Strange Dish Network Behavior

[Bill]

Over the past couple of weeks, my Dish Network tuner has done something strange. After working normally the whole time I have been watching, I will suddenly not be able to control my satellite with my remote. If I go to the receiver and try to turn it off or change the channel, it is not responsive at all. But, when I reset the box, everything works normally again. Any ideas why it would do this? (Just as a note, it is an HD receiver and has Tivo capabilities).

[draiken78]

I had similar problems with an HD DVR I had from DirecTV. Sounds to me like it's getting ready to die on you. Your best bet is to call Dish and have them replace it. If they are anything like DirecTV's customer service they will do some troubleshooting over the phone. Obviously, your's still works after you reset it, so if you want them to replace it you may need to play dumb and pretend that none of the troubleshooting steps worked. When they send you a new box, you shouldn't have any more problems.

[viktor]

Hi everybody, that happened to me couple times and I don't know if it works the same at the tuners but my TV remote control did that to me once. I was trying to change the channel and the remote just turned off my tv. I've managed to turn it on again and when I've pushed the volume button it changed the channel. I resested the remote and after that it worked perfectly. It happened again few weeks after and I'm starting to believe that it is a key combination that makes this weird thing to happen.

[jhonny]

The most probable cause is a malfunction at the remote circuits. There might have been a shortcut... some water upon the remote, so that the buttons switch between themselves. It is a funny but annoying thing. And most of times you need to get a new one.

[Bill]

I thought that it was my remote at first, too. When it happend the first time, I thought maybe the battery was dead. But, it still worked for everything else. Then I thought something may have happened with the remote programming. But, like I said, it has to be something with the box because I couldn't get it to respond when I went directly to the box either. The only thing the box would respond to on both occassions was a reset. I can call the company, but they are always such a pain and tell me to do things I have already tried. I was hoping someone here might have a solution.

[draiken78]

Sorry to hear that Bill. Unfortunately, I don't have a solution for you. Like I said earlier though, you should be able to get a new box. Don't forget though, you may have to fudge the truth a bit in order for them to give you a new box. Cable and satellite companies are very stingy and usually don't want to replace their boxes if they make it work for you again, even if you know that the box will continue to have problems and will get worse and more annoying over time.

[jhonny]

Though, I must agree Draiken that the best thing you can do is to change your box, even if you must ommit some details. I'm sure that there is a malfunctioning but I'm sure too that they "won't have the time" to check it. And they'd better change it that repair it. Good luck with that !

[sykes]

I agree all above, but untill you'll get to the service provider or at the seller shop you might be thinking of having some fun with your remote. Try to push some buttons and see what comes out. You might enjoy it for couple of minutes. But still, you really need to change it. Hope you will solve your problem and everything comes to normal.
Cheers !!!

[rasterfarian]

The same thing happenned to us last month: the box would act like the remote was sending it commands at random.
So we took the batteries out of the remote and covered the front (it's IR light LEDs,) and it did it again, so it wasnt the remote, it was the Dish Network HD DVR. (VIP 722)
Now the weird behavior lasted only a few days, and there hasnt been any more for weeks. So I would recommend just waiting a few days a see if it resolves on it's own. It might be a software update glitch, these updates happen every few days during the night automatically.
We haven't had any more wierdness in weeks.