Acquiring Satellite (forever) after 5.11?

[cicijay]

I get home yesterday and the TV has the "Acquiring Signal" screen up on my 622. I have had dish for over 10 years now and installed my own dishes and been through tons of different receivers and have only called tech support once before but after trying everything I can think of I end up calling dish support and they had me do it all again (front panel reset, unplug reset, check switch) but still get the same results "acquiring signal". The Check switch comes back as reception verified and the system status comes back as good but every time I go out of the menus I get "acquiring satellite". I also notice that I have version 511 software. I'm thinking that this problem may have occured as a result of the software upgrade. The acquiring satellite screen goes from 61.5 0-5, 61.5 1-5,119 3-5, 61.5 3-5 and then the whole "aquiring satellite" box "flashes" and goes back to 61.5 0-5 and starts the cycle over again. I have 2 SW-21 switches and even switched the inputs around into the switches to see if I could get the reciver to revive.

BTW, I had an old 501 in the basement that I hooked up to satallite 1 from the 622 and it works. I did notice that the signal strength is much higher on the 501 but only about 50 - 70 on the 622. that might just be because of the different scales on the meter.

Dish will be sending someone on Friday (3 days later!) and they were going to charge me for the visit. I told them to forget it because I wasn't going to pay to have someone come fix their equipment that I was leasing. They waived the fee and someone will be there "in the afternoon sometime".

Is there something else I can try to get the receiver revived from this?
I am over 18 months from my commitment when I got the 622, Will I be charged for hardware needed for this repair?
I mentioned that the software looked brand new but should I push that issue?

 

[Cnwydude]

I had a similar problem a few years ago. I would get the "Accquiring Signal" a lot. Some days however it would work fine. And like you I finally had to have someone come out. The problem was the connectors on the ends of the cable at the LNB. They had gotten bent slightly and worn over the years and weren't well connected, but would connect at times with enough strength. The Technican simply snipped the connectors off and replaced all of them at teh LNB and the reciever and everything worked fine after that.

I'm not sure this is your problem exactly, but its one more thing to look for.

 

[cicijay]

I had a similar problem a few years ago. I would get the "Accquiring Signal" a lot. Some days however it would work fine. And like you I finally had to have someone come out. The problem was the connectors on the ends of the cable at the LNB. They had gotten bent slightly and worn over the years and weren't well connected, but would connect at times with enough strength. The Technican simply snipped the connectors off and replaced all of them at teh LNB and the reciever and everything worked fine after that.

I'm not sure this is your problem exactly, but its one more thing to look for.

Thanks for the idea, I didn't think about checking those connections yet. I thought about the cable being the issue and that is why I swapped the cables around that went into the switch. Since the cable from the satellite works on my old 501 I kind of ruled that out.

I think I will try and see if I can get the receiver to work with just the 61.5 cable into the reciever and bypass the switches.

I looked at my bill and dish is charging $53.00 to come look at their leased receiver after I was told they would waive the fee. I guess my 10+ years with dish will be coming to an end.

Years ago I had an issue with a 501 that would lose it's satellite connection and then finally would not make a connection. With that problem I could not get the receiver to get a lock on the satellite though. I was able to identify that it was a hardware issue in that case by hooking up an old receiver. They insisted that it was due to line of site problems until I hooked up another receiver.

In this case it locks on the satellite fine in the point dish screen it just won't acquire the satellite signal.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Try writing the ceo@echostar.com and tell him of your plight before you dump DISH. THey will most likely work with you to reduce the fee. If you added the dish home protection insurance for 5.99 a month , the service call would only be $29.99 and you could drop the insurance once you get your service call or replace your receiver etc. THey waive any shipping charges and replace your receiver or lnb etc if needed for free-as long as no customer damage. THis insurance can be added and dropped as needed as many times as needed.

 

[cicijay]

<Rant>If I hadn't been able to fix it myself then I was going to cancel dish.
I was not going to pay $50 for a visit and then pay to lease another receiver and commit as well. As far as the $5.99/month protection I refuse to pay that ongoing. I already paid an upfront lease fee, pay $7 to lease it $6 to use it (dvr). I figure if it breaks they can have it back.<end Rant>

SOLUTION:
I Did every kind of reset available and tried every cable combination including going directly into the back from my 61.5 but nothing worked.

Last thing I tried was to bypass the sw21's and ran my 110/119 cables into the receiver. After my check switch and going to acquiring signal it was still trying to connect to the 61.5 sat during that process so I then reset "Factory Defaults" and then it acquired satellites 110/119 and downloaded the guide.

I then turned it off hooked it back up through my SW21's, ran check switch and acquired satellite. Now I can cancel my visit!

I think it was the reset To "Factory Defaults" that did it and I'm pretty confident that it occured after the 5.11 upgrade. Now I have to figure out how to get my HDMI working again, moving the box around to switch cables caused it to go out!

 

[David_Levin]

Yea, the reset factory defaults probably did the trick. You could have also tried running the switch check with the sat feeds disconnected, then power cycle the box, reconnect the cables, and try the switch check again.

In the early days this was sometimes needed to clear the switch matrix (I haven't neede to do this in a long time).

HDMI: You're 622 might have popped an hdmi connector pin at motherboard when you where moving it around. This is a VERY COMMON problem. Try gently jiggling the cable at the back of the 622 and see if the picture goes in and out (a lose connection).

The advanced tech support people are well aware of the hdmi problem (the regular support people are often not). They should swap the box without too much hassle. Get an external hdd so you don't lose any programming.