What's gone wrong?????

[fjle]

Had Sky installed 1 week ago, all was fine for 6 days then found out I had lost approx 50 channels (no satellite signal found). Rang Sky and they told me to do a box reset, followed thier instructions and lost everything. They then sent me into the installers menu and new system setup, got the message 'transponder not found'. They then told me that the dish may have come out of alignment and that they would send an engineer round on OCTOBER 2nd, over 3 weeks without TV.
I've been on the roof and the dish is pretty secure. Any ideas to get me up and running before October would be great. Cheers !!

 

[2old4this]

Get a meter/circuit-tester on the coax between the dish and the receiver, just to make sure that the cable is unbroken.

You need to unscrew the coax from the LNB (the device that hangs in front of the dish) and from the back of the digibox, and test the inner core. Use a long piece of wire. Attach it to one end of that inner core. Trail the wire so that its other end is close to the other end of the coax core. Then you can use the circut tester (assuming the test length of wire itself is unbroken).

You can then also test the outer earthing sheath on the coax (which connects with the silver outside of the connectors at each end.

If you have any other satellite receivers in your house, you can obviously use them to test whether they can pick up a signal from your minisdish/LNB. And if you have any other dishes, the reverse test can be done to test the digibox itself.

You can also borrow a friend's digibox and plug your coax into it.

You can also check the cable F-connectors (the silver connectors that the coax cable has at each end) - and any intermediate in-line connectors if they were used. If just one tiny strand of the earthing sheath touches the inner core, you lose your signal entirely. So if you had for whatever reason unscrewed such a connector and screwed it back on, that can easily happen. Even if you hadn't, it's worth checking.

Check also that no objects are obstructing the dish. A tree, perhaps - or a new shed. And don't forget: because the dish is "offset" (i.e. it's LNB is at the bottom rather than bang in the middle) the dish's line of sight is not what it appears to be. The signal comes in from "above" and is reflected downwards by the dish to the LNB. So the place the signal is coming from (the line along which the dish needs clear sight) is not the place that the dish itself seems to be pointing - it will be some degrees higher.

2old

 

[fjle]

Thanks 2old that gives me plenty to do on a nice sunny sunday.

 

[rolfw]

As 2old says, good idea to try and take the box out of the equation by trying it on a neighbours dish and his on yours. If you do not know anyone with a digibox, at least try and borrow a volt meter and test the voltage from the back of the box, it should be 13.8 or close on the vertical transponders and around 18 on the horizontal ones, if its ok at the box, then try it at the end of the cable. You could try testing the 22Khz tone switching by going into the manual tuning menu and selecting one of the lower band transponders 11.500Ghz or lower, try 10.832 Horizontal SR 22.000 FEC 5/6.

If his box doesn't work on your dish, then it has as Sky suggest gone out of alignment, the cable run/connections are faulty (perhaps water ingress), or the LNB is faulty, which from your description of the fault sounds like a possibility.

If your dish is mounted on the roof, It would suggest that is perhaps you have either tall trees or buildings in the direction of the satellite, it could be that the line of sight is partially obscured.

 

[fjle]

Cheers Rolf, tried 10.832 Horizontal SR 22.000 FEC 5/6 and got back a good signal strengh and quality. Still missing 50+ channels including Channel 4, E4. most of the kids channels and UK Gold etc but thanks for your help.

 

[rolfw]

OK, if you're getting the lower transponder then at least we know that its probably not dish alignment and more likely the receiver or LNB.

Next thing to check is which frequencies and polarisations the missing channels are using. You may find that they are all Vertical channels, that would coincide with the default transponder not being found.

Try 10.847 V tp 50 SR 22,000 FEC 5/6, that would then have tested both polarities. Using This Page find a transponder above 12.000 in both H and V, this will test the 22?Khz tone switch and then you may get some guide to a pattern.

If there is no obvious pattern using the above test methods, then list the programmes that you can get and find them on the Lyngsat list, that may reveal a pattern. There have also been problems like this caused by the software but I would guess that you have tried a forced update.

 

[2old4this]

(anticipating the question)

you can forcibly cause the latest software to be loaded into your Sky digibox using the folowing procedure:

- switch off the box at the mains (eg pull out plug)
- hold in the "backup" button on the digibox (not the remote control)
- keep it held in
- while holding it in, plug the box back into the mains
- after a few seconds, all of the LEDs on the digibox will light up
-if you have the box connected to the TV via SCART, you will now see a message on the screen saying that a software load is in progress
- when the LEDs all light up you can let go of the backup button
- after about 10 minutes, the load will be complete and the box will be placed in standby
- switch the box on as normal using the remote control

any better?

If the above procedure fails it may be because you are not receiving the signal carrying the software.

2old

 

[fjle]

That was going to be my next question. Tried the forced update but no joy, it said it would last 10 mins but 1 hour later it was still displaying the message on screen. I tried the box at a friends and it works fine on all channels. Also works OK above 12000 on the H. I thought I had found a pattern, it seemed that I wasn't picking up the Astra 2a but now it seems it works OK on most transponders on H not V. Also keep getting back the missing channels for a few minutes they then freeze and are lost again. Thanks for all your help Rolf & 2old but I guess that Sky are going to have to fix it, it just anoys me that they take so long, is 3 and a half weeks the norm??.

 

[rolfw]

Unfortunately, if you're not able to narrow the problem down to one polarity or to one band, then its probably going to be down to waiting for the Sky installer. In fact if it is an LNB fault, then there's not much you can do anyway, bar replacing it that is.

The sky installer will probably swap out the LNB as standard when he visits, which will probably cure the problem. If it doesn't, then it can only be the cable run or a partially obscured line of sight.

Just as a matter of interest, how did you manage to get Sky to put a dish on the roof, I didn't think that they did that any more.

 

[fjle]

When the 1st installers came they said that they couldn,t get a signal because of tree's. So Sky sent a 2nd installer who fixed it to the chimney and charged me an extra £30. I,ve been up there and there's a clear line of sight over the tree's. Cheers mate.

 

[MartinP]

Originally posted by fjle
Had Sky installed 1 week ago, all was fine for 6 days then found out I had lost approx 50 channels (no satellite signal found). Rang Sky and they told me to do a box reset, followed thier instructions and lost everything. They then sent me into the installers menu and new system setup, got the message 'transponder not found'. They then told me that the dish may have come out of alignment and that they would send an engineer round on OCTOBER 2nd.

In general, Sky don't employ engineers so they'll probably send an installation technician.

As you forgot to mention the make and model of Digibox I'm working in the dark.

The latest software has caused some problems but a download usually fixes it. Use the exact method described in my FAQ:
http://www.satcure.co.uk/digifaq2.htm#backup

If I had to guess (and I hate to guess) I'd say your LNB is faulty or incompatible with your Digibox.

Martin