This post won’t be for everyone – but for at least a couple people it might save some frustration, and possibly some money.

I got home yesterday and my TV was giving me the DirecTV 775 error message.  I checked all of my connections and everything was solid (including making sure the dish was still attached).  I then reset the receiver with no change.

I have a SWiF connected – this is a power injector for the disk.  Normally the green light is solid.  Mine had a quick blink followed by a second or so of off, then repeat.  When I disconnected the disk and receiver cables – the light turned solid green.  This turns out to be the key.

The problem was that the LNB on the dish – the thing on the end of the arm that the cable plugs into- somehow went bad.  This causes the SWiF to blink.  When the LNB was disconnected, the SWiF was solid again.

After replacing the LNB, and reconnecting all of the cables, the SWiF light was solid and the receiver started downloading information.  Signal was restored.

This won’t solve it for everyone – but hopefully it will save you some time.

I am going to take this time to bitch now – DirecTV was always really good with customer support. I was afraid that with the AT&T buyout things would change.  I think they have.  I pay a large chunk of my bill as an equipment charge – this is for equipment I do not own.  I have for longer than the 2 year contract now.  I, wrongly as it turns out, assumed that if THEIR equipment broke that THEY would replace/fix it.  Not so much.   It was going to cost me $50 PLUS PARTS to get a technician out there.  Or I could sign up for the $8 a month Protection Plan with a one year commitment.  Why am I paying that exorbitant rental fee again? If I had known it was the LNB, I would have ordered one and installed it myself – it isn’t that hard.

On the very positive side, the technicians came out in less than 24 hours, called in advance, were very efficient, professional, and quick.  I just wish I didn’t have to pay extra to get customer service.