Help Required LNB Failure?

K

KuchKuch

Member
My Satellite Setup
Core 2 Duo E6650
4GB DDR2 RAM
My Location
UK
I've got a Xtrend ET8500 with OpenVix installed. Everything was working great till this morning when I tried to switch on the box and I kept getting the error message "Tune failed!" and couldn't watch any channel. I've looked under signal finder and found that everything is at 0 and I've also tried turning the box on/off from the mains only to find that the problem persist.

My hunch is that this could be a sign of LNB failure, but am not sure, so would appreciate some advice. If anybody needs any screenshots or anything, let me know,

Thanks.
 
Could also be cable related , water ingress .. have you got a spare FTA box that you could try ?
 
Are you suffering from wind ?
 
I'd examine the cable connections, both at the receiver and at the LNB first.
 
Just recently happened to me. Exactly as you describe.
I bought 2new LNBs while I was at it. Put one worked OK. Sorted I thought. It then went off again. I noticed it was raining. . Checked all the connections. Still no luck.
Had to have the system re wired from dish to receivers. .. Wet getting in somewhere shorting it out. Not good up ladders so got engineer in.
Touch wood. OK since!!!
 
mariust5 said:
Could also be cable related , water ingress .. have you got a spare FTA box that you could try ?
Click to expand...

I don't have one lying about unfortunately.

Channel Hopper said:
Are you suffering from wind ?
Click to expand...

Not at the moment or during the last day or so.

Lazarus said:
I'd examine the cable connections, both at the receiver and at the LNB first.
Click to expand...

I've checked the connections in the receiver end and this seems fine as I've unscrewed and re screwed them back in. I will need to have a look on the LNB side.
 
KuchKuch said:
I've checked the connections in the receiver end and this seems fine as I've unscrewed and re screwed them back in. I will need to have a look on the LNB side.
Click to expand...

Connections in the LNB seem fine.

I've contacted my local satellite installer and he has quoted me £69 to get the LNB replaced tomorrow, which I thought was a bit steep considering
that freesat partners charge £120 for a new freesat installation. Is this the going rate?
 
Call-out charges + time-on-site to erect ladder, change and carefully adjust the LNB (needs more time than for a Freesat dish which only needs to pointed in the "rough" direction of Astra 2 sats which have very strong signals!!), take down ladder and pack up again + of course the probably inflated cost of a new LNB (shouldn't cost more than £10 but I bet that it will)!
 
How many tuners do you have installed??

If only the one, then it could be the satellite tuner, it may have failed, or may need to be re-seated.

How old is the system??? Receiver and LNB.
 
KuchKuch said:
Connections in the LNB seem fine.

I've contacted my local satellite installer and he has quoted me £69 to get the LNB replaced tomorrow, which I thought was a bit steep considering
that freesat partners charge £120 for a new freesat installation. Is this the going rate?
Click to expand...

As you got as far as the LNB connector earlier, do the job yourself. Dead easy.

And, if that isn't the cause, you've lost little.
 
Terryl said:
How many tuners do you have installed??

If only the one, then it could be the satellite tuner, it may have failed, or may need to be re-seated.

How old is the system??? Receiver and LNB.
Click to expand...

I have 2 tuners in the receiver, which is just over a year old. The LNB is 7 years old.
 
Lazarus said:
As you got as far as the LNB connector earlier, do the job yourself. Dead easy.

And, if that isn't the cause, you've lost little.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't I have to re-align the dish after installing the new LNB? This is what concerns me as I wouldn't have a clue how to find Astra 28.2E.
 
What I've found now is that I have picture, but it's extremely blocky and freezing. On Signal Finder, both the SNR and AGC values are extremely volatile. I guess this rules out LNB failure and believe my dish may just need re-alignment?
 
KuchKuch said:
Wouldn't I have to re-align the dish after installing the new LNB? This is what concerns me as I wouldn't have a clue how to find Astra 28.2E.
Click to expand...

No. All you're doing is releasing the cable connection, unscrewing the top part of the LNB Holder, removing the old LNB, dropping in the new one, then screwing the holder back together and reconnecting the cable.

You won't be moving the dish!

The only minor issue is to note roughly how much the original LNB is skewed (rotated from vertical) then putting the new one in at the same angle.
 
KuchKuch said:
What I've found now is that I have picture, but it's extremely blocky and freezing. On Signal Finder, both the SNR and AGC values are extremely volatile. I guess this rules out LNB failure and believe my dish may just need re-alignment?
Click to expand...


If that's the issue, again you can do that yourself - it can't be far out, so simply apply gentle pressure first to one side, then the other to establish which way to adjust it - according to whether you lose picture altogether or whether it improves. It's unlikely the elevation is out, but if the steps outlined don't improves matters, repeat the exercise by gently applying pressure up and down.


(I'm assuming this is a fixed dish, not a motorised one?)
 
Lazarus said:
If that's the issue, again you can do that yourself - it can't be far out, so simply apply gentle pressure first to one side, then the other to establish which way to adjust it - according to whether you lose picture altogether or whether it improves. It's unlikely the elevation is out, but if the steps outlined don't improves matters, repeat the exercise by gently applying pressure up and down.


(I'm assuming this is a fixed dish, not a motorised one?)
Click to expand...

Cheers...will give this a go tomorrow. Will let you know how I get along.
 
So I had a closer look at my dish today and noticed a crack in my LNB, in the centre, in the shape of a "x".As soon as I saw this I knew the LNB had to be replaced. I replaced the LNB with a spare one I had and everything worked again.

Whole thing took me 20 mins to do and was fairly straight-forward to do.

Thanks to everyone for their help.
 
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