625 says switch is bad...can I fix?

[GATownsend]

Hi folks,

New member here that needs some help. After performing flawlessly for 18 months, my 625 started dropping the signal every now and then. I had the protection plan free for 18 months, but I didn't cancel it right away when the 18 months were up last month because of the signal drops. My dish is installed on my deck railing, and I had added a gate to the deck and thought maybe the aim was off just a bit.

Well, last night after a thunderstorm the thing went caput. We had a lightning strike really close to our house, but the dish was working fine for a bit afterwards. It was raining hard, so when we initially lost the signal we chalked it up to the storm.

Well, we never got the signal back again for more than a minute, and the 625 started throwing up bad switch messages and then never saw any programming. I disconnected the sat inputs from the 625 and ran the switch test, then hooked them back up and ran it again. Still got the error. It lists satellite input 1 and 2, and both say:

Port: 1, 2
Satellite: 119, 110
Trans: X, X (both x's are red)
Device: Twin, Twin
Status: Reception Error
Switch: DPP Twin w/separator

Here's the kicker - the DVR still recorded things my wife had it set to record today even though it won't tune to those channels to watch TV! Doh!

Dish says they can't be here until Friday afternoon, so if there's something I can do myself, I'm all ears. The dish is a Dish 500 dual LNB. One 625 dvr/receiver that sends the signal upstairs to the tv in our bedroom. Standard install, nothing fancy. My wife is home during the day with three kids aged 3 and under, so if I can get this working before Friday that would be great.

If there's any other information needed, please let me know.

Thanks,

Gary

 

[volkodav]

sounds like it is out of alignment. if you have level in a house, put it at the back of the dish where there is 2 bolts and see if it is leveled it doesn't sound like the lightning effected the equipment because it communicates with LNB (dish part)

 

[GATownsend]

if you have level in a house, put it at the back of the dish where there is 2 bolts and see if it is leveled it doesn't sound like the lightning effected the equipment because it communicates with LNB (dish part)

Took my torpedo level out, and it's still level. It's driving me nuts. It just downloaded the guide, but when it went to show the channel it was tuned to, the screen went blank for about 3 seconds and it started the searching for satellites routine again. Like I said, it recorded my wife's DVR event that was programmed today even though it wouldn't show any channels live when I tried.

I think I may be waiting until Friday. It will really stink if we lose everything that's recorded on the DVR because we need a new one. We have a ton of stuff on there for our kids "in case of emergency"!

Regards,

Gary

 

[BobaBird]

The dish is a Dish 500 dual LNB.

No, it is a Dish 500 with a DPP Twin (and Separator behind the receiver) as reported by the Check Switch summary. See my sig for a more detailed explanation.

Where you have a red X, my receiver shows OK on a green background. That would seem to indicate an aiming problem but it's odd that it works for recording (presumably from stand-by?). Try disconnecting the satellite feeds, run the Check Switch with nothing connected, hook them back up then Check Switch again.

 

[UGAChance]

Check the Details Screen in the Switch Matrix Screen.

If it sees 119 and 110 but the Transponders are X's... then you probably are aimed wrong and it is only seeing EVEN or ODD on 119 and 110.

DP-Twins are the LNBs having LNB Drift issues, so it could be a bad LNB also.

Goto The System Information Screen in the menus and see what it says about Signal.

 

[GATownsend]

Thanks for the replies.

BobaBird - I had already tried disconnecting the dish and running the switch test again. I found that tip on here and had noted that in my original post. Unfortunately I still got the error.

UGAChance - on the system information screen it says no signal. This is nuts to me, because every now and then I'll actually get the screen that shows it's downloading the guide. You would think it couldn't do that (download the guide) if there's no signal.

I think I'm just going to have to wait for the dish guy to come out tomorrow and let them deal with it. The fact that it's been rainy and overcast is probably just making the problem worse if it's an alignment problem. It could be that it just happened to clear up long enough to lock on and record my wife's DVR event, and then it was out of whack again when I was home from work and trying to mess with it. I guess we'll see.

It's a bit frustrating since I had the "other" satellite service for 9 years and never had one lick of trouble...of course that system was more basic with a lot less features than I have now.

Thanks,

Gary

 

[GATownsend]

I think it's the switch

Ok...got home from work tonight and wife tells me it has been working intermittantly today. I started playing around a bit more, and I'm getting signal strength of 70 for 119 and about 55 for 110.

The I notice this - for one tuner I can only get signal on even numbered transponders and on the other I can only get signal for odd numbered transponders. This is for both 119 and 110.

Does this mean my switch really is bad? My basic understanding of how these things work was leading me to believe this was true.

Thanks in advance for any help or insight anyone can give me.

Regards,

Gary