no picture, sound only on hd pak

[shelly]

Just another story for you all.

Called to reactivate my old 6000 receiver (inactive since Voom began) to add just the hd pak and the voom hd pak.

Within 10 minutes, and two csr's, I was activated and my monthly charge would be $19.95 (includes $5 service fee for not having any other paks) plus $25 reactivation fee.

All Voom channels are happening now but I only get sound, no picture on the older hd pak.

68 minutes with advanced tech support and no solution, although I was refreshed, soft booted, hard booted. All 3 sats come in fine except for the older hd pak.

Now we know that the hd pak needs the 8psk modulator, which I have had installed from day 1.

The tech concluded that I have either a defective 6000 receiver or defective module, although both were working fine when I put the 6000 in mothballs.

I could get a replacement 6000 for $19.95 + shipping (and return my unit at my expense), or I could add the Dish Protection Plan to my account for $5.95/month (can be cancelled at any time) and he would send me a replacement 6000 plus a replacement module for free, including shipping, with free return shipping labels for the older unit. Great offer and they should be here on Wednesday.

I think the problem really lies in the fact that I have the old blue smart card in my 6000 and the new ones are yellow.

Anyway I hope this takes care of the problem.
*************

On another note, I hooked up my 24" Voom dish and got a 84 signal strength reading. I was just trying to see if it would work, and it did following a switch check.

I then hooked up my original coax cables with the 18" Dish 300 pointing at 61.5 and got a signal strength reading of 104. The 18" dish must be really zeroed in on the sat while the larger 24" Voom dish may be a bit off.

Shelly, down to just 4 working dishes now

 

[Bogney]

I think the problem really lies in the fact that I have the old blue smart card in my 6000 and the new ones are yellow.

That is the problem. Same thing happened today to a friend that reactivated an old 6000. Dish is sending him a new card.

 

[HokieEngineer]

The problem is definately having the blue smartcard. Call back and demand the yellow card, no matter how clueless the person is. Eventually they will get tired and transfer you to "advanced 6000 support". I cant believe how stupid the CSRs are. Or maybe its the management? How hard would it be to add an option to the 6000 troubleshooting checklist? "if customer has blue smartcard, replace with yellow". JD Powers sucks just as much as charlie CSRs.

 

[shelly]

I'll just wait to receive the replacement 6000 which will have the new yellow access card. I could not stand to get back on the phone with "India" and have to be transferred several times to advanced tech support to authorize sending me a new card.

It's unfortunate enough that I will have to call back to have them authorize the new receiver anyway, but I think that the regular csr can do that without transferring me around the world

Thanks for confirmation of what I suspected was the problem.

Shelly.

 

[DarrellP]

Wow, an hour with tech support and they never asked about the card? I am getting a 100 signal strength from Dish at 61.5 without retweaking it for Dish. In fact, I weathered a downpour today on 61.5 that blacked out the HD channels on 110.

 

[shelly]

Darrell,

We actually disussed the issue of a new card at the very end, after he had alrready done allthe computer work to send me the 6000 (with yellow card). When I asked if it would be simpler and cheaper for them to just send me a new card, he said that the new receiver/module/card would take care of whatever problem I had (in case it was with the module or receiver instead of the card.)

So I'm getting a new access card in a handy, dandy 6000 carrying case.

I'll be leaving my Voom dish up in case I get rain fade with my 18" original Dish 300 but I can't seem to recall that having been a problem in the past. In any case, the 24" Voom dish probably needs a bit of tweaking (or not) to deal with any rain fade.

But our rainy season is just about over so it will be many months before I know. And by then, we all may be subsctibing to some other satellite service.

Shelly