Mercury II & Transponder 12152 on G25

[Sadoun]

Some of you reported that their Mercury II receiver started acting weired (Slow channel changing, slow response to remote commands, etc ) when they changed to a certain channel on G25.

What you have described seems to have started happening last week due a signal change from the satellite.

It looks like transponder 12152 on G25 is the culprit.

Try the following steps, and see if it can help:

1- Do a factory reset on your receiver
2- Do a Blind Scan
3- Before browsing channels, delete transponder 12152

To delete Transponder:

• Go to Antenna Setup
• Select Transponder
• Click on Red Button on remote
• Delete Transponder 12152

Upgrading the Mercury II Factory Frimware:
Another solution for your receiver would be to upgrade the Firmware to the latest factory f/w. Go to the download section at www.FortecStar.com and follow the instructions for updating your firmware. Software for your receiver may be downloaded to your computer, and then transferred to your receiver using the RS-232 port. For downloading and instructions, click on the link... (Instructions for Downloading).


You will need the following software:
Uploader - v.0.98 ( March 16, 2006) Click Here to Download
The Uploader is needed for transferring the firmware from your PC to your receiver. (Female-to-female 9-pin NULL modem cable needed.)

Firmware - v.1.53 ( July 16, 2007) Click Here to Download -
Corrects problem saving changes made to a satellite's orbital position.
Downloading software to your receiver voids the manufacturer warranty.
Perform a Factory Reset (restore defaults) before and after downloading software to your receiver. This ensures that the new software performs correctly.
Note:You can do a Channel Backup from the Factory Reset menu before changing the receiver's software. This will prevent you from losing any channel data.

(Optional) Channel Editor v.1.0 ( May 16, 2006) Click Here to Download
Channel Editor is used for editing channel data.

(Female-to-female 9-pin NULL modem cable needed.)

[rainman]

You are right on with the transponder problem Saddoun check last night and it froze the Mercury up. but I did not have to do a factory reset as it finaly moved off of this transponder.I then deleted the transponder and all was normal again.

[wejones]

I'm curious what firmware versions those who are having problems with this transponder are using?
I've been having unrelated problems with my Mercury, but while experimenting, I just tuned in this transponder to see if it does anything to my Mercury, and it doesn't. My Mercury works fine with this transponder. I scanned in all the FTA channels and played them all, and had no slow-downs.
I'm using ver 1.33, which I upgraded to immediately after getting the receiver. At the time, I had a reason, some reported bug I think, but I can't remember what it was. There is a newer version now on the Fortec site, however I *THINK* that is the version that a couple people have put on their receivers, and had problems, so I haven't put that one on my receiver.
As I said, I'm having problems with my Mercury right now, but I don't think they are related to the firmware version or this transponder.
Anyway, if anyone upgrades to the new version and has problems, perhaps this ver 1.33 might be another option.

[rainman]

I'm curious what firmware versions those who are having problems with this transponder are using?
I've been having unrelated problems with my Mercury, but while experimenting, I just tuned in this transponder to see if it does anything to my Mercury, and it doesn't. My Mercury works fine with this transponder. I scanned in all the FTA channels and played them all, and had no slow-downs.
I'm using ver 1.33, which I upgraded to immediately after getting the receiver. At the time, I had a reason, some reported bug I think, but I can't remember what it was. There is a newer version now on the Fortec site, however I *THINK* that is the version that a couple people have put on their receivers, and had problems, so I haven't put that one on my receiver.
As I said, I'm having problems with my Mercury right now, but I don't think they are related to the firmware version or this transponder.
Anyway, if anyone upgrades to the new version and has problems, perhaps this ver 1.33 might be another option.

mine is running 1.00 firmware and 1.06 software Bill.

[matt_in_abq]

For what it's worth, Sadoun's solution described above has worked for me. A bit of clarification on what I went through....

After performing the blind scan, transponder 12152H was not listed on my screen. The last transponder in the list was 12122H. Since Lyngsat reports both a 12152H and a 12122H, I figured that the folks at PanAmSat had discovered that the 12152H was bad and took it offline. Turns out that that wasn't the case. The last channels scanned in were actually the ones listed for 12152H, but reported on screen to me as sitting on 12122H. I thought that this may be some sort of extreme-freak case of freq drift, but after further inspection, I noticed that several of the channels listed did not align with their designated transponders as listed on Lyngsat (hmmm).

At any rate, since I didn't delete 12152H before browsing the channels (didn't think I needed to), the same slow behavior was manifesting itself as I surfed. At that point, I went ahead and deleted both 12152H and 12122H from the list (as described above by Sadoun). I figured that that would automagically erase the saved channels that were on that transponder from my channel list, but it didn't. I then proceeded to manually delete them from the channel list, and this did indeed finally solve the problem.

Just thought I'd drop a note for anyone who may encounter the same behavior.

[pictureon]

Update the software to version 1.54 July 2007 release and you should be OK. If the problem is with a transponder, then why is it only showing with MercuryII?

[rainman]

Update the software to version 1.54 July 2007 release and you should be OK. If the problem is with a transponder, then why is it only showing with MercuryII?

good question. just haven't heard the answer yet.

[Sadoun]

I heard a few other brands had the issue as well, but not confirmed.

Fortec confirmed the firmware update takes care of this.

[wejones]

Update the software to version 1.54 July 2007 release and you should be OK. If the problem is with a transponder, then why is it only showing with MercuryII?

I've had version 1.53 downloaded to my computer for quite a while now, but I haven't put it in the receiver, because I *THOUGHT* that this was the version that Bill190 said had a bunch of BUGS, so I've been sticking with my version 1.33. However I just did a search of the forum, and found the thread where Bill190 discussed the problems, ie
http://www.sadoun.net/forums/fortec-...hlight=mercury
and it turns out that it wasn't this version, but instead it was version 1.51 that had the problems. Since Bill190 had been corresponding with Fortec, I thought that he would report back if they corrected the problems, but he must not be reading the forum anymore.
However I see that you're not referring to version 1.53, but instead you mention version 1.54 ???????

So I just went to the Fortec site to see if perhaps there was another version that was released after the 1.53 version, also in July. However the Fortec site still only has the 1.53 version there, unless I'm going to a different Fortec site. So..... did you mean 1.53, or is there a different site???

Anyway, I guess I'll give version 1.53 a try. Perhaps it will cure the other problems I've been having as well. Although if there is a 1.54 version somewhere, I'd rather try that, but I can't find it.

Thanks.

[rainman]

the 1.53 is the only one that I could find also Bill may have been a mis print.