# "Lost satellite" constant errors



## Curmudgeon (Jul 15, 2004)

I am constantly getting the screen saying I've lost the satellite feed.

What's weird is that these screens appear (every 8-15 minutes) even when I'm watching a dvr playback! I can make them disappear if I hit the "guide" button and I get the guide with the continuing playback in the small window.

What's going on? Obviously I'm not really losing a sat feed.

This is a 622 btw.


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## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

That happened to me for while too. I haven't seen it for several months now, though. I have no idea what caused it or why it stopped.


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## tommiet (Dec 29, 2005)

Curmudgeon said:


> I am constantly getting the screen saying I've lost the satellite feed.
> 
> What's weird is that these screens appear (every 8-15 minutes) even when I'm watching a dvr playback! I can make them disappear if I hit the "guide" button and I get the guide with the continuing playback in the small window.
> 
> ...


Same here... Live or DVR.... I have a 722.


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## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Make sure the 2nd tuner is not tuned an OTA channel. When it happens, swap tuners and see if the 2nd tuner is on an OTA channel. If it is change it to a Sat channel or an OTA channel that has a strong signal.


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## tommiet (Dec 29, 2005)

Not on an OTA... Just pressing the guide button fixes the problem. But it happens often.


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## daveray (Feb 12, 2004)

Try menu 6-1-3 to check your LNB's.


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## tommiet (Dec 29, 2005)

daveray said:


> Try menu 6-1-3 to check your LNB's.


Ran a check switch - No difference.


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## RASCAL01 (Aug 2, 2006)

I have the same issue except that the channel will go out completely. You would get a blank screen. This seamed to happen on 61.5 sat. This has messed up recordings. One week bad next week good and back and forth. I have purchased a satellite finder to see if peaking dish helps.


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## ka8zay (Feb 12, 2009)

Two things, if you are watching the DVR how do you know your receiver is not losing signal? It could be and the error is telling you it is so you can get it fixed. The other is if you have OTA hooked up even if you are not watching an OTA channel because you can record 2 SAT and 1 OTA at the same time, any signal loss on the OTA will cause that message to appear.


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## daveray (Feb 12, 2004)

tommiet said:


> Ran a check switch - No difference.


I had an LNB go bad before. Menu 6-1-3 let box A get to 100%, if an LNB has a problem it will not be green. Click next it will give you LNB drift if there is a problem. I had this 6 mo. ago they sent a tec. out that did not know how to check for LNB drift, I had to show him how to check for drift, then he called Dish and they sent new LNBs. They allow drift of 6 or 8 not positive do a search for LNB drift.


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## scoobyxj (Apr 15, 2008)

ka8zay said:


> Two things, if you are watching the DVR how do you know your receiver is not losing signal? It could be and the error is telling you it is so you can get it fixed. The other is if you have OTA hooked up even if you are not watching an OTA channel because you can record 2 SAT and 1 OTA at the same time, any signal loss on the OTA will cause that message to appear.


If you're watching a DVR'ed event the receiver will not tell you it has lost sig whether it's an OTA, or a SAT sig. However if you have an OTA event recording, and the OTA looses sig it will cause the rec to display 015 on a SAT channel.


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## TvilleBee (Feb 11, 2007)

scoobyxj said:


> If you're watching a DVR'ed event the receiver will not tell you it has lost sig whether it's an OTA, or a SAT sig. However if you have an OTA event recording, and the OTA looses sig it will cause the rec to display 015 on a SAT channel.


Actually this is false. I have been watching DVR stuff & had the error come up "Satellite XX Trans XX", all due to the OTA signal going in / out...


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

scoobyxj said:


> If you're watching a DVR'ed event the receiver will not tell you it has lost sig whether it's an OTA, or a SAT sig. However if you have an OTA event recording, and the OTA looses sig it will cause the rec to display 015 on a SAT channel.


Wrong! I see this several times a week on my 722; apparently a few posters here have seen it as well. I press MENU to clear it up. 
BTW, it's "loses", not "looses".


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

Check all your connections and if you have any diplexers (OTA+SAT on one coax) temporarily take them out and see if the problem goes away. I had an (apparently) bad diplexer set and had an issue very similar to this.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

I have this problem also. It happens when the tuner is on an OTA or if I am recording an OTA. If we are recording 3 shows at once and trying to watch one of them other than the OTA one it will happen constantly. Hitting the DVR button cures it, then cancel and rewind to where we were. Problem is that the one channel (CBS) that Dish doesn't carry in high def here is our least reliable OTA channel. We had 4 clear days in a row this week and got good OTA on that channel for 4 days straight and it was like we'd died and gone to heaven. The SD on sat is just too hard to watch when the HD is available.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

Okay my problem is getting worse now to the point of driving us crazy. It is not the OTA. I have tried to make sure that we are not tuned to OTA in any way and it still happens. The other night it kept doing it and I tried changing the tuned channel to each of the 3 sat positions (110/119/61.5) and it gave the same error for each. Yesterday and today trying to watch live TV it was doing it every 30 sec to a minute. Each time pushing DVR or Guide button clears it. Each time there is no loss of program and rewinding reveals nothing missed. TV 2 was tuned to the same channel and it never happened to TV2 only TV 1. This is driving all of us nuts. First thought it was OTA, but definitely not. Have a Dish Tech coming on Monday due to they detected I have low signals and wanted to send tech for no charge to me. We'll see what happens.


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## 4HiMarks (Jan 21, 2004)

It has started happening for me again, too.


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## platup (Sep 20, 2007)

I'm having the same problem on my 722. It happened 4-5 times over the weekend.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

Tech did not show up today, got tied up on another job, but I didn't get any of the errors Monday. Actually got to watch Mets break my heart with another dropped fly ball loss in HD with no interruptions.:lol:


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## msalvail (Sep 19, 2003)

It happens here on my 622 and 722K. Very, Very annoying. I just took the 2nd tuner off of the OTA channel to see if that stops it. Is this something in the latest software? This did not used to happen.


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## MarcusInMD (Jan 7, 2005)

Been happening here for months now. Very annoying but it's to be expected with Dish hardware these days. If you have only reasonable signal quality the problem appears to be more problematic.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

Dish techs came to house and fixed a few my two sat dish problems on roof (new lnb and relocation of 61.5 dish) and diagnosed that my harddrive was failing in 722. New reciever and no problems since.


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## tommiet (Dec 29, 2005)

Problem was LNB drift.

My 722 did not report any problem with LNB drift and when a tech came out, there was no drift detected @ the dish. The problem came up @ the dp44 switch. His test equipment (Bird dog) showed the LNB drift AND a signal drop out. He also noticed the cable the install tech used (4 years ago) was not a direct bury type. He showed me the rust in the connectors.

He replaced the cables from the dish to the switch and I have not had another dropout. He was not 100% sure it would fix the problem, but it did!


*Don't believe the receiver when it tells you do do NOT have LNB drift!*



Curmudgeon said:


> I am constantly getting the screen saying I've lost the satellite feed.
> 
> What's weird is that these screens appear (every 8-15 minutes) even when I'm watching a dvr playback! I can make them disappear if I hit the "guide" button and I get the guide with the continuing playback in the small window.
> 
> ...


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

If you had rust in the connectors I doubt that the problem was LNB Drift.


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## langlin (Apr 8, 2005)

Remember you have three tuners, one being an OTA. I think if you always make sure that the LAST OTA you used was a good, stable signal, you will stop seing this "lost satellite" message. When you switch from an OTA to a satellite channel, the OTA tuner remains looking at the OTA signal and if it's flaky it will cause the receiver to do strange things.


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## david_jr (Dec 10, 2006)

langlin said:


> Remember you have three tuners, one being an OTA. I think if you always make sure that the LAST OTA you used was a good, stable signal, you will stop seing this "lost satellite" message. When you switch from an OTA to a satellite channel, the OTA tuner remains looking at the OTA signal and if it's flaky it will cause the receiver to do strange things.


Thanks for the tip.


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## TSR (Feb 7, 2009)

daveray said:


> I had an LNB go bad before. Menu 6-1-3 let box A get to 100%, if an LNB has a problem it will not be green. Click next it will give you LNB drift if there is a problem. I had this 6 mo. ago they sent a tec. out that did not know how to check for LNB drift, I had to show him how to check for drift, then he called Dish and they sent new LNBs. They allow drift of 6 or 8 not positive do a search for LNB drift.


They will no longer be sending LNBs to customers. Now they should only be sending technicians out for those types of situations.


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## jtthirty (Jan 13, 2006)

Here's a couple of things that good Dish tech's have pointed out for me. When my first 722 was installed (I say first because the hard drive died after 8 months and I have a replacement now), the installer replaced all the coax couplings with ones that were rated for HD. Didn't know there was a difference, but they have the blue plastic inserts. He said that I would start getting the lost signal message when they begin burning up. The HD signal is hotter. Not all techs do this, because the didn't with the 722 install at my daughter's house.

Later, after talking to a tech about a signal problem, he asked about coax couplings and I told him that the only place that the installer didn't have a hand in was going into my surger protector. He said "Don't run the coax into a surge protector!" I didn't ask why, I just unscrewed it as instructed. The problem was that the coax fitting was absolutely fire hot to the touch and burned my fingers. Had to use gloves to unscrew both input and output. Screw it directly in and voila! No more problem and it was the fitting was cold to the touch. So, these are two things that I didn't know before about the HD box. Anyway--


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

There is no such thing as an HD fitting. As for surge protectors, some will work OK and others will not. I usually will not connect them to surge protectors.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

BNUMM said:


> There is no such thing as an HD fitting. As for surge protectors, some will work OK and others will not. I usually will not connect them to surge protectors.


But for Dish Satellite, there is a minimum recommended rating for these couplings. Normally color coded Minimum orange, better Blue. Has to do with the frequencies that need to pass through them. Orange I think is rated at 2000 Hz, blue at 3000 Hz. The older or more common white is either rated at 1000 Hz or not rated (at least beyond 1000 Hz).


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

tnsprin said:


> But for Dish Satellite, there is a minimum recommended rating for these couplings. Normally color coded Minimum orange, better Blue. Has to do with the frequencies that need to pass through them. Orange I think is rated at 2000 Hz, blue at 3000 Hz. The older or more common white is either rated at 1000 Hz or not rated (at least beyond 1000 Hz).


There are fittings tested for high frequencies but they are not called HD (High Definition) fittings.


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

The high frequencies would be the upper band of DishPro, I think the even transponders, which of course has both HD and SD channels.


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

msalvail said:


> It happens here on my 622 and 722K. Very, Very annoying. I just took the 2nd tuner off of the OTA channel to see if that stops it. Is this something in the latest software? This did not used to happen.


This was happening on both my 722 & 625 for a couple of weeks now, the 722 just last night. But it goes in cycles and there are other OTA issues like no recordings, just a black screen and a message in the program description that says: "Please note error: 04" (the three people at DISH that I have spoken to have no idea what error is) and a program time of 0:00. And this is with a 90-100% signal on the DISH's own signal meter and 95-100% on the sets themselves. _OH AND_ lots of jutter!!!!! :eek2:


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

FarmerBob said:


> This was happening on both my 722 & 625 for a couple of weeks now, the 722 just last night. But it goes in cycles and there are other OTA issues like no recordings, just a black screen and a message in the program description that says: "Please note error: 04" (the three people at DISH that I have spoken to have no idea what error is) and a program time of 0:00. And this is with a 90-100% signal on the DISH's own signal meter and 95-100% on the sets themselves. _OH AND_ lots of jutter!!!!! :eek2:


http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/TechPortal/content/tech/receiver/622.shtml

Here is where you find out what Error "04" is.


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

BNUMM said:


> http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/TechPortal/content/tech/receiver/622.shtml
> 
> Here is where you find out what Error "04" is.


Thanks for the reminder. I have seen that there many times and it did not occur to me to go to it. The error for 04 in the 625 area did not apply to what happened. But it looks like is was a generic explanation for a series of maladies anyway.

So I'm just chalking this up to "things that happen with DISH where you bite the bullet".

Thanks for the help and I hope that the next SW release is more stable.

. . . fb


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

Midweek we had this problem on both our 625 and 722 at different times on different stations for what seemed forever several days/nights in a row. The "lost signal" Error 002 was popping up constantly. Neither box was on an OTA, well the 625 doesn't have OTA. So I wrote to DISH about this and this is what they wrote back:


> _Thank you for your email. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused. If you are getting the er002 message when watching a recorded event it typically is because there was signal loss at the time of the recording. You should be able to watch a recording without current signal issues causing any problems. If you have not yet, please power the receiver off and unplug it from the electrical outlet for 30 seconds._


Too bad that is not true. I wrote back and have not heard back from them yet.

Since writing the above I have had the "drop out" picture that they talk about, which is actually error 316, not error 002, twice in the few past days. When I wrote back I sited both errors and asked they revisit the situation and that I looked forward to their findings. We'll see . . . .


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

Thank you for your email. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused. I will forward this information to our engineering department. We are actively working on a resolution. To further assist in a speedy resolution, please reply with the information requested below. This information will go directly to our engineering department. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and appreciate your assistance.

How long have you had this issue?

Please gather the following information from your receiver:

1. Press the Menu button on your remote control

• Select System Setup

• Select Installation

• Select System information

2. Please collect the following information:

• Model ID

• Software Version

• Receiver CA ID R00

• Smart Card CA ID S00 or S19

We realize that in today's competitive world you have a choice in services. We thank you for your continued support, and your business is greatly appreciated and we thank you for allowing us to be of assistance to you. If you have any further questions or concerns, please refer to www.dishnetwork.com or reply to this email.

DISH Network is committed to providing world class customer service to our customers. In an effort to continually improve our services, we ask that you take time to complete this short survey to let us know how we are doing. We appreciate your time in evaluating our performance.​So basically nothing . . . .


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## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

Are you still getting the short recordings ( 0 minutes or 1-2 minutes)? I have seen this happen on several 625s. The solution ended up being replace the receiver. I have never seen it on a 622 or 722 ( doesn't mean it can't happen ).


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## FarmerBob (Nov 28, 2002)

BNUMM said:


> Are you still getting the short recordings ( 0 minutes or 1-2 minutes)? I have seen this happen on several 625s. The solution ended up being replace the receiver. I have never seen it on a 622 or 722 ( doesn't mean it can't happen ).


On my 625 I get recordings cut off all the time even when provisions are made to allow extra time. I've have had it do it on my 722 only a couple of times though.


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