# 721 Acquiring Sat



## gnm313-1 (Apr 24, 2005)

I know this is the 921 forum, but the 721 is simillar and somebody may have an answer for me. HELP! If I am way off base in posting here, the mods can delete.

I have a wierd problem that just started happening on my 721. Upon boot, it stays on the acquiring data from sat screen. If I do a check switch, all is fine. Tuner1 locks on 110 and 119 as does Tuner2. Life seems good. I am on the most current SW L323.

When I exit out of the pointing screen, the receiver is locked up. I can unlock it by hitting the power button on the remote. When I go back into the pointing screen, tuner1 is still locked, but tuner2 has lost both its locks. They can be reloocked, but this just starts th whole loop over again.

It's not cabling or switches because I can move the receiver to another switch/location and the problem travels with the receiver. It's not the separator because I can hook two known good feeds direct and get the same issue. Not only that, but I get a perfect checkswitch every time. This is on a DPP LNB with a DPP44.

My next step is to call dish, but I don't want to lose all my recordings on a box swap.

Any ideas what I am seeing here? Not sure what else to try.


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

gnm313 said:


> I know this is the 921 forum, but the 721 is simillar and somebody may have an answer for me. HELP! If I am way off base in posting here, the mods can delete.
> 
> I have a wierd problem that just started happening on my 721. Upon boot, it stays on the acquiring data from sat screen. If I do a check switch, all is fine. Tuner1 locks on 110 and 119 as does Tuner2. Life seems good. I am on the most current SW L323.
> 
> ...


I have a 721 and what I do is unplug the power cord, push the power button and hold it for a few seconds, plug the power cord into the outlet and turn the receiver on. When you turn it back on you may have to wait 4 minutes before things start to happen. You may have to do this several times but usually once is enough. If this does not correct the problem you may have to have the unit replaced. Do not expect help from Tech Support because they have no idea on how to correct 721 problems. I am an installer and have learned this from experience.


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## gnm313-1 (Apr 24, 2005)

Do I hold the button in while I plug it in or release it and then plug it in?


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

gnm313 said:


> Do I hold the button in while I plug it in or release it and then plug it in?


Release the button and then plug it in.


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## gnm313-1 (Apr 24, 2005)

Unplugged the reciever. Held the button in on the receiver for 10 seconds. Released the button and plugged the receiver in. I got a normal startup with the same result. 

What is supposed to happen that is different than normal?


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

gnm313 said:


> Unplugged the reciever. Held the button in on the receiver for 10 seconds. Released the button and plugged the receiver in. I got a normal startup with the same result.
> 
> What is supposed to happen that is different than normal?


You may have a bad receiver if you keep getting the same result.


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## gnm313-1 (Apr 24, 2005)

In case anyone is interested....

I read that removing power to the hard drive will fix some odd problems. Seemed drastic, but I tried it. It reloaded the OS. 

Getting good locks on all sats now. Lost my recordings and favorites, but it fixed my receiver.


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

Shoot, my 721 is also screwed up. Very similar to the problems reported above. I was able to get it going the first time by a power button reset. It went through the whole deal, checking the HD , reloading the OS, etc. and then it worked.
Two days later, the same thing. Both times it says the system has failed with a bad hard drive.
I'm wondering if this might be related to Dish pushing dish-on-demand down to these receivers with the latest software and it is causing the failures.
It never failed before the latest software and mostly sits idle in the front bedroom.


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## gnm313-1 (Apr 24, 2005)

More than likely if you are getting the hd error, you are having hard drive problems. I never got any hd errors. Time for a replacement.


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## sluggo (Sep 16, 2004)

gnm313 said:


> More than likely if you are getting the hd error, you are having hard drive problems. I never got any hd errors. Time for a replacement.


I had major problems with my 721. It's no longer under warranty so here is what i did that fixed everything. Unplugged all cables, opened the case, unhooked the ribbon cable to the hard drive (no stickers to mess with as in removing the drive),hooked up to the TV and plugged it in. Eventually I got a hard drive missing message (or something like that). Powered it off unhooked the tv and power cord, put the ribbon cable back on, closed the case and hooked everything back up. It did many things, re-initialized the hard drive, reformatted the drive, re-partitioned the hard drive and has been working flawlessly for at least 5 or 6 months. Send me a PM if you need more info.


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