# Stuck Acquiring Guide Data



## herkulease (Jul 29, 2007)

Two hr20-700 with the latest firmware 1ea. 

Both were working fine until yesterday. 

Came home and both are stuck Acquiring Guide Data. totally black screen. No Guide what so ever. Can't even watch live TV. 

I can check signal strength on both and there's a signal, granted a has a slight ailment issue and I'm waiting for dtv to come out. earliest they have was next week. It wasn't terrible enough that it wasn't working on Wednesday. I just had issues with some channels. 

restart through menu doesn't do anything. Instructions says if it doesn't work call CS with error 772


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## wmschultz (Jul 18, 2006)

Are your B-Band converters installed? If so, remove them and see what happens.


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## say-what (Dec 14, 2006)

If you're networked, try disconnecting the network cable/adapter, rbr and see if that helps.


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## runopenloop (Jun 27, 2006)

I'm now having the same problem with my HR20-700 that has been working for 1.5 years. The SAT-T60 in another room is working fine. herkulease, did you resolve your problem? If so, how?

I tried resetting (menu and red button). Swapping sat input cables, remove B band converters. Cust service had me try try it all again, then sent a replacement HR20-100. Move the "broken" -700 to the other room and it worked fine. Installed the new -100 where the -700 used to be and it had the same problem (stalls at step 2 of 2 during setup 0%, yet get good sig on all sats). 

Over the course of 3 hours I tried swapping the lines to the receivers at the multiswitch, rebooting, different B band conv., etc. Only after 3 hours and when I put the B Band conv. on the -700 to verify that HD nationals were working, did the -100 suddenly drop the "acquiring guide data" message. So, I called cust service and they said to put the -700 back where it goes and return the -100. Guess what? I put the -700 back where it goes and it has the same problem. Switch to the -100 and is has the same problem. Put the -700 back so at least we can watch the shows on the HD. Directv is now sending a tech at a cost of $80 to me.

I was networked. Not sure if I had it hooked up during the dozens of swaps/power cycles. I will make sure it is unhooked and RBR.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. At this point I'm thinking I have a problem in one of the multiswitches (dish or in house).

It would be nice if we knew from a SW standpoint what events cause "acquiring guide data" banner to display. (Note: eventually, I can tune and view any channel but the AGD alert is always present)


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## K4SMX (May 19, 2007)

*runopenloop:* Does the SAT-T60 work in the problem room? Will the HR's, new or old, work from the problem room, when connected directly to the dish, bypassing the multi-switch with double female "barrel" connectors? How is your system grounded? Is the dish grounded to the grounding blocks? Are the grounding blocks grounded and to what? Is the multi-switch grounded to the rest of the grounding system? What model multi-switch are you using?


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## runopenloop (Jun 27, 2006)

Good questions Stew. I didn't try the SAT-T60 in the problem room due to the hassle in swapping all the receivers around. I can try it, but I'm not sure how to use that info. I've seen the HR20's both work and not work in the problem room.

Barrel connectors to bypass the multiswitch is something I plan to try. I didn't have any last night so didn't have the ability to try.

Multiswitch in the zinwell that was installed with the HR20 and 5lnb dish. Can't recall the number, but it's the correct one for HD. Been working for 1.5 years.

Gounding. The multiswitch isn't grounded to anything. I don't think there are any grounding blocks. I guess the tech can address that tomorrow morning. What correlation do you see between the grounding and the "acquiring guide data" message? I think proper grounding would be good, I just don't see how it would cause this problem.


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## K4SMX (May 19, 2007)

runopenloop said:


> .......Only after 3 hours and when I put the B Band conv. on the -700 to verify that HD nationals were working, did the -100 suddenly drop the "acquiring guide data" message......


This kind of thing makes me start thinking about grounding issues. Both you and *herkulease* should suspect some type of installation issue vs. receiver issues with these multi-receiver symptoms - grounding, cabling and connectors, LNB's, multi-switches, etc.

It's always easiest to hook a receiver directly up to the dish temporarily with new cables and work backwards from there, adding installation components one-by-one. This can be easy or it can be a PIA, depending on where things are located and, of course, the weather. _Always_ check connectors and BBC's first, as they are probably the most frequent installation issues.

It's a good idea to to start with an installation which is in accordance with DirecTV installation guidelines re: cable quality, grounding, etc. If you make exceptions, these must be eliminated temporarily or corrected during troubleshooting to make sure the items not up to spec are not the cause of the reception problem.


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## runopenloop (Jun 27, 2006)

My problem turned out to be the cables between the receiver and the wall. I wish I would have had the time and misc. cables to have figured it out myself, but at least it is fixed. I have to say I'm surprised that something with the 3' cables could have caused the "acquiring guide data" message, yet standard and HD pictures were fine, and sig. strength was high. Thanks for your suggestions Stew.


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