Satellite receiver problems - any ideas

[Christian]

I have a problem with our satellite receiver. I don’t know whether it is the dish set up or the box itself, or both.

When we change channels the satellite box regularly turns itself off and loses the signal and we have to wait will it re-acquires the signal. It has got to the stage where we hardly dare change channels.

When it rains we either lose the signal entirely, or it is very broken up.

Yesterday we stopped receiving ITV1 & 2, channel 4 & 5……….they were not even in the TV guide section.

Signal quality, Signal Strength & Lock on all look fine to me.

If anybody can give me an idea where to start I would be grateful.

Christian

[Anton Redman]

Suggestions :

Check all connections are tight (Power, plugs,sockets and Co Ax)

Unplug box and leave for five minutes before plugging back in and see if that makes any difference

Try using front buttons rather than remote to change channels

Find neighbour who has SKY and see if your box works at their installation then see if their box works at your installation. That should sort out whether it is the box or the dish / cable.

The signal quality and strength meters are fine as comparatives but do not give absolute readings. If you cannot find a neighbour with a digibox then try adjusting the dish alignment by minute amounts. It takes a very heavy rainstorm and thunder to take out our signal. Maybe two or three times a year and we live in a pretty damp part of France. 

Have a look at the SATCURE website which I think still has a list of common faults by digibox

[Christian]

Anton

Thanks for the advice.

Christian

[a.foreman]

it looks like the LNB that the bit on the dish were the cable goes to

do you get the problem when its cold ( In the evening  )

[Christian]

We usually only watch TV in the evening, I will test it this afternoon.

thanks

[Techno]

Hi

We have had the same problems we leave our receiver (Grundig) in France and go there once every 6-7 weeks each time we find missing channels and the receiver keeps switching off. We have found by forcing the reciver to do a software update this fix's the problem this is usually done by removing the power to the receiver holding in the backup button power back up keeping the button pressed until either a message saying software update appears or all the lights come on the receiver at which point release the button and wait until the update has downloaded anything upto 25mins this proceeder may be different on other sky boxes. The current EPG software version is 3.3a.6. Hope this is of some use.

 

[Baz]

You will find that by leaving your receiver switched on ideally to Sky news that all the channels will return within 24 hours. This is quite normal if you have not used your receiver for 4 weeks or longer. I mention this as many experts do not recommend the use of forced downloads except in exceptional circumstances because if the  receiver  is showing poor signal quality  it can permanently corrupt the data in the internal memory chips. For further information look at the satcure site.

Baz