"Multi switch problem"error message

[satpro1929]

I have several sports bars as customers...they all have H20 Directv receivers, and AT9 5 LNB dish, and a 6 X 8 multiswitch...yesterday 3 of the bars called with the same message..."multiswitch problem"...I have swapped out every part in the headend and I still get the message...when I do get an image on the tv's, it freeze frames and pixelates...Directv tech support was not help of course...this just started yesterday evening...these are headends I built about 6 months...no problems till now...anyone else have this problem...i know it is not the dish, or the alignment, or the multiswitch...I need some fresh ideas I am stumped.

[AV-Eng]

I too have had this problem in the past two weeks after never seeing it before. I have over 35 Sports bar customers, with 8 recievers each, over the midwest/south all with H20 receivers. I have both passive Zinwell MX's and active Pico Macom's. I got he passive switches to work again by having the bar manager take the handle of a knife and gently tap the multiswtch several times and then use the up and down arrows on the front panel to switch channels rapidly. Believe it or not this worked. I have noticed though, that some of the recevers that had the problem are now showing some pixelization not present before. Changing ports on the multiswitch does not seem to help. I suspect it may be related to a recent firmware update from DirecTV, but I hve no evidence to back that up. I have suddenly had all of my stores complain abut IR malfuntions through the control system I have installed. About half of the receivers now have "hypersensitve" IR windows that require me to attenuate the Emitter outputs on the control system.
Too Much Info , I know, But I hoped this helped a little.

K

[crisbell]

I encountered the same problem at home, and after researching it in forums, it may be linked to a software update that the H20's got recntly, but not sure. I had no issues until a few weeks ago.

I spent a couple hours going over my system, and was finally able to eliminate the error after hooking up a second line from 72.5 dual LNB dish for locals to flexport 2 of the 6x8 switch. I was only getting the multiswitch error on the HD channels, but this fixed it. I also did a complete reset of the system first, which did not help. I only had a single cable hooked to flexport 1 prior.

[Iceman59]

I have been having the same issue with my Directv H20 reciever at my home with the exception that it only occurs in the morning. After 9:00 AM everything is back working fine. I've had service out twice to correct the problem but since they show up after 9 AM it's impossible to tell if it corrected anything. First tech reaimed the dish second replaced the LNB. The third time I called Directv they had me go through a receiver reinstall.
After this I had no audio and was told to reset the receiver. This got audio and video working again. However it was now after 9am again. Here's the part you'll all want to hear. At the end of the phone call I asked the tech what had caused this to suddenly start. She said this was because of the software update they released 2 weeks ago. I'll be contesting the service call charges!

[GreyFox]

It's nice to know that I am not the only one with this problem. It's not nice to know that no one has posted a good fix.
I purchased a new H20 3 weeks ago to replace a very old D** receiver. I had acquired a new 42" HD LCD and wanted to be able to see the HD on it. Anyway, I installed the new receiver, called D** to get the new receiver authorized, and I was then watching beautiful HD TV - off the air and off the satellite. All channels for which I was authorized worked and the view was truly impressive. This was in my office, where I needed to work for a while longer, so I kept everything on and went about my work. About an hour later, I looked up and saw that my new receiver was receiving a software download. I continued to work, and when I looked up the next time the receiver had re-set itself, and that was the end of the good reception. I called D** and spent about 45 minutes on the telephone doing resets and other stuff, but nothing fixed the problem. The D** agent finally said I needed to pay for an in-home repair call, to which I responded that since the problem was precipitated by the download of their software, I felt it was their responsibility to get my new receiver fixed. The agent wouldn't budge and wouldn't even let me speak to a supervisor, so I tried the call again the next night. Same results, but when I asked to speak to a supervisor the agent came back and said that I could either speak to a supervisor, or they would send me a replacement receiver. I accepted the latter. Big mistake. They sent me a beat up, refurbished receiver that couldn't even get to 100% of the receiving info from the satellite screen. I was not happy, but decided to cool off before deciding what to do.
The really baffling thing is that I have 6 different receivers connected to an older Terk 5x8 multiswitch, which is getting fed by a terrestrial UHF antenna and a 3 LNB Channel Master Gain Master Dish, and have no problems with any of the others. In fact, one of the receivers is a Samsung HD satellite receiver, and another of the receivers is an HR20, both of which are connected to HDTVs. I also have another H20 connected to an old CRT television with no problems.
Anyway, my next step was to acquire another new H20 receiver and try the same steps, which I did. And indeed, the results were the same. Everything worked great until the software download, and now I get pixellation, signal dropout, audio popping, multiswitch problem error messages, and sometimes even searching for signal messages. I did make the following observations this time. Once everything was connected and working perfectly fresh out of the box, when I did a signal strength check I got a lot of 60s and 70s. After the software download the signal strength check showed almost all in the mid 90s.
My next step was to replace the cable connecting the troublesome receiver to the wall. No luck. I tried using a different port on the multiswitch, too. No luck there either.
Interestingly enough, a few months ago I set up a restaurant to feed 6 H20s from a D** provided dish and multi switch. All 6 of those work perfectly.
So, I can only presume that my problem is some kind of incompatibility between my older Terk 5x8 and the H20 with the newer software on it.
Is there anyone that can help me confirm this? Does anyone know how to back out a software upgrade to an H20?

[Coffey77]

I've heard that if you change the multiswitch setup to 4x4 in the setup - if you haven't already - it may help with the multiswitch error.

[GreyFox]

I have tried both settings, and the results are the same either way.