Need 942 troubleshooting advice

electr0n

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
May 27, 2004
81
0
Austin, TX
I wanted to ask advice here on a problem I'm having with my 942. This is a great forum and I have learned a lot from it.

Basically my problem is that I am intermittently losing signal on one or all of my feeds 110/119/61.5 as far as my 942 is concerned. It started about a week ago and seems to be getting worse. It was out for several hours last night. What happens is that I tune to a channel (for example HGTV 112) and I get a black screen. Then it says "failed to acquire signal" and some channels come up and some don't. For example channel 110 and 112 did not come in but 111 did last night. I went into the setup and checked system info and it showed all three feeds 110/119/61.5 as failed (red) but I was able to get my Voom (61.5) channels and a few others (like 111 and 107).

Later last night everything seemed to be working fine and when I looked at system info all three feeds showed green. This morning I checked and 110 and 119 were green but 61.5 was red. Although I could tune to the Voom channels and they came in just fine. OTA reception is good and I've never had problems with it BTW. Line of sight is good and I haven't had any problems my other receiver (811). This morning I checked the signal strength using the align dish menu and showed 95 for 110 and 61.5 and 104 for 119.

My setup is as follows:

I have a Dish 500 for 110/119 and second dish for 61.5 feeding into the Dish 500. I have an 811 downstairs and a 942 upstairs. My switch shows DPP-Twin-1 in system info. My revs are L287 for the 942 and P338 for my 811.

When I have trouble with my 942 the 811 does not. In fact the check switch on the 811 has never failed (110/119/61.5 all green) and the channels are visible on the 811 set when the 942 are down. Both my 811 and 942 were installed about a year ago and have worked extremely well with very little trouble.

So here's where I'm asking for some advice: Do you think it is a problem with the 942 itself or something external (a cable/switch)? Is there a good way to test this? My SAT1 and SAT2 cable are on a single cable coming into the house are are split out just prior to the 942 in case that matters. When it is in this failed state I have rebooted (unplugged) the 942 and it does not clear up the problem.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm sitting on the fence of upgrading to a 622. So if it is the 942 I'm inclined to go ahead and do the upgrade to a 622 (both my receivers are leased BTW). If I have to send it back I don't see much sense in sending in the 942 to get a replacement 942 to just swap it out in a month or two. If it is a faulty 942 do you think they'll let me upgrade it with a 622 at the same time? It seems to make sense to me (one swap instead of two). But what makes sense to me isn't always company policy. :D

In case you are wondering what I'm waiting for: I am using the HDMI out of my 942 and have heard of some issues with the 622 HDMI output. I wanted to wait until that issue was resolved (or at least characterized) before I made the leap.

Sorry for the long explanation but I appreciate any input you have. I haven't had any experience troubleshooting these problems but at first glance I would assume the problem is with the 942 (since the 811 has not experienced any problems at all).
 
I'm no expert, although I do have two 942's for experience. First, I would check the connections( all of them from the dish/lnb's, to the separator , to the 942 itself.
You could also try switching the receivers. That is, put the 811 where the 942 is, and see if it loses signal, and put the 942 where the other rcvr. is, and see if it acts up in that location.
Wouldn't hurt to try, and should help to isolate the problem.

Let us know.

Tom in TX
 
Ok thanks for the response. One question though - on my 942 I've got 2 cables coming in to the unit labeled Sat1 and Sat2 and the 811 only has one. I guess I use the common cable prior to them being split out? In other words when I move the 942 downstairs I take the combiner with it? I'm not exactly sure how that works.
 
I am a Dish tech. I personally would get rid of the DPPlus Twin LNB and get a DP Quad LNB instead. It would require a 2nd line to your 942 but with the exp. I have in dealing w/ the DPPlusTwin LNB is it the reason for a lot of problems. It is new in the field (out less than a year) and it is the item I am replacing the most. Good luck.
 
Thanks. It turns out it was one of my tuners went bad in the 942. I just got off the phone with tech support. I'm going ahead and upgrading to the 622.

Appreciate the responses.
 

Error Code 122

upgrade price

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)