Oh Dang! You are watching your favorite show in DirecTV and suddenly, out of nowhere, your image begins to pixelate, like this one. Your sound probably has gone away as well or has become intermittent like a bad cell phone connection. Ugh. It is so frustrating!. What can you do? Good news, there are some things you can do to immediately try to fix the problem before calling an Artistic Systems. 970-728-0400
Artistic Systems has an installation technician on call 365 days a year and we are happy to help you, just give us a call at 970-728-9266. In the mean time, if you want to try some of these things, you might get it fixed in minutes:
BAD WEATHER
A sudden onset of a signal problem when your receiver has been working just fine is most likely caused by bad weather in which trees, branches or heavy precipitation causes momentary blockage of the signal hitting your dish. It is kind of like putting a cover on your signal receptor so that nothing can get through it. Once the bad weather, wind or snow passes, your signal will probably return.
In Telluride, heavy, wet, spring snow accumulation on your dish will block your signal. To check, you just look at your satellite dish. Put on your snow boots, take the dog for a walk and go look. It is probably mounted on your roof, so you 
might have to walk all the way around your house to find it. In some instances your dish may be mounted on a pole in your yard. If it is covered with or buried in snow, grab a broom and very gently dust off the snow. Be careful not to move the dish or damage the equipment mounted on the front of the dish. In other words, don’t “whack it” just brush it. If you are in the middle of a snow storm, you might have to do this more than once until the storm passes. Eventually, the snow will fall off on its own, especially if you have a dish heater.
If your dish does not already have a dish heater installed (but it probably does), once the storm is over, 
give us a call and we will come install one. A dish heater keeps the surface of your dish just warm enough to prevent accumulation of snow or ice during the winter. However, even a dish heater cannot keep up when Mother Nature dishes out a super pow pow blizzard. On days like that, go ski.
TREE GROWTH
If you have trees growing close to your home that have “leafed out” or grown into your signal path, you might also lose signal. In that case, you either will need to move the dish, or trim trees. We can help with moving the dish.
LOOSE CABLES
If weather isn’t the obvious cause, another easy task is to check the cables on the back of the unit. Are they securely attached? A partially attached cable can cause an intermittent signal. Just reach around to the back of the unit, and check that each cable is securely attached.
RESET YOUR RECEIVER
You can also try resetting your receiver. It isn’t that hard.
- On your DTV remote (the white one) press {MENU} then go to “Settings&Help” then “Settings” then “Reset.” Choose “Reset your Receiver” NOT one of the other options.
- On the receiver unit, find the red reset button and push it. It’s usually behind a spring-loaded door on the front of your receiver.
- Unplug your receiver for at least 60 seconds then plug it back in.
If a quick reset doesn’t work, try a longer reset and unplug the receiver for at least two hours. At altitude
, we have thinner air, and the internal fans that cool equipment don’t push enough air to cool electronics and they overheat. Sometimes just letting it cool off will allow it to function properly again. However, over time, the constant heat will make some of the small electronic parts brittle and they will break . This is a known issue for computers and electronics that operate at high altitude. Artistic Systems can install a fan in your equipment rack, or simply re-arrange the equipment so that it air moves more freely around your electronics.
If you don’t have a signal and none of the other suggestions work, there may be an issue with your exterior wiring as it is not uncommon for cables to the dish that reside on the roof to be damaged during snow removal or other roof maintenance. It is also possible that there is an internal wiring issue (aka a real mouse) in your home, and if either is the case, we can stop by and find the problem.
EQUIPMENT FAILURE
Sometimes electronics just fail, whether it is from age, over heating, water damage, or one of those famous Telluride power surges and you just have to replace it. If your unit is completely dead, call 1-800-DIRECTV and request a replacement unit. This is something that needs to be done by the account holder and generally your account number is your home telephone number. DTV may even send a tech to install it. If DTV doesn’t have a tech in the neighborhood, then Artistic Systems can schedule a service call to install the unit once it arrives.
CALL FOR SERVICE:
If these things don’t work, or you simply are not in the mood to strap on your tool belt, then just call us at 970-728-9266. Technicans are on call 365 days a year to respond to your service requests. www.artisticsystems.net
In The Media Room | by Artistic Systems 