Did lightning fry my H20's satellite reception?

[blocke5184]

We had huge storm last night, including a large hit that threw some of our circuit breakers and may have damaged some electronics. Since that hit, my H20 has had a very poor satellite signal. The signal strength chart had mostly zeros, with a few 50s and 70s sprinkled in. Besides having no programming, a blank guide, and the wrong time, the receiver seems to work normally.

I've tried the red reset button with no luck. On the white startup screen with the large DirecTV logo, it gets past "Searching for Satellite Signal" but the progress bar never gets beyond 0%. I hooked up an old inactive Sony receiver and it seems fine: its signal strength seems high, its guide works, and can get channel 100 just fine, so I assume the dish and the cable are fine. We also have an active D11 elsewhere in the house and it hasn't had any problems. I haven't tried swapping the H20 and D11, though.

Does anyone know what might be wrong with my H20? Is there a way to fix it? I'm sure if I had DirecTV replace it they'd replace it with an H21 or something, and I want to keep the ATSC tuner. Could the full factory reset revive my signal or should I be looking for a new H20?

 

[jcrandall]

Sounds fried. Try unplugging it for an hour or so - power & satellite.

DirecTV will replace it, but you're right, possible lose the OTA tuner (although you could add an AM21). You can request an H20 when you call, but there is no guarantee, there aren't too many left.

You can try a factory setting reset, won't hurt anything.

 

[talos4]

My one experience with a very near strike a couple of years ago resulted in the LNB and the coax connections at the LNB being burned up.

My situation was close to yours, my standard STB's worked fine but my HD STB's were all searching for signals.

Somehow all of STB's survived but I needed a new LNB and new coax from the dish to the multiswitch.

I suggest you have D* come out to inspect the entire system just to make sure everything is in working order.

 

[harshness]

Could just be a case of a moved dish. We need to know more specifics about which slots and corresponding transponders have gone to zero.