Super Slow Mercury II

[Litgen1011]

I've had my Mercury II for about five months now. I never had a single problem until now. Out of the blue I pushed the menu button and nothing happened. Then the menu began to form on the screen but very slowly. The receiver would not respond to any commands even when I used the buttons on the machine itself and not the remote. It almost seems like the cpu slowed way down.

Any help would be most appreciated.

[MrEd2]

Odd - I have a Mercury II, and the same thing happened tonight - maybe the recent rainstorms in Bay Area? I lost all my channels as well

[rainman]

Try deleteing some of your unused transponders and channels I don't know about the Mercury but the Ultra can do some strange things when they get overloaded.

[wejones]

Also...(you probably already tried this, but just in case)... with any receiver, the first thing to try is to unplug it for a couple minutes.

I've had older analog receivers that would get into all sorts of strange modes, but if I unplugged them for a while, everything would be OK. I also have a fairly new HDTV, that got into a strange condition, where I'd hit a button on the remote, then I'd have to wait about 45 seconds for it to register on the TV. Made it impossible to key in a channel like 13. Ie it would go to channel 2 then 3. Unplugged the thing for a minute, and it's been fine since.

Another thing, I don't know if this is likely with a receiver, but some computers will slow down if they overheat, so you might check to see if it's generating more heat than normal.

One thing that many people over on the satforums forum complain about is cheap capacitors in consumer equipment, so it's also possible that the capacitors dried out. I had this happen in my Roku HD1000,which is a great gadget that you can stream video to from a PCI FTA card, but apparently they were produced with cheap capacitors, and when they would dry out, the Roku would keep rebooting over and over, and some other strange things. I sent the thing back, and got a refurbished machine back, which has been fine. So it's possible that the Mercury may have a capacitor problem too. So if we start to see more problems of this type, it may indicate that Fortec skimped on the quality of components in the receiver.

[Larry Acklin]

Regarding the capacitors, yes! It's a real problem. The caps made overseas have a 2-5 yr lifetime. Lots of old computer motherboards and consumer electronics have some or all bad electrolytics, and that causes no end of problems. Can be in the power supply, or in the case of computers, on the motherboard. If unplugging does not "fix" a unit, then the caps are the next likely suspect. We buy them by the hundreds, and we are a relatively small operation.

Look for bulging cases, or spit/leaking cases. It is simple to replace them for a bench tech, but not so easy for the layman. Plus checking the caps requires a tester.

Sometimes they "shotgun" replace all the electrolytics because they are cheap, and it's faster than removing/testing each one.

Larry

[MrEd2]

10 minutes? I had tried about 15 seconds. I unplugged the unit for 10 minutes this AM. Came back up OK, then began to bog down. The remote control had a delay of about 10 seconds on commands. Last PM, I re-added Galaxy 25. In testing this AM, the channels fell out again.
Bought system in August. First motor drove itself all the way west & died - replaced motor (installation too much work to trust repaired unit). Now this.... and no one home at tech support

[wejones]

One other less common thing that can cause receivers to bog down, particularly with respect to taking commands. This has happened to me 2 or 3 times. Basically if some remote control in your collection goes beserk and starts sending all the time, it can make your equipment seem to go beserk too. One time, I accidently spilled a bit of soft drink on one of my remotes, then I couldn't get one of my receivers to work at all, wouldn't respond to it's remote, and I don't think it was even the remote that I spilled the drink on. Took me a while to figure out that this remote that was just sitting on a table was messing things up. Another time, I put several remotes down on a table, and placed some remotes on top of other remotes, and the weight of the additional remote made the ones underneith start to send continuously. Yet another time, I put several remotes in a drawer, and closed the drawer, which pushed some of the buttons on some of the remotes. I think one of these last two was what caused my TV to go into the 45 second response mode (and stay that way even after I stopped the remotes from sending, until I unplugged it). Generally, the only way I noticed that remotes were sending continuously is that I have one of those RS Pyramid remote extenders, and it blinks when it sees IR remote signals, and I just happen to look at it and noticed it blinking continuously.
Another thing, is that I have noticed that one of my Fortec receivers seems to be confused by either the light or electrical interference that comes from computer screens. I had to move the Fortec to an orientation where it wasn't facing a computer. Also, my RS Pryamid remote extender seems to react to computer screens. One time I found that I could get it sending by just moving my mouse over one particular window of one program I use a lot. Also, one of my receivers stopped responding to remotes in the afternoon when sunlight came in a window and hit the receiver.
Anyway, interferrence from stray light or malfunctioning remotes can be an issue, because the CPU bogs down spending all it's time processing IR signals. To find out, you might block the IR sensor on the receiver so that it can only see it's own remote. And you'd be surprised that it isn't easy to block the IR. I have some receivers that I needed to block the IR sensors while programming another similar receiver, and I found that I needed like 4 layers of dark construction paper to block the IR signals. Any less, and the IR would go through to the receiver.

[MrEd2]

The unit now powers on fine, and the setup menu runs as it should. I have no channels left to check, so I can't test until I rescan something. A remote control problem wouldn't have caused the unit to dump all stored channels (twice). The satellites are stored OK (including SatMex6 which I manually added), and the motor is moving to all set positions.

[MrEd2]

Curious. I added FTA channels for Galaxy 10 and all was well. I added SatMex6 channels, and no problem. I added FTA channels for Galaxy 25 - still good. I did a power search of Galaxy 25, and the remote stops functioning & unit pretty much toast when I exited to viewing.

[vicg1]

Electrolytic caps are no longer allowed to contain PCBs... they actually have a shelf life now!

[wejones]

Originally Posted by vicg1

Electrolytic caps are no longer allowed to contain PCBs... they actually have a shelf life now!

First time I read the above, I thought you were saying that they last longer now, which didn't make sense,because having worked with PCBs, I can say that PCBs virtually last forever. But then I read it again, and I think you're saying that their shelf life now has to be considered because it is finite (smaller).
If so, interesting, I never thought of that as a reason for why modern electrolytics don't last very long. I have an old SW radio that was bought back around 1940, and it has electrolytics in it which were still good the last time I used it, which was about 10-15 years ago, so their lifetime is at least up in the 40 year range, and probably more. I never did understand why these modern devices go bad due to dried out capacitors.
I knew that PCBs were in those big AC type capacitors, like those used in florescent ballasts, but I didn't realize that they used PCBs in little DC capacitors. I'm not sure what function they would have in a small electrolytic? Ie I think the PCBs functioned as an insulator in the AC capacitors, but I thought the little DC electrolytics were made up of layers of paper soaked with electrolyte separated by insulating layers, which I woudn't expect to be a liquid, but I guess it could be paper soaked with PCBs or something.
But why would the use of PCBs make such a capacitor last longer, when I think the shelf life of the capacitor would be dependent upon the drying out of the electrolyte, not the insulator? Seems like the low shelf life would more likely be due to just not being hermetically sealed or something, rather than what dielectric is used. Anyway, just curious.

[vicg1]

Originally Posted by wejones

First time I read the above, I thought you were saying that they last longer now, which didn't make sense,because having worked with PCBs, I can say that PCBs virtually last forever. But then I read it again, and I think you're saying that their shelf life now has to be considered because it is finite (smaller).
If so, interesting, I never thought of that as a reason for why modern electrolytics don't last very long. I have an old SW radio that was bought back around 1940, and it has electrolytics in it which were still good the last time I used it, which was about 10-15 years ago, so their lifetime is at least up in the 40 year range, and probably more. I never did understand why these modern devices go bad due to dried out capacitors.
I knew that PCBs were in those big AC type capacitors, like those used in florescent ballasts, but I didn't realize that they used PCBs in little DC capacitors. I'm not sure what function they would have in a small electrolytic? Ie I think the PCBs functioned as an insulator in the AC capacitors, but I thought the little DC electrolytics were made up of layers of paper soaked with electrolyte separated by insulating layers, which I woudn't expect to be a liquid, but I guess it could be paper soaked with PCBs or something.
But why would the use of PCBs make such a capacitor last longer, when I think the shelf life of the capacitor would be dependent upon the drying out of the electrolyte, not the insulator? Seems like the low shelf life would more likely be due to just not being hermetically sealed or something, rather than what dielectric is used. Anyway, just curious.

Sorry, don't know details, was told this by someone that sells caps wholesale... guess all of our TVs sitting around with dangerous PCBs in the caps just waiting to kill us got our government into gear with a ban on them...

[ElroyJ]

I just started using my Mercury II and I noticed something similiar. It didn't do it right away. When I would go into the EPG and select channels and then change it would change but then when exiting the EPG it would not exit and then it might show the picture in the background of the EPG and then it would show the info at the bottom and that would fade slowly. Like its going relly slowly and not responding to commands. I turned the switch off on the back and then back on and it still did it. It eventually stopped.


I assume it will happen again but I need to use it more. I was also setting a lot of Satellites up so maybe that had something to do with it.

I will check to make sure it is not to hot, but I am pretty sure it is not any other remote.

Any one else see this or does a software upgrade fix it. I think it has April 2006 software.

[gino taher]

I have Mercury II receiver for almost a year. It was working fine till two days ago. It suddenly commands process slowly, and sometimes the receiver will shut off and turn back on by itself. I did everything I knew, like unplug the unit for 5 minutes. problems resolved for 30 seconds, and it came back all the symptoms.

I used to have a receiver for 5 years, and it was very simple one, and least expensive than Mercury II. It did not have any problem but after 5 years stop working.

I am very surprised about this Mercury II, I don;t know what caused this problem, is that CPU or capacitor. My assumption would be somebody at Fortec in quality control department should address this problem.

I will no longer buy any fortec product if the quality of product is like this.

Any suggestions?

Gino

[Sadoun]

Hi Gino

It seems the above reported issue with your receiver and others started to happen at the same time. I don't think it is an issue with the receiver itself, but could be the datastream coming from the satellite causing this erratic behavior from receiver.

I will check with Fortec on this after the holiday.

[gino taher]

Hi,

Thank you for quick reply. Please let me know what Fortec has to say about this issue since there are many people reporting the same issue. It should be a fix for this.

Again, thank you for your support.
Is there anyway that I can receive an e-mail since I don't go to sodun site more frquently.

Regards,
Gino

[Sadoun]

Originally Posted by gino taher

Is there anyway that I can receive an e-mail since I don't go to sodun site more frquently.

Yes, you can subscribe to this thread and receive updates anytime someone posts a reply here.

To subscribe to this thread, just click on "Thread Tools" above, then select Subscribe to thread. It is that simple.

In the meantime, do the following steps, and see if it can help:

1- do a factory reset on your receiver
2- delete transponder 11836 (it seems that it is causing the issue, but I am not 100% sure yet)
3- and rescan the G25 satellite again.