# Searching for Sat every day...



## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

First off I did a bit of searching and did not see anything like this....

I believe this to be due to updates on my HD recievers
I have a ViP 622 and a ViP 222. I also have an old SD Dish Receiver.

The problem started Thursday morning. I woke up and both of my ViPs were on the Searching for Satellite 3 of 5 page. They both would hang at 3 of 5 and then back down to 1 of 5 and back up to 3 then the process began again.

Checking the SD tuner all was well.

The ViPs both had the Customer Service option greyed out. I ran the check switch and the diags and everything showed good. Sats were green, signal fine. Still hung on 3 of 5.

So I called support. Girl had me do the diags again. Status: Good. She had no clue since I was now off sheet for her. She decided to send a tech cause it must be the dish outside as I have 2 receivers without signal. Never mind the SD receiving signal and the 2 HD tuners saying they are fine with signal...

So the first tech is coming Monday...

So no TV for 4 days.. bummer... so I got to playing with the tuners... figure I cant hurt much...

Decided to do the Factory Restore. Did that, did my sat check all green, reset box with the down arrrow... passed all checks, d/l guide, tv back.

Cool. Did it with the other ViP and same thing. TV back.

Woke up this AM to the Sat 3 of 5. Did a Factory reset, did the down arrow system reboot and TV back up... tilll tonight I am guessing.

Any clues here? Ideas? 

Thanks.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

Very strange. At first guess I'd lean towards a switch or LNB problem but then I wouldn't expect a factory reset to fix it. Is it possible to take the sat. feed going to your working SD receiver and hook it up to the 622 or 222 and see if the problem goes away for that receiver? That would indicate an issue outside of the receiver. I can't imagine that you have 2 receivers that went bad at the same time. Hopefully the Tech will be able to diagnose the problem come Monday.


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

Yes it is strange and continues to be strange.
The dish guy came out and did not see anything wrong with the setup. 

BTW I have a 622 HD and a 211 stand alone... I mistyped earlier on the 2nd receiver.

The 211 stayed on Saturday AM but off Sunday and Monday AM... the 622 has yet to stay on overnight...

The dish guy set the updates to roll at 10AM on the 622 and left the updates on the 211 at the 3AM time.

My 211 stayed on this AM once again for whatever reason.. Ill see about the 622.

622 Software is L511
211 is at L439

Ongoing saga....


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## bruin95 (Apr 23, 2006)

What is probably happening is your nightly guide updates are getting corrupted somehow. When you do a "factory restore" you are also forcing the receiver to download a new guide. It's doing it succesfully and that's why you get your channels back. But something is happening to your receiver when it is downloading the nightly update. If the problem continues, try changing the time you receive the update and see if that fixes it. I went through the same thing recently and that's how I fixed my problem. Haven't had any issues since.


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## rbgator95 (May 31, 2007)

jkhiggin said:


> First off I did a bit of searching and did not see anything like this....
> 
> I believe this to be due to updates on my HD recievers
> I have a ViP 622 and a ViP 222. I also have an old SD Dish Receiver.
> ...


hi

I am out of town at the moment but roommate tells me exact same problem is happening on my VIP622 - hangs up at Acquiring Satellite - 3 of 5. I talked her through the check switch process... that went well (the second time). Just want to make sure that "factory default" DOES fix this glitch on your VIP systems? If it works with mine, it certainly seems more likely to be something on DISH's side of the coin 

Thanks!
-Richard


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## daveray (Feb 12, 2004)

I had a Searching for Sat message on my 722 Sun morning. It was hung on 3/5 as well. My 622 was funtioning normal. I do have a superdish 105. I think dish stoped useing 105 last week. Called dish will send tech Thursday after noon.
Did a system info check. It said I had drift on all sats. I disconected the 105 lnb
swapped the 722 and the 622 did a switch check. The 622 ran normally it aquired 
its sats on 119. The 722 searched 110 and 61.5 and would hang at 3/5.
I did a system info this morning and it said there was drift on the 110 lnb.


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

Ok Update on the issue....

Dish changed out my 622 with a 722 and same issue. He came back and swapped out my 44 switch outside and regrounded the system.

Same problem.

This is what I have found out though....

If I scan my locals then this happens. If I don't I am ok.

I do not get my locals from Dish. Being in Little Rock, dish does not offer HD locals. I can get all my locals from an antenna.

I have one antenna in my attic.. thats on the 722 in my living room. 

I use rabbit ears for my 211 in the bed room.

So different antennas even and this is what is happening.

Again if I do not scan my locals my TV stays on overnight.


Bruin95 - The sat guy did change my update time to 10AM... TV was on overnight... I went to work, when I came home for lunch at 11AM the TV was out. So yes it has to do with the update time.


Richard - Yes the factory reset has work every time. I do the factory reset, change the HD back to my 1080i setting for my TV and do the Power -> Down Arrow reset. Sats then scan and TV is back.

Sorry you are having this issue too, but glad its not just me.


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## Scott Spillers (Apr 15, 2006)

This problem only seems to affect those who receive locals OTA and do not subscribe to locals from Dish. In order to see guide data for local channels received OTA with the ViP622 & 722, you have to subscribe to sat locals from Dish. I wonder if L5.10/L5.11 is not managing the blocking of the guide data correctly and is hanging when local guide data is downloaded on receivers with OTA channels set up, that do not have a subscription to locals from Dish.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

jkhiggin said:


> If I scan my locals then this happens. If I don't I am ok.


This one still has me confused.. Is there something that causes you to have to scan your locals every day? You state that if you don't scan your locals it does not happen but if you do it does.

Is this a way of saying. If I have any OTA locals added to my receiver I see the problem, but if I don't then I don't see the problem or are you actually scanning and adding locals on a daily basis?


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## kucharsk (Sep 20, 2006)

If you have *ever* scanned for local OTA digital channels and do not subscribe to them from DISH, this will occur if you have a 622 or 722 with L5.10/L5.11.

A Factory Reset makes the problem go away because it deletes all local OTA channels from the receiver's memory.

It's not a matter of rescanning, it's a matter of having scanned at all.


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## Tulsa1 (Oct 15, 2003)

This all sounds like you are trying to drive your car without a key.
You expect your DVR to handle your locals but you don't subscribe to them.
There seems to be an obvious conflict here. You want "locals" support without
subscribing to it. Hmmmmm


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

Ron Barry said:


> This one still has me confused.. Is there something that causes you to have to scan your locals every day? You state that if you don't scan your locals it does not happen but if you do it does.
> 
> Is this a way of saying. If I have any OTA locals added to my receiver I see the problem, but if I don't then I don't see the problem or are you actually scanning and adding locals on a daily basis?


If I scan, or manually add local channels, since the 5.11 update, then during the update time the receiver seems to blow a gasket.

When I wake up in the morning it is stuck on Searching for Sat and the only way to correct the issue is to factory reset (clearing all the locals) and doing a reboot of the box.

After I reset the box and add my locals, the TV is fine till update time.

If after I reset the box and do not add locals then the overnight processing is fine.

Just saw 5.12 is being pushed now so I am hoping this corrects the issue.


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

Tulsa1 said:


> This all sounds like you are trying to drive your car without a key.
> You expect your DVR to handle your locals but you don't subscribe to them.
> There seems to be an obvious conflict here. You want "locals" support without
> subscribing to it. Hmmmmm


Yes. Its a function of the box to offer OTA support. It has that functionality and should work without me subscribing to locals.

Thats the thing about locals... they are Free. I see no point in paying dish for Standard Def locals when I can get my locals free with an antenna in HiDef.


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## kucharsk (Sep 20, 2006)

Tulsa1 said:


> This all sounds like you are trying to drive your car without a key.
> You expect your DVR to handle your locals but you don't subscribe to them.
> There seems to be an obvious conflict here. You want "locals" support without
> subscribing to it. Hmmmmm


Tell me why, then, DISH put the OTA antenna jack on the stupid thing since paid locals are received via satellite?

OTA reception is a *feature* (in theory) of the box.

If it's not going to work, let us know and we (and DISH installers) won't bother connecting an antenna cable to the jack.


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## FastNOC (Sep 11, 2007)

jkhiggin said:


> I do not get my locals from Dish. Being in Little Rock, dish does not offer HD locals. I can get all my locals from an antenna.


I'm a little confused. I have an account in Hot Springs with Dish, and I get NBC, CBS and ABC HD (all Little Rock). The only one not available is Fox.


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

FastnoNOC said:


> I'm a little confused. I have an account in Hot Springs with Dish, and I get NBC, CBS and ABC HD (all Little Rock). The only one not available is Fox.


Thats amazing since HD is not offered via Dish for the Little Rock locals. Unless you are getting them with the OTA signal.

The Local Little Rock stations offered by dish are just the Digital signal and not in HD.


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## FastNOC (Sep 11, 2007)

I'm sure you're right since you're there now and I'm not. I moved my HD unit out. My wife is there still and we have our account but no HD tv there.

I wonder if it was DirecTV that had the HD locals? I had them before dish


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

jkhiggin said:


> Thats amazing since HD is not offered via Dish for the Little Rock locals. Unless you are getting them with the OTA signal.
> 
> The Local Little Rock stations offered by dish are just the Digital signal and not in HD.


I'm not sure I understand your statement "...stations offered by dish are just the Digital signal and not in HD."

You automitcally get the HD program if you're getting a digital signal. It's up to the station to broadcast the HD program, but HD is automatic when you have the digital signal. Of course, you also need the correct equipment to receive and view digital and HD material.


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

lujan said:


> I'm not sure I understand your statement "...stations offered by dish are just the Digital signal and not in HD."
> 
> You automitcally get the HD program if you're getting a digital signal. It's up to the station to broadcast the HD program, but HD is automatic when you have the digital signal. Of course, you also need the correct equipment to receive and view digital and HD material.


Dish receiver by default is a "digital picture". However not all digital pictures are HD.


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## kucharsk (Sep 20, 2006)

Anyone know if this works now in L5.12?


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

No. Still broken.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Boy I wonder if this is a localized issue given the number of complaints and I know there are more people on the board that don't sub to locals.
Is there anyone that does not sub to locals that is on L5.12 that is not having this issue? 

... Long shot .. 
Have you checked your EPG for your OTA channels? Is there anything in there that looks odd like duplicate entries or a channel that seems out
of place or seems like a duplicate? Does there seem to be anything
extra in your EPG. If so, might try deleting the duplicate. 

Have you tried just adding a single channel and see if the problem goes away. There might be something in the OTA stream that is confusing your
722 and removing all but one channel (If it does work try another single channel just incase the one you choose is the offender) might lead to narrowing your issue to a single channel that you could removed the channel until a fix is provided. If one channel works, then I would continue adding a couple channels each day until the problem returns and then you can narrow down from there. 

If you guys find anything strange in your EPG or if just adding a single channel stops the acquiring signal please report your findings back so if someone else runs into this issue they know what you guys find out. 

Long shot here, but if there is something in the particular OTA stream combined with no local sub info this exercise might help narrow it down.


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

Ive added one channel to see and that still breaks overnight.

As fas as the EPG... about a year now I guess, Dish changed something and the guide data will not come across to the local channel ranges. This happened months upto about a year ago.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

What was the result jkhiggin of your test? When you add all the channels do you see any duplicate channels or anything unusually with your OTA channels in your EPG? Anythign odd in the call letters?


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

No nothing odd in the call letters... like DTV 30 maps down to 16-1 which is the correct thing to do... it says KARK is KARK etc.

I do not, and have not received the actual program guide of what is on for a long time. Way before this happened, but its my understanding that dish had done that to everyone.

As long as I skip the nightly update it will stay on.

Of course I can no longer get ahold of my local repair guy that came to the house and did the swapouts and all.


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## Don_Redondo (Jun 9, 2008)

Any updates or resolution with this issue? 

I’m seeing something similar on my 722 – but it came on the tail of other issues so it may be coincidental. I had some reception problems with bad even transponders on 119. I swapped the LNB and haven’t seen that problem since but… I happened to swap the LNB the day before my 5.11 update and now the 722 forgets what my setup is on a daily basis (now have 5.12 but still have problems). The system doesn’t hang on the acquiring screen, but the signal is often lost in the morning and it won’t reacquire. (A status check at this point will fail and running a test switch starts a 1 of 38 sequence instead of the 1 of 3 for the dishpro plus twin that I have.) I’ve done all the usual troubleshooting, swapped wires, replaced diplexers, bypassed the separator, swapped lnb, etc. The only thing that works is power cycling, which I’ve been doing almost everyday - the unit comes back OK then runs fine the rest of the day – and craps out in the AM. One strange thing is that there is a daily timer for BBC news at 6:00AM that usually gets recorded but when I turn on the set and try to watch anything - no signal. It's getting confused somewhere. I am a local subscriber but did have HD locals that I scanned, and used, before they were available from dish. They are still in the program guide. The issue isn’t identical but does have similar symptoms. I was hoping for some new insight or other suggestions.

I haven’t done a factory reset but am curious how much needs to be re-entered after the factory reset vs a power cycle. Does the factory reset wipe out all user-configured items including remotes, tv 2 channel, preferred channel order, locks, etc?


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

You may have another bad LNB with an intermittent problem. When the check switch goes to 1 of 38 with a Dishpro Lnb that usually means that the receiver is not seeing the LNB. There are 3 causes. LNB is bad, cable (or fittings) is bad or the power supply in the receiver is bad.


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## ScottsFJ40 (Feb 27, 2007)

I am having similar problems, but not exactly what has been described. My 622 goes into error 002 every 15 minutes or so. My 322 SD box works fine. When it goes int the 002 error, all I have to do to bring it back is press the GUIDE button. Picture and sound come back instantly.

Called DISH 3 times today about it, and they are sending a tech out in the morning to take a look at things.


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## DNSFSS (Apr 4, 2008)

The order (typically) of problems with a system is (1)Cable, fittings, etc. (2)Switch, LNB and (3)Receiver. I would try having the cable replaced to your receiver and see if that fixes the problem. Most of the time when I replace cable it fixes the problem. Having someone replace the LNB only will just cause a repeat call and you'll have to wait around for a whole day for someone to show up


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## ScottsFJ40 (Feb 27, 2007)

I forgot to add on my message that the dish and cable was installed the first week of May. We moved the receivers from our old house.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

jkhiggin said:


> No nothing odd in the call letters... like DTV 30 maps down to 16-1 which is the correct thing to do... it says KARK is KARK etc.
> 
> I do not, and have not received the actual program guide of what is on for a long time. Way before this happened, but its my understanding that dish had done that to everyone.
> 
> ...


What happend when you added just the one channel? Was the issue still there? If it was, did swapping that one channel with another make it go away? Might help to get some pictures of all your EPG OTA channels.

I think Don and Scott's issues are not releated. Don't feel like the same issue.


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## WIrving (Jul 7, 2008)

Don_Redondo said:


> Any updates or resolution with this issue?
> 
> I haven't done a factory reset but am curious how much needs to be re-entered after the factory reset vs a power cycle. Does the factory reset wipe out all user-configured items including remotes, tv 2 channel, preferred channel order, locks, etc?


Turns out to be not too bad. The thing I was most dreading was the favorites lists, but they only lose their names (they revert back to "List 1", "List 2", etc.) - the actual contents are preserved. The only other things I've lost by doing this are:

- format of the "guide display" (with or w/o picture, small text -vs- large text, etc.)
- output format for HD - reverts to 480i, has to be reset to 720p or 1080i

I think that's about it. And, of course, you lose the OTA channels memorized, but that's what fixes this problem. 

WIrving


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## WIrving (Jul 7, 2008)

First, thanks a ton to the OP for identifying this bug, and especially for coming up with a workaround!

We have a 622 and a 722. My timing on this was terrible; I was just starting to experiment with OTA when this bug showed up. Thought I'd broken my 722 by hooking up an antenna to it. 

I was not a subscriber to locals until a few days ago (they're not offered in my DMA - Columbus, GA). Before that, I was getting a half dozen OTA channels ("digital service" in EPG) and the 722 started exhibiting this "step 1-2-3 over and over" problem. I'd been considering "moving" for a while so I could subscribe to some locals, and this pretty much pushed me over the edge.

At first, following the "move", both my 722 and 622 were happy. I got a few OTA channels (from Montgomery, AL DMA) that are actually carried by Dish, and the EPG data is there for them. I also got a few OTA channels (Columbus DMA) that are *not* carried by Dish, so they're still "digital service" in EPG.

Now, when I added a few more of the marginally-receivable OTA channels (some Montgomery, some Columbus) to both the 722 and the 622 a day or two ago, the 622 suddenly got the "step 1-2-3" problem...but by this point I was a locals subscriber.

I think this must be a regional problem as some have speculated; in my case, I suspect it's being caused by one of the local Columbus GA channels that I can sometimes get OTA but that Dish does not carry. I'm back to just the handful of stronger OTA channels memorized and the 622 and 722 are both happy again.

I'll try to add the weaker OTA channels back one at a time, but it's kind of hit-and-miss for me - I can only get them on some nights, so it might be hard to add them back. If I can pin it down to a specific local causing this problem, I'll post it here.

WIrving


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

Ron Barry said:


> What happend when you added just the one channel? Was the issue still there? If it was, did swapping that one channel with another make it go away? Might help to get some pictures of all your EPG OTA channels.
> 
> I think Don and Scott's issues are not releated. Don't feel like the same issue.


Yeah so far issue still here, but I have not moved past the 5.12 software on the 722. My 211 receiver which was doing the same thing got a new update - for the turbo change - and now it is staying on overnight.

I am hoping that once my 722 gets the latest update, it will keep my locals overnight. Im just waiting for the update to roll on...


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

jkhiggin said:


> Yeah so far issue still here, but I have not moved past the 5.12 software on the 722. My 211 receiver which was doing the same thing got a new update - for the turbo change - and now it is staying on overnight.
> 
> I am hoping that once my 722 gets the latest update, it will keep my locals overnight. Im just waiting for the update to roll on...


You should have it now. If not turn off you receiver. If in dual mode make sure it is off for tv1 and tv2.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

jkhiggin said:


> Yeah so far issue still here, but I have not moved past the 5.12 software on the 722. My 211 receiver which was doing the same thing got a new update - for the turbo change - and now it is staying on overnight.
> 
> I am hoping that once my 722 gets the latest update, it will keep my locals overnight. Im just waiting for the update to roll on...


Please report back if the update fixes your issue.. Hope so.


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## jkhiggin (Jun 20, 2008)

Yep my problems are solved with the latest SW. Yay Turbo Update!
Both of my HD receivers are working correctly again and staying up with local scanned.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well good to hear jkhiggins.. Thanks for updating the thread.


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## Todd H (Aug 18, 2006)

I've had this bug happen to me as well. It got to the point where every minute the 002 error would pop up. After reading through this thread I decided to delete my OTA channels and unhook the antenna from my 622. Success!

This bug is definitely repeatable for me. As soon as I hook up my OTA antenna and add my locals, I get the 002 searching for satellite error. I now watch my HD locals using my television's built-in tuner, which sucks because I can't record my locals in HD any longer.

Also, I actually subscribe to my locals through Dish. It seems like everyone else having this problem didn't.


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