Help!Sat Box will not respond to any remotes?

[willywonkaisrsh]

So I just got home and tried out a couple of things.
I went into the settings on the receiver by using the front panel buttons and changed the remote setting from Ir to Rf and setup the remote accordingly. When I did this the DirecTv remote worked. However, I need it to be on Ir so that I can use the Harmony remote so I went back into settings and changed it back to Ir setting up the remote again. However none of the remotes work when it is on Ir including the Directv remote. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[willywonkaisrsh]

Ok, so heres the deal. i found out that the remotes will work but will only turn the reciever on, then wont do anything until you go about 1 foot away from the box and it will work, then once you get the remote to work with the receiver about a foot away you can go back as far as you want and it will still work. however as soon as you turn it off and turn it back on it wont work again until you "jump start it' by going up to the box and pressing a button on the remote about a foot away. so what the hell is going on?

 

[dslate69]

Ok, so heres the deal. i found out that the remotes will work but will only turn the reciever on, then wont do anything until you go about 1 foot away from the box and it will work, then once you get the remote to work with the receiver about a foot away you can go back as far as you want and it will still work. however as soon as you turn it off and turn it back on it wont work again until you "jump start it' by going up to the box and pressing a button on the remote about a foot away. so what the hell is going on?

What did you do off the list I gave you?
It could be erratic behavior because of the voltage of the batteries. Still could be interference from lights or tv itself. The tv an LCD? Could be the auto brightness mode on the tv.
This is the point where details are important.

 

[willywonkaisrsh]

What did you do off the list I gave you?
It could be erratic behavior because of the voltage of the batteries. Still could be interference from lights or tv itself. The tv an LCD? Could be the auto brightness mode on the tv.
This is the point where details are important.

The TV is an LCD. No settings have been changed on the TV lately. All the batteries in all 3 remotes are good. I dont have any special lights near the TV. Nothing is set up different then it has been when everything was working just fine. The remotes work as long as you are 1 foot away from the receiver, then will work anywhere in the room until you turn the receiver off and back on. The DirectTv remote will work on RF, but not on IR. I have reset the reciever atleast 3 times. I tried force downloading the software on the reciever but didnt seem to work.

 

[boba]

Working on RF but not on IR suggests there is some interference on the IR. Can you connect the receiver to another TV so you can leave the connected TV turned off, then see if it responds to the remote? Suspesion is something has changed on TV causing some interference with the IR getting to the receiver.

 

[Van]

If florescent lighting in his home is affecting the receiver that much then it would do the same to the rest of his gear so that can be removed. If it were weak batteries again it would affect his other gear so again that can be removed.

Key detail's are IR will turn it on but nothing else and he has to get within a foot of the box for IR to work. Yes its possible that a recent software update went screwy and was corrupted during DL or install or it was just poorly written ( see dishnetwork for examples ). Yes a new receiver can go bad out of the box, I am on my third junk hd box that out of the box doesnt work right and I have to aim the remote right at the box for it to work.

If you want this to work then your going to have to use the direct remote in RF and suffer the inconvenience of using two remotes or get a new box or by an IR blaster kit, best thing to do is get a new box though because one failure will lead to another.

 

[dslate69]

If florescent lighting in his home is affecting the receiver that much then it would do the same to the rest of his gear so that can be removed. If it were weak batteries again it would affect his other gear so again that can be removed.

Your troubleshooting skills have little to be desired.
1) Florescent lights can interfere with different frequencies differently and different equipment uses different ir strengths not to mention different angles of equipment.
2) With batteries, I have seen remotes work with one dead battery. I don't know what your point is about it working with the rest of his gear but I thought we were using the D* remote; what other gear would he be working. It turning on the tv hardly constitutes it working properly. I was more or less reaching with the remote batteries can have dead cells and or irregular voltage; just basic troubleshooting when using something that takes batteries is to swap out what you can and see if it works.

willywonkaisrsh, good luck. Looks like you are in good hands. Your feedback isn't helping me help you. "I don't have any special lights near the TV" doesn't tell me you actually took my advice in turning ALL the lights off. The TV has an auto light adjust setting that makes the fluorescent back lighting brighter or lighter depending on lighting conditions in the room. Changing tvs or turning the tv off like I also suggested could give us more info. But like I said, good luck. :up

 

[Paul Wozniak]

Did you check the "receiving eye" on the box. Might be covered with something, not unusual if you have "little ones" running around.

 

[willywonkaisrsh]

Your troubleshooting skills have little to be desired.
1) Florescent lights can interfere with different frequencies differently and different equipment uses different ir strengths not to mention different angles of equipment.
2) With batteries, I have seen remotes work with one dead battery. I don't know what your point is about it working with the rest of his gear but I thought we were using the D* remote; what other gear would he be working. It turning on the tv hardly constitutes it working properly. I was more or less reaching with the remote batteries can have dead cells and or irregular voltage; just basic troubleshooting when using something that takes batteries is to swap out what you can and see if it works.

willywonkaisrsh, good luck. Looks like you are in good hands. Your feedback isn't helping me help you. "I don't have any special lights near the TV" doesn't tell me you actually took my advice in turning ALL the lights off. The TV has an auto light adjust setting that makes the fluorescent back lighting brighter or lighter depending on lighting conditions in the room. Changing tvs or turning the tv off like I also suggested could give us more info. But like I said, good luck. :up

Sorry if I am not being clear. When I say I don’t have any "special lights", I mean that I don’t have any fluorescent lighting or anything in the room that would interfere with the IR signal. The Harmony remote works with the LCD TV and the Yamaha audio receiver, which both work off of IR, just fine. Which means that if there was something messing up the IR signal in the room then they would not be working. The Harmony remote worked the HR-22 fine for a month. I have not changed anything in the room, including anything with any of the equipment, but now the HR-22 can only be turned on with the remote from any distance in the room, and then won’t work unless you are 1 foot away from the reviver. Once, you get the remote to work with the receiver by using the remote a foot away from the receiver, you can use the remote from any distance you want. Then, if you turn the receiver off and back on, none of the remotes will work unless you go back to 1 foot. No software updates have been downloaded since I first hooked the receiver up a month ago. The Harmony remote and 2 DirecTV remotes all have new batteries in them.

 

[mental1]

Call Directv and make them give you a new receiver.

 

[willywonkaisrsh]

Call Directv and make them give you a new receiver.

Already did. Next question is how to swap hard drives so I can keep all my recordings?

 

[mental1]

You cant. If they find out you opened the receivers, you will be paying for both of them. Full retail too, not the lease price of $199. I suggest you burn anything that you want to keep before they change it out. Also, for all you know, the software on the HDD may be bad and switching them out might just transfer the problem to the new IRD.

 

[willywonkaisrsh]

No that anyone really cares but....
I got the replacment box yesterday from Direct and before I switched it out with the one that was not working I decided to test it out one more time and, as you probably guessed, it worked just fine. All remotes, including the Harmony, from any where in the room, at any time, worked just fine.

 

[dslate69]

No that anyone really cares but....
I got the replacment box yesterday from Direct and before I switched it out with the one that was not working I decided to test it out one more time and, as you probably guessed, it worked just fine. All remotes, including the Harmony, from any where in the room, at any time, worked just fine.

I care.
What was your problem again?
Bottom line as long as the new receiver doesn't have a new set of problems, you're fixed. :up

 

[jdspencer]

Sorry if I am not being clear. When I say I don’t have any "special lights", I mean that I don’t have any fluorescent lighting or anything in the room that would interfere with the IR signal. The Harmony remote works with the LCD TV and the Yamaha audio receiver, which both work off of IR, just fine. Which means that if there was something messing up the IR signal in the room then they would not be working. The Harmony remote worked the HR-22 fine for a month. I have not changed anything in the room, including anything with any of the equipment, but now the HR-22 can only be turned on with the remote from any distance in the room, and then won’t work unless you are 1 foot away from the reviver. Once, you get the remote to work with the receiver by using the remote a foot away from the receiver, you can use the remote from any distance you want. Then, if you turn the receiver off and back on, none of the remotes will work unless you go back to 1 foot. No software updates have been downloaded since I first hooked the receiver up a month ago. The Harmony remote and 2 DirecTV remotes all have new batteries in them.

For others that may read this thread. I suggest you look for other remotes that may be spewing out IR. This CAN interfere with the signals getting to the DVR and not to other devices.

 

[willywonkaisrsh]

For others that may read this thread. I suggest you look for other remotes that may be spewing out IR. This CAN interfere with the signals getting to the DVR and not to other devices.

How could other remotes just be sitting there "spewing out IR"?

 

[dslate69]

How could other remotes just be sitting there "spewing out IR"?

Buttons get pressed and don't get unpressed. Contacts get gunked up and make connections. If you have an IR repeater same thing it can constantly be sending IR signal into a room because a fluorescent bulb or other source is confusing it.

 

[padarjohn]

I just had something similar happen to me.

My HR20 had downloaded an update sometime between Wed night and Thurs night. When I turned it on and tried to bring up the program listing it instead brought up a nice display describing these nice new features that I already had. I wish they'd fix the bugs, instead.

Anyway, I tried to watch a basketball game I'd recorded. I brought up the list of recorded shows, started the game, and hit the 30-second skip about a dozen times to skip to the actual start of the game.

From that point on the remote wouldn't do anything.

I tried replacing the batteries. Nada.

I found out if I did something that involved continuous transmission, like volume up/down, it would work. If I got close enough (within a couple of feet) of the receiver, it seemed to start working.

I stopped watching the recorded game (via the front panel buttons) and played with it a while, and it suddenly started working.

I have no idea what was going on. I assume it was related to the update. I would have done a reset (like Windows,... not working? reboot!), but I was recording another game and didn't want to interrupt it for the 10 minutes it takes to come back online.

It worked fine the rest of the night.

 

[zcarguy]

I had intermittent ir problems on my hr21 with both the original remote and a harmony 880. I was resetting my reciever and it would respond to 1 or 2 remote presses then stop responding. I then placed laptop coolers on top and below the hr 21 and the internal temperature dropped by 15-20 degrees. I dont seem to have ir remote problems anymore. when i had the problems i could always switch to rf mode and my original remote worked fine. I obviously prefer my harmony.