Daily Home Renovation Tips

Continuing with my efforts to setup a replacement High Definition satellite receiver, I returned home (A) having received the credit for being incorrectly being overcharged on my initial purchase and (B) with the replacement for the new HD receiver.

So, I now install this second model 6131 Bell satellite receiver and call Bell customer support for what I thought would be the same step by step conversation I had the prior day when I tried to install the first unit. Below is a picture of the unit’s back so you can see the various input jacks.

Now, after reading out for the Bell customer support person the same types of registration numbers from the display on our TV for the HD satellite receiver, she then asked me to do something.

“Let’s now do the Switch Test, shall we?” she said.

My response was, “What is that? None of the 4 people I spoke to or text-ed with from Bell asked me to do that yesterday”. The long silence on the customer support person’s part spoke volumes.

Above is a picture of the Switch Test screen after the test. Before the test, only Port 1 for Satellite 91 was displayed while Port 2 for Satellite 82 column was empty.

After the test you can see the results. Now the HD satellite receiver had actually connected with both Satellites.

That was the reason why the installation process stalled the prior day.

Had the very first Bell customer support person instructed me to perform the test switch test, none of this wasted time and aggravation would have occurred.

And, if any of the other 3 Bell customer support people who I contacted to assist me had asked me if I performed a switch test, I would not have been forced to obtain a replacement unit.

The reason that the 26 and 32 transponders shows no signal strength as we wrote about previously; i.e. the switch test was not performed. Now they had great signal strength.

Once the switch test was done, then all of the downloads between the satellites orbiting the earth and our HD receiver want as they should have and within 15 minutes we had a beautify picture of the Super Bowl pre-game show.

So, if you ever find yourself with having to replace your satellite receiver, please be sure to have the customer support person instruct you to perform the switch test; otherwise you will waste a lot of time and have a very frustrating experience in trying to perform a home maintenance activity which should be very simple to do.

Learn from other people’s mistakes, in this case ours, so you don’t repeat it.

Until next time.