Lost all channels, signal quality 0%?

[Mr_V]

Hi all,

I have a Humax 5400 patched with HoT11.0, and up until two days ago it worked perfectly. Since yesterday, whenever I switch it on, I get the welcome screen OK, HoT loads without any problems, I can see all system settings, but whichever channel I click on, I get a black screen with blue message

Moving Motor -> Hotbird 13E

??? I have no motor, and my building has only one fixed dish that looks at Hotbird 13E. As far as I know, nothing has changed.

When I go to Installation->Signal Detection, I always get "Signal level" between 25% and 50% or so, but "Signal Quality" is always zero.

Restarted countless times, re-patched 11.0 and put 11.1A, checked that all cables are fine... nothing!

All help appreciated!

[seti]

Hi
Have you tried reloading channel list and/or settings, or try a serch

Try tune Hotbird 8 (13.0E) - 12111.00 V 27500 3/4 just to see if it works..

[Mr_V]

Hi,

To be honest, I haven't tried the channel list as all channels are there, just black, but when I was patching the 11.0 again, I did the full patch to be sure.

Just tried a search on the frequency you provided, very quickly I get the error window

Service search failed (tuning fail).

I hope the last two words don't mean that my tuner is dead?... :(

[seti]

If you have a multymeter you can check for voltage coming out of the tuner (f-Plug)
Think it be 13v or 18v depending on vertical / horizontal.

But I would try channel list/settings

Do you know that the dish and lnb is OK.. and check coax lead in f-plug..

[Mr_V]

I haven't got multymeter, but I'll do the channel list later on, after football...

I can't know if the dish and LNB work, I can't go to the roof of the building. I will call the company that maintains it later, but I just needed to verify is it up to me, or is it a software problem.

[ozzsurf]

use these settings for one lnb fixed dish ( no motor no diseqc switch)

antenna settings
hotbird
lnb Universal
diseqc input disabled
motorised system disabled

Moving Motor -> Hotbird 13E = someone has changed settings

[Mr_V]

I've tried both.

First, I uploaded a very old list of channels and settings I had taken about a year or so ago when everything was working perfectly.

No change. Still blue "Moving motor..." message.

Then, I looked up Antenna Settings as ozzsurf suggested. It was

antenna settings
hotbird
lnb Universal
diseqc input disabled
motorised system enabled


I changed the last one, mototrised system to disabled and restarted.

All of a sudden, every single channel now displays "No or bad signal" message!!!

I go back to Antenna Settings, put the Motorised System back to enabled (it was enabled for all these years, working just fine), and again, no picture, but I get the old "Moving Motor -> Hotbird 13E".

Any more ideas?

[Prontopro]

I'd take a look outside. If that happened to me I'd be double checking that the dish hadn't moved, the birds hadn't pecked at the LNB cover and allowed water inside and the cabling from the LNB to the Humax was still good. Sounds very much like a problem externally as the Humax always shows 50% signal level and 0 signal quality when not aligned correctly or it's not receiving a signal at all. You can verify that by disconnecting the f-connector from the back of the Humax.

Also check line of sight to see if anything might affect signal quality

[ozzsurf]

if mototrised system is enabled you will always get
"Moving Motor message

if you have no motor or no diseqc switch
both motor and diseqc settings should be set to Disabled


if your settings for a one lnb fixed dish are correct
as i said above and still no signal

check f plugs are fitted correct
check cable for break or water
check lnb
check dish is lined up

if its a shared dish setup for just hotbird
has someone moved it to a different satellite

[Mr_V]

Guys, first of all thanks for all the help and guesses, I really appreciate it.

It could well be that it is something to do with the dish, but before I call the TV company that maintains our building, I just want to be as sure as I can be that it is not a problem with the receiver. So, I guess the question remains...

-if (after doing all I tried) the signal level remains 30%-50%, but signal quality is always 0%, can it be a problem with Humax?

I guess the cabling is not an issue, since it always reads a decent Signal Level. Same goes for tuner and PSU.

I can't look at the dish, but I'll call the company on Monday. I'd just like to be reasonably sure it's nothing to do with my box.

[Prontopro]

The only to make absolutely sure is to take it to someone else's house and plug it in. I am however 99% certain the problem is external to the box and will be the dish alignment, LNB , cable or something blocking the signal to the dish on line of sight. Don't assume that the cable is good as it could still be damaged.

What's the weather been like for the last few days? If you've had stormy gusty winds then that will be the cause.

[voith driver]

hi mr V,
when you get hold of that multimeter it might be worth, oh hang on, ok, i just checked your post, it could have been because you had loaded the wrong patch if you had had a 5400z+ (plus) but your problems started without any patches being involved.

so i will start again, when you get hold of your multimeter, it might be worth opening the box and checking the psu especially for the 30v line as i am fairly sure its that line that causes your symptoms.

as prontopro has suggested also it will be worth testing it on another site, as well as asking the shared users if they have lost the signal.

hope this has helped
voith

[Mr_V]

OK guys, if anyone remembers my woes, here is the update:

-took the hummy to a repair shop
-they hooked it up
-works as if bought on that very day

So, Humax is A-OK, and we know that now for a fact. It's not the settings, it's not the channel list, it's not PSU or 30V power line. I will call the company that looks after the satellite TV for our building tomorrow, before that I just need to ask what I imagine is a simple question:

Can I now assume that it is the dish/LNB (in any case - external problem) rather than anything else that may be to do with me? The only other middle ground for problems that I can see would be the coax cable that brings the signal from LNB. I'm pretty sure that this is absolutely fine, in fact when I was plugging it back just now it gave me a couple of mild electroshocks. In any case, same old problem - Signal Strength is 45%, Signal Quality remains 0%. Is this an indicator that the coax cable is OK and that it can be nothing else than a dish/LNB problem?

Thanks for all the help so far!

[Marco]

Hi Mr_V if your hummy is ok have you tried

Firmware Reset
Firmware
patch
then setings

Failing this then the dish could be out of alignment

[Prontopro]

Now that you've proven its external to the box then you will find that it will almost certainly be dish alignment that's causing the problem. LNB and cable are possibilities but not the most likely cause of your problem.

Your other potential problem is that you cannot fix this yourself and you are in the hands of the TV company that maintains the building. They could fix it for you and another storm could knock it out of alignment the next day. You should discuss with them the best way to fix the dish so that it is more robust in windy conditions, especially now that we are experiencing more of this type of weather. I'd also be there when they do this and actually look at what they do so that you're satisfied with the fixings and alignment.

Finally make sure you have a strong signal and a picture on your TV before they leave the roof as they will align the dish and get their signal from portable equipment and if your cable is faulty then you will still not get a signal. You need to confirm that you can watch TV before they leave and prove that the cable is good.

[Mr_V]

Hi guys, the problem is sorted. It seems it was something in the Diseqc, not entirely sure myself, but the signal quality is back and good now.

I'd like to thank everyone here who were trying to help me out (this sounds like an Oscar acceptance speech, right?) and were posting suggestions and questions. However, before this thread can be resigned to history, I need another small favour :D When I was messing with the Hummy over the past 10 days trying to sort the problem out, I think I uploaded very old HoT config settings and channel lists, so I cannot clear TPS with HoT 11.1 like I was able to before.

So, here goes, and this should hopefully be easier to sort out:
1. What sort of HoT configuration settings should I have (I don't use cardsharing)? CARD+EMU? Any other settings there?

2. Time zone is set to GMT+1. Is this still correct (and necessary?)

3. What are the frequency details of the channel (I think it was called FRANCE 5) to which you need to switch to in order to invoke TPS AU and calculate the working TPS keys?

(anything else I missed out, please remind me)

And thanks again!

[jimrare]

(anything else I missed out, please remind me)
You missed that its down on almost everything. It is working via sbcl_vplug & wsp. Look a few posts further down or use the search button for more info.

[Mr_V]

TPS down? Damn. When Humax was last working for me, it was still AU... oh well, thanks for the tip, I'll do some research.

However, the questions could still stand for TV Gl*bo, for example. HoT11.1 thread said that it was opening TV Gl*bo on 13E. Any speciall settings in HoT configuration for that?

Cheers