Signal Not Found on one receiver, other one works fine

Sassan

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 1, 2005
283
13
Columbus
Cliff Notes:

Went on vacation, came back, turned on receivers on July 5th. #1 works fine, #2 said it had a hard drive failure. Called DISH and was sent a new receiver. Swapped it in, set up all my programs for recording, and worked great for two days.

July 13th....turn on receiver, get error message of no signal found (015A). This goes back and forth, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Some days, no issues, other days it will take an hour to get the receiver back up and running with signal. Two fun parts to this: 1) Still records all the programmed shows, even at times it has "no signal" and 2) the other receive has signal, no problems.

Called Dish 6 times before I got to someone who wanted to do something other than unplug and power cycle the receiver. On July 21 in the evening, I was speaking to one "tech" who asked me to hold on. After 22 minutes of being on hold, I hung up. On July 23, I asked for loyalty, got transferred, and said simply send a tech out to fix it or you can have all your stuff back and I will switch. I am done wasting my time trying to resolve this issue.



July 26.....technician comes out. Says nothing is wrong and the satellite has great signal. We say ok, then why does our box do this? Of course, receiver is working at the time. Ask him to unplug the receiver and power it up to see the issue, says this is not necessary because everything is working and quickly leaves.

Fifteen minutes later, turn the box on, and "no signal found." Call Dish and ask for another tech to come out......and next available appointment is not until July 31. I asked why, and was told verbatim "it's too bad."

13 year customer, Dish has gotten a LOT of my money.


I'd love if DIRT would like to get involved and help. If the tech on Monday doesn't resolve, I am just gonna call it quits with DISH and move on. After all these years, I'd expect a little better than a too bad response.
 
By any chance are these ViP receivers? Which model?

PS: Take pictures of error messages. Tighten all connections first.
 
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Nice rant. :cheer

It's possible that the situation is exactly as he described, and he has a right to be upset if so.

When I had to have a Hopper replaced because of hard drive failure, I'm not sure that its replacement worked for more than a few minutes before cutting up every program I tried to record by inexplicably losing signal at random. Replaced the LNB, replaced the node, still hosed. Finally had to get yet another receiver.
 
It's possible that the situation is exactly as he described, and he has a right to be upset if so.

I agree totally. Did I indicate otherwise? The OP (didn't know it was a "he") didn't ask for advice or comment or help or anything else. My post was my way of showing support. Did you notice that I was cheering with pom poms for him/her?
 
My apologies, I thought you were posting sarcastically. I'm so used to certain people who evidently think that Dish can do no wrong criticizing me for my own complaints.
 
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Cliff Notes:

Went on vacation, came back, turned on receivers on July 5th. #1 works fine, #2 said it had a hard drive failure. Called DISH and was sent a new receiver. Swapped it in, set up all my programs for recording, and worked great for two days.

July 13th....turn on receiver, get error message of no signal found (015A). This goes back and forth, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Some days, no issues, other days it will take an hour to get the receiver back up and running with signal. Two fun parts to this: 1) Still records all the programmed shows, even at times it has "no signal" and 2) the other receive has signal, no problems.

Called Dish 6 times before I got to someone who wanted to do something other than unplug and power cycle the receiver. On July 21 in the evening, I was speaking to one "tech" who asked me to hold on. After 22 minutes of being on hold, I hung up. On July 23, I asked for loyalty, got transferred, and said simply send a tech out to fix it or you can have all your stuff back and I will switch. I am done wasting my time trying to resolve this issue.



July 26.....technician comes out. Says nothing is wrong and the satellite has great signal. We say ok, then why does our box do this? Of course, receiver is working at the time. Ask him to unplug the receiver and power it up to see the issue, says this is not necessary because everything is working and quickly leaves.

Fifteen minutes later, turn the box on, and "no signal found." Call Dish and ask for another tech to come out......and next available appointment is not until July 31. I asked why, and was told verbatim "it's too bad."

13 year customer, Dish has gotten a LOT of my money.


I'd love if DIRT would like to get involved and help. If the tech on Monday doesn't resolve, I am just gonna call it quits with DISH and move on. After all these years, I'd expect a little better than a too bad response.

Switch places for the receivers and see if the same receiver has the problem or it's the location. I realize you got a replacement receiver but that will answer alot of other questions. If it is just the one location then it's time to look at connections, the cable itself, grounding, if you have any switches that could be the problem etc. I would also switch the cable to feed the opposite receivers they now connect to and see the result.
 
Update:

New tech came out today.....props, dude knows what he is doing. First thing he did was shake his head and say "who in the world set this up and why did our last tech not say anything, because this is not ok." and I mean, quoted verbatim.

He goes through and checks every little nook and cranny, swaps out the LNB, then gives the ultimate vote of confidence of saying I really needed to get the entire system redone and cleaned up, with a recommendation of getting the Hopper 3 in there and a clean install. I asked if he could do right now, said no because it isnt on the work order. Fair enough, thank you for the honest assessment.

So I call Dish and ask for loyalty. They say that it will cost me $300 to upgrade to the Hopper 3 system and have it installed. I explained the same story.....tech one didn't do squat, tech two is saying that this is not a stable setup and recommends the change, and loyalty still wants me to pay the amount. Sorry, I am not paying for failure on your part. We go round and round and round, and I say if you want your equipment, come and take it, or come and done a new install and get it right. I frankly don't care anymore at this point. Rep finally says that she "talked to the back office and they will do me a favor" and not charge me. Whatever.


Hopper 3 install on Sunday. And if does not go well or I have any issues, Dish can come take all their crap and I will switch over to Direct no questions asked. I was given a hell of an offer yesterday, same package I have now for $10 less per month. I don't mind paying more and being loyal, as it pays off in the end, but I am at wits end with Dish over this.


The rep kept blaming me for the equipment failure. I said if I bought a car and in the first month I had to keep taking it back to get it fixed, I would demand a new car after the 3rd visit. She replied "that's why I would get insurance, so I wouldn't have that problem." What???? At that point, I was done with the arguing, zero logic.
 
Update:

New tech came out today.....props, dude knows what he is doing. First thing he did was shake his head and say "who in the world set this up and why did our last tech not say anything, because this is not ok." and I mean, quoted verbatim.

He goes through and checks every little nook and cranny, swaps out the LNB, then gives the ultimate vote of confidence of saying I really needed to get the entire system redone and cleaned up, with a recommendation of getting the Hopper 3 in there and a clean install. I asked if he could do right now, said no because it isnt on the work order. Fair enough, thank you for the honest assessment.

So I call Dish and ask for loyalty. They say that it will cost me $300 to upgrade to the Hopper 3 system and have it installed. I explained the same story.....tech one didn't do squat, tech two is saying that this is not a stable setup and recommends the change, and loyalty still wants me to pay the amount. Sorry, I am not paying for failure on your part. We go round and round and round, and I say if you want your equipment, come and take it, or come and done a new install and get it right. I frankly don't care anymore at this point. Rep finally says that she "talked to the back office and they will do me a favor" and not charge me. Whatever.


Hopper 3 install on Sunday. And if does not go well or I have any issues, Dish can come take all their crap and I will switch over to Direct no questions asked. I was given a hell of an offer yesterday, same package I have now for $10 less per month. I don't mind paying more and being loyal, as it pays off in the end, but I am at wits end with Dish over this.


The rep kept blaming me for the equipment failure. I said if I bought a car and in the first month I had to keep taking it back to get it fixed, I would demand a new car after the 3rd visit. She replied "that's why I would get insurance, so I wouldn't have that problem." What???? At that point, I was done with the arguing, zero logic.
First off, the CSR that spoke to you that way should not only be fired, but should be throat punched and told they will never make over minimum wage the rest of their lives.
I was a tech for 12 years. And I can tell you this. The first tech did not come close to doing his job. Second tech should have gone ahead with the fix. Then call in to have a future upgrade work worker created.
he gets the extra point, kudos for a job well done and a feather in his cap for selling you an upgrade.....
 
Cliff Notes:

Went on vacation, came back, turned on receivers on July 5th. #1 works fine, #2 said it had a hard drive failure. Called DISH and was sent a new receiver. Swapped it in, set up all my programs for recording, and worked great for two days.

July 13th....turn on receiver, get error message of no signal found (015A). This goes back and forth, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Some days, no issues, other days it will take an hour to get the receiver back up and running with signal. Two fun parts to this: 1) Still records all the programmed shows, even at times it has "no signal" and 2) the other receive has signal, no problems.

Called Dish 6 times before I got to someone who wanted to do something other than unplug and power cycle the receiver. On July 21 in the evening, I was speaking to one "tech" who asked me to hold on. After 22 minutes of being on hold, I hung up. On July 23, I asked for loyalty, got transferred, and said simply send a tech out to fix it or you can have all your stuff back and I will switch. I am done wasting my time trying to resolve this issue.



July 26.....technician comes out. Says nothing is wrong and the satellite has great signal. We say ok, then why does our box do this? Of course, receiver is working at the time. Ask him to unplug the receiver and power it up to see the issue, says this is not necessary because everything is working and quickly leaves.

Fifteen minutes later, turn the box on, and "no signal found." Call Dish and ask for another tech to come out......and next available appointment is not until July 31. I asked why, and was told verbatim "it's too bad."

13 year customer, Dish has gotten a LOT of my money.


I'd love if DIRT would like to get involved and help. If the tech on Monday doesn't resolve, I am just gonna call it quits with DISH and move on. After all these years, I'd expect a little better than a too bad response.
As a former tech, my approach would have been a stem to stern troubleshoot. I would have found the problem and fixed it..Period.
 
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Thanks guys. Second guy gets credit, he did change the LNB, and so far so good. He knows his stuff, tried to do the right thing.




But the fact that I am going through all this to get this issue fixed......I am still really, really contemplating calling DirectTV and taking them up on the offer they gave. The CSR pissed me off beyond belief.
 
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Update.....now have a Hopper 3.


I had a case manager contact me Thursday, I asked why, and she said that the accounted showed that I had multiple calls recently and it raised a flag. Who knows.

Either way, I told her that if the same tech who just fixed my system isn't the installer, I am going to have whoever shows up take all the equipment and cancel service. She said no promises, but will do her best.

Jonathan showed up today, and an hour later all 5 TVs are up and rolling with issue.


So far so good, but I reserve the right for comment for at least a month before deciding whether the system "works" or not.
 
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