Failing Tuner or Failing Hard Drive?

[bguppies]

I have had 3 DirecTivo's for 5 years or so now.

1 RCA, 1 Phillips and 1 Hughes.
Over the years I have replaced the Hard Drive in the Hughes and Phillips with larger ones.

In the last week or so, the Hughes, our main unit, has begun having trouble getting a signal on the 2nd tuner.
It basically acts as if it is a stormy day and not receiving a signal or strong enough signal.

The 2nd tuner either completely drops out for a few seconds or minutes or frequently gets very pixelated, as if the signal is weak.

Yet simultaneously, the 1st tuner is perfect, with the same channel or another channel from the same satelite, that the 2nd tuner can't get.

I was just curious if replacing the hard drive would have any effect on the bad tuner, or are the two completely separate beasts.

Basically I don't want to waste money on a new hard drive if the tuner and tivo are almost shot.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Bill

[rminsk]

It is most likely not a hard drive problem. Try swapping inputs on back of the receiver. If it "follows" the cable (Tuner 1 has problems) then it is a problem upstream of the DirecTiVo. It could then be a cable problem or a multiswitch problem.

[Mark Griswold]

In addition to what rminsk said, if you are using the Svideo output, try unplugging the Svideo cable. Or, if you are using both RCA video outputs, try unplugging one of them. The latter worked for me when I started having the same problem.

Apparently this is due to a hardware failure inside the unit, and there is a company that can repair it. I forget the name, but search the forum for "pixelation svideo" and you'll probably find more info. I was satisfied with the simple "unplug the cable" fix, so never bothered to get mine repaired.

Update: Here's the link to the relevant thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=333631

The company that fixes these is: http://www.ccscorporation.net/

[bguppies]

In addition to what rminsk said, if you are using the Svideo output, try unplugging the Svideo cable. Or, if you are using both RCA video outputs, try unplugging one of them. The latter worked for me when I started having the same problem.

Apparently this is due to a hardware failure inside the unit, and there is a company that can repair it. I forget the name, but search the forum for "pixelation svideo" and you'll probably find more info. I was satisfied with the simple "unplug the cable" fix, so never bothered to get mine repaired.

Update: Here's the link to the relevant thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=333631

The company that fixes these is: http://www.ccscorporation.net/


I tried swapping the input cables, but the pixelation stayed on the same tuner.

I'll try making sure I don't have an S-Video input plugged in. (I forget if I unplugged it or not while muddling through all the cable swapping.

Thanks for the tips...

Bill

[NoviGator]

I am having this same problem. I have an R-10 and for the past few years whenever the power went out, when the system rebooted it would only come up with Sat 1 working. The signal on the cable going into Sat2 is fine as I can swap them and both work in Sat 1.

Usually, I can reboot a few times and it will start working, but it happened again last week and I can't get it to work at all. I have 3 tivos in the house and even powered down and disconnected the other two to see if I could get a clear powerful signal, but no luck. Is there a common problem that can be fixed at home, or do I have to send it out?

[Draken]

I had a similar problem. Source was a corroded connection up on the roof near the dish that wasn't sealed very well. Replaced it, and was good to go. I silicon caulked the heck out of the connectors to help keep out the rain.

[tombet]

Curious. In the last week, I am having the identical problem with an R10. Tuner 2 has some pixelation on some channels, Tuner 1 is ok on all. I have swapped cables, and the problem stays on Tuner 2, so cabling seems to be ruled out.

Checking signal on 103B, transponder 24, shows signal around 80 for tuner 2, but then for a second here & there, it drops to 0. Tuner 1 never drops too low. Can others who are having periodic Tuner 2 problems on an R10 check 103B, transponder 24 and see if this is also what you see. I am a little suspicious that the problem is from the data stream, not equipment going bad.

[tombet]

My distortion problems have stopped - shows on tuner 2 again look ok, giving some credence to my suspicion it might have been a data stream issue, not a hardware issue.

I still see the momentary drops of signal watching strength of satellite 103b transponder 24. Its in the mid-80s, then momentarily drops to 0. However, I am not seeing the breakups and pixelation I saw before which was consistent with what bguppies reported. BGuppies - do you still have the issue, or did it go away ?

[tazman73]

i just had the same issue it is not the hard drive or the unit it is the sat setup i talk to direct tv about for a hours by the way they are "dumb asses" i explained the same thing to him and i was told that i was my sat that somehow it was out of alignment i told them that i was get strong signal out of both cable on side 1 only but side would fade in and out. after some working on my own i found out that it was the transponder it was on at the time it on 23 but as i began to pick a different one i found that side would come on and stay on but when exit the setup i would lose side 2 again . it went back to number 23 so i went to sat setup and re acquired sat data aging ----for those who do not know it goes thur all the 32 transponders and pick the a strong that work with both signal........i hope this help if you have not figured this out yet

[tombet]

tazman73 -
You can check signal on different transponders, but you are mistaken if you think you are choosing & setting your transponder. Different channels are broadcast via different transponders and you have no control over this.

[defaultuser53545]

I have been having similar problems since about September 2007. My SD-40 with a WD 160 GB hard drive started "pixelating" and on some channels it would then reboot. I first replace the hard drive with a seagate 320 GB, the problem continued, then I bought a "clean image" and reinstalled the seagate 320 GB. The problem continued.

The system would reboot only when tuner 2 (I cannot be sure) was on one of a handful of channels, sometimes 3-4 times in a row unless I changed the channel on tuner 2 right after the reboot. I checked the signal strength and on a few transponders the signal was very weak on both tuners. But, on a few transponders, tuner 2 was "much lower" (60% vs. 80%).

After my wife decided she wanted DirecTv more than Tivo, we decided to get the new DirecTv DVR, but we found out we could get their insurance. So before we bought a new system we made a service call.

The service tech said the problem was a "weather-proof grease" used by the installer about 4.5 years ago. The tech said they stopped using it a few years ago because it is non conductive and could interfere with the voltage sent by the tivo and the signal received by the sat.

The tech left about an hour ago and so now I will continue trying to cause a reboot.