn off button on remote,!select shutdown wait for screen to say its ok to turn off and i then turn off back switch.I was turning it off before in sleep mode!I think that may of caused my head aches! at least i hope that was it.Sorry for the panic mode! now i can go to bed! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I've had problems with my Ultra overheating and causing strange problems such as rebooting even though I selected "Shutdown". I powered off the box with the switch on the back of the unit, waited 30 minutes, turned it back on and all was well. But, if your satellites list gets corrupted the Azbox will ignore that list in favor of a default list (in other words, ALL of the satellites around the globe gets re-installed) - that's why you should backup your *.dat files from Azbox /DISK2 directory to your PC and restore the *.dat files from the PC when needed. That's the way I do things. It really sucks to have to rework your satellite and channel list because of a corrupted file and because you didn't have a backup set of files.

 

[AcWxRadar]

I have doing it all with the azbox remote in hand. If i do use a editor! which one do do you thaink would be the safest to use with my AZbox?. Stan

The AZBoxEdit 2880a or 2880c is the best I have used to actually edit satllites, transponders and channels, but you have to use it in conjuntion with MaZEdit 3.0 and ACC 1.1. Follow the procedures in the thread regarding how to "North Americanize" your sat list in this thread... http://www.satelliteguys.us/azbox-discussion/230974-how-north-americanize-your-azbox.html

RADAR

 

[stargaze]

OK, now that it was mentioned here and by others in another thread, people are making changes either using programs that are not geared strictly towards the azbox or they are using their remotes to make changes. both methods will eventually fail.
While we rack our brains out trying to figure out why our receivers go bonkers on us at times; I stumbled across a possible answer as to why when I first edited my satellite list.
If we add a satellite to our receivers and do not add at least 1 transponder under the new addition the receiver feels their is a corruption someplace and does strange things. However each of these receivers (at least those made within the last 4 months) have a deficiency from the factory and that is on an Eastern Satellite located at 169.1*E "Intelsat 2". This satellite comes from the factory with no transponders on this satellite.
Also, if we try adding a transponder too close to one already in the receiver it usually rejects it but using an editor it is possible and again the receiver acts up in time. Now you need to look at the satellite at 169.0*E directly next to the Intelsat2 satellite and delete one of the "4060" frequencies. It may be 4160 but whichever one is doubled under that satellite should be deleted. Now it can be done using your remote but remember there is a backup Disk in the receiver that STILL has the bad info in it. The surest and quickest way to remedy this is to use the Toolbox Azbox HD program and if you fix it using your remote download the channel list to your pc and then upload it right back using the ACC program.
This should fix at least one of the possible reason the receiver goes crazy every so often.
Some may say , "well why not just delete those 2 satellites?" well you can if you want, but at least you still have every satellite from the factory in your box.
Using any other program to send the file back to the Azbox may not give the proper results that the ACC program does.

 

[stanleyjohn]

Thanks stargaze! so what your saying is if i follow what you say here theres a good chance it will be the end of the line for the lists corruptions.I'm sure theres no guaranty that corruption may happen again but its a good and easy try.

 

[stargaze]

I have 3 azboxes (even listed on my sig.) I have done this to all of them and have not had a problem. Yes it took some time but it was time worth spent!
This is not plug and play.
I found things out I knew nothing about, and I was in here asking questions along the way. I still don't know it all.
But at least I admit it..
I would not ask or mention to anyone to try something I was not willing or capable of doing or have done myself.
Just remember it's a hobby and have some fun at it!

When you need help just ask; I have my setup North Americanized now with 100 sats listed in the receiver. From 5*W to 139*W ; both C & KU separated all in the correct orbital slots with a couple of spares, one spare in-between GALAXY 16 & Galaxy 19 and yet another spare next to Galaxy 28 for reasons I would only disclose in the WUT section here.

 

[stanleyjohn]

I have downloaded AZbox toolbox 2.1 but it doesnt want to run!keeps coming up with file missing errors on a few of the programs listed that i would use.The program titles are in english but some parts non english also if i got the right program theres a nice gal showing on the left side of the menu selections.Installed it on a windows vista computer.

 

[stanleyjohn]

Deleted that eastern sat that had no tp listed and also the two adjacent satellites.Dont remember which one it was but i also found a eastern sat that had a 0 for the SR and deleted that just in case the AZbox dosnt like any zeros.Starting to complete my North American satellite list which will include both c and ku per satellite if needed and satellite name corrections.Making Darn sure that i DONT save before a TP is included on each sat.Havent done any scanning yet of my edited sat list but also havent seen any problems also

 

[stargaze]

once you get it to the point you want it setup on your azbox, ie... any extra remote control editing of satellite settings, like DiSEqc settings if you use it, I've used Maz to pull the channel list back to the pc, save it to a special folder, then send it back to the azbox using acc again.
this writes it to both disks in the azbox... I usually scan in at least 1 watchable channel on the azbox before doing this.

 

[stargaze]

Deleted that eastern sat that had no tp listed and also the two adjacent satellites.Dont remember which one it was but i also found a eastern sat that had a 0 for the SR and deleted that just in case the AZbox dosnt like any zeros.

humm, Missed that one! Good catch !!

 

[stanleyjohn]

Thanks again for the help! Started to do a few blind scans! Deleted all but one tp before first time blind scan.Channels and sats still setting up well without problems.Im doing some backups just in case!also storing a few backups on a usb mem stick.I think it will be awhile yet before i let the receiver take control of the movement of the actuator.

 

[stargaze]

I presume you are using the ACC program now.
If so was it a learning curve or did I put down in writing just like it should be?
Seems like it did not take you too long to get this far..
Just make sure before you retire the receiver for the night you save the work you did and send it back to the azbox using ACC. this way it is in your backup directory as well and you start where you left off the next time you boot up the az box.


You should never again see any Eastern Sats.

 

[beavs2112]

that picture of the girl is from a maxim magazine shoot. her name is elisha cuthbert and proudly canadian! she's on my "list" btw.

what errors are you getting? i've tried toolbox 2.1 and got errors from azbox edit when i tried to edit my sat files. it said invalid number range or something like that then closed my program when i hit the ok button.

 

[stargaze]

You can make up a list of Ku only, C band only or a combination, that does not seem to mess anything up. But if you mix USALS with DiSEqC 1.2 it appears to generate problems. I think this has something to do with how the address pointers are used in the firmware program. If you don't enter the DiSEqC position properly, it wants to move another sat out of position and alter its orbital location.

It is extremely beneficial if you can use USALS motor control for each and every satellite in the list. Therefore, I would set each sat in your created list to utilize USALS only first. Then upload that list to your box. Once uploaded, if you must revert to DiSEqC 1.2 motor positioning, start at your furthest east satellite and fine tune it with DiSEqC 1.2 and save the position using the AUTO STORE feature. Then, work your way west, one satellite at a time.

Radar,
One thing I had noticed when looking at the different sats in the box was the position on one or two sats that were co-located were .01* apart.
They never had 2 satellites at the exact same degree position.
So when using the receiver as a dish mover this needs to be taken into consideration.
I have made up a list of satellites with the position in degrees that you should now have to take a look at to see exactly how I set up my satellite lists. Galaxy 19 is at 97.0*W for c-band and Galaxy 19ku is listed in the box at 97.1*W I kept to the same style with the ku sats so they are all .1* off from the C-band side for dual sats only. This was in keeping with how the stored info from the factory was when I looked at it closely.
And I agree you need to work your way down the list one sat at a time in order.

 

[stargaze]

that picture of the girl is from a maxim magazine shoot. her name is elisha cuthbert and proudly canadian! she's on my "list" btw.

what errors are you getting? i've tried toolbox 2.1 and got errors from azbox edit when i tried to edit my sat files. it said invalid number range or something like that then closed my program when i hit the ok button.

How bout "subscript out of range" ? I saw that several times clicked it off and kept on going.
It never closed the program on me though..

 

[stanleyjohn]

Here are some of the problems on my loaded azbox toolbox 2.1
when clicking on sellected program i get this!
AZ box control center>>componant TABCTL32.OXC missing or nonvalid (wont run)
Maz>> Acessviolation at address 008567AD (will run after but didnt try)
AZbox edit>> Acess violation comdlg32.ocx (wont run)
Other programs seem to run but havent played with them
Is there a version that is totally english??
I tryed from two diff sites with simular results!What sites would you use to download?

 

[stargaze]

I found "Toolbox" doing a google search.
I posted a link over here:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/azbox-discussion/230974-how-north-americanize-your-azbox.html
scroll down on page 1 of that link to find it.

I have no problems like what you describe and use it on 2 totally different systems here. (I am not a computer geek or programmer, just an ordinary pc user)