Which steps should I take once I get the MicroHD?

[highskies]

Not certain if this is the correct place to post this or not.


I ordered a brand new MicroHD which should be here by Friday. I have zero experience with this receiver. But I have checked out some threads here and there, so that I won't be totally clueless when it arrives. I have no idea what firmware it will have in it, but it's pretty safe to say that it won't be the most recent. Should I then want to upgrade the firmware right away? I already have a good idea how that's done, especially if one does it via satellite. The part I'm uncertain about is what you do after it's loaded the firmware and that the receiver has been flashed. Does one then do a master reset before they turn anything off, then after that, turn the receiver off for at least 10 secs? And as to the latter, I'm unclear what it means to turn off the receiver. Is this meaning with the remote, or with an off/on switch on the back of the receiver or something?

And one other thing, the S9 I have, it's pretty much toast. Currently my 31" motorized offset dish is parked on 97W. It's pretty close to the zero mark, but not quite, since my southern sat is 93W. So how do i go about syncing things with the MicroHD when it arrives, so that I can use the USALS feature? Do I need to get the dish at zero first? If so, don't think I can do it beforehand, since the S9 is pretty much toast, and that I can't get into any of the menus anymore.

 

[highskies]

Can someone explain the logic in this? I got my MicroHd yesterday. It was a piece of cake figuring it out. I had both c band and ku working. So today then, I decided to do the firmware upgrade via sat. I locked onto the correct signal on 97w. It downloaded the firmware
just fine. Then it saved it just fine. Then it flashed it just fine. And after it rebooted I then did a MR. When I rebooted that, I then did unplug the power for about 10 secs. Everything came back up fine. I didn't bother saving anything from yesterday. Didn't see the need to, since not all sats were set up yet anyway.

So anyway, now I'm trying to set up my ku again. I'm in the Motor Switch tab. Since I have an Avenger pll I then have the lnbf as universal. I then have port 1 selected in DiseQc 1.0, since that's the port my offset dish is attached to. I can't get a lock on anything now, because the signal level keeps flashing back and forth in a rapid fashion from 0% to 45%. It was not doing this before I did this upgrade. This is frustrating. I had an openbox s9 for several years and never encountered a single problem the whole time, not until the end anyway, where it finally bit the dust. And here I've had this MicroHD not even hardly a day yet, already having issues, issues that don't even make sense to me.

 

[Kraven]

Did you try bypassing the DiseQc?

 

[highskies]

Did you try bypassing the DiseQc?

Do you mean disable it in the menu? Or do you mean to plug the lnbf into the back of the MicroHD bypassing the DiseQc switch altogether? As far as this switch goes, it's brand new. Everything was working just fine before I did this upgrade. While I'm thinking about it, it's only rapidly going back and forth between 0% and 45% in the ku setup. The C Band setup, there are no issues like that. But I have since encountered another problem. I just got done setting up 101W cBand and did a blindscan. The only thing that popped in were the 2 METV feeds. THISTV wouldn't scan in from a blindscan. So I tried to scan it in manually, now I have lost the signal to METV. As matter of fact, can't even get a signal on anything CBand now. Can't even lock the IONs on 103W either, though I had them already scanned in and was watching them prior to doing this upgrade. How can any of this be logical?

 

[primestar31]

It isn't logical, so why keep trying to make it so?

Sounds like you got a corrupted firmware download. Download the one here in the sticky from 6/26, unzip it and put it on a usb pendrive, and flash your receiver with that.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads...USB-and-Satellite-Update-(OTA-SSU)-06-26-2013

 

[highskies]

It isn't logical, so why keep trying to make it so?

Sounds like you got a corrupted firmware download. Download the one here in the sticky from 6/26, unzip it and put it on a usb pendrive, and flash your receiver with that.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads...USB-and-Satellite-Update-(OTA-SSU)-06-26-2013

Keep in mind, I'm brand new to this MicroHD. Have people encountered corrupted firmware from satellite before? Or am I the first one? When I did this upgrade the signal quality was over 70% on that particular signal. So I know I had a good lock on it.

 

[primestar31]

Keep in mind, I'm brand new to this MicroHD. Have people encountered corrupted firmware from satellite before? Or am I the first one? When I did this upgrade the signal quality was over 70% on that particular signal. So I know I had a good lock on it.

Why keep questioning? There's no way to know for sure if it's a corrupted firmware, until you flash it again and that one works. However, it sure appears to be one to me. Please download the firmware from the link I posted above, and flash your receiver with it following the directions in the sticky. Flashing firmware in general is very much so fraught with danger of all sorts, due to it's very nature.

If that one works ok, you'll then have your answer.

 

[highskies]

Why keep questioning? There's no way to know for sure if it's a corrupted firmware, until you flash it again and that one works. However, it sure appears to be one to me. Please download the firmware from the link I posted above, and flash your receiver with it following the directions in the sticky. Flashing firmware in general is very much so fraught with danger of all sorts, due to it's very nature.

If that one works ok, you'll then have your answer.

I have it downloaded. I will then try this to see what happens.

 

[T4Runner]

If you are still having trouble, try double checking your LNB settings again. Do not assume they are the same. I think I remember it defaulting to 10750 KU and I think you mentioned you're using a universal?

 

[highskies]

Since making my last post, I upgraded via USB. All went well as far as the flashing goes. Now I seem to have a signal on Cband again, and it did seem to stop the rapid going back and forth from 0% to 45% in the Motor setup for KU. But now I've encountered another problem in the Motor ku setup. Currently my offset dish is pointed at 97W. In the Transponder list in the motor setup, no matter which signal I choose, the signal level is now showing 0% on everything. I then did a blindscan. It only found 1 signal but no channels. So I went back into the motor setup, changed motor type to DiseQc 1.2 instead of USALS, selected various signals from the transponder list, and then proceeded to move both east and west. Since I can see my dish from inside the house, the dish was definetely moving in both directions, depending which direction I chose at the time. But the signal level still remained on 0% no matter what. Never did get a lock on any signal. Before I did this upgrade and the one via satellite, I did a blindscan at 97W. Over 260 channels scanned in. And that's not even including the radio channels. So it's not that I don't know what I'm doing, even though I have no prior experiemce with this receiver, something is screwed up big time now for some reason, since doing these firmware upgrades.

And to T4Runners's post, I triple checked. It is for sure set at universal, and that the correct port is selected. Why did these things only start happening after I flashed this receiver? At this point, I don't even recall which firmware was originally in this receiver. Can a person revert to earlier firmwares after they have done the most recent one? I know on the S9 you could. Not certain about this receiver though?

 

[primestar31]

You also did do the factory reset and power cord pull afterwards? Did you put your Latitude and longitude settings back in for USALS when you reconfigured after the flash? Everything needs to be reconfigured from scratch after a flash. Are you really sure there isn't something wrong with your lnb coax cables connection on the back of the receiver? Make sure it's tight. By the way, there IS a menu setting to turn OFF lnb power, maybe that somehow got flipped to OFF?

Also yes, you can reflash to previous firmwares if you need to, you just need a copy of whatever date flash you want.

P.S. Never trust a switch, even a brand new one. If you are sure everything is set correctly in the menus, bypass that switch and go directly to the lnb with the cable. Set lnb to 10600, 22k on for universal. Never hook up or disconnect a switch with the power on.

 

[highskies]

You also did do the factory reset and power cord pull afterwards? Did you put your Latitude and longitude settings back in for USALS when you reconfigured after the flash? Everything needs to be reconfigured from scratch after a flash.

Also yes, you can reflash to previous firmwares if you need to, you just need a copy of whatever date flash you want.

As to your first paragraph, yes to all questions. My lat and long are..33.4417° N, 94.1253° W. So I then inserted into the MHD 094.12 W and 33.44 N just like i did yesterday when I first got this receiver. That worked like a charm yesterday, since all the sats pretty much hit dead on.

Was there a FW realease in Dec of 2012? Not 100% certain, but the more I think about it, it does seem like something around that date was originally in the receiver.

 

[highskies]

Set lnb to 10600, 22k on for universal. Never hook up or disconnect a switch with the power on.

Currently I don't have it set for 22K, but I didn't yesterday either, and things seemed to work ok. And I for sure always disconnect power before unhooking any lnbf cables, switches, etc, since I learned awhile back, that if you don't do this, it can fry some switches before it's over, and I guess lnbfs as well.

 

[highskies]

While I'm thinking about it, the 22k switch is set at auto and seems to be greyed out to where one can't change the setting. I think that's the way it was yesterday as well, when I first got this receiver.

 

[highskies]

BTW, where does one find earlier FW releases for this receiver?

 

[chaskuchar]

I am looking for an earlier release also. I think I have one saved on my hard drive though. charlie

 

[primestar31]

BTW, where does one find earlier FW releases for this receiver?

They are all in this forum somewhere, you just have to search for them through the pages. It used to be much better laid out and everything much easier to find, but Scott the owner decided to turn the receiver forum into one big thread dumping ground.

 

[primestar31]

Currently I don't have it set for 22K, but I didn't yesterday either, and things seemed to work ok. And I for sure always disconnect power before unhooking any lnbf cables, switches, etc, since I learned awhile back, that if you don't do this, it can fry some switches before it's over, and I guess lnbfs as well.

The setting you used should work, but perhaps there's something else going on. Please try 10600, with 22k ON. Put the dish on a satellite, and try a regular blindscan (NOT detailed!) Don't be concerned if you don't have a transponder signal fixed before scanning.

If that still doesn't work, I need you to carefully lay out exactly how your receiver is wired all the way to the dish, what satellite you are trying, everything as best you can. The more careful detail, the better. Trouble-shooting this stuff can be difficult with limited info.

The receiver did work at one time, so that's a good sign. "used to work but now doesn't" beats "it never worked". I'm thinking perhaps there's some other difference since yesterday other than the firmware flash. I would not be so quick to think the receiver itself just went bad.

 

[highskies]

The setting you used should work, but perhaps there's something else going on. Please try 10600, with 22k ON. Put the dish on a satellite, and try a regular blindscan (NOT detailed!) Don't be concerned if you don't have a transponder signal fixed before scanning.

If that still doesn't work, I need you to carefully lay out exactly how your receiver is wired all the way to the dish, what satellite you are trying, everything as best you can. The more careful detail, the better. Trouble-shooting this stuff can be difficult with limited info.

The receiver did work at one time, so that's a good sign. "used to work but now doesn't" beats "it never worked". I'm thinking perhaps there's some other difference since yesterday other than the firmware flash. I would not be so quick to think the receiver itself just went bad.

I don't think the receiver went bad either. I had changed nothing before doing the first upgrade via sat. But after I did the upgrade, that's when the problems started. I followed the instructions to a T. I am 100% positive I did it correctly both times, the first time being the upgrade via sat, and the latter one being from the USB upgrade you provided the link for. Currently C Band is working again. Still can't get a single thing on KU. Everything is showing 0% on both signal and quality level. On CBand everything is showing 45% on signal level, with it varying on quality level, with most signals locking in their 70s.

Just tried what you suggested with the 10600. Still the same thing as above..it didn't help.

 

[highskies]

I am looking for an earlier release also. I think I have one saved on my hard drive though. charlie

I noticed you also started a thread wanting to troubleshoot a new receiver. Did you do a new firmware upgrade as well? Do you think finding an earlier release might fix your problem?