Hopper Joey Issue

OrlandoSGM

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Mar 27, 2008
384
197
Orlando, FL
I've have an ongoing issue where my two Joey's say they can 'see' the Hopper and won't provide any TV picture. 90% of the time resetting the Hopper first then resetting each Joey will bring the picture back. Once, even after a call with DISH techs even that wouldn't fix it. But in the morning ball was back to normal. Has anyone had a similar issue and figured out what a good resolution to the issue might be? It's a PIA to constantly have to be resetting. Also, occasionally when this happens even without resetting (if it happens late at night) in the morning things seems to resolve themselves. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
It's an ongoing issue with black screen Joeys. One fix I've used is go to the guide, go to Ch 103 - not the Hopper 3 Insider Channel; but the SD Channel that just has PSA's on it. Most times, that allows it to go back to live TV, then you can change the channel.

Possibly running a check switch to free up the tuners as I believe this is part of the 0 of 0 Tuners available error
 
  • Sad
Reactions: TheKrell
It's an ongoing issue with black screen Joeys. One fix I've used is go to the guide, go to Ch 103 - not the Hopper 3 Insider Channel; but the SD Channel that just has PSA's on it. Most times, that allows it to go back to live TV, then you can change the channel.

Possibly running a check switch to free up the tuners as I believe this is part of the 0 of 0 Tuners available error
The issue I have is when I get the nor linked to the Hopper, I can't even get to the Guide. Doing some diagnostics, It says the Joeys are not linked, but the link strength is very strong...very weird.
 
We were losing connection between one or both of our Joeys regularly. It began at a rate of once a month and then got steadily worse until it was several times a day. Each time we had to reset the Hopper and the Joeys to get it working. I concluded there was a problem with the WAP (wireless access point), the small black box connected to the Hopper). I also found from another thread on this topic that the tech used the old DirecTV RG59 cable from the antenna to the jack inside the house. RG59 MUST NOT be used for newer Dish equipment because it does not have adequate bandwidth to support the 3GHz signals. RG6 must be used instead. You can tell the difference by the size of the cable (RG59 is 0.25" in diameter, RG6 is 0.275"). There should also be labelling on the cable. Replacing both the RG59 and the WAP solved the problem (I suspect that replacing the RG59 alone would have fixed it but wasn't going to go thru the trouble of two separate service calls).
Getting Dish to send out a tech was not easy because they would not do anything about it unless we paid $95 for a service call. Dish said our equipment was out of warranty. I asked to speak to a supervisor (I figured we were renting their equipment which was defective) and she gave me 3 months free of the Dish Protect plan (I have to cancel it or I will be charged $10 per month after 3 months). If they don't do this for you sign up for Dish Protect and cancel it after the equipment is repaired.
This all started on a Saturday and Dish had a tech out the next day - a Sunday, so I was very impressed with that part of the ordeal!