My last post, mentioned that the DirecTv wasn’t working…
and I had that weirdness on my online DTV account info, which keeps showing my old cancelled VISA card number as my primary method on autopay. I’ve changed it 3 times now since November and it keeps popping back up. A gal from accounting on their chat channel actually told me that yes, they did use my old card number to pay my bill, and yes, it was paid? WTF? How can their system and accounting techs be that screwed up? The card was cancelled in November, by Chase, I’m pretty sure they know how to cancel their own card. But here in February DTV accounting is telling me that they used that number to pay my bill?
But, when I’d check my NEW VISA card statement at my bank, it showed a DTV charge every month on the 27th since November. Huh.
Anyway, despite that issue, which made me think my DTV was actually shut off when it wasn’t, meant I didn’t have any DTV since December 31st I assume as it was the last date that showed up on screen when I’d press ‘Guide’. Here it was February 2nd and still no DTV. I had followed all the instructions a 775 error on screen was showing me several times to try and fix to no avail. I chatted with a couple service techs and had them change my service address from Thermal, CA to border towns El Centro than Yuma to see it that would jog it back to working but no luck there either. I hung around the pool, lounging and soaking up the sun, that didn’t work either.
Than yesterday, I was at poolside and mentioned my DTV problem to one of my fellow RVers here at the park and he said something, I don’t even remember what, and suddenly, a lightbulb went off and I remembered that I have a spare SWiM box! That’s the device that supplies power to the self aligning satellite dish on my roof, (that assembly is made by Winegard), the SWiM device is supplied by DTV. It both supplies power and passes the satellite signal onto the DTV receiver. I also still have the older coax cables and the splitter, also supplied by DTV, that came with my RV.
The 775 error display on screen always said that the receiver couldn’t communicate with the satellite dish…and here I could replace those parts required to do that! Great! Of course I immediately ran into the RV, installed the old SWiM box, the splitter, and the cables in place of the new parts and crossed my fingers. Than waited 10 minutes as the dish was extended, searched and found the satellites, peaked the signals, and finally it displayed a picture! Yea! I’m back with working satellite TV. But damn, the parts I replaced are brand new, I’d just received them from DTV in November. I’m sure glad I decided to hang onto those older parts.
However, shortly after that I remembered all those power outages that had happened here at the RV park. Most of them due to overvoltage. And putting two and two together, I’m now pretty certain that the SWiM box failure was due to one too many power glitches. Happily, it’s all back to normal now and I’ll be able to watch the SuperBowl at home!
My DTV issue isn’t the only reason I’m posting though…for those of you that like my RV repair section, I’ve completed a new section titled, Step Well Cover.
It’s an article about my defective (now repaired) step cover…check it out! There are several pictures and I understand that different years and models of Winnebago (and likely other brands of RVs) used this same system. It’s an air operated cover. It’s kinda cool when it’s working. Click the link here to read the story: Step Well Cover…
And here I am driving. I’m definitely getting fat. Must do something about that…soon.
It looked like it was going to be a great day for the test, but like I said, the wind died soon after leaving SF and strong winds are needed for at least part of the testing.
