crazy error 775 problems...with solution...asking for advice though

[gretschdrum]

Hey Gang,

Yesterday morning I had perfect service. In fact, I've had this particular dish (slimline 17), receiver (HR 24) setup for a tad over 4 years with virtually ZERO interruption of service. However when I turned both tvs on last night I received error 775. None of the receivers or connections had been moved. I did all the normal troubleshooting (checking connections, wiring, and resetting the SWM) but nothing worked. Upon calling customer service we did all of the above once again along with rebooting the receivers, etc. Nothing worked so I set up a tech visit for Sunday afternoon (just before the Super Bowl no less).
Well, today I tinkered a bit more and left the SWM unplugged for approximately 3 hours. On a whim/last ditch effort I plugged the SWM back in and OF COURSE the receivers were able to communicate with the dish and I'm back in business on both tvs.

Now, the question for all involved here is do I keep the service tech appointment? I don't want to cancel only to have a potentially failing part give up on me midway through the Super Bowl. Has anyone here had a similar experience? It's obviously the SWM power inserter, right? Or, is the SWM alright after a long 'reset'?

Thanks in advance.

 

[raoul5788]

As long as everything is working okay I'd cancel the appointment. That's not a day you want to tie up the tech when he could be helping someone that's really in need.

 

[gretschdrum]

Hey Chip, I totally get the point you're making and I agree if my existing equipment is ok. What I'm really asking is if anyone has had this similar issue before and if this SWM/power inserter is on the way out. As of right now everything is working with no error messages. But, if anyone here, either a consumer or possibly a tech, has had experience with the SWM dying after such an episode I'd like to keep the appt. and have the tech change it out.

 

[Hutch1814]

Hey Chip, I totally get the point you're making and I agree if my existing equipment is ok. What I'm really asking is if anyone has had this similar issue before and if this SWM/power inserter is on the way out. As of right now everything is working with no error messages. But, if anyone here, either a consumer or possibly a tech, has had experience with the SWM dying after such an episode I'd like to keep the appt. and have the tech change it out.

Let the tech come out. If the power inserter is dying, it's already dead. It's either working or it's not. Unplugging and plugging back in seems to just buy time (can't explain how) but I would say either the line from the power inserter is starting to short out, the splitter is going bad, dish feed is shorting out, or the LNB. I would put my money on one of the cables mentioned

 

[peds48]

this is most likely a connector issue.

 

[Hutch1814]

So do we have an update?

 

[gretschdrum]

Yes, the update is that on Sunday morning I turned on the TV and everything was still operating fine (from when I got it working again on Friday). So, I called customer service and spoke with them in detail about the situation. Basically they encouraged me to cancel the tech visit - and I did. They said that sometimes the SWM inserter will not respond to short reboots/resets and that the long, 3+ hour reboot, basically made it do a 'hard reset'. As of now, I'm 4 days into the 'hard reset' and everything is still working perfectly. If I get another error 775 in the next few days I'll create and keep the new call.

thanks for the help guys!

 

[b52pooh]

Just curious. When you did the "reset SWM" on your own and with the phone tech, did you leave the power unplugged long enough to make the green light on the power inserter go out? Sometimes that takes over a minute or two. If you only waiteed the standard 15-30 seconds, it may not have been long enough to completely discharge internal capacitance.

 

[gretschdrum]

Thanks for the reply. While I had the tech folks on the phone I reset the inserter several times. At first, I unplugged it for about one minute. I let the light go out fully and then plugged it in again. As the tech call continued and we did different things but eventually we went back to the inserter again and this second time we unplugged it for 3 or 4 minutes and still didn't get the desired result.

It was the following day when I unplugged it again, left the house, came back 3+ hours later, plugged it in and it's been working perfectly ever since.