Lightning Strike

paulchrestman

Member
Original poster
May 22, 2013
11
0
My house was hit by lightning last night. My satellite was knocked out. The TV is a loss and so is my OTA antenna (lighting hit the antenna). It caused a small fire in the amplifier.

My 622 powers up, but only my DVR works. The output to TV2 also works. I can not get a signal from any of my two Sats. I have done a check switch and that did nothing. It is not seeing any of the birds.

I removed the OTA input.

Any ideas?
 
Welcome to the site.

Sorry about the lightning issues.

If the dvr works, you may have been lucky & just lost an lnb.

If you have another swap it out, if not you probably need a service call.
 
Welcome to the site.

Sorry about the lightning issues.

If the dvr works, you may have been lucky & just lost an lnb.

If you have another swap it out, if not you probably need a service call.

I second this. Also, call your homeowners insurance and let them know there was a lightning strike on your house. There's NO telling as of yet what was all damaged. Lightning damage can be very strange, and you may have more damaged equipment and just not know it as of yet.
 
YES HOMEOWNERS INS. Then call DISH to replace your system you may need everything including the cable replaced depending on the intensity of the strike. You may replace all but 1 component and it is working, 1 week later that 1 component may fail as a result of that strike.
 
All true; your electronics may slowly die instead of immediately. Was on a sailboat in a thunderstorm; got below prior to the strike (luckily). Over the course of the next 2 weeks, the navigation equipment, UHF radio, and stereo went out. Cabling may also be affected.
 
My house was hit by lightning last night. My satellite was knocked out. The TV is a loss and so is my OTA antenna (lighting hit the antenna). It caused a small fire in the amplifier.

My 622 powers up, but only my DVR works. The output to TV2 also works. I can not get a signal from any of my two Sats. I have done a check switch and that did nothing. It is not seeing any of the birds.

I removed the OTA input.

Any ideas?
:welcome to SatelliteGuys and soory to hear what happened and hope you get everything fixed.I would call Dish and see what they say and then you may have to call your Homeowners Insurance but may have to call your Insurance to see if anything else was damaged :)
 
DO NOT CALL DISH AND TELL THEM IT WAS LIGHTNING The second you mention the word lightning, there is no warranty and they will notate your account and charge full price for everything.

When you call them, play dumb and let them sell you the protection plan to get out a technician for free to fix it.
 
Thanks for the responses. I called my homeowners insurance and have that ball rolling. I don't have the dish protection plan, so that won't work for me. How much will dish charge for a service call? How much is a LMB cost? How hard is it to install?

Seems to me the problem is with the dish or something between the dish and the box. Box is still working fine on DVR programs on TV2. Not sure on TV 1 since that TV doesn't work anymore.

I am out of contract, not sure if that makes a difference or not. Anyone have luck with homeowners insurance paying to have dish fixed?
 
Thanks for the responses. I called my homeowners insurance and have that ball rolling. I don't have the dish protection plan, so that won't work for me. How much will dish charge for a service call? How much is a LMB cost? How hard is it to install?

Seems to me the problem is with the dish or something between the dish and the box. Box is still working fine on DVR programs on TV2. Not sure on TV 1 since that TV doesn't work anymore.

I am out of contract, not sure if that makes a difference or not. Anyone have luck with homeowners insurance paying to have dish fixed?

best advice is to add the protection plan now.You cancel it after so many months.It will cover the receiver,lnb,and dish.A tech visit would only be $15 instead of $95.
 
Thanks for the responses. I called my homeowners insurance and have that ball rolling. I don't have the dish protection plan, so that won't work for me. How much will dish charge for a service call?

I think in theory it's $95 without the protection plan and $15 with. In reality, I've had Dish folks out here twice for free, and I don't have a protection plan. When I called up and spoke with a CSR and they offered to send people out, I just said "That's free, right?" and they said yes each time. Of course, your mileage may vary, and it's worth noting that in my case the Dish had just come lose and lost it's signal, and was in a spot I couldn't reach, so they didn't actually have to provide any new equipment or anything (Maybe new screws to secure it?). It's probably worth calling and seeing if they'll do it for free, or at least come out and assess the situation for free.

You'll get a lot of varying opinions on this, and everyone has the right to do or not do what they want to do or don't want to do, but I personally wouldn't pay $95 or roughly $50 (thinking the cost of protection plan that I think has to be carried for six months plus a service call on the plan) for people to fix something that has gone wrong on equipment they own and are providing to me as part of a service I pay for every month, unless I was under contract and it sort of forced my hand, and then I'd just fume about it (or pay an ETF if were less than the repair costs). ;) If I have to pay them every month and then mail it back in the event that I discontinue my service, it's their job to keep it running to ensure that I'm getting the service I pay for, in my opinion. If I had a problem and they wanted to charge me to fix it, unless it was due to some sort of gross negligence on my part, I'd probably say "I'd like to cancel my account please" and switch to cable with their new customer promos. If I still felt like I'd prefer Dish after the cable promo ran out, I'd call Dish and see if I could get their new customer promo again and maybe better equipment at that juncture. :)

I don't feel that way about everything. If I get a computer or something, I do expect the company I buy it from to provide warranty service for a year, which is about standard. After that, I realize I'm on my own. But I'm not buying a subscription service from them, and I don't have to mail the computer back at any point. It's my equipment, so the responsibility shifts to me unless they have sold me a lemon (Which I define as something that breaks during the first year of normal use). Also, a computer can be used with various different Internet services, or even without the Internet at all for limited purposes (Music, word processing, some games, calculator, an encyclopedia or dictionary, DVD player if there's a DVD drive, watching pre-downloaded movies, etc..) or if it's a laptop taken to a McDonald's, a library, or a coffee shop that offers free wifi. A Dish can be used only to access Dish Network's pay service and typically isn't owned (Technically you can buy the things, and occasionally some people do, but I personally don't like the idea of buying something that turns into an expensive brick the second I stop paying a service fee from one specific company- I'd rather lease it for the duration of the service and then return it.).

I guess if Dish offered equipment that could do something other than just access the Dish service when paid for monthly, I'd think of it more in the vein of something I wanted to own and might pay to get serviced after the first year or two if it broke. It it were a box you buy that, yeah, could access Dish while you're subscribed, but also could be used to subscribe to Directv if you wanted to switch to Directv, and had features that worked without subscribing to anything at all (Maybe an OTA antenna that works superwell [Normal OTA attennas get nothing in my area], a DVR that stays functional after you cancel service and records OTA stuff or stuff off cable for no monthly fee, something that pulls programming off the Internet [similar to a Roku, etc.].). But if it's just the Dish box that just works when you pay Dish a fee, and it's provided to me temporarily to access Dish programming as long as I pay for it and it stops functioning and must be sent back when I'm finished, I feel like it's on them to maintain it, within reason. The cable company repairs their equipment gratis in similar circumstances.

And, to Dish's credit, they've done right by me when I've needed a tech, even if it's not their official policy. So I personally haven't had any issues there so far. Like I said, worth calling and seeing if they'll fix it for free for you, even if you don't intend to pay to get it fixed. If they tell you it's going to cost you while you're on the phone, you can always just say "No thanks, I'd like to cancel my service". Or you can call, see if you can get it fixed for no additional charge, and then, if they say no, and you are willing to pay, agree to do so at that juncture.
 
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When you call Dish, you can tell them to start the protection plan and then send the tech. You can then cancel after 4 months at no charge or before that for $25.
 
Called dish and they are coming tomorrow. Signed up for protection plan. The HDMI seems to be broken but AV cables work on TV one. Going to buy new HDMI to be sure.

If HDMI is broken. Will they replace my 622 or offer to repair. Will they charge for replacement? Can they transfer my recordings? (I don't have external Drive...should I get one before tech visit?) not sure if OTA works either.

Still no sat signal. But that is expected.

Thanks for help. I am on a tight budget.
 
Called dish and they are coming tomorrow. Signed up for protection plan. The HDMI seems to be broken but AV cables work on TV one. Going to buy new HDMI to be sure.

If HDMI is broken. Will they replace my 622 or offer to repair. Will they charge for replacement? Can they transfer my recordings? (I don't have external Drive...should I get one before tech visit?) not sure if OTA works either.

Still no sat signal. But that is expected.

Thanks for help. I am on a tight budget.

They will replace a 622 for a bad hdmi.That particular model is infamous for failing hdmi ports.We went through 3 622's,2 of which were simply due to bad hdmi ports.Finally they replaced the last 622 with a 722.No problems since.All of that was free of charge,we did have the protection plan at the time.

The only way to save your recordings would be to have an ehd to transfer them to.
 
It depends on how much data you need to copy.If you have a lot of hd content,then at least 500gb.Also be sure the ehd is self powered,it won't work properly using the usb power from the 622.
 
The Western Digital "My Book" external drives work perfectly with the Dish dvr. It goes to sleep, and wakes up as needed. I have a older 6 year old 500gb My Book drive on mine, and it's nowhere near being full, and has a lot of stuff on it. The 1TB model of this drive sells for around $84 on average. You want a USB model, not e-Sata. I really don't recommend anything larger than 1TB if you aren't a big show archiver.
 
Tech came and said 622 was shot. He also replaced dipixler. He swapped the 622 for a 722k. I didn't have time to swap my DVR recordings, but that was ok. It was mostly my kids shows that can be recorded again from PBS. I also ordered then OTA module so I can hook the antenna back up.

Thank you all for helping. I now have Dish working again. Also, I am impressed that Dish does a much better job keeping the window appointment and the text messages helped too.
 
Tech came and said 622 was shot. He also replaced dipixler. He swapped the 622 for a 722k. I didn't have time to swap my DVR recordings, but that was ok. It was mostly my kids shows that can be recorded again from PBS. I also ordered then OTA module so I can hook the antenna back up.

Thank you all for helping. I now have Dish working again. Also, I am impressed that Dish does a much better job keeping the window appointment and the text messages helped too.

There is a person in classifieds that just listed an OTA moduie for this receiver for $25. Maybe you can save some money...
 

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