510 problems...looking for opinions

[Rae]

We got 2 dvr510's this past July. One of the two boxes has never had a problem. The second box has been replaced 3 times now. Dish Network is telling me it's a grounding problem and is very reluctantly sending me a fourth box. I am looking for any opinions as what the problems can be. Are all of these bad boxes a result of what we are doing or just a run of bad luck?
Each box has had a seperate problem so how can it be a grounding problem or even our fault?

Box 1-Did not work right from day one. Kept loosing the satellite signal and would not turn off. Sent back for replacement after one day. Never hooked up to other cable in the house.

Box 2-Worked fine for about 6 weeks then got an error that the hard drive had gone bad. We did hook this box up to the cable where the other box is. Same problem at both places.

Box 3-Immediatley after having box activated noticed that when the box was first turned on the tv screen had horizontal lines all over the screen and it took a few seconds for the picture to tune it. Several times I had to turn the box off and back on to get a picture. We also hooked up this box to the other cable and it had the same problem in both places.

Does this sound like a problem on our end? Any suggestion/opinions are greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

 

[Rae]

Just wanted to add that when we did the first check switch test on box 3 it said something about a 500 Quad. What is that? We have the SW 21 switches. We are also running new cable and replacing the SW 21 switch before hooking up another box.

 

[SimpleSimon]

You're running into various standard E* issues with refurb boxes.

Remember - their idea of "refurb" is to see if the green light comes on, and let the customer check it from there.

I wouldn't be surprised if CSRs are instructed to try to push these problems off to the customer (grounding) whenever possible.

 

[Anole]

B/s

Got four refurb 508's from Metro25 last year, and have had no problems with any.
(They're the same guts as the 510, just different hard drive size)
If I had, I'd have screamed bloody murder!


I don't see any relation to "grounding" as cause for any of those problems.

There is one thing in some houses which split the 220 and run one of the hot 110 lines to half the house and the other 110 to the other half.
(you get 220 between the two hot lines)
Ask your local electrician to see if some of your equipment is on one hot, and the remaining equipment on the other.
(if that even applies in your area)
There should not be a problem with 'em all working together, but there are typically small leakage currents which may flow through the coax shield or any other connection beween the receivers.
You might notice it when connecting a coax connector and seeing a tiny spark to your equipment.
If you did see (or feel) it, then some of the equipment plugged into the outlets might be leaking beyond spec.

However, I don't see even this being of any excuse for the problems described in your post.
So, I'm voting for a big dose of B/S on the part of the CSRs!