Possible ground loop destroying the hard drive ?

[ohioankev]

I lease my 722, and have the protection plan and I have a problem, when I first had dish install a 722 in my house in 2009 the first receiver lasted almost two years with no problem. However I started to have signal drops that would make watching anything DVR'ed impossible without getting the dialog box about partially lost data due to signal loss. At this time I called Dish Network out to check it out and the best course of action was to run a new line since this was only happening on the line with the 722 and not the 625. Things worked but the Dish Network installer explained to me that the system was not grounded right.

At the time, the ground wire was running from my dish to the grounding rod in the ground in the front of my house. He explained to me that my house wasn't up to standards (it's an older house built in the early 1950s) He then ran another ground wire from the electrical box outside of the house to the grounding rod. So now I have a ground wire running from my dish to the rod, and from the electrical box to the grounding rod. I was always under the assumption that the ground wires were supposed to run from the dish to the grounding rod, but I don't have a clear understanding about it. Anyways, after he did this is when I started to have problems with my DVR boxes becoming unstable and ultimately hard drive failure.

I replaced the receiver I had installed in Jan. 2009 in May 2011, and now I'm going to have to call and get another receiver, I'm thinking about having a tech come out to the house and look things over instead of having the new receiver shipped. I just wanted an opinion on this issue. Thanks for any insights and suggestions.

*just thought I would note since I mentioned 2009, Dish Network has been in the house since late 2005 or 2006. We started out with a 625, which I upgraded from to the VIP 722 in 2009. There is another 625 in the house that has been here since 2008 and it still works fine. Both of those units never had any of the problems mentioned above.

 

[KKlare]

Before anything else check each 3-prong plug for hot-neutral reversal.
It is likely your house was not set up correctly and may be 2-wire and a ground shield.
Buy for $2 to $4 a 3-prong tester. It has 3 neon bulbs.
It should light the 2 yellow and not the red hot-ground bulb.
Test every socket in your house.
(Hot is the black wire and the narrower pin. Neutral should be white and ground be green.)
I found after remodeling my house, the original had exactly 1/2 with the hot and neutral exchanged.
The grounds were fine.
You could get a tangling between the round ground and the neutral wide prong.
That could have been a lot more than a tingle and may spark and arc.
So while replacing the cream sockets with white I exchanged the bad while and black wires.
Best of luck, -Ken

 

[TimberWolf]

The newer the rec, the more sensitive it seems to be to voltage fluctuations.

The tech is supposed to grnd the dish and the cable to a grnd block that should then be run to the main house grnd. They are not supposed to open or grnd your electrical box. It should be bound the the grnd rod already.

There have been numerous threads on grounding issues. If it worked fine before he did it, I would just undo it and see if the problem keeps happening.

 

[Tampa8]

I agree the newer receivers seem to need a better ground then past ones have, judging from posts. I would indeed have a tech come and specifically look at the grounding of your system and if he can of your house.