# phone line/caller id no longer working



## lionsrule (Nov 25, 2003)

I've had my 622 for 4 months and haven't had a problem. We've had a phone line connected the entire time. Yesterday, we noticed that the called id pop up was not working any longer. Now we are receiving a warning message to connect the phone line in order to avoid the $5/mo charge. I've connected a phone to the line in question, and the line works fine. I'm currently on hold with dish (after being hung up on the first time). Any suggestions/experiences?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The popup is a sure sign that your receiver isn't seeing dialtone on that line. I'm assuming you checked by connecting a phone at the end of the wire where it normally would connect to the 622? (Elminating everything outside the 622.)

If there is dialtone at the plug connect it to the receiver and go to your diagnosics page (MENU-6-3) and select "Connection". If that doesn't come back as "Phone Connection OK" you have a problem.

Do make sure you are checking the wire that leads to the 622 and not just the jack it is plugged in to.


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## ndyclrk (Jun 5, 2006)

Also make sure that your phone line is connected to the phone jack on the 622, not the ethernet port.


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## Rick_R (Sep 1, 2004)

Also mjake sure you have a DSL filter on the line if you have DSL on the line. (I made this mistake at first).

Rick R


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

And, if you rule out everything else, modems can and do fail - and it doesn't take much of a power spike to do it.


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## lionsrule (Nov 25, 2003)

a tech at dish basically said I'm going to need to send in my 622 for a replacement with the strong suspicion that it must be a modem failure.

There goes another hard drive full of recording events....


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## SThacker (May 24, 2005)

I have been receiving the same error message too. I tried several things that tech support asked me to do. All suggestions failed. A new 622 is supposed to be shipping to me. We will see.


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## Alpaca Bill (Jun 17, 2005)

You would think that Dish could build these receivers so that the cheap A$$ modems they place in them could be user swapped so that we wouldn't have to lose our recorded shows for something that is pretty trivial. Or activate the ability to offload our recorded shows onto an external hard-drive...a feature that has been promised since the 921 and has yet to see the light of day. Since in reality the receivers are nothing more than small form factor multimedia computers, it wouldn't be like they were re-inventing the wheel here. Four maybe five screws, slide out the old, and slide in the new and no shipping back and forth (and the related damage from that).

I have had 6-7 modems go out in my various receivers and it really is silly to have to send the entire unit back for something like that.:nono2:


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## SThacker (May 24, 2005)

Alpaca Bill said:


> You would think that Dish could build these receivers so that the cheap A$$ modems they place in them could be user swapped so that we wouldn't have to lose our recorded shows for something that is pretty trivial. Or activate the ability to offload our recorded shows onto an external hard-drive...a feature that has been promised since the 921 and has yet to see the light of day. Since in reality the receivers are nothing more than small form factor multimedia computers, it wouldn't be like they were re-inventing the wheel here. Four maybe five screws, slide out the old, and slide in the new and no shipping back and forth (and the related damage from that).
> 
> I have had 6-7 modems go out in my various receivers and it really is silly to have to send the entire unit back for something like that.:nono2:


Amen Brother -- simple solution


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## Rovingbar (Jan 25, 2005)

I've never had a modem fail on a receiver. Do you use a surge protector on the phone line?

As for simple solutions... I know that a lot of modems are hard wired into the board. It is much more expensive to add it as a separate component, and more importantly it would take up valuable space.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

SThacker said:


> Amen Brother -- simple solution


For one percent (maybe) if the installed userbase...


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## Jeff P (May 10, 2006)

I had the same thing happen on my old 508 receiver. I noticed one day that the caller ID wasn't working, and then all of a sudden my phone line seemed to not be working.

Long story short, the modem on the 508 would open up the phone line, but not recognize it. (Would say "Not connected" in diagnostics)

However, if I picked up one of my phone receivers after plugging the phone line into the 508, I would get the "fast busy" like the phone line was open and couldn't be hung up.

After talking with tech support, I had to send in the receiver for a replacement. As someone said above... bye bye hard drive full of recorded events... :nono2:


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Alpaca Bill said:


> I have had 6-7 modems go out in my various receivers and it really is silly to have to send the entire unit back for something like that.:nono2:


Actually as Mark said, based on the number of Modem failure related posts it appears to me that it is rare occurance. If it is rare, from a cost perspective providing a removable modem would not be cost effective. PCs have even gone this route of modem onboard integration as a common feature.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Actually, my comment was really meant to say that there's only one percent of the installed userbase (most of whom are here, probably) that's capable of opening the box and swapping out a component. The other 99% would just end up breaking something else which would require the receiver swapout anyways.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well guess I read that one wrong Mark.  In any case, I still think it is a rare occurance and adding a swapable modem to me is a solution to the symptom and not the problem. If truely their is a high failure rate on the internal modem, the solution is to change the modem part out to one that does not fail. 

Bill if you have had it happen 6 or 7 times, I would suggest looking at an external source that might be causing the failure. Since I have not had it happen on any of my receivers (4900, 921, 721, 508, and 622) over the last 7+ years I have been with Dish, 6 to 7 failures sounds like a big number to me.


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## Alpaca Bill (Jun 17, 2005)

Ron Barry said:


> Well guess I read that one wrong Mark.  In any case, I still think it is a rare occurance and adding a swapable modem to me is a solution to the symptom and not the problem. If truely their is a high failure rate on the internal modem, the solution is to change the modem part out to one that does not fail.
> 
> Bill if you have had it happen 6 or 7 times, I would suggest looking at an external source that might be causing the failure. Since I have not had it happen on any of my receivers (4900, 921, 721, 508, and 622) over the last 7+ years I have been with Dish, 6 to 7 failures sounds like a big number to me.


Hard to see any external source since they have occurred at 3 different houses and in receivers of the 1000, 301, 508, 4700, and 921 varieties. Dishes are grounded to the extreme as well as all phone lines, RG6 runs, etc. All TVs, a/v components, etc are run thru back ups with built in surge protection.

How about cheap modems that, in my case, only get used for the receiver to perform it's daily/weekly/monthly check in with Dish or when the Audit Team decides that I am not a good enough customer anymore. I would bet that some of the soldering for the on board modems just gets fried when they get powered up for the check in call.

Better yet, as discussed elsewhere here in nauseum, how about Dish catch up with technology and ditch the dumb modem in the first place!!!


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Then Bill you and I have had different luck with our modems. My experience has been the totally opposite. I have also had the Audit team experience and that is for a different thread and topic. 

I definitely will welcome DishComm and hopefully sometime in the future an option for this type of updating will be done through the net. I personally hope that I will be able to use DishComm along with an ethernet connection to do the audit, PPV, and security checks. Got no argument from me on that point.


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## odbrv (May 12, 2006)

Mark Lamutt said:


> Actually, my comment was really meant to say that there's only one percent of the installed userbase (most of whom are here, probably) that's capable of opening the box and swapping out a component. The other 99% would just end up breaking something else which would require the receiver swapout anyways.


One of my 622s had its phone modem fail. I have had this unit since 4-06. The tech rep asked me to perform a few tests and has sent a replacement unit. I, like others here, have a lot of stored programs that will be lost.

It would seem to me that the local service reps should be able to replace the modem with ease and I could keep my recordings. I have the service plan. When I asked for this option , I got the response that unit replacement was the only option available. I don't remember ever being asked to send back any other electronics product. Imagine having to swap out televisions, vcrs,dvds, dishwashers , refrigerators, etc. Why does E* think this is the correct service method.

The UPS shipping costs both ways and the risk ,as MARK quoted above, of me messing up the re-install must have a larger cost than a service call. When I had C-band, there was always a local repair facility for Echostar equipment to get these small items fixed. They came to the home and left a loaner as they repaired the unit.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Just a guess but based on the layout on the back, most likely the modem is located on the mother board and would require taking the whole unit apart. Not something one could do easily in a home setting. Also, the put it in for service and wait for the return given the volume of receivers out there also would not work since I am sure nobody would want to wait 4 to 6 days to get their units back (That is the Digital Camera service model).

Dish is no different in their service procedures as similar companies from my understanding. I don't think I have ever hear of DirecTV or Comcast coming out opening up their DVRs and replacing a component. 

Bummer for sure and I have lost recording more than once do to a component failure, but it does seem the nature of the beast and personally I would much rather have a new unit fedex to me and received in a day and loosing my recordings rather than waiting a few weeks to get back my own unit and have my recordings, but that is me. I am sure others would like it the other way around.


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## MilYellow02 (Sep 12, 2006)

Here is a question for you that have had to have a replacement shipped to you.

Do they send you a brand new box (stickers still in place) or a refurb?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Most of the time, refurbs.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

I guess I'm a minority in that I never think of a DVR as long term storage. They have hard disc drives in them and with a HDD it is only when not if they fail.

Anything I want to be sure to have on hand I record to a DVD recorder via the S-Video port. Sure I loose a little quality and I loose the sides. It looks like the 622 trims the 16:9 to a 4:3 ratio. 

Otoh loosing a little quality is better than loosing everything. Discs are cheap. I paid $6.99 for a 25 pack of 16X verbatim -Rs recently, that works out to 28 cents a disc.

To get better quality than that I'd have to pop the hood on the 622 (Leased) and extract the video with PVR Explorer software and then encode down to DVD spec anyway, just not worth the trouble when the Pioneer DVD recorder does a decent job of recording straight to DVD or if editing is needed to its HDD and edit tne burn.

To summarize if the contents mean much to you, record them to a DVD.


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## SonicBee777 (Aug 2, 2006)

lionsrule said:


> a tech at dish basically said I'm going to need to send in my 622 for a replacement with the strong suspicion that it must be a modem failure.
> 
> There goes another hard drive full of recording events....


Where I work, when a desktop computer fails, if it isn't the HDD that failed, we often "transplant" the HDD from the old desktop to the new, thus preserving everything that the customer had on the disk. This requires that the old and new desktops be essentially the same make and model and for us, that's almost a given. On most desktops, the hard disk is easily removed and replaced.

Is it possible that Dish techs could do something similar? I realize it's not as "efficient" as just shipping out a pre-packaged refurb, but it would sure raise the bar on Dish customer service. :yesman:


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

TBoneit said:


> ... Sure I loose a little quality and I loose the sides. It looks like the 622 trims the 16:9 to a 4:3 ratio.
> 
> ...


I have a Panasonic DVD Recorder that recognizes DVD RAM. If I use a DVD RAM disk, the recorder will preserve the 16X9 aspect ratio of a widescreen movie. Sure, the blank disk is more expensive than $.28 but it is worth it to me since I don't copy a lot of stuff to disk.


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## odbrv (May 12, 2006)

odbrv said:


> One of my 622s had its phone modem fail. I have had this unit since 4-06. The tech rep asked me to perform a few tests and has sent a replacement unit. I, like others here, have a lot of stored programs that will be lost.
> 
> It would seem to me that the local service reps should be able to replace the modem with ease and I could keep my recordings. I have the service plan. When I asked for this option , I got the response that unit replacement was the only option available. I don't remember ever being asked to send back any other electronics product. Imagine having to swap out televisions, vcrs,dvds, dishwashers , refrigerators, etc. Why does E* think this is the correct service method.
> 
> The UPS shipping costs both ways and the risk ,as MARK quoted above, of me messing up the re-install must have a larger cost than a service call. When I had C-band, there was always a local repair facility for Echostar equipment to get these small items fixed. They came to the home and left a loaner as they repaired the unit.


The new 622 arrived. After a marathon of viewing the stored programs or copying shows to VCR tapes ( no dvd recorder yet: waiting fo a HD DVD recorder/player), I replaced the 622. The old 622 was a D series and the new one is a F series. I made the change without much grief. It just takes time, 1-2 hours. Everything seems to work again. The phone modem is now working and I will save the monthly cost. The final time consumer is getting the defective 622 to an UPS drop off center; about an hour round trip and a couple of gallons of gas.


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## renpar61 (Aug 5, 2006)

I had the 622 installed for the first time about 4 weeks ago. The phone line is connected, the diagnostics menu says "connection OK", but if I try to dial it fails. No Caller ID either. I spoke to CSR (same day of installation) and they offer to replace the 622, since everything looked OK on their end. I said no thanks, I didn't want a refurb unit, I can live without caller ID...


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

Beware, if the modem is not working and the receiver can't dial out you may get charged the fee for not having the phone line connected.


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## Ken Wilhelm (Feb 3, 2006)

I had my second 622 for six months then the HDMI quit after a few days of wiggling the HDMI connector each morning. DISH send me my third 622 and it came with NO HDMI output and when hooking the Phone connector to my phone line the 622 shorted out my phone system. I have a 721 and a 311 receiver and the Caller ID works. What gives? I know the HDMI output not working is a software issue - according to DISH Tech folks. I'm getting my fourth 622 in a few days.


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

HDMI not working is a hardware issue. Sounds like they shipped you a bum box for the replacement. Hopefully your fourth one will be a winner.


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## Beer Kahuna (Mar 25, 2005)

I just recently started getting the "connect to a phone line" mesage on one of my 622's. It is, the phone line works, cord is fine, the diagnostic screen shows good connection, and my caller id does work.

So, it must be a bad modem?

If so, this really sucks for 2 reasons: 1) as others have stated, loss of recorded material. 2) It takes me literally 2 hours to disassemble my rack setup (I have a wall mounted LCD with a hidden cord wall rack system) to uninstall/reinstall the sat receiver. It would only take 5 minutes if they built the box with a *REMOVABLE POWER CORD!  *


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