"Cannot communicate with dish" after carpenters were working nearby

[sinz54]

I rent an apartment in an apartment building, and I have my dish mounted on the railing of my deck (patio).

Today, the management sent over a couple of carpenters to replace some wooden planks on the floor of my deck. As they were working with their power tools, they had to temporariliy remove the fasteners holding the cable to the deck, but they tried to be careful not to damage the cable. And then they fastened the cable to the new planks.

Nevertheless, my setup started behaving strangely. A few times the receiver said "Searching for satellite" but it regained signal soon. Then it suddenly died completely, with the receiver saying "There is a problem communicating with the satellite dish". Resetting the receiver doesn't help. I still get "There is a problem communicating with the satellite dish."

The carpenters swore that they did not damage the cables or the dish as far as they could tell. But I'm wondering if all the power tools might have caused some kind of power surge, even though their power tools were NOT plugged in to the same circuit as any of my electronic equipment. (Their power tools were plugged into some outlets in the corridor, not into any outlets in my apartment.)

Any ideas what could have happened here? Did those power tools fry the LNB somehow, or are they just lying about not damaging the cables?

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys!

I'm guessing that your dish is slightly out of alignment. Can you post your signal levels for all satellites? Did you inspect the cable for damage?

 

[Hutch1814]

Is it saying 771a?

 

[OSD771]

First thing you want to try and do is reset your power inserter. It is a small black box connected along the coax cable on ONE of your receivers. It has a green light on it, and a coax line from the outside comes to it, and then goes to your receiver. Unplug it and then plug it back in after about 30 seconds.
Then reset the reciever.

If that doesnt fix it, it could be possible that they damaged cabling, or maybe when they went to attatch the cable back to the house maybe they tightened it up too much and did some damage to the copper core of the coax.

This is rarely a problem with the dish itself, it normally is the cabling from the dish to this receiver.

Try running a system test, hit Menu- Settings and Help- Settings, Info and Test- Run system test, expect to to get diagnostic code 51, could not detect swim.

 

[sinz54]

First thing you want to try and do is reset your power inserter. It is a small black box connected along the coax cable on ONE of your receivers. It has a green light on it, and a coax line from the outside comes to it, and then goes to your receiver. Unplug it and then plug it back in after about 30 seconds.
Then reset the reciever.
. . . .
Try running a system test, hit Menu- Settings and Help- Settings, Info and Test- Run system test, expect to to get diagnostic code 51, could not detect swim.

YES, that is the error message I got: "51: Could not detect swm".

I tried unplugging the power inserter. How come the green light stays on even when I unplug it???

Anyway, plugging the power inserter back in and then resetting didn't fix the problem. Looks like a damaged cable somewhere; I'll just have to wait for DIRECTV to fix it. I can't climb over the side of the deck to replace the cables; I'm afraid of heights.

 

[raoul5788]

Let us know how it goes.

 

[digiblur]

YES, that is the error message I got: "51: Could not detect swm".

I tried unplugging the power inserter. How come the green light stays on even when I unplug it???

Anyway, plugging the power inserter back in and then resetting didn't fix the problem. Looks like a damaged cable somewhere; I'll just have to wait for DIRECTV to fix it. I can't climb over the side of the deck to replace the cables; I'm afraid of heights.

I bet the light stays on for a bit as the LNB isn't connected anymore and the LED takes a while to burn through the charge held in the power supply. If the LNB was connected the light would go off almost instantly as the LNB has a load on the power supply. Looks like they "ate" your cable up.

 

[Hutch1814]

Are you using flat cable to run through a door or window?

 

[sinz54]

Are you using flat cable to run through a door or window?

Yes, and I thought about that possibility.

But my downstairs neighbor is also connected to my dish via a splitter. The splitter splits the signal, so his receiver gets a signal and my receiver gets a signal. (DIRECTV couldn't get line-of-sight from his deck/patio, so they connected his receiver to my dish via the splitter.)

The fact that both of us lost communication with the dish at the same time proves that the problem is not the flat cables that he and I use to run through our deck doors.

If they damaged the cable from the splitter to my neighbor's receiver, would that also kill my DIRECTV signal? Or just his signal?

 

[Hutch1814]

The problem is the power inserter isn't powering that LNB. My thought is that flat cable that the power inserter is on is bad. That cable is by as beefy as they claim. I would like it to be ram through a door or window that isn't used.

So if you have a barrel you can replace that flat cable with it more then likely will come back on. Either way you go you'll need that flat line replaced if its bad so you may have to have Directv come out anyways

 

[TheTechGuru]

I would have DirecTV fix it and if they want to charge you have the apts pay for it.

I would also ask that they switch the LNBF out to a NON SWM so that you and your neighbor power the LNBF independently.

 

[Hutch1814]

I would have DirecTV fix it and if they want to charge you have the apts pay for it.

I would also ask that they switch the LNBF out to a NON SWM so that you and your neighbor power the LNBF independently.

If the neighbor or him have a 25 or 34 they can't. And trying to get a tech to convert from SWM isn't going to happen either. It's consider a downgrade

 

[TheTechGuru]

If the neighbor or him have a 25 or 34 they can't. And trying to get a tech to convert from SWM isn't going to happen either. It's consider a downgrade

Well, then the power inserter needs to be put in a neutral place on a neutral power source (like the meter the apartment's use for building and street lights around it). Right now if the one that has the inserter accidentally unplugs it it will make the other user's go out too. This is a very unprofessional way to go about two residences using one dish.

 

[Hutch1814]

Well, then the power inserter needs to be put in a neutral place on a neutral power source (like the meter the apartment's use for building and street lights around it). Right now if the one that has the inserter accidentally unplugs it it will make the other user's go out too. This is a very unprofessional way to go about two residences using one dish.

I would agree but considering the other tenant had no LOS its a touchy situation. As for using a common power source, only MDU is allowed to do that