Weird problem with losing signal intermittently

[DB10]

I've had this problem on and off for years with my boxes seemingly losing satellite signal. One is a VIP222K and the other is a Joey.

Cut a long story short, if I disconnect and reconnect the satellite in coax cable from the back of the box the signal comes back. Sometimes I don't even get as far as removing it, just a couple of unscrew turns of the connector makes it start loading again. I have to do it for each box.

Today I called customer service and went through the usual power reset routine which didn't do anything. Then they had me remove and reattach the HDMI cable and the signal came back, but that makes no sense to me. The guy said the HDMI cable may be bad but I don't know what the relationship is between satellite in and HDMI out.

This seems to be mostly a summer time problem, not sure if that is a coincidence. Maybe something expands and a connection gets flaky, not sure. I just don't understand why a couple of turns of the coax cable makes the boxes suddenly find a signal. Once it works it usually stays up until the next day, then you have to go through the same routine again. Cables have been replaced and all that.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions regarding what the problem might be?

Thank you.

 

[HipKat]

Bad LNBF is my first go to. More likely, somewhere in the system is water damage. I just had one yesterday, intermittent signal loss. Great signal at the Ground Block. Pulled the LNB and both connectors were corroded and water damaged. It's not a one time thing, either.

If you can get to the dish, check the coax connections there and at any connection points like ground blocks, splitters, etc between the Dish and the Receiver. If the silver mesh is "dusty" looking, there's water. If the white plastic area (Dielectric) is dark, water.

And how do you have a 222 with a Joey?

 

[tanman]

My brother also had intermittent signal loss issues that turned out to be a bad lnb.The tech replaced it with a refurb lnb that also went bad.Next time it was brand new and everything has worked fine since then.

 

[DB10]

Bad LNBF is my first go to. More likely, somewhere in the system is water damage. I just had one yesterday, intermittent signal loss. Great signal at the Ground Block. Pulled the LNB and both connectors were corroded and water damaged. It's not a one time thing, either.

If you can get to the dish, check the coax connections there and at any connection points like ground blocks, splitters, etc between the Dish and the Receiver. If the silver mesh is "dusty" looking, there's water. If the white plastic area (Dielectric) is dark, water.

And how do you have a 222 with a Joey?

Thanks for your reply. I can’t get to the dish, it’s way up on the roof and I’m not brave enough for that. I’ll check the connections I can get to though. There are several outside that get rained on all the time.

Can you explain why turning the coax connector a little or removing the hdmi cable makes the signal come back? I don’t get it, especially the hdmi part.

I’m not sure what you mean exactly by how do I have those boxes. We had the 222 for a while but added the Joey recently because you can’t do HD on the remote TV. Pretty sure it’s refurb.

 

[DB10]

My brother also had intermittent signal loss issues that turned out to be a bad lnb.The tech replaced it with a refurb lnb that also went bad.Next time it was brand new and everything has worked fine since then.

Ours was replaced a couple of years ago, no idea if it was new or not. I might ask them to come out and take a look. Thanks for the input.

 

[HipKat]

Thanks for your reply. I can’t get to the dish, it’s way up on the roof and I’m not brave enough for that. I’ll check the connections I can get to though. There are several outside that get rained on all the time.

Can you explain why turning the coax connector a little or removing the hdmi cable makes the signal come back? I don’t get it, especially the hdmi part.

I’m not sure what you mean exactly by how do I have those boxes. We had the 222 for a while but added the Joey recently because you can’t do HD on the remote TV. Pretty sure it’s refurb.

Joeys are clients for Hoppers. You can't have a Joey without having a Hopper. I'm guessing you mean Wally?

 

[pattykay]

...
Can you explain why turning the coax connector a little or removing the hdmi cable makes the signal come back? I don’t get it, especially the hdmi part.
...

It could be a software issue, especially since you have a ViP receiver. For example, on my ViP receivers, almost every time I scan the OTA locals and save the changes, when I back out of the menu I will get a satellite signal loss message. Simply pressing the Menu button (or changing channels and changing back) will cause the signal to return. If you have the MT2 OTA module for your ViP222k, another possible glitch is that if it loses OTA signal on TV2, this can cause a satellite signal loss message to pop-up on TV1.

It is also possible to over-tighten the cables. I had this happen once on a DPP44 switch. I had the cable from one of its output ports tightened down all the way (with a wrench) and I lost signal on the receiver connected to that cable. I loosened the cable just slightly (but not enough to make it loose enough that I could use my fingers to unscrew it) and I immediately heard the signal return on that TV. So, I left it that way instead of tightening the cable back down again, and it continued to work without any problems.

As far as the HDMI cable, I am guessing that works the same way as pressing the Menu button in my earlier example. Anything that wakes up the receiver and snaps it out of that false signal loss message will work.

 

[DB10]

Joeys are clients for Hoppers. You can't have a Joey without having a Hopper. I'm guessing you mean Wally?

I guess it must be a Wally then. I remember it was some silly kangaroo thing but it’s actually at my mother’s house so I was going by memory, which is not what it used to be.