Tuner keeps going black on HR20

[lovswr]

My Setup: Two HR20-700's & 3 SD boxes.

Sympton: One tuner (1 or 2 does not matter) loses all transponsders every night;

Temp Fix: reset box OR got to ant page & look at all the 0's on all 5 birds. Come out of ant readings & wait for the tuner that is working to "switch over". Resetting the box is normally quicker.


This all started last August when my daughter told me that her D11 just went out. It was searching for satellite. I "thought" the problem was a bad port on the Zinwell. I just moved my daughter's cable to the other unused port (I have a total of 7 tuners/cable runs). This worked for about a week, until I had the first HR20 tuner loss. Long story short is I have been resetting that box ever since. It has gotten progressively worse, until now where I have to do this every day.

I have called D* about this 3 times, but of course when they tell me to reset the box, the problem "goes away".

I do not know if it is the Zinwell or the Slimline or some combination of both, but how do I force D* to come out. I mean it is not broken, but rather malfunctioning?

 

[jdspencer]

Wow! No replies yet.

The first thing to do is bypass the Zinwell switch. Of course you can only test four tuners, but this can eliminate or verify that the problem is with the switch. Also, double check ALL cable connections from the dish to the receivers.

It has been three days since you posed the question, so you may have gotten things fixed. Please reply as to its solution, if any.

It seems that you have been putting up with these problems for some time now.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-forum/114639-only-1-tuner-either-hr20.html

 

[Jimbo]

Yes, I would look into by passing the MS as the first thing to try, then see if it still happens.
I would call D* back and tell them you want someone out there asap, let them know how long you've put up with it.
Tell them that you can reset it and it will help briefly but you want it fixed permanantly ...
Be prepared for them to come out when they get a free scheduled time slot... it won't be convenient, but they should get out there.... also remember they DO have Saturday and sometimes Sunday appointments as well.

Jimbo

 

[lovswr]

Sorry for the no replies. I bought a new Zinwell on eBay for 24 bucks. It just came yesterday. As I am working from home today, I will run up to the attic this afternoon & swap it out.

Now of course, as soon as I ordered this thing I have not had the problem. Mr. (reverse) Murphy at work I guess.

 

[lovswr]

Well it happened again. Tuner 1 just starting pixelating on CNNHD & then the picture just froze. Changed to another good channel (tuner 2) & then back to 206 & black screen wtih searching for satellite. So I swapped out the Zinwell right then & there. Rebooting as I type.

I hope this fixes my problem.



Lasted about two hours. This time it locked up so bad that I had to unplug it from the AC. Next step is to physically swap my 2 hr20's to see if the problem follows. Also I know there is a very small fan close the hD, but does anybody know if there is a plug on the motherboard for an additional fan?

 

[Jimbo]

Well it happened again. Tuner 1 just starting pixelating on CNNHD & then the picture just froze. Changed to another good channel (tuner 2) & then back to 206 & black screen wtih searching for satellite. So I swapped out the Zinwell right then & there. Rebooting as I type.

I hope this fixes my problem.



Lasted about two hours. This time it locked up so bad that I had to unplug it from the AC. Next step is to physically swap my 2 hr20's to see if the problem follows. Also I know there is a very small fan close the hD, but does anybody know if there is a plug on the motherboard for an additional fan?

I don't think there is a plug, but there is a USB port that has been mentioned to be active, I haven't used it, so I cannot say 100 %, but you can look into that as well.

Jimbo

 

[Jimbo]

Still lots of things this could be :
Could be a bad unit, like your thinking, also could be a defective Slimline LNB assembly, or still a bad connection.

Jimbo

 

[jdspencer]

Well it happened again. Tuner 1 just starting pixelating on CNNHD & then the picture just froze. Changed to another good channel (tuner 2) & then back to 206 & black screen wtih searching for satellite. So I swapped out the Zinwell right then & there. ...

Did you bypass the multiswitch as I suggested earlier?

 

[lovswr]

WHOOPS! I completely forgot about this thread. It was the El Cheapo 9 dollar power strip from Wally-World. It has two F-type IN & OUT so I had the cable from the wall going to it. I (just happened to) change my equipment rack from a Kenwood stereo cabinet with a glass door (circa 1991) to a fashionable open rack with "intergrated cable management (again from Wal-Mart... see a trend here )

Anyway that cheap powerstrip was causing all the problems. That was not quite two weeks ago & not a problem since.


Thanks for all of the other suggestions & I guess having an extra Zinwell never hurt anybody!