# ViP 211 Issue Requring Daily Reboot



## jvanriper (Jan 21, 2006)

I have an issue with one of my 211's that has been going on for a long time and I've been living with it but am fed up! 

Each day when I go to watch certain Dish channels, I get a satellite error message. For some reason it never gets this error on EPSN 2 HD but other channels like ESPN I get it consistently. I can fix it by doing a hard reboot by holding down the power button and after 10 minutes it does the normal reboot process and program guide it is fine until the next day. The other way I can fix this is by unhooking the RG6 cable from my grounding block and reconnecting it and it comes back almost immediately.

I called Dish and they sent me a new 211 but same problem. I had a Dish Tech come and look at this and they disconnected the cable and tried some things and it worked fine for a day and then the reboot or disconnect was required again. So I'm down $50 and no further ahead then I was before.

I have another 211 connected to the same two dishes via the same type of Dual switch that never has this issue. When I run system info after the reboot everything looks fine--signal is strong and no issues are reported.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Jeff


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Do a little trouble shooting.

Swap the leads out of the switch and see if the missing channel problem moves to the other 211. If it does, you have a bad switch. If it does not move maybe there is a problem with the cable from the switch to the 211. Check this by swapping the 211's (move the leads out of the switch back to their original position) and if the trouble stays in the same place it could be a cable.

Doing these swaps also tells you if it might be the 211, if the trouble stays with the same 211 with both input and location swaps, it points to the 211.

Are both 211s connected to your household power the same way or is one through a power strip and the other direct, etc.

The problem also could be you have a failing lnb on 110 (where ESPNHD is located) and one 211 is further away from the switch than the other and the difference is just enough to cause flakiness.


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## jvanriper (Jan 21, 2006)

Jim, Thanks for your reply.

Both 211's are connected to power via power strips.

As to trouble shooting, I did move the problem 211 to the other location and the problem didn't move but of course disconnecting from the dish antenna is enough to fix the problem so I guess that was inconclusive. 

I don't know how this could be the LNB since the other TV's works consistently but maybe the problem TV is not getting as much of the signal.

I don't know if this is relevant but I also have an 811 in the mix which only needs the Dish 500 antenna. Both Dishes (300--to 61.5 and 500--to 110 and 119) are connected to a multi-port switch and then three cables come out of the switch and one and goes to another switch which I believe used to be my only switch. One cable comes into this switch and one cable comes out so I don't know the purpose of this switch. Maybe I will try by-passing it since it doesn't seem to have any purpose. Any idea what this other switch might be doing? I see their is three unused ports on the large switch so would it make sense to try to move the problem one in case it is one of the ports?

I will try some trouble shooting as you suggested as soon as I can get my kids off since sad by true that are using these units a lot.

Thanks again. Sorry for the rambling but I guess I don't know what might be relevant.

Jeff


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

jvanriper said:


> As to trouble shooting, I did move the problem 211 to the other location and the problem didn't move but of course disconnecting from the dish antenna is enough to fix the problem so I guess that was inconclusive.


So, did you swap the 211's and leave them swapped until the problem occurred on one or the other, or was it just a short term swap?


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## jvanriper (Jan 21, 2006)

Jim5506 said:


> So, did you swap the 211's and leave them swapped until the problem occurred on one or the other, or was it just a short term swap?


It was a short-term swap. However after that they sent me a new 211 so it seems like it is not the 211 but something between the location back to the dish.

One thing I noticed I said wrong in my description. The dual I was referring to was an LNB. When the tech came he did not have the right LNB so he used two duals on the Dish 500 antenna. Does that make any difference?

Jeff


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

> Both Dishes (300--to 61.5 and 500--to 110 and 119) are connected to a multi-port switch and then three cables come out of the switch and one and goes to another switch which I believe used to be my only switch. One cable comes into this switch and one cable comes out so I don't know the purpose of this switch. Maybe I will try by-passing it since it doesn't seem to have any purpose. Any idea what this other switch might be doing? I see their is three unused ports on the large switch so would it make sense to try to move the problem one in case it is one of the ports?


This would be a lot easier with the names that appear on the switches. If you can't get to them, at least report your Check Switch summary (menu-6-1-1). The large switch might be a DP34. The 3 lines on the left are from LNBs, the 4 lines on the bottom go to satellite tuners, and the 3 on the right side are for chaining another DP34. You probably don't need another switch, but maybe you have a diplexer to bring OTA on the same line.


> The dual I was referring to was an LNB. When the tech came he did not have the right LNB so he used two duals on the Dish 500 antenna. Does that make any difference?


Again guessing here, the first time you refer to a Dual you really meant Twin, and the 2 Duals now being used really are Duals. Not a problem at all to use individual LNBs to feed a switch.


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## jvanriper (Jan 21, 2006)

You are correct BobaBird, the check switch summary says I have a DP34. However I don't have a diplexer, I have two over-the-air antennas and the cabling for both are separate from the satellite RG6 cables. Each Device is listed as a "Dual" for 119, 110, and 61.5. Would it make sense to bypass this other switch or should I move the problem connection to another port on the DP34 or should I try cable or Direct TV (just kidding on those last two)?

I can climb my extension ladder if you need more details.

Jeff


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

My hasty response is to bypass the second small switch and see what happens but you would get a better response if we knew what it was and what it's supposed to be for.


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## jvanriper (Jan 21, 2006)

BobaBird said:


> My hasty response is to bypass the second small switch and see what happens but you would get a better response if we knew what it was and what it's supposed to be for.


When I went up the extension ladder yesterday, I found that this small switch was an SW21. My guess is that it was used to combine the signal from 61.5 dish to the Dish 500 pointed at 110 and 119 when I only had one TV that got HD (before the (DP34). I bypassed the switch and by moving the cable from the switch to the empty port on the DP34 and looked at my TV to see the result. It looked like I had no signal since the receiver was just cycling through the different transponders and satellites as if I had no signal at all. I then went up the ladder again and disconnected the connection from port to the SW21 and put the connection to that port. Back to the TV and the receiver was still cycling through the different transponders. So a figured I better try something else since I must be getting a signal so I disconnected the receiver from the wall outlet, waited a couple minutes and reconnected it and it started its normal boot up process. It worked fine that then and when I tried it today, it didn't have to reboot so I think I'm good to go.

It seems to me that the SW21 no longer had any purpose and the installer was a little lazy and just left it in thinking it would have no impact. Either the switch was bad or it degraded the signal just enough for the system to act flaky.

Thanks to all for your help. This is great to get this working right.

Jeff


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

The SW21 is legacy and can not be used with the DP34 which is DishPro (it was likely cascaded off a legacy Twin which should have been replaced with a DP Twin). Get the SW21 out of there. Ensure your LNBs all have the *dp* logo and are connected to inputs of the DP34. Run a Check Switch on the receiver that was connected to the SW21.


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