# Check Switch problem?



## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

Is anyone having a check switch problem? AM after the down load at 3 am I have lost some signal and screen comes up with CHECK DISH, it always checks ok, then it tells me to wait for a download for guide data. when finished i have lost my guide data for local digitals. Maybe this is a bug. Am waiting for engineering at dish to call me back.The next morning it starts all over again.


----------



## Neal (Apr 11, 2005)

It happens to me just about every day. I found that if I disable the Updates at 3 am, it doesn't happen every morning. But now I find that it happens about once a day in a random fashion. My wife was understanding at first, but she is growing tired of loosing shows because the timers won't fire when it is in this state. This bug is really beginning to be a big pain. I tried swapping the satellite feeds on the back of the PVR, but it didn't help. I'm wondering if it is tied to the signal strength. This weekend I'm thinking about trying to readjust my dish to maximize my signal strength.


----------



## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

Neal, I called dish hd tec who told me my strengths were plenty. I have a strength of 84-85 on 110, and 101-104 on 119. When i do a check switch both come in strong and advance together to 130. By the way how do you disable the updates? I might try that.. Maybe the engineer, that they promised would call, will come thru. thanks


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

dewey - what's your lnb/switch setup?


----------



## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

Is the legacy switch/lnb bug a priority to get fixed soon? 

I hate to admit it, but I am considering the switch to the 942 myself, just to have some piece of mind. However, I have legacy lnbs, and two legacy sw21s, so I figure I am going to suffer from this unless I upgrade to dishPro stuff.

Any thoughts Mark??


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

The next version has a fix for it.


----------



## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

Thanks, is 223 the next version or a later update? thanks, this is driving me crazy. Engineering has been gonna call me for five days and yet to hear from any one. I do not want to exchange if an update will correct.


----------



## Moridin (Mar 22, 2005)

I have 223 and I have this problem, so the fix must be in a later release.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

The fix will be in the whatver the next version beyond L223 is called. Probably it'll be L224. Possibly L230. Potentially L300...you never know these days...


----------



## Neal (Apr 11, 2005)

deweybrunner - I'm at work and I don't have the TV in front of me now, but if you go to the menu, and then select preferences, there should be a menu called Updates. This is when the Guide gets updated and by default it is set for 3 am.

mark - Do you have any feeling for when the next release will be coming out? I realize that you are not in the position to guarantee any dates, but do you have a feeling? Days? Weeks? Months? I'm getting tired of sleeping on the couch for ruining my wife's TV habits.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Ouch Neal!

I'm hoping for next week. Not based on anything except for my hope. I do know that we're trying to get the future timer bug fixed for the next release, and I provided some data on that this morning that I'm hoping shows the trigger event which would then allow a fix to follow. Shouldn't be too much longer...the legacy problem fix is in testing now.


----------



## Neal (Apr 11, 2005)

Thanks Mark. I realized that there would be problems with the early releases and I have no regrets so far. But my wife ...... So far this is the only bug that I have seen. I love the 942!


----------



## joebird (Sep 15, 2003)

Does this problem happen with an SW64?


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

It happens with legacy LNBs, so yeah.


----------



## markn455 (Jan 17, 2004)

jsanders said:


> Is the legacy switch/lnb bug a priority to get fixed soon?
> 
> I hate to admit it, but I am considering the switch to the 942 myself, just to have some piece of mind. However, I have legacy lnbs, and two legacy sw21s, so I figure I am going to suffer from this unless I upgrade to dishPro stuff.
> 
> Any thoughts Mark??


I am having problems with the SW64. I have changed out the switch and powersupply. Check switch always comes up good. However, when I turn to numerous channels such as 9422, I get the aquiring signal screen. The screen goes through the 5 steps and nothing. Other times, it works perfectly.


----------



## markn455 (Jan 17, 2004)

joebird said:


> Does this problem happen with an SW64?


Yes it does.


----------



## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

After a week of day and night working and observing, I will know in the morning what my beliefs are. I am turning off the 3am download tonight. I believe this triggers my problems. I have a dish 500 with twin lnb's with no switches. I don't even know what a legacy is which some say causes similar problems. This is what I have been doing every morning:
1. Turning on tv i get locals. I scroll down to espn hd. There is no signal on any satellite stations.
2. It tells me to do a check switch. I do. I notice as no. 1 and 2. advance. to 38. However, 119 lags behind 110 by 5-6 numbers(they are supposed to advance together)
3. Then all signals, local and satellite signals are reduced sinifically. Local nbc which should be a strength of 100, is now in the low 60's. Satellite programs become blotchy and come and go, giving an indication of low reception.
4. I then do a receiver switch re-boot. After that all signals are restored, guide information is all there and all numbers advance together on the check switch. The 942 works great til the next morning, when i will then have to do this all over. I truly believe the 3 am reboots trigger this loss of signals. I have turned off the re-boot and will see if i am correct.

I love my 942 and all the features it has. My wife is now happy after our limitations on the 921. As others say i believe the picture quality is better. Hopefully 224 will correct this.


----------



## Neal (Apr 11, 2005)

deweybrunner - I have the same hardware as you do and made a lot of similar observations. You may be disappointed because when I turned off the nightly Upload, I still have the problem. Now the problem is less frequent (once every other day) and seems to be random. Sometimes I will turn on the TV in the morning and it is working fine. An hour later it will need to be reset. I tried a new experiment last night. Normally, I leave on both TV1 and TV2 all of the time. I thought that this might affect the problem so I turned them both off last might with the Upload turned on. No luck - It still locked up when I turned it on this morning.


----------



## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

Neal, I turned off the update, and everything was fine this am, however when i came home around it was hung up with searching for signals. I then had to go thru the entire routine. I ordered a twin dishpro lnb today from dishstore. hope this will make a difference! The tech told me the 942 had not been set up with the old equipment, that an update would be comeing soon. I still ordered the Twin dishpro. It was only $30.38 plus shipping. They shipped today. should have this week.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

That'll definitely solve your problem, Dewey.


----------



## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

$30.38 plus shipping is cheap, however, it starts to add up when you have a dish 500 and a dish 300. Now you need to lnbs and a couple of switchs. The guys who did my install just grabbed the stuff they had laying around and I ended up with legacy stuff. Ouch...


----------



## Neal (Apr 11, 2005)

Besides fixing this bug, is there any other reason that I might want to upgrade to the DishPro LNB?


----------



## Grass_hopper (Apr 9, 2005)

I've had several check switch episodes this evening. We had a timer set to catch NCIS and left to go to a meeting. Came back and saw a check switch happening. Lost the recording. This is the first bugaboo for this unit. Mine is a new install with the dp logo on the sat dish. Wife was a bit annoyed.

Dan


----------



## The_Wizard (Apr 19, 2005)

jsanders said:


> $30.38 plus shipping is cheap, however, it starts to add up when you have a dish 500 and a dish 300. Now you need to lnbs and a couple of switchs. The guys who did my install just grabbed the stuff they had laying around and I ended up with legacy stuff. Ouch...


You do not need any switches if you only have two receivers and will be upgrading to the DPP twin. The LNB on the 300 can be connected directly to the DPP twin.


----------



## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

The_Wizard said:


> You do not need any switches if you only have two receivers and will be upgrading to the DPP twin. The LNB on the 300 can be connected directly to the DPP twin.


 Just to be clear - the new DishPro single or dual LNB can be connected directly to the DPP-Twin.

No mix-n-match of Legacy & DishPro outdoor gear.


----------



## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

Simon, I just have the one receiver, with a legacy lnb. I ordered a twin dishpro and should be here tomorrow. will i have any problem attaching to my dish 500. At dishstore they said this is what i needed to replace the legacy. Also, I have no switches in the line. thanks


----------



## The_Wizard (Apr 19, 2005)

SimpleSimon said:


> Just to be clear - the new DishPro single or dual LNB can be connected directly to the DPP-Twin.
> 
> No mix-n-match of Legacy & DishPro outdoor gear.


Yes, that's right.


----------



## deweybrunner (Feb 8, 2004)

Yesterday I replaced my legacy lnb with the dpp twin. Re-booted, ran check switch, downloaded, however never got program guide for locals. Turned 3am download on over night. a.m no guide info. for locals. Did check switch and found out 110 was not receiving, completed check switch and down load. 110 then came in: still no local guide data. Then did a front panel reboot. Then all came on with guide data. Maybe after a couple nights it will not lose signal and download properly?


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

dewey - if you're not getting 110, you either need to repeak your dish, or you got a bum DPP Twin lnb. If you're getting strong signal from 110 one minute, and then losing signal from 110, you've got an LNB problem there my friend.


----------



## Beer Kahuna (Mar 25, 2005)

Mark,

On a similar vein: On 199 my signal strentgh is 124/125. On 110 it's 81/125. Should I re-aim my dish or tweak my LNB to get a happy medium (like 105 and 105) or does it really matter?


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Beer - probably won't matter at all until you get a heavy rainstorm up there. Which is probably more often than not for you...you might want to tweak the 110 side, and then see where 119 ends up.


----------



## Wheaton (Feb 12, 2003)

I have just been told by E* CSR's that DP Twin LNB's with CM prefix have a known problem when mated with the DPP 44 Switch. The symptoms are eratic responses from Check Switch Test. Virtually everytime I run Check Switch test, the test fails to detect one of the three satellites I use (110/119/148), Sometimes it sees only the odd TP's and sometimes the even TP's. 

When running the test with the 44 in line the top line says "Swiitch:CM-DPP-44-500".
To fully diagnose, the CSR requested I remove the DPP44 and connect the receiver coax directly to the Twin LNB. The Check Switch test verified that the LNB had a CM prefix.. New Twins on the way.

Larry


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

That's interesting, Wheaton. I have a DPP44 switch sitting on my shelf. I'll try to get time this weekend to hook it up and test it with my DP single lnbs.


----------



## Paradox-sj (Dec 15, 2004)

This issue is so not fixed with 224.

It is so easy to reproduce too...and I am using a DPP44 switch. My issues is worse becasue when I tune on the box and I get the screen to trying to check the sat mine wont go through at all. I have to go and do a check switch to get guide data again.


----------



## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

paradox - do you have the same DP Twin LNB that Wheaton is talking about? I now have my DPP44 connected to 3 DP Single LNBs (yes, that's correct - they made the Singles at the same time as the early DP Twins), and am not seeing any kind of check switch problem. 

Actually, I did run into one issue trying to cascade my DPP44 with a DP34 switch. With the DPP44 the first switch in the chain, anything connected to the DP34 switch didn't see the 2nd input in a check switch. But I don't think that's what's going on here.


----------

