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Direct TV Problem


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I have a Winegard Traveler on the roof and Ditect TV DVR and 2nd receiver inside. It was off for 5 months at home in Custer SD. When I turned it on last week it worked fine. Since we got back on the road 3 days ago the dish locks on to the 3 satellites, but the Direct receiver will not acquire channels. To quote the screen: "Searching for signals/Almost There, a few seconds more please/Just a few more seconds.." then screen goes blank and it starts over again...and over and over. I have rebooted everything, have my switch matrix in the correct position and talked to Direct. No luck. I can't even turn off the receiver with the remote or manually. Have to unplug to restart. Before I could watch recorded programs on the DVR receiver without the satellite up - not now. We could be on the road for up to a couple more weeks until I can get to my original installer in Arizona to troubleshoot.

 

Has anyone experienced this problem? Do I simply have a wiring problem somewhere? I have checked all the connections.

 

Hank

SKP 67414

2005 Mandalay DP

2012 Honda CRV

Currently in American RV Park in Albuquerque

Hank & Joyce

2019 Phoenix Cruiser 3100

2012 Honda CRV

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I'm not sure I follow. Does the DVR work OK and just the receiver is acting up?

 

Try using the little red reset button instead of unplugging. It should be inside the little door where the authorization card goes.

2000 Volvo 770, 500HP/1650FP Cummins N14 and 10 Speed Autoshift 3.58 Rear 202" WB, 2002 Teton Aspen Royal 43 Foot, Burgman 650 Scooter

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The messages you have said you are receiving are inconsistent with any I am familiar with. I think you have combined a few things together. As far as I am aware, the "searching for signal" message is never combined with the "almost there" message. Almost there is a message you receive when the device is going through the bootup process but it won't get that far if it is still stuck in the "searching for signal" mode.

 

If you can accurately describe what messages you are getting some of the folks here may be able to help you figure our what is wrong. Please explain if this problem is with both your DVR/receiver and also with the regular receiver in the RV or just with one of them.

 

As for not being able to watch the DVR if you don't have a signal, that is a separate issue and I had thought that a recent software resolved that problem for most DVRs.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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Don't know about direct, but if my Dish receiver is turned off and antenna stowed for more than a month or so, I have to call customer service and ask them to "send a signal" to reactivate the receiver. In a few moments, and after unplugging the receiver for 15 seconds and then plugging back in, all is back to normal.

Paul (KE5LXU), former fulltimer, now sometimer...

'03 Winnebago Ultimate Advantage 40E

'05 Honda Odyssey

Escapees, FMCA, WIT, SMART

http://www.pjrider.com

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Don't know about direct, but if my Dish receiver is turned off and antenna stowed for more than a month or so, I have to call customer service and ask them to "send a signal" to reactivate the receiver. In a few moments, and after unplugging the receiver for 15 seconds and then plugging back in, all is back to normal.

 

Usually with DirecTV this issue causes an on-screen message "Please call Xxxx" rather than what the OP reports. DirecTV has an online "button" you can push in the My Account portion of its website that will resend the authorization signal to receivers suffering from this problem. No phone call is required.

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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I am guessing here that you are using 2 receivers. A DVR and another separate single tuner receiver. If so, is the single receiver working properly at both receiver locations (swapping them out)? If you are seeing the searching for signal message and it completes that and moves to the next 0-100% screen where the "almost there" message is then the receiver IS seeing the satellite signal but it's not getting through the setup correctly.

If I am on solid ground with everything above, I would go to the Repeat Satellite Setup option. It can be difficult to get there sometimes unless you jump in their quick and early after a reset. Once there, ensure you see either Slimline 5 (old style Trav'ler) and Multiswitch or the Slimline 3 SWM (17 I believe) and SWM for the switch type. Then go to Signal Strength followed by Signal Meter and using the +/- options select all the available satellites 99, 101,103 (maybe 110, 119) and ensure you have good signals on all screens that have either a ©, (ca) or (cb). If you do then click the rest of the Continue buttons until you get all the way to the end.

Let us know what happens from there.

Bill Adams
Full timer since 1997

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  • 2 months later...

Having just read this topic and realized the date posted, you've probably already figured out the problem and solution. I didn't see it here so thought I'd respond.

We've had the same identical issue 3 times. What happened is during moving (rolling down the road)the power was on to the DVR and the hard drive crashed. You have to get a new DVR from DirecTV. We have set everything up to go through a power strip to make it easy to shut the power off to everything. That way nothing accidentally turns on when we stop that we are unaware of.

Even if we did not turn on the TV or satellite, if we turned on the generator the power on the DVR would turn on. Start rolling again, the hard drive gets bounced around and crashes.

Huge pain dealing with Direct to get a new DVR. Hate them actually and when our contract expires will be switching. But that's another post all together!

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