Please HELP!

[msajeff]

Our setup: 4 HR24-100 (Living, Kids', and our bedroom), 1 HR24-500 (home office), Lines running to/from LNB, square SWM splitter, and what I believe was the power inverter...green, 1 input, and 4 outputs. PI is with the Living Room DVR...Cable run from dish to wall is 20' and then another 5' inside, DECA is with the home office DVR. Everything had worked great for 18 months.

I'm hoping someone knows because it's driving me crazy and my wife just wants me to "move" back and have a tech sent out. Background...we have the Protection plan and recently had to "move" back to our install address after a hard drive failure in an hr24-100. I was sent a -500 model. When activating it I had them "move" me back. On Friday we had the power flicker off for an hour and when it came back on our whole setup was a mess. Both of my son's DVRs work without any issues. Our bedroom DVR pixelates and at times comes up with the 775. Our Living room goes back and forth between working and not working...it seems tied to whether or not the -500 is plugged in. When it is, the Living room works and populates in the WH status/Recordings List. I have tightened every cable inside and outside, changed out different cables to the non-working DVR, and run the diagnostics which gave me (I believe) a 7501 code in each box of the Satnat/SWM test. Is the -500 itself the issue? We have tried multiple times unplugging all boxes, unplugging and disconnecting the PI for 90 seconds after the green light completely dims, and then connecting the cable from the wall to the PI before plugging it in. This past attempt I even power cycled the DECA. At that point we have gone box by box. The living room went straight to 775, the bedrooms had no issues, but the -500 in the office is still not working. Signal strengths are 0s across the board...even if I bypass the DECA splitter and go direct from wall to box. I have not confirmed via TV that the living room DVR is working this morning but it was before and the recorded shows are populating in Directv2PC and in the playlists. The only thing I haven't tried is swapping the -500 with a -100 but I'm not sure what good that would do.

I was told last Friday that the Protection Plan people can use a shipping address different than the installation address. If it's the box, I'll just get on the phone and politely demand they either send a -100 or -200 OR send a brand new box istead of this refurbished junk. Conversely, even though I don't think it's the issue based on the PI (since every other box works), could I just unhook the PI, take it to a dealer, and ask them if they can test the voltage?

Any suggestions for things I haven't tried yet would be greatly appreciated.

 

[msajeff]

I hate doing this but I'll ask again....Any suggestions? Really don't want to call in but may have to. The living room -100 DVR is not working either. I know I've got to be missing something.

 

[msajeff]

Here's a look at the setup outside:











Sorry about the quality...cell pictures early on a cloudy day aren't the greatest. Looking through them I realized that I didn't see the PI splitter over by the dish. Is this normal? I'm guessing it's near/on the outside of the wall where the wire comes in. From the dish to where it enters it's roughly 25 ft. to the wall plate and another 5 ft of wire from the plate to the PI.

 

[Hutch1814]

Well since your running a SWM16 and you have no gray wire coming from the 16 but the 2-way in the cable box has a gray wore attached as a feed line is odd. Somewhere you have barrel which isn't a good idea. As for the power inserter. It should be inside. It is connected to the 4-way you have underneath the 16. So which ever line is connected to the top of that 4-way is going to have your power inserter on it somewhere. Ill read up on this thread and see if anything pops out to me and I write another post

 

[Hutch1814]

Ok, I would see which receivers are on which splitter to start. Once you determine that try switching the receivers to different splitter. Also, I'm thinking a barrel is beyond corroded and needs replaced somewhere. That 16 and cabling look horrible. I'd want a tech out to just clean that up and while they're there, have them replace the wire running to that second splitter.

 

[msajeff]

Well I believe my wife mentioned the PI splitter was away from the Dish. (I'm 6 months out of a 3 level spine fusion so can't move around much on crappy days.) What I established on Saturday was that the connections are wrench tight and "looked" alright at first glace outside...also did the power cycling of the PI inside which didn't help. The one thing I may try tomorrow while everyone is gone is to see if the -500 that gets 0s across the board will work in one of my kids' rooms. Everything is at a managable height. Hopefully at the very least it'll reauthorize Whole Home on it so I can watch stuff from other receivers.

They are sending a tech on Wednesday after it was escalated a level up from the protection plan people. (Was a bit worried that having them change my installation address on the call was throwing up red flags but nothing was said about it.) We've had 2 installs here. The first installer used old cable coax lines for 2 of the receivers. The second (who told me he was fairly new) ran new cable for my son's room while installomg the SWM 16 and setting up WH/DECA. For those with experience or have some idea, is it generally acceptable for me to ask them to reconnect the cable coax to the cable box and run new coax to make sure everything is running D* installed wiring? They said the installer will have a replacement box with him and I may ask if he can swap out our -500 if his box is a -100 or -200 or if I get really lucky, a hr34 as even with 10 tuners there are times we run out of tuners (I tape every game and Redzone via Sunday Ticket.)

FWIW, I'm normally one of those people who on hot summer days offer water, on long installs food, and a lot of the time hang out and try to learn as much as possible about what is being done...if they have to suffer in cold or heat, I'm right there suffering with them. I try to be as far away from some of the horror stories I've read on here about people being a-holes towards installers over the smallest things.

 

[Joe Diamond]

Well I believe my wife mentioned the PI splitter was away from the Dish. (I'm 6 months out of a 3 level spine fusion so can't move around much on crappy days.) What I established on Saturday was that the connections are wrench tight and "looked" alright at first glace outside...also did the power cycling of the PI inside which didn't help. The one thing I may try tomorrow while everyone is gone is to see if the -500 that gets 0s across the board will work in one of my kids' rooms. Everything is at a managable height. Hopefully at the very least it'll reauthorize Whole Home on it so I can watch stuff from other receivers.

They are sending a tech on Wednesday after it was escalated a level up from the protection plan people. (Was a bit worried that having them change my installation address on the call was throwing up red flags but nothing was said about it.) We've had 2 installs here. The first installer used old cable coax lines for 2 of the receivers. The second (who told me he was fairly new) ran new cable for my son's room while installomg the SWM 16 and setting up WH/DECA. For those with experience or have some idea, is it generally acceptable for me to ask them to reconnect the cable coax to the cable box and run new coax to make sure everything is running D* installed wiring? They said the installer will have a replacement box with him and I may ask if he can swap out our -500 if his box is a -100 or -200 or if I get really lucky, a hr34 as even with 10 tuners there are times we run out of tuners (I tape every game and Redzone via Sunday Ticket.)

FWIW, I'm normally one of those people who on hot summer days offer water, on long installs food, and a lot of the time hang out and try to learn as much as possible about what is being done...if they have to suffer in cold or heat, I'm right there suffering with them. I try to be as far away from some of the horror stories I've read on here about people being a-holes towards installers over the smallest things.

msajeff,
About the coax: Using existing coax is a standard practice. However if there is a problem with it the tech will bypass any questionable lines. It is common to replace fittings and or remove any splitters from lines run for a cable system. While rare these days any RG 59 will be bypassed. There is no benefit to adding new cable if the existing stuff is undamaged; electrons don't care. IF you are still running cable company internet it is best that that line not be diplexed with Directv....have the tech run a seperate line. They will charge extra to run cable inside walls (wallfishing) if it is possible and if the tech has the skills, tools and time to do it.

Unless you specify some reason for a specific model receiver or recorder the tech will have an appropriate unit to swap out any questionable box but they have what they are issued that day.They will try to stick to what is on the work order.

Regarding your issue.......try just shaking any wires you can reach. Sometimes the problem is an uncompressed fitting (new guy error) or cable damage that will be intermittent until found and replaced. Could also be the box........swapping boxes to a known-to-be-good location could tell you. Likewise switching sat lines can tell a little about what is happening. Pixilation (little dots or squares) is almost always low signal or damaged cable. No picture is a cut or disconnected line.....or a defect in the sat line to the LNB.

Report how it goes.

Joe