# Code 776



## HDJulie

For the past 3 nights when we've turned on the TV that has the HR34, there's been a 776 code that says we need a hardware upgrade. Monday night, I changed channels & it went away. Last night I rebooted the DVR & it went away. Tonight, I decided to call D* about it. I have the Protection Plan so I was sent to that department. The CSR had me run a system test & it failed almost immediately saying it could not detect a SWM. He had me unscrew & reattach the cable & rerun the test -- same thing. I have an appointment for Saturday to have the system checked. I am on a SWM16 & the HR34 is on one switch with only one other receiver. I check that receiver & it had no error code. After the call, I rebooted the HR34 again & it was working once more. Whole Home works as well. What's the most likely cause -- a bad cable or a bad connection in the HR34? The cable is only 6 years old & there's nothing chewing on it in the attic. It's a direct drop from the attic to the built-in entertainment center. Fortunately, I have nothing on the DVR at the moment so I'm not screwed if they have to replace it.


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## veryoldschool

HDJulie said:


> For the past 3 nights when we've turned on the TV that has the HR34, there's been a 776 code that says we need a hardware upgrade. Monday night, I changed channels & it went away. Last night I rebooted the DVR & it went away. Tonight, I decided to call D* about it. I have the Protection Plan so I was sent to that department. The CSR had me run a system test & it failed almost immediately saying it could not detect a SWM. He had me unscrew & reattach the cable & rerun the test -- same thing. I have an appointment for Saturday to have the system checked. I am on a SWM16 & the HR34 is on one switch with only one other receiver. I check that receiver & it had no error code. After the call, I rebooted the HR34 again & it was working once more. Whole Home works as well. What's the most likely cause -- a bad cable or a bad connection in the HR34? The cable is only 6 years old & there's nothing chewing on it in the attic. It's a direct drop from the attic to the built-in entertainment center. Fortunately, I have nothing on the DVR at the moment so I'm not screwed if they have to replace it.


Check the SAT levels and the SWM screen there to see what is showing.

776 isn't even [yet] listed in our error codes on the forum.

"I'd imagine" it will be addresses in the next software update and this may be "a ghost", which might have something to do with being an RVU server.


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## HDJulie

Well no wonder I couldn't find any other threads about the 776 code. I'll go check the SAT levels.

Everything seemed to be ok. Had a few high 80's in a couple of places. 99s & 103s had low numbers though.


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## HDJulie

The HR22 that is on the switch with the HR34 kept dropping out of Whole Home while we were watching a recorded show from it, so I guess there must be something wrong.


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## veryoldschool

HDJulie said:


> The HR22 that is on the switch with the HR34 kept dropping out of Whole Home while we were watching a recorded show from it, so I guess there must be something wrong.


If this is the coax networking, then go to the 34 and run a system test. It should show an error for a DECA problem.
If not, then use the front panel and press the guide and right arrow [both] and it may take a few tries before you get to the menu with coax on the left.

Selecting coax will test what's on the network and show any dropped sessions. 
You'll see each node and the loss to it from the 34.
The Phy rate mesh is the nest test with gives a matrix of the mesh rates between each node.

If you don't have any dropped sessions, then the coax network doesn't look to be the problem.


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## Draconis

Do you have the full text of the error message? I'm very curious about what it said.


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## HDJulie

I'll do the tests when I get home from work tonight & post the whole error message too.

To be clear -- because of the problem with the HR34, we switched to watching the HR24 (main TV has HR24 & HR34 hooked to it) & when the HR22 wwas dropping from Whole Home, it was while we were watching the recording from the HR24, if that makes any difference.


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## HDJulie

First, the error message: the screen says "Problem communicating with dish. Press SELECT on More Info. (776). I select More Info & get: A satellite dish hardware upgrade is required. Please call Customer Service and choose 776. If I go to Menu, the window on the top left says Cabling problem (776). 

When I run the system test I get: Diagnostic Code 51-505. 1. SWM Not Detected .... Then info about the error. 

On the coax test I get Dropped session count is 0. 

I'm going to do a test on the other receiver on this switch & then on one on the other switch


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## veryoldschool

HDJulie said:


> First, the error message: the screen says "Problem communicating with dish. Press SELECT on More Info. (776). I select More Info & get: A satellite dish hardware upgrade is required. Please call Customer Service and choose 776. If I go to Menu, the window on the top left says Cabling problem (776).
> 
> When I run the system test I get: Diagnostic Code 51-505. 1. SWM Not Detected .... Then info about the error.


There's a 2.3 MHz FSK signal that is the communication between the SWiM and the receiver.
The AIM meter checks the level as the LF signal.
"Normally" since it's a fairly high level & being a low frequency, it isn't a problem.


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## inf0z

Few questions.

Is your directv system internet connected?
If your directv system is connected to the internet - Are you using a WIFI DECA or a Coax DECA to connect to the internet?

If you are using a WIFI DECA is it located on the same run of cable as the power inserter?


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## HDJulie

I do have the system connected to the Internet & it is through a Coax DECA. We never use the Internet, though -- our service is too slow & we have a 20GB cap.

I was trying to run tests on the other receivers tonight but the weather was not cooperating. We had some storms so I kept getting 771 messages. I may try again tomorrow night.


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## veryoldschool

inf0z said:


> Few questions.
> 
> Is your directv system internet connected?
> If your directv system is connected to the internet - Are you using a WIFI DECA or a Coax DECA to connect to the internet?
> 
> If you are using a WIFI DECA is it located on the same run of cable as the power inserter?


Maybe you could explain the logic behind these questions?


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## inf0z

HDJulie said:


> I do have the system connected to the Internet & it is through a Coax DECA. We never use the Internet, though -- our service is too slow & we have a 20GB cap.
> 
> I was trying to run tests on the other receivers tonight but the weather was not cooperating. We had some storms so I kept getting 771 messages. I may try again tomorrow night.


Disconnect the internet from the system, let me know if your whole home still drops.


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## veryoldschool

inf0z said:


> Disconnect the internet from the system, let me know if your whole home still drops.


I see where you're going with this, and if only the HR22 dropping off the network was the problem, it might be worth checking into.

Since it looks like the main problem has to do with communicating with the SWiM, I'd hold off on this as it has nothing to do with the SWiM.


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## veryoldschool

HDJulie said:


> For the past 3 nights when we've turned on the TV that has the HR34, there's been a 776 code that says we need a hardware upgrade.


OK, I got some info for this.
The 771a & 771b error codes look to be getting their own.
-a will be 775
-b will be 776

Since -b is the one for problems communicating with the SWiM, it is matching what you're seeing and is the 2.3 FSK signal.


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## netraa

I thought -a was the com with the dish, and -b was overloaded swm.

interesting that they break from the convention of 771...


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## HDJulie

Thought I would update that the tech was out Saturday. Poor guy ended up spending 2 hours, most of it in the attic, changing out almost everything -- he changed the LNB, the SWM16, the two switches, & moved the power thing from the Man Cave to the living room. In the end, the HR34 no longer had the 776 error. However, the tech still saw some problems. What I think he said was that he was seeing voltage issues on some of the readings or something like that. And when doing a system test on the HR22, it comes back saying there is a dish alignment problem. Everything seemed to work so he asked if he could leave his number & if I had any issues, call him. His supervisor lives somewhere near our area & would come by if needed. So far I haven't had any new issues.


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## veryoldschool

HDJulie said:


> Thought I would update that the tech was out Saturday. Poor guy ended up spending 2 hours, most of it in the attic, changing out almost everything -- he changed the LNB, the SWM16, the two switches, & moved the power thing from the Man Cave to the living room. In the end, the HR34 no longer had the 776 error. However, the tech still saw some problems. What I think he said was that he was seeing voltage issues on some of the readings or something like that. And when doing a system test on the HR22, it comes back saying there is a dish alignment problem. Everything seemed to work so he asked if he could leave his number & if I had any issues, call him. His supervisor lives somewhere near our area & would come by if needed. So far I haven't had any new issues.


Glad you've gotten it working "this much", but would feel better if the IV test was run from the AIM [advanced installation meter].
The IV test is what your HR22 is trying to do, so the question is:
Does the coax feeding the HR22 pass IV, suggesting the problem is with the HR22, or does the meter "agree" with the HR22, and still flag this line has having a problem.


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## HDJulie

Could I switch the HR22 with my H24 & then rerun the test?


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## veryoldschool

HDJulie said:


> Could I switch the HR22 with my H24 & then rerun the test?


It would give you some more "insight", but another site that sells amps, etc. has run some tests comparing the AIM to a few models and the receivers pass where the AIM fails.
The AIM, with the latest firmware updates, is fairly critical of the signals, so I feel much more confident of it's testing.

I just have a feeling with your problem that it hasn't been sorted out yet, so it may come back again.

If the H24 passes and the HR22 passes where the H24 was/is, then if you don't mind them being in their new locations, it's another way to get some confidence and leave them where they work.


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## swans

Background. I had 2 HR21s and an HR20 going through an 8 port switch to a slimline. I also had all wired to my LAN with CAT6 with whole home.

I got an upgrade yesterday to a SWM16, DECA, and an HR34 to replace the HR20. The HR21s are connected via single wires now DECA. The HR34 is connected via the IRD port on the SWM16 power module. The HR34 is showing the 776 and when checking the tuners, tuner 4 does not work.

I haven't physically looked at the SWM16, but I'm wondering if the problem is in how it was installed?


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## veryoldschool

swans said:


> I haven't physically looked at the SWM16, but I'm wondering if the problem is in how it was installed?


There are two output on the SWiM-16. One should go to your 34, while the other to your HR21s.


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## El Gabito

Since this is the only thread coming back when you Google "A satellite dish hardware upgrade is required" here are two solutions I have found:

1) My cabling at the SWM was TOO TIGHT. Oddly, I loosened it and no longer had the SWM-related error messages. 

2) I had 9 tuners on an 8 tuner SWM (knew this, one receiver is going back once the programming is removed). Had to disable one tuner to get rid of this message. This just happened today after I had an HR34 installed.


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## veryoldschool

El Gabito said:


> Since this is the only thread coming back when you Google "A satellite dish hardware upgrade is required" here are two solutions I have found:
> 
> 1) My cabling at the SWM was TOO TIGHT. Oddly, I loosened it and no longer had the SWM-related error messages.
> 
> 2) I had 9 tuners on an 8 tuner SWM (knew this, one receiver is going back once the programming is removed). Had to disable one tuner to get rid of this message. This just happened today after I had an HR34 installed.


#2 is a DUH, which you knew.
#1 is bogus. While a connector shouldn't be "too tight", RF wise it doesn't know any difference until it's "too loose".
I'd be inspecting that connection to see what's wrong with it.


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