# Whole Home flakey and now down 6 days



## eddieb (Jul 21, 2007)

We had the Whole Home (WH) system installed about 6 months ago. It's worked most of the time, but a lot of the time, the receivers just don't see each other and thus don't share recording lists. Now WH has been down for almost a week as well as the internet connectivity to the main receiver. I called DTV and they were useless. After 20 minutes, they finally told me I needed to buy the Cinema Connection Kit because WH does NOT work through wired internet. I know that's not true which is why I'm asking you guys what my problem might be.

The file attached to this posting shows a diagram of my connections for the two receivers in our house. The family room has both Sat 1 and Sat 2 operational. The bedroom only is set up for Sat 1 which works fine. The internet currently works in the bedroom but not the living room.

Here are the statuses of all the lights on the components attached:

Living room

DECA:
Power: green
Network: nothing
C Link: blinking yellow

DECA Broadband Adapter:
Power: green
Network: green
C Link: yellow

SWM Power Inserter:
Power: green

Bedroom

DECA:
Power: green
Network: green
C Link: green

Again, what doesn't work is the Whole Home Network (both playlists don't come up on both receivers) and the internet connection in the family room. It's worked on and off for 6 months or so, but now it's been down for an extended period. DTV was no help. I did resets galore to no avail. Also checked the ethernet cable coming out from my router on a computer to make sure it was working and it's fine. I'm guessing if I get the internet to work in the family room, that will solve the problem, but just a guess. Anybody have a clue as to what might be my issue? Thanks!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Living room

DECA:
Power: green
Network: nothing
C Link: blinking yellow <--- *Can't find another DECA to sync with and has no connectivity for networking*

DECA Broadband Adapter:
Power: green
Network: green
C Link: yellow <---*DECA is sync'd with another DECA, but is below minimum signal to noise ratio, so has reduced networking*

SWM Power Inserter:
Power: green

Bedroom

DECA:
Power: green
Network: green
C Link: green <--*GOOD RF/DECA signals*

You don't show what type of splitter it at the dish to feed these DECAs, but that's where they all connect to each other.


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## eddieb (Jul 21, 2007)

One thing I didn't previously do was unplug and plug back in the DECA Broadband Adapter and the SWM Power Inserter last night. I did that and, although the C Link lights on the DECA units (Broadband Adapter and regular DECA on family room receiver) showed yellow and/or blinking yellow at times, all appeared to work fine after that. Internet connectivity and Whole Home functions worked on both receivers.

But then this morning, the network lights were out on both DECAs in the family room and there was no internet connectivity to either receiver. I again unplugged and replugged in the DECA Broadband and DECA units in the family room. Then no Whole Home nor internet connectivity on either receiver. So decided to reset EVERYTHING (receivers, DECA BB, Power Inserter, internet modem and router). Now everything works properly again. How long I guess is anybody's guess.

Boy this stuff is flakey!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

eddieb said:


> One thing I didn't previously do was unplug and plug back in the DECA Broadband Adapter and the SWM Power Inserter last night. I did that and, although the C Link lights on the DECA units (Broadband Adapter and regular DECA on family room receiver) showed yellow and/or blinking yellow at times, all appeared to work fine after that. Internet connectivity and Whole Home functions worked on both receivers.
> 
> But then this morning, the network lights were out on both DECAs in the family room and there was no internet connectivity to either receiver. I again unplugged and replugged in the DECA Broadband and DECA units in the family room. Then no Whole Home nor internet connectivity on either receiver. So decided to reset EVERYTHING (receivers, DECA BB, Power Inserter, internet modem and router). Now everything works properly again. How long I guess is anybody's guess.
> 
> Boy this stuff is flakey!


If you have yellow cLink LEDs, your system isn't setup correctly and if this isn't addressed, you'll continue to have a "flaky" results.

The point of the LEDs is to show a good working network, and when it isn't.
The newer receivers [24s and up] with DECA internally test the DECA networking as part of the system test and yours would report errors about reduced network performance.

I've asked you about the splitter you're using but you haven't answered.

Does your splitter look like the one here?


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## eddieb (Jul 21, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> If you have yellow cLink LEDs, your system isn't setup correctly and if this isn't addressed, you'll continue to have a "flaky" results.
> 
> The point of the LEDs is to show a good working network, and when it isn't.
> The newer receivers [24s and up] with DECA internally test the DECA networking as part of the system test and yours would report errors about reduced network performance.
> ...


Oops. Spaced out the splitter question.

Yes, it appears it's the splitter in your diagram. I just went outside and took a picture of it to be certain and have attached it here, so check it out. But I'm pretty positive it's the one you are asking about.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

"eddieb" said:


> Oops. Spaced out the splitter question.
> 
> Yes, it appears it's the splitter in your diagram. I just went outside and took a picture of it to be certain and have attached it here, so check it out. But I'm pretty positive it's the one you are asking about.


Your splitter is fine.

You stated that restarted everything and all is working now. Are all the DECAs showing all green lights now?

- Merg


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

eddieb said:


> Oops. Spaced out the splitter question.
> 
> Yes, it appears it's the splitter in your diagram. I just went outside and took a picture of it to be certain and have attached it here, so check it out. But I'm pretty positive it's the one you are asking about.


Might help to get a better picture of that splitter and more importantly the cables/connectors.

The splitter is correct, but the #3 coax looks like the connector wasn't compressed.

Notice the black band on #1 & #2. See how it's much thinner they are than on #3?

there's also a lot of corrosion in that area that might need attention.


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## dielray (Aug 5, 2009)

veryoldschool said:


> The splitter is correct, but the #3 coax looks like the connector wasn't compressed.
> 
> Notice the black band on #1 & #2. See how it's much thinner they are than on #3?


To my eyes, it looks like 1&2 are PPC EX6 and 3 is a PPC EX6XL. I don't see a slight indent on the bottom of the black bend, like I would see with an uncompressed PPC EX6.



veryoldschool said:


> there's also a lot of corrosion in that area that might need attention.


This seems to be the most likely problem.

eddieb: Did it work well for the first few months, and then just start having problems?

Why is the bedroom only set up for 1 tuner?


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

"dielray" said:


> Why is the bedroom only set up for 1 tuner?


How do you get the bedroom is only on 1 tuner? The OP only needs one coax to the bedroom on a SWM system. I assume the other two coax connections are for the other DVR and the CCK.

- Merg


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## dielray (Aug 5, 2009)

The Merg said:


> I assume the other two coax connections are for the other DVR and the CCK.


Good point.



eddieb said:


> The bedroom only is set up for Sat 1 which works fine.


This had me thinking the bedroom is only set to one tuner, which could have further pointed to a cabling problem.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

"dielray" said:


> This had me thinking the bedroom is only set to one tuner, which could have further pointed to a cabling problem.


Missed that in the OP. Hopefully the OP only meant that he had 2 coax runs to the LR (one for DVR, one for CCK) that are working and one to the BR.

- Merg


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## azarby (Dec 15, 2006)

Which input of the splitter has the power inserter attached to it?


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## azarby (Dec 15, 2006)

eddieb said:


> The file attached to this posting shows a diagram of my connections for the two receivers in our house. The family room has both Sat 1 and Sat 2 operational. The bedroom only is set up for Sat 1 which works fine. The internet currently works in the bedroom but not the living room.


By sat 1 and sat 2, do you mean tuner 1 and tuner 2.


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## eddieb (Jul 21, 2007)

I took a look at the splitter for corrosion, etc. But when I disconnected the cables, everything was as clean as can be. Shiny without the slightest hint of corrosion. I cleaned them anyway, but that wasn't the problem. That picture was taken from VERY close range and I think made things look way worse than they really were.

Next I decided to swap the connections in the house to try and isolate the problem to the lines coming from the splitter. (See the updated diagram of my setup attached to this post.) I took the cable connected to the DECA Broadband Adapter (which wasn't working properly) and connected it to the SWM Power Inserter and vice-versa with the cable already connected to the Power Inserter (which was working properly). That gave me three green lights on the broadband adapter (first time since I started this investigation) and no signal to the family room receiver. That told me the line originally connected to the broadband adapter was at fault. 

Both of these lines from the splitter that come into the family room are looooong. As a result, there are two connections in the Broadband line and one in the line that eventually goes to the family room receiver. When I opened the second connector in the broadband adapter line, I found the problem. The copper wire in the middle of the cable that sticks out was gone. Disintegrated or broke off or something. So I redid that connector and that fixed it. Also replaced a few other cable ends as well as all the connectors in the middle. Everything works perfect now, and, more importantly for the future, every light on everything throughout is green.

Also, the reason there is only one signal coming into the bedroom is because I didn't know any better. I didn't realize until you guys educated me here that it was no longer necessary to have 2 lines coming into a receiver if you wanted to have both tuners functioning. So I just changed the config to use dual tuners and that was it. I was always wondering why I had two tuners working when there was only one line attached to the family room receiver after the Whole Home install. Now things make way more sense to me. I am going to research some of this to get a better understanding. Did it become functional that way with the SWM splitter and dish? Can I split lines out again once they get in the house or do these need to come straight from the splitter. This could give me more options for boxes without having to add more cabling.

Thanks to everyone that responded. You guys had the right answer - bad lines - I just needed to find them. And you also educated me a lot on how this works now.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Your diagram makes sense, but the white DECAs are actually backwards, as the white pigtail goes to the receiver "in reality".

With very long runs, you need to watch the size and number of splitters you use.
"Generally" you should be able to split each coax with a 2-way splitter to add more receivers.

You could also use a 2-way where your 4-way is and then split the coax downstream with a 4-way if it makes more sense to your needs.


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