No Freaking Signal

[randyk47]

Fully understand. Some people report that their SWM LNB has come back once it warmed up but we're just guessing that your LNB has fallen victim to the cold weather. Personally I'm not into heights myself, more driven by my age and the fact I can afford to pay somebody else to take those risks. I'd call DirecTV and see what the techs have to say. Doesn't make much sense that they'd replace your LNB with the same version knowing that there's a failure problem.

 

[rockaway1836]

There's been a thread on this at DBS

Swm Lnbs Do Not Like The Cold - DBSTalk.Com

 

[yourbeliefs]

There's been a thread on this at DBS

Swm Lnbs Do Not Like The Cold - DBSTalk.Com

Yeah I read through that. Seems to confirm what has been discussed here. I hate dealing with faulty equipment. I suppose I shouldn't be TOO surprised this happened, seeing as the FIRST lnb they installed didn't work either.

 

[William1]

I have a regular 5LNB, had to get a SWM. My choice was to swap out the LNB (cheapest solution) or get a SWM-8. After reading some of the posts regarding temp issues, I went with a SWM-8.

 

[MikeinBaja]

Good advise and diagnostics all - except it doesn't get him up for Superbowl!

Go hunt down/scrounge an old single LNB DTV 18" dish. Screw it to a board mounted on a set of sawhorses where you have a decent view of the arc. Put sandbags or blocks on the sawhorses for stability. Line that puppy up on 101. Run temp coax to your main receiver - remember to go through the set-up menu for the dish type change.

You won't get it in HD - but at least you will get the game.

 

[charper1]

or run a proper OTA setup right?

 

[yourbeliefs]

I'm fine as far as the super bowl goes. NBC affiliate is less than 20 miles from my house, so that part of things is good. The thing that sucks though is that I still don't have access to any of my other television stuff.

 

[scarebear]

Is there any hard "evidence" or "proof" I can back this up with so that I can make sure that they don't give me another of the WNC's and give me an Aspen instead?

in CT if your lnb is bad you will get a Eagle Aspen, don't worry about getting another dead WNC if that is your problem

 

[D700]

I wonder what effect a pipe warmer would have on the lnb and signal.

 

[AllStarGuard]

I lost my HD channels yesterday. It was working in the morning, then when I checked about 5pm, nada. All the SD channels are working. The dish is rock solid. Could this be an issue with the LMB also? Tech is scheduled to come out here on Tuesday.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Update:

The incredibly Jamaican (not that there's anything wrong with that, but understanding the man can become a chore) service man has been here for nearly 2 hours. The first thing he did was, predictibly, replacing the LNB with the less sucky version, but we've had no improvement in the situation since then. We've been trying to diagnose every other possible reason why, and what makes this situation worse is the fact that I can't even be work productive during this time as my company's VPN and email are down. Another thing that will make my bosses super happy.

10am Update: The guy ran signal checks on both receivers, and according to him, none of them are exhibiting any activity, meaning BOTH of my HD DVRs are fried. He thinks it was because the line wasn't properly grounded and it sent both my receivers down sh*t's creek.

UGH.

11am Update: The guy has been gone for an hour to get some other equipment. Actually, he came back a little while ago, but then mysteriously disappeared. This is getting beyond ridiculous.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Final

Well, after just under FIVE HOURS of work, I now have my DirecTV working again. Apparently, a surge or something fried BOTH of my HD-DVRs, as the tech worker could not get a power signal from either of them. Whether or not a frozen LNB was responsible will never be known. So in conclusion, here's a rundown:

Pluses:
+ Two brand new HR22's (as opposed to having a HR22 and HR20)
+ Brand new SWM LNB
+ Knowledge of the fact that the dispatch station is about 10 minutes away, meaning that from now on I should make appointments in the morning.


Minuses:
- There's a chance this was all caused by my stupidity of not using a surge protector on the LNB plug (or the fact that the system was never properly grounded in the first place.)
- I lost all the recorded programming of my old DVRs, including a bunch of movies I recorded from free movie station previews.
- I had no television for a week.
- Half of my work day was lost in trying to deal with this.

I guess my next phone call will be to D* to get a reduced rate for this month seeing as I had NO television for a week.

 

[randyk47]

Wow! The mysteries and wonders of satellite TV. Hard to say where all your problems started but sounds like you've gotten a pretty thorough overhaul. The cause could be so many things it's not worth guessing but glad to hear you got the system grounded this time around as that certainly is a prime candidate.