How to Fix a Satellite Box

This article will walk you through steps to troubleshoot your satellite box. Most people get very frustrated when their TV stops working, and service calls can be very expensive. If you follow all of these steps below and your receiver is still not working, you will have to bite the bullet and call your satellite company for a service call.

Instructions

1. Start by checking your cable connections. Make sure the connection is firmly screwed into the back of your receiver. If that checks out, the next thing you will do is physically go up to the dish. There is an arm called an "LNB" where all the coaxial cables for your receiver plug in. Make sure these are screwed on tight. If this does not work, proceed to the next step

2. Unplug the power cord on your satellite receiver. Let it sit for about a minute so it can reset itself. Turn the receiver back on. If it is still not working, try the next step.

3. Take out your access card. This card is what validates your receiver as yours and that it is being billed to the right account. Turn off your satellite receiver and pull out the access card. Let the receiver sit for about a minute and slide the card back into the receiver. If this does not work, call your satellite company and read the card numbers to the representative to make sure the card is valid.

4. Bypass your installed coaxial cable. This is called making a jumper cable. Take a tape measure and measure out the distance from your cable box to the satellite dish. You do not need to run the cable through the walls, just run a tape measure through the door or window until you reach the dish. The reason for this is that it's a test cable and will not be permanently installed; you just need to know how many feet of RG6 coaxial cable you will need to purchase. You should be able to go to your local electronics store and buy a roll of RG6 coaxial cable and two RF connectors (the silver end pieces, one for each end of your coaxial cable) and make your own jumper cable. Make sure you buy a good 20 feet extra of coax to give yourself some room for error if you make a bad cut while installing the RF connectors. You will need to buy a coax stripper and a coax crimper at the electronic store as well. The stripper will cut the coax down to the white sheath and leave the copper wire intact and stripped down. Next slide on your RF connector and use your crimper to crimp the bottom of the RF connector to the coax cable. If the copper wire is too long, just cut it down to size with some wire cutters. Plug this jumper into the back of your satellite receiver and run the cable outside to the satellite dish. Most TVs will not need another coax cable jumper to connect to the satellite box because you will most likely be using the audio/video (red, yellow and white) cables to connect to your TV from your cable box. If this is not the case then you will need to make a second jumper from the cable box to your TV.

5. Unscrew the RF connector at the LNB of your satellite and screw your jumper cable into the port. Check and see if you have picture now. If you do, then you have a bad cable. If you still have no picture, either your receiver or your LNB is bad. At this point you will have to call for a technician to come out and repair your dish or give you a new receiver.