Weird issues with one of my Dish 501s--losing one transponder?

[David Taylor]

I have 2 Dish 501 PVRs and an old 2700 receiver. 1 of the PVRs and the 2700 seem to work fine for all channels. I can see the spot beam for the Dallas stations (110, spotbeam 8) fine with about an 85-90 strength. On the other PVR I cannot see the locals and get no signal in the setup for 110 spotbeam 8. I seem to get some signal on some of the 110 transponders (I'm not sure which ones I'm supposed to get). I have an SW64 switch.

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be, where I'd only be losing some transponders on 110 on 1 of my receivers? It sounds like a possible switch issue, but it seems like they'd all be acting funny. Any ideas? Also, is there a list somewhere of what channels are on 110 vs 119? I'd like to check some of the others. Thanks!

David

 

[David Taylor]

I just did some more checking. That one receiver isn't getting anything on transponder 9 either (channels 192 and 401). So it looks like transponder 8 and 9 are out on a single receiver and the others are fine. Is that possible???

 

[n0qcu]

Believe it or not YES it is posible for a bad switch to lose only some transponders and on only one output. Do this try unpluging the power to the switch for a bit and then redo the check switch on the problem recever. it may help. you could also try moving the connnection for the problem receiver to the unused port on the switch.

 

[David Taylor]

Ok. I'll give those things a try. Thanks.

 

[NightRyder]

If you haven't already done so perform a hard reset on the receiver either by holding the front power button down or pulling the smart card. If that doesn't cure your problem swap the problem receiver with one of the working ones. Then you'll know if it's the receiver or a cable/switch issue.


NightRyder

 

[David Taylor]

I went out to swap cables around and it doesn't look like I can. Terminal 1 of the 4 on the SW64 switch has to be hooked up to the power inserter and this reciever is on terminal 1. I HAVE to have a receiver hooked up to that terminal it seems. :-(

 

[David Taylor]

GRrr. I went ahead and unhooked the cable from the switch (it was plenty tight) and then put it back in again. Now I'm getting the channels!! I think something is flakey with that switch.

What is the best switch to get these days with 3 receivers?

 

[Roller]

since you have the 2700 you'd still need a sw64..that or you could do a dp34, dp adapter, and dp twin lnb. or dpp44 and dp twin

 

[David_Levin]

I had the 508 that when it got too hot it lost 1 transponder. Diagnosed the problem by pointing a fan at the thing.

 

[David Taylor]

Well, the channels were gone for a couple of days. So this morning I took the 501 out of my bedroom (which works fine) and brought it in to the living room and plugged it in. Guess what? It wouldn't pick up those 2 transponders either! So, it appears that it is the SW64 switch. I ordered a couple of used ones off of Ebay, so hopefully one of them will work and take care of the issue. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[bcshields]

Inspect that switch in depth. SW64's go bad frequently. Check for damage to the ports.