Need some help - DishPro Problems

[Bradtothebone]

This is sort of a long story, so please bear with me.....

Up 'till now, I've had a Dish 500 legacy twin, with the two feeds routed directly to a 301 and a 6000. Back in January, in anticipation of buying a 921, I ordered a DP-34 and a DP Twin, so that I could have four feeds from the 500 (301, 6000 with legacy adaptor, 921x2). I never hooked the new equipment up until this weekend (after having bought a......ahem......$839 921!). I still haven't activated the 921 (and may not after today's news), mostly because of the way the 301 is behaving.

A "check switch" shows everything to be OK, but if you go to the "Point Dish" screen, many transponders are showing "0" signal. If you throw out the spot beams and HD transponders, it boils down to these:

119 transponders 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16.
110 transponders 12, 14, and 16.

The one thing these all have in common is left-hand polarity, although some TP's with left-hand polarity on each sat are working fine.

I called Dish Tech Support, and they had me hook up direct to the LNB (bypassing the DP-34) to rule out the switch as the problem. I did this, using both sides of the LNB, and had the same results, except I did get a signal on a couple of spot beams I couldn't get with the switch. At that point they were ready to blame the LNB. I asked them if this LNB (CCS9601, Lot # G211) was in the bad batch I'd heard about; they said no, and that my only recourse was to try to get it exchanged by the retailer (Dishstore.net).

Now, here comes the kicker. I then hooked up the 6000 and Legacy adaptor through the DP-34, and it worked absolutely perfectly - every TP got a good, strong signal!

I'm beginning to think that maybe the 301 is bad, but it was working fine with the legacy Twin. One thing I didn't try, and probably should have, is a power cord reboot. I will try that after I remount my dish on Friday (I'm coincidentally having some stucco work done this week, and took it down last night).

Anybody have any ideas?

Brad

 

[nippjas]

Power on 301, disconnect feed completely, do a check switch with no feed (verify no switches or LNBF is present in checkswitch screen), power down, unplug 15min, reconnect feed and check switch with new Switch and LNBF. Sometimes you have to clear the switch memory before making changes, in fact many recommend doing this.

If this doesn't work, and your 6000 still does, fire up that 921 and see if it works(it doesn't need to be subscribed to see switch and signal)...if it does you know the 301 is a goner...you could always dump the 301's memory as a last ditch effort...

Jason

 

[SimpleSimon]

The CS9601 IS repeat IS the bad batch.

 

[nippjas]

The CS9601 IS repeat IS the bad batch.

...Great thanks Simon.....Bradtothebone return the LNBF...It will be replaced free as it was under recall.

Jason

 

[dfergie]

Simon or nippjas, ideas here please, my new 921 only finds one sat on my dpp44, 61.5 I had to hook directly to dpquad to download software to it....

 

[nippjas]

Simon or nippjas, ideas here please, my new 921 only finds one sat on my dpp44, 61.5 I had to hook directly to dpquad to download software to it....

have installed 2 different DPP's at home...Long story....When I first installed I saw it flash an update....On a quad, yes...connect it direct first and checkswitch to setup the quad, then hook up the quad up to port 1 & 2 only to the DPP44 and put 61.5 on Port3 and check switch again. Power inserter should be on feed to port 1 of DPP. Leave port 4 unused unless you have a 4th dish...E* recommends using port 4 of the DPP for FSS, i.e. 105 or 121, if you have one of those. Simon and I are both on AIM Instant Messenger right now if you want a live walk thru.

Jason

 

[dfergie]

Have quad on 1, 61.5 on 2 and 148 on 3 inserter on port one going to 6000u not using 4 . Right now on quad only with 921, dpp44 hooked to 6000u 61.5 and 148 are all that show to it, when in living room it got 148, 110 and 61.5

 

[dfergie]

will try some of the above manana , thanks... so far no probs (as far as functions etc...with the cheapo 921, me likeee , (dont have Aim)

 

[nippjas]

Have quad on 1, 61.5 on 2 and 148 on 3 inserter on port one going to 6000u not using 4 . Right now on quad only with 921, dpp44 hooked to 6000u 61.5 and 148 are all that show to it, when in living room it got 148, 110 and 61.5

With a quad you must use 2 adjoining ports to 44...use 1&2 or 3&4 of quad to input 1& 2 of dpp

 

[nippjas]

try quad on 1&2, 61.5 on 3, and 148 on 4

 

[dfergie]

ahhh, thats one of the probs, from the quad then...and was skipping 1 port on 44

 

[dfergie]

Will try that in morning then, ( been up since 3:30pm yesterday mountain time, dont want to waste a day off ) thanks

 

[SimpleSimon]

Have quad on 1, 61.5 on 2 and 148 on 3 inserter on port one going to 6000u not using 4 . Right now on quad only with 921, dpp44 hooked to 6000u 61.5 and 148 are all that show to it, when in living room it got 148, 110 and 61.5

There be the problem! (in bold).

Put Quad outputs 1 & 2 (or 3 & 4) on ports 1 & 2 of the DPP44 - you gotta have 2 cables - one for 110, one for 119. I suspect the DPP44 is getting very confused when it sees a quad on port 1 that it's forcing to 119, but can't get 110 on port 2.

61.5 and 148 on ports 3 & 4 (order shouldn't matter there).

Oh yeah - the switch might need a power-off reset - disconnect all receiver outputs to make sure it's got no juice from anywhere.

 

[nippjas]

The important thing is you have to use adjoining ports of the quad to the switch, 1&2 or 3&4, don't use odd combos like 1&4 or 1&3..etc...I think your already to go now...Do you have the DPP44 manual...if not I can sent it to you?

let me know if it still doesn't work..
Jason

 

[dfergie]

Yup, Have a manuel, thanks folks...

 

[dfergie]

Put 1 and 2 from Quad into 1 and 2 of Dpp44. Put 61.5 into 3 and 148 on 4, Unplugged 6000u (also hooked up) did switch check with no connections. Hooked up, did switch check on 921 , did same with 6000u.

921 = 119 110 61.5 148 6000u = 119 110 61.5
"Its alive...alive!"

 

[nippjas]

Put 1 and 2 from Quad into 1 and 2 of Dpp44. Put 61.5 into 3 and 148 on 4, Unplugged 6000u (also hooked up) did switch check with no connections. Hooked up, did switch check on 921 , did same with 6000u.

921 = 119 110 61.5 148 6000u = 119 110 61.5

So the question is did it work?

 

[dfergie]

Like a Top.... The 921 is purring along like a kitten...watching Discovery and recording Eddie Money ... now to hook up my Replays

 

[Bradtothebone]

Nippjas and Simple Simon -

Thanks so much for the tips. I've been out of town for a couple of days, so wasn't able to check in. I'll try again this weekend to see if I can get it to work. When you say "return the LNB," do you mean to DishStore, or to E*. I guess I should be talking to Claude about my options, huh?

Brad

 

[Bradtothebone]

Power on 301, disconnect feed completely, do a check switch with no feed (verify no switches or LNBF is present in checkswitch screen), power down, unplug 15min, reconnect feed and check switch with new Switch and LNBF. Sometimes you have to clear the switch memory before making changes, in fact many recommend doing this.

If this doesn't work, and your 6000 still does, fire up that 921 and see if it works(it doesn't need to be subscribed to see switch and signal)...if it does you know the 301 is a goner...you could always dump the 301's memory as a last ditch effort...

Jason

OK, I had a chance to do all of this this weekend. After the power-down reboot, the 301 still wouldn't recognize any of the TP's that failed before. The 6000 is still working fine.

I plugged in the 921 and got to the "point dish" screen. I'm not familiar with what this looks like when everything is working right, but here's what I saw:

At first, with tuner 1 on 119, I was only seeing TP's 11 thru 21. If I tried to go down from 11, it went to 21. It would go up from 11 to 12 and so on, and all seemed fine on those TP's. I then switched to tuner 2, and the TP window switched (on its own) to #1. I then went up through all the numbers, and got signal on all except spotbeam #9. Here's the thing, though. After I got past 11 on the way up, it no longer allowed me to go down past 11 again. Switching back and forth between tuner 1 and tuner 2 didn't ever help again.

110 was basically the same; IIRC it only allowed me to see TP's 21 thru 31, which is FEWER than I was seeing with the 301.

Is it fair, at this time, to blame the LNBF? Has anyone seen this kind of behavior with a 921 "Point Dish" screen? Why would the 6000 work if the other two don't (it sees the DP twin/DP-34 as an SW-64)?

Thanks again, Jason and Simon, for your help.

Brad