[Randy Boecker]

My first post on this particular forum... be gentle http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif


I setup and installed my Dish 6000 system this past Tuesday. I also installed the 8VSB tuner module on Thursday. I live in an area where reception isn't the greatest, but I was able to lock in my local PBS station with 60-70% signal strength. My other two locals was around 45-50%, but for the most part was stable. This worked great until yesterday. PBS kept pixelating and dropping the signal, and the other stations would randomly lock and unlock. Watching the signal strength meter in the Local Channels feature, I saw the my signal strength would jump to over 70% and then drop to 0. It keeps jumping up to a reasonable strength, locks for a minute or less, then drops back to 0. This wasn't happening the other day, and I was getting a very stable picture with PBS.


Here's the worse part. While the thing kept locking and unlocking on the signal, the whole receiver locked up. And I mean locked up. I couldn't even power it off, with the remote or the front panel power button. What's worse, I heard the fan stop on the 8vsb module. I had to unplug the receiver and plug it back in in order to get picture back. I've had to do this several times over the last day or so, and can't get a reliable lock, and I'm tired of having to hard boot the thing every time this happens and worried about burning up my 8vsb tuner. The fan always comes back on after I reboot the receiver.


Everything else works fine. When I'm watching HD channels off the Dish satellites, there's no problem. Everything else seems to be working great. I ran the main unit diagnostic and everything checked out fine. I've contacted Dish tech support, and am awaiting their response. But I wanted to check with this group as well to see if anyone else has had a similar problem, or if this is clearly a bad 8vsb module that I should have replaced. I bought everything at Dish Depot, so getting it replaced should be no problem. I've read about other problems with the receiver automatically rebooting, but nothing about it locking up completely like this. My current os is 691P, which I believe was supposed to fix the previous problem.


I'm open to any suggestions.. Thanks in advance!

 

[BarryO]

I've had mine lock up on flakey signals as well. Seems to be a firmware bug, that can be avoided by getting stable signals.


Was it windy on the day you were having problems? That could be the cause; it helps to have the antenna mounted so it doesn't move, but swaying trees can still cause a problem.


------------------

You have a right to install OTA and dish antennas on property under your control.


See http://www.fcc.gov/csb/facts/otard.html

 

[dagman]

with 40 to 50% strength, you are getting a signal filled with errors. The 8VSB module seems to choke on errors and crash. You might be able to remedy things by working on your antenna installation. (Yeah, it shouldn't crash but that is what happens.) How big is your antenna? Indoor or outdoor? Have you added a preamp? . . .

 

[jimg]

One of my channels is also very distant and I too suffer from the "lock-up", especially when the station turns on and off in the evening. It appears to be in the dynamic equalization logic -- especially since the 8VSB is one of the best at handling multipath and varying signals.

Do a search and you'll see the other posts on the "quirks" of this and other STBs. The name of the game for DTV is to give the STB a good steady signal.


When mine locks up, I've found I can hold down the front panel power button for several seconds, then it recognizes that its been pressed and will blink while it powers down. I then wait a few seconds, then power it back up.

 

[Randy Boecker]

Thanks for the great information. I haven't put up a roof-top antenna yet. For now, I'm just using a set-top Radio Shack amplified UHF antenna (yeah, I know) until I can swing the outdoor antenna. The outdoor antenna will allow me to pick the network stations from Philly, so I'm planning on that in the next few months (definitely before September!)


It actually has been windy the past two days. I didn't think it would be a problem, especially since it's an indoor antenna. But I didn't think about the trees. There is a stand of trees out behind my house between me the transmitter towers. That's probably the big culprit.


As long as I'm not the only one having these lockups, I can live with it until I get a bigger antenna. (and a stronger signal) I'll also test this again in a few days when the winds are calm (it was calm the day I set everything up and locked in the channels)