Satellite Loosing Signal

Edg3

Hey guy.

We "upgraded" to Satfree back when the Saorview thing came in, set it up ourselves and eventually got it working with mobile sat finders and a signal finder on the sat itself.
Anyway, problem recently is we've been loosing signal randomly during the day, until today it just went and didnt come back. Gone into the installation guide and tried to find a signal on the Astra 2 (28.2 i think) signal, but nothing. Attached the signal finder, nothing coming through, its not even lighting up let alone making noise.
I'm completely stumped. Terrestrial is still coming through fine via the aerial but our Freeviews gone and SatFree (new thing in the latest firmware in the box) is coming up with "Transponder Overload" and picks up no satellite.

Anyone got an idea what might be the issue or experienced the same? I'm out in Meath. Had ZERO issues til about a week or two ago when it started going nuts.

Peter Rhea

Edg3 wrote: »

. . . Had ZERO issues til about a week or two ago when it started going nuts.

Is this the same setup you posted about in this thread?

Edg3

Peter Rhea wrote: »

Is this the same setup you posted about in this thread?

The exact same. I actually forgot I'd posted that originally, I'm seriously considering binning the entire thing, when it works its fine but when it starts acting up its a proper pain.

Peter Rhea

Someone with knowledge of the Walker boxes might have an idea if 'transponder overload' (whatever that is) is likely to be a cause or a symptom of your current problem.

How did you sort the previous trouble 6 months ago?

Edg3

Peter Rhea wrote: »

Someone with knowledge of the Walker boxes might have an idea if 'transponder overload' (whatever that is) is likely to be a cause or a symptom of your current problem.

How did you sort the previous trouble 6 months ago?

We brought the box back into Power City and they tuned it for us in there, brought it back home and boom, worked fine ever since.
I read somewhere that the LMB might have shorted out because my father was helping out with it, forgot to turn off the box inside and he took out the cable, heard that this might cause a short, which might explain why the satellite signal finder isnt getting any power at all.

Ronnie Raygun

Edg3 wrote: »

SatFree (new thing in the latest firmware in the box) is coming up with "Transponder Overload" and picks up no satellite.

Can you still switch to "ordinary" satellite mode, using the OPT button? Does it still show this "transponder overload"?

Might be worth trying a first time installation (from the installation menu).

Edg3

No only when I try and set up the SatFree. It flashes it up just before I get the transponder cannot be found message.

Ronnie Raygun

Seems to have been a troublesome installation, right from the start. Best way to rule out a receiver problem, would be to substitute another known to be working properly.

If it turns out be be a dish alignment issue, you'd be best to get a pro with a proper meter to sort it out.

bmaxi

Just to piggyback on this thread with a similar problem. I have two Ferguson Ariva boxes, a 150 and a 250, both fed from a quad LNB on the same dish. The 250 has a strange habit of losing signal on just two channels, BBC Three and BBC News. The picture is normal for a few minutes then pixellates and the "No signal" warning comes up, this lasts for about a minute and then returns to normal. It doesn't happen on any other channels and I have reset, rescanned and scanned with coordinates but still the same. It's not a big deal but it just intrigues me.

Edg3

Just an update. Went next door and tested out our box (they have the same set up) box works perfectly and the "transponder overload" has disappeared. We swapped over cabled to a new set, new connections, no joy, Power City replaced the LMB for us with no hassle which was real decent of them but after installing it still getting no signal through to the box. Our satellite detector is still doing nothing, not even lighting up. We've moved the dish around a good bit but no joy. Even put it back to its original placement (using markings) still nothing.

Is there a sat detector on the market that will give elevation and pitch? We know the general direction to point the dish to get the satellite its just to fine tune it down. The detector we have might be buggered so looking into getting another one.

Apogee

The transponder overload error and the lack of power to the signal meter suggests a problem with your cable. Have you checked the f-connectors for short circuits or for possible breaks in the cable?

Edg3

Apogee wrote: »

The transponder overload error and the lack of power to the signal meter suggests a problem with your cable. Have you checked the f-connectors for short circuits or for possible breaks in the cable?

Yeah that was my first worry but when we got the new LMB we swapped over to a brand new cable. The overload message has gone but we're still getting nothing from the meter and no signal to the box downstairs.
I guess its just the dish at this stage but we had signal, now we dont, thats what I cant understand, and since the meter wont pick anything up no matter what we do, we cant tune it.

STB

Edg3 wrote: »

Yeah that was my first worry but when we got the new LMB we swapped over to a brand new cable. The overload message has gone but we're still getting nothing from the meter and no signal to the box downstairs.
I guess its just the dish at this stage but we had signal, now we dont, thats what I cant understand, and since the meter wont pick anything up no matter what we do, we cant tune it.

Transponder Overload is a memory error on the box issue. Have you been constantly rescanning the channels without resetting the box to factory settings?

You need to return the box to factory settings, its in the menu. It will clear the whole database of scanned and saved channels.

You then need someone with a sat meter to correctly align the dish to 28.2E.