Dreambox suddenly unable to get signal from a channel

[OEB]

Some times I have experienced that the Dreambox suddenly is unable to get signal from several channels on a satellite (i.e. most German channels on Astra 19.2) even though there is no problem with the signal (checked with a different tuner connected to the same dish). I use a motor, but I don't think that is relevant. I can even boot the Dreambox with an old image and view the channels without trouble, so there is certainly some sort of software issue. Anyone know why this is happening and how to quickly fix it? When I experienced it before I believe it went back to normal after several re-boots and re-configuration attempts.

 

[Topper]

Knowing where you are in the world would help people to diagnose your problems but I suspect you are near Oslo in which case it could be you are on the limits of your dish, the Dreambox tuners are not the best in the world and often require a bigger dish to produce results in fringe areas in comparison with the best tuners

 

[OEB]

You are right about my location. The dish is 80 cm. Anyway, I have used this dish and the db since around 2004 and this has only happened a couple of times recently. One might suspect a hardware failure since the box is getting old, but that doesn't explain that it works fine when I boot up the db with another image. I'm using Gemini.

Development: The problem has now occured also on the alternate image, but when I switched back to the current image everything is ok (for now). SNR 82%/ AGC: 67%/ BER: 0. When the problem occurs, this drops to i.e. 10% (no signal). So I don't think the signal itself is the problem, for some reason the Dreambox won't always switch correctly.

 

[Topper]

Proabably your lnb failing then, I would always replace that as a starting point as they are so cheap to buy these days

 

[OEB]

Proabably your lnb failing then, I would always replace that as a starting point as they are so cheap to buy these days

Thanks. But how would that explain that the signal is fine on my computer connected to the same (quad) LNB? Could one of the outputs be failing (i.e. try to connect the Dreambox to another output)? Btw. the LNB is only a couple of years old.

 

[Analoguesat]

LNB's can suffer from all sorts of weird and interesting problems. To start with you could swap the cables round on the lnb outputs. However at the end of the day a new lnb is only €10-20 so its a cheap swapout.

To troubleshoot these sorts of problems you need to eliminate the variables systematically one by one.

 

[A nonymous]

It could be a capacitor failing. I had a similar problem on my old DM7020S. The receiver started losing channels on the high band oscillator (10600) as the receiver stopped sending the 22khz tone to make the lnb switch to high band.

Check to see if the channels that are missing/failing are on the high band. If they are that could be the problem.

I would firstly check the lnb as the previous posters are suggesting as it could also be the lnb that is causing the problem.

Nano

 

[OEB]

It could be a capacitor failing. I had a similar problem on my old DM7020S. The receiver started losing channels on the high band oscillator (10600) as the receiver stopped sending the 22khz tone to make the lnb switch to high band.

Check to see if the channels that are missing/failing are on the high band. If they are that could be the problem.

I would firstly check the lnb as the previous posters are suggesting as it could also be the lnb that is causing the problem.

Nano

This appears to match my problem. It went away just after I posted here the last time, but has now returned again. Were you able to repair this or is it time to retire the trusty old DM7000?