4 days ago I had a Genie and 3 clients installed, it was raining outside and when the tech hooked up the receiver and did the dish setup the results show a red x on all the sats and odd/even transponders (all except 110 odd), no problem, the picture looked fine and he blamed it on the clouds/rain. After the tech left I started getting picture break up, I finally unplugged the power inserter and plugged it back in and the picture looked fine for about a day then the problems resurfaced, I called Direct and they set up for the same tech to come out again today, he calls and walks me thru a "update" he wasn't able to complete because of the "rain/clouds" and said that should solve the problem and cancelled the service call. It didn't solve the problem and I went thru the dish setup menu again and got all red x's again and told the tech this and he said that wasn't a problem, I would be ok when the update took effect. Well it's been 8 hours and I'm "pissed", I called direct and tell them about the results of the dish set up and they say the paperwork says the problem is "intermittent" and the tech was here today (remember he cancelled the call). Also I'm not sure I would call it intermittent, I can reset the power inserter to get a watchable signal but the problem eventually returns, "intermittent" sounds like it's a catch all for something they can't/won't resolve. I'm also having problems getting my ipad to connect to the Genie, the Genie is wired directly into my Lynksys wireless router, I can run the network test and it shows it's "networked" but nobody at Direct seems to be concerned about helping me get my Ipad connected. Right now I'm not happy with Direct, I don't know if I have a bad tech, bad receiver or my expectations are too high. Is this a normal Direct experience or have I gotten a bad tech and/or receiver or possibly a bad dish/lnb. Since I'm having signal and network problems I'm leaning towards a bad receiver.
Install questions
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Can you post your Signal strengths, detailed version, not the combined Sat ones.
I'm thinking it's a poor LOS or poor peak job.
Any trees in the Line Of Sight view ?
I'm thinking it's a poor LOS or poor peak job.
Any trees in the Line Of Sight view ?
Jimbo,
Thanks, I don't think it's a LOS issue, I don't have any trees to contend with. With the Genie I assume I have 5 tuners, I ran the signal strength on sat 101 for each of the "tuners" without going into detail (I can post them if you think it would help with the various sat's) on tuners 1,2,4,5 most of the transponders were in the 80's and 90's, but tuner 3 was in the 60's and 70's. I found it strange that "tuner 3" was much lower than the other 4 tuners. Does this help or would more info help?
Thanks, I don't think it's a LOS issue, I don't have any trees to contend with. With the Genie I assume I have 5 tuners, I ran the signal strength on sat 101 for each of the "tuners" without going into detail (I can post them if you think it would help with the various sat's) on tuners 1,2,4,5 most of the transponders were in the 80's and 90's, but tuner 3 was in the 60's and 70's. I found it strange that "tuner 3" was much lower than the other 4 tuners. Does this help or would more info help?
Raoul5788
103cb Tuner 1,2,4,5 80's and 90's tuner 3 50's and 60's
103ca Tuner 1,2,5 80's and 90's tuner 4 high 70's and tuner 3 mid 50's to low 60's
99 same as sat 103c
I tried to give this info to Direct customer service and all they responded was "ticket showed intermittent" reception issues. I think the sat signal strenght by tuner show I have a problem with the receiver, but what do I know.
103cb Tuner 1,2,4,5 80's and 90's tuner 3 50's and 60's
103ca Tuner 1,2,5 80's and 90's tuner 4 high 70's and tuner 3 mid 50's to low 60's
99 same as sat 103c
I tried to give this info to Direct customer service and all they responded was "ticket showed intermittent" reception issues. I think the sat signal strenght by tuner show I have a problem with the receiver, but what do I know.
It's odd how far off the tuners are. First you should get the dish realigned. If that doesn't bring the numbers all up to the upper 80s at least, then you may well have a faulty Genie.
Thanks Chip. With the inablility to connect to the Ipad I'm almost hoping it's the "genie", heck I even "reset" my router to factory defaults and redo my network name and password, I can get "on demand" but just can't get my ipad to control the genie, I even made sure the genie was set to allow external devices to access the genie. I was able to get Direct to schedule a different tech to come out tomorrow morning to look at things, if he doesn't get the issue resolved he might just be taking the equipment back to the shop with him, I'm pretty frustrated with the whole ordeal right now. Nobody at Direct seems willing to "listen" to what I'm telling them since they think my problem is "intermittent".
If you can't get it resolved in a reasonable time, try sending an email here: ellen.filipiak@directv.com That's the office of the president.
They are pretty good at fixing problems. Good luck!
They are pretty good at fixing problems. Good luck!
Cabling problem. I had one a few days ago, the tech used the existing cable (It was RG6) and I hooked up my meter and it all looked good. Ran the test and showed a bad tuner, just happened to be tuner 3. Moved the box and reran the test and all was good, replaced line and returned the box and all problems went away. You're shoving 5 tuners in 1 line. A lot of people don't think of this but the genie needs to have a solid run with good cable no matter what. It's the pickiest box directv makes it seems like.
This is the kind of post I lurk around here to find!
DISH boxes are so buggy they really do need the 3 gig solid copper RG6 and it looks like the Genie / client rig is the same. + That "git 'er done" mentality has techs tune / install in poor weather conditions and hope they got it right.
Thanks for the info,............inspect the Sat...Genie line!
Joe
I respectfully do not agree. I prewired my apartment with commscope ccs rg6 when i worked for comcast, 3 box drops running about 50' to the splitter, an inline of about 100' to a ground block (since it goes from the outside near the electric meter up to my attic then to the far end of the house) then used solid copper core from the ground block to the dish of maybe 25'. my pi is in line with my "inline" from outside and the splitter in the attic, so the 21v is going maybe 125' to the dish.
I have a genie and 2 clients and a cck, all work perfectly, clients lag a bit from time to time, but not signal issues at all. Then again as a tech, I know for a fact all my wiring is clean and the fittings are flush and correct. ya never know what kind of condition existing wiring is in.
Directv tech came out today and replaced the LNB, the reception on 3 of my tv's is pretty good, the fourth not so good. He's talking about replacing the home cable, I don't want to do this, I had this house built and tried to run all the cables in the walls before they were sheetrocked, if he runs a new cable from the dish to the genie he would have to run it up an outside wall and then come thru the attic and I have foam insulation so I don't want to be poking holes in the foam, this is not a good option for me. I don't have the technical knowdge that a tech does but I have a fair amount of common sense. I've been playing with the connections and want to know if it's possible that I have a bad splitter (SWM 4 way with green lable), I can swap the connections into the splitter and it seems like the tv hooked up to the output on the far right of the splitter will always be the tv with the bad reception.
Yes, its entirely possible that the splitter is the problem.
You have 2 choices.. You can get a SWM Splitter to replace it yourself (SolidSignal.com) or, you can get the Tech back out again and show him what you've found.. it's important you actually show him... At that point he'd most likely replace it.. If he still wants to replace the cabling, you DO have the option of saying no, especially if it involves drilling holes or modifying the structure of the house.
You have 2 choices.. You can get a SWM Splitter to replace it yourself (SolidSignal.com) or, you can get the Tech back out again and show him what you've found.. it's important you actually show him... At that point he'd most likely replace it.. If he still wants to replace the cabling, you DO have the option of saying no, especially if it involves drilling holes or modifying the structure of the house.
Lanarian, thanks for the feedback, I don't think I stand much of a chance on showing him much of anything, when he came out this morning I tired to get him to look at the signal strenght on the other tuners, he pretty much ignored me on this one, of course he might have had a good reason for not thinking this would be a problem. He just pretty much went by what was on his meter and he had a good signal on his meter inside the house so he was good. I even tried to get him to put his meter on each coax leading to the splitter but to no avail. I could very easily go with Charter but I really want to give Directtv a shot at keeping my business.
I agree,
The Sat line is just a weak link (maybe); a place to look for problems. The other unstated possibility is that the installation was done under moist (rain) conditions and there could well be water in a fitting. Even an uncompressed fitting. But that line seems to be a place to physically inspect for dings & kinks.
Joe
Harley,
Ya know the wise tech will keep or make a long jumper in his truck to bypass house wire to verify the location of a defect. Let him streatch out a line from the dish / LNB directly to points in your system to identify the location of the defect.
The other $$$$$ possibility is using the existing (& maybe defective cable) to pull new cable through the wall cavity. You make a strong connection and pull the old stuff out of the wall as new material goes in. If it breaks you are screwed.
Run the temp jumper before cutting the wall.
Joe
If the existing line is stapled, your also screwed.
Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk 2
Ok guys I need your feed back on this test I did. I took the splitter out of the system by running the home wire from the sat to the power inserter and checked the signal strenght on the genie, on all sats, transponders and tuners I am getting good signal strenght across the board, I put the splitter back into the system and the sat signal by tuner is all over the board. Do you guys agree with me that this sounds like a splitter problem?
Those signal strengths are all low. Should be no sigs under 90.
The Antenna should be peaked. That cable from the SWM switch to the receiver should be checked for faults. The connections checked as well.
THAT is the proper way to perform a trouble shoot
It should not matter if the issue is intermittent or not. The system is not working properly. Call Direct and DEMAND a technician come to your home and fix the system.
God Dammit.....What the heck is going on here?!!! This kind of crummy customer service is 100% inexcusable.
Intermittent problem...My Fanny....
If you bought a new car and it started and ran every other day, would you not consider punching the dealer in the nose if he told you "It's ok. The problem with your new $30k car is intermittent"..
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