Unactivated ViP211k For Dish Pointing/Tweaking

[hman920]

I picked up a ViP211k remanufactured receiver on eBay for $40.00

I want to use the receiver for dish pointing/tweaking purposes.

Connected the receiver to a dish and it properly connected to the switch/LNBs and downloaded the updated firmware, etc.

Now the receiver just stays stuck on Step 4 of 5, "Please call 1-800-333-3474 to activate your receiver."

The only thing I can press that gives me any response is the System Info button on the front panel. It will not even power off without unplugging power (holding the front panel power button down does reset the receiver though).

I cannot get into any menus with the remote at all.

Is their any way to be able to use this receiver without activation?

Access to the 8VSB OTA tuner would be nice as well.

I used to use a FTA receiver for pointing/tweaking but now days you really can't because none the MPEG4 FTA receivers support that "Turbo FEC" Dish uses...


Any info would be great!

Thanks !

Hman

 

[boba]

Your question about tweaking may have been answered have you tried searching? Using the OTA tuner does require a subscription, Welcome pack at $19.99/mo. is the cheapest.

 

[Mr Tony]

have you unplugged the receiver and rebooted it. When you see the first screen hit menu?

Use to work that way and you could at least get into the menus

 

[hman920]

Unplugged, waited 10 seconds, and plugged back in.

When it boots up is goes to a screen saying "Connect Receiver to Ethernet or Phone" with a progress bar on the bottom. I tired hitting menu on the remote through the whole boot up process.

No access to the receiver menus what so ever...

When it cannot find an Ethernet or Phone connection it lets me select "Continue" with the remote select button.

Tries to look for a Ethernet or Phone connection a second time with a progress bar at the bottom.

After the second try for Ethernet or Phone connection it stays on the call Dish to activate screen as in original post.

 

[mike123abc]

Try booting it up not connected to the LNB and see if it will let you in the point dish menu then.

 

[ChadT41]

Until it's activated once you'll continue to get this screen. Throw it on your account, finish the process then deactivate it. You'll have a prorated charge and credit for the same amount if done on the same day. But the initial activation screen has to go all the way through to do what you want it to do.

 

[rsmithwi]

Does this behavior happen let's say there is no signal?. It would be difficult to install the receiver without the signal meter to find the satellite first. Also I want to do the same as the OP, but if this is a problem with the Dish receiver is there any newer FTA receiver that could see the Dish signals for pointing. I want to scan in what spotbeams I get to see what locals are on it. No hacking involved, just to see the channel names since a receiver does not show it until activated. I thought a Dish rx would show what the spotbeam number is in the dish pointing menu which would help, but not the best way. This would be on the 61.5 bird only.

 

[hman920]

Tried powering up with no LNB, same result. Apparently these boxes are totally useless unless activated first.
Also, found out the receiver is a leased receiver tied to another account, so there is no chance of Dish activating it for me.
Sending back to the seller for a refund...

I am surprised there are no key sequences to get the receiver into a test mode/service mode (something like hold Up/Down/System Info all at the same time for 5 seconds, etc.)

Heck, you can get into the full service mode of a cell phone activated or not, does not even need a SIM card.

I found 1 MPEG4 FTA receiver on the market that DOES support the Dish/BellTv "Turbo FEC", the JynxBox Ultra HD.

Has anyone tried a JynxBox to scan DISH signals, monitor signal strengths, etc?

If the JynxBox CAN detect and monitor signal strengths of those Turbo FEC signals that may be my best bet for a cheap dish tweaking tool...

 

[ChadT41]

Why not just get a bird dog?

 

[rsmithwi]

Maybe since the receiver was on a previous account it's not a "virgin" one it thinks it had the dish pointed. They have to be able to access the menu to point the dish at first.

I need to find the services available on a particular spotbeam and the bird dog will be of no use. Could probably get by with the receiver signal meter and the Satbeams site to figure it out.

 

[JSheridan]

Press * then # or # then * to access the menus from the wizard. Check switch doesn't usually work right on a 211K from here but at least you can get to the install screens.

Shhh. Don't tell anybody.

 

[ChadT41]

You're thinking *#* may work, may not.