Direct TV problem no signal

**ladytoysdream** · 11-14-2009, 03:32 PM

Okay, I need some ideas.
We have direct tv and we have no signal.
I have been on the phone with the company and did all she suggested. Nothing.
I have checked the connections, card, rebooted the system several times, etc. Been outside and looked over that.
Not seeing anything out of the ordinary.
It is on channel 3.
We have 2 small dishes. One for upper channels, and one for lower channels.
I have a appt set up for monday morning for a service tech to get out here. In the meanwhile, I am looking for whatever I can try so the hubby does not lose it the rest of the weekend. He watches a lot of TV.

Message on TV is searching for signal.
No trees or anything else blocking our dishes outside.

**nodmicks** · 11-14-2009, 07:49 PM

Dh says it means Direct TV has a satellite out and your receiver dish cant pick up a signal. He said if it is a storm or just cloud cover it passes quickly. A longer problem is their end.

**Gabe** · 11-14-2009, 07:55 PM

Watch tv online if you have broadband. Ex: Hulu.com

Or Sign up for netflix!

**guest002** · 11-14-2009, 09:31 PM

Unplug the receiver and let it stay unplugged for a few min. and then let it run the set up. Sometimes the reset button isn't enough. We've never had that happen

Do you have more than 1 receiver?

**ladytoysdream** · 11-14-2009, 10:05 PM

Hi
Only the one receiver and the one tv hooked up to it.

I don't have the speakers hooked up to this computer and it is old and cranky. Not sure if it would handle movies.

I have unplugged and replugged, and almost redid all the lines connecting.
Nothing helped.

There was no storm locally to blame this on.
I did call Direct TV back a second time, and we ran another test and still have no signal.
Our TV seems fine, and I think the receiver is fine. My guess is something is messed up with one of the 2 outside dishes.
And now that I think about it, it is THEIR equipment, and not mine.

First she tried to talk me into a protection plan and I said no, we have no extra money currently. Then she backed up, and said....oh....well you have been with this company a LONG time, so we can do this service call for free this one time. She had said the bill would be a $ 50.00 for the service call early in the conversation. I told her we could not afford that. That's when the word free came into play......

So the evening was saved when we went into the other room, and watched the small tv that only plays VHS movies. Thank goodness we have a nice selection to view. It may be old technology around this house, but it worked....

The poor hubby is lost without a tv....I mean LOST...

**Gabe** · 11-14-2009, 11:34 PM

Make sure he pushes the button!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP1pzm9GGQo&feature=player_embedded#"]YouTube- LOST - Push The Button v1.4(beta)[/ame]

**guest002** · 11-15-2009, 12:44 AM

We never pay for service calls but we might have that plan or something. We lease the receivers strictly because if they do fail we get a new one. I've never experienced an outage like you are. When they do come out, if the techs admit it was a DirecTV issue make sure they note that so you can get a partial refund/credit.

**Russ** · 11-15-2009, 06:14 AM

Has the alignment of the dish been checked?

**ladytoysdream** · 11-15-2009, 06:47 AM

Not sure how to test the alignment of the dish but am thinking that is a possilbe problem. And or something in the wiring outside. That was done by their tech for the setup. I did do a google search yesterday for problems. Another thing they mentioned was a possible chewing on wires by a rodent of some kind. So far have not seen anything like that.

My crazy question I asked her yesterday. What if a bird flew over and pooped on that arm I call the eye in the dish. Not sure what to call it. She told me no.

Originally it was all our equipment. We bought the first dish at Walmart many years ago. Hubby wanted the antenna off the roof 3.5 yrs ago, that we used for the local channels. That is when we redid the house and had new roof shingles put on.
So at that time, I had a DIRECT TV tech come here and we added the second dish for the local channels. And their tech put the equipment on our pole. We also had him move the first dish over to the pole with the second one. So it was all their workmanship.

Another thought I had, was to switch receivers but not sure what we done with our old one. Then if we could have gotten something out of it, I would have called them and had them activate our old one.

This morning he is playing a game on his tracfone. Which is only recently that he figured that all out. We have had our cell phones, it was a year back the end of August. We are a bit slow on new technology around here

**Russ** · 11-15-2009, 07:11 AM

Just find a local installer or handyman and have them check the alignment. In the menu somewhere you should be able to find the strength of the signal. If you don't have enough, you won't get any service.

**ladytoysdream** · 11-15-2009, 07:29 AM

I checked the strength of service yesterday with the second call I made. On the 4 lines, it read 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

I do have the direct tv guy coming here monday morning with a time slot of 8 to 12 . Cost is supposed to be zero dollars.

**Russ** · 11-15-2009, 07:31 AM

zero is a good number.

**ladytoysdream** · 11-15-2009, 07:40 AM

Well when I had the first lady on the phone, I think she figured it out, she BETTER be nice to me. I think one of the things I said to her when she told me the cost of service call was going to be $ 50, was....*that is not acceptable *

I should ask how long we been a customer with them, but I know it is many years.
We now have the direct tv bundled with the phone, and the DSL for the computer. We pay $ 138 a month for the package.
If we had kept the direct tv all by itself, I know it would be over $ 75 a month by itself.

**shoiji** · 11-15-2009, 01:54 PM

There also might be something going on with the cables running thru your house. Only say that because once when someone was installing either cable or dish they had to replace a cable because it had moisture on it. I am in an apartment and the cables run from the roof down to the rooms it is installed in. I asked the guy why and he said that it can affect the receiving the channels. And yes, I was having some difficulty with receiving some channels.

Hopefully the repair guy will figure out what is going on. I had DirecTv. Switched because the price offered was really great. But I am back to basic cable now since no one told me that with satelite tv if the weather is bad the service is out.

Just a side note, I was not getting great reception on channel 6 during the switch over to digital tv. I was told that that channel was having some problems that they were working on. And yes, later on the reception was fine.

Hope the repair guy will fix the problem!!

**never2late** · 11-15-2009, 06:09 PM

We had a problem similar to that several years ago - it started right after we lost service during a rainstorm. It never came back and I thought it was a problem on their end. It was actually this little cap thing in the center of the dish. It's a plastic cap and I believe it had a crack in it. My husband had to go out and buy a new dish, having just recently passed up the opportunity for a freebie on an old one, which he kicked himself for (bad timing). He didn't even put up the new dish - just took the part off the new one and put it on the old dish.

Hope it's an easy and cheap fix!