mercury II no blind scan....

[KOSMO]

The day I got my fortec working one of the posters here just HAD to rain on my parade and tell me Mercury 2 has Firmware problems. Now the day has come and I realize they weren't kidding.

I too am having problems with Mercury II -TP scan. I have had to reload factory defaults twice now. I think one thing that just MAY be causing some problems. Sometimes if I see a few new TP (+)..I just gotta see them..can't wait. So I hit the menu button and then save. I sometimes terminate the scan in this way before it gets thru all the frequencies and polarizations.

Here's what mine does sometimes..IT SHOWS WIERD STUFF on the yellow screen for Satellite name freq symbol rate etc and HANGS. I can get out of this mode..but from THAT POINT ON it won't ever scan right again. It scans normally but then FAILS as mentioned above. I think FORTEC knows they have firmware problems. I wrote them a message in the last few days describing the problems I have been having. I don't think the new unit is any different F/W wise.

The one thing I really loathe is when FORTEC tells me THAT's how it is "supposed" to work! For instance, if I do a scan of a particular satelite like STS6 after it finds new TP's it then changes my sat selection to ALL Sats!
Yes I know I can reselect the satellite that it should be on. But what a pain! If I forget to change it back from default...then if I channel up the motor starts runnning and i'm off to some other satellite. Then I have to command the thing BACK to where it should be. Fortec says other mfrs. machines work this way. Most of Fortecs F/W problems are similar. Like it resets the scan settings to default freq limits polarization etc after you set them up a particular way. It can't seem to remember anything.

So I wonder:
What if your microwave oven reset the clock to 12:00 midnite every time you cooked food -by design. And Amana argues like Don at Fortec saying "that's how GE ovens work also" Thats similar to the statement Don McEwen of Fortec made in an e-mail to me today. He also said that I should not need to be using TP search feature much. Kinda suggests to me they know they have a problem in that area. But, It's the ONLY way to find the wild feeds! I told him in my reply that actually I spend quite a bit of time searching while I cook supper, milk the cows whatever. As I said, I think they know they have F/W problems. They have to by now.

Does anyone know, does Fortec write their own F/W? Or do they pay other people to write for them? Maybe that would explain Don's response.

Sure would be nice if it not only remembered the freq limits polarization speed etc that I use when searching for TP's but SAVED them for EACH and EVERY satellite I have stored. The unit does not save anything but again decides that "Fortec knows best" and changes all settings to default. Fortec sure love's defaults.

[Jim-S]

The one thing I really loathe is when FORTEC tells me THAT's how it is "supposed" to work! For instance, if I do a scan of a particular satelite like STS6 after it finds new TP's it then changes my sat selection to ALL Sats!
Yes I know I can reselect the satellite that it should be on. But what a pain! If I forget to change it back from default...then if I channel up the motor starts runnning and i'm off to some other satellite. Then I have to command the thing BACK to where it should be. Fortec says other mfrs. machines work this way. Most of Fortecs F/W problems are similar. Like it resets the scan settings to default freq limits polarization etc after you set them up a particular way. It can't seem to remember anything.

I don't know about other receivers and how they work but I have learned to live with this feature. I'ts not that bad, ya it would be nice when finished scanning to go back to the sat. that was just scanned only.
Jim

[Jim-S]

Well now it's my turn in the barrel, my Mercury II won't Blind Scan. I tried two satellites nada. The blind scan screen comes up and the % red line moves but no TP's except one will come on the screen and disappear.
The Auto Scan works. I do get all of the satellites for viewing, just no Blind Scan.
From this post and another one on this forum all that can be done is a factory reset and Scan all satellites again.
Unless someone has a better idea, I'll wait for some other suggestions.
Jim

[Jim-S]

I did the Factory Reset and have begun to Power Scan the satellites back in.
Is there a way to delete unwanted or unused TP's. This may be the cause of the Power Scan not working, over load. If there is a way it would probably be as time consuming as Factory reset and re-scan.
Jim

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

I'm pretty sure that if you do a factory reset, it's going to wipe out all of the new TP information you had in there (as a result of all the scans you did before). Here's why: after a factory reset, when you do a blind scan, most of the TPs have a plus mark after them, indicating that they are new to the receiver. When you scan the next time, the plus signs are mostly gone, because it stored all of them the last time.

This is all to say that with a factory reset you shouldn't need to manually erase any TPs.

CN

[Jim-S]

I'm pretty sure that if you do a factory reset, it's going to wipe out all of the new TP information you had in there (as a result of all the scans you did before). Here's why: after a factory reset, when you do a blind scan, most of the TPs have a plus mark after them, indicating that they are new to the receiver. When you scan the next time, the plus signs are mostly gone, because it stored all of them the last time.

This is all to say that with a factory reset you shouldn't need to manually erase any TPs.

CN

I have been scanning them in after the reset and most TP's show as new.
Here's an interesting thing......I had changed my LNB from universal to the LPN-031. Most of the TP's that were in the receiver were scanned in with the universal. Example: AMC 4 has BVN channel 11655 V I was able to watch it with the LPN-031 (11700-12200) now I can't scan it with this LNB because it is below start frequency. I don't know if it can be forced in or not. I may have to swap out the LNB, scan it with the universal and change it back to LPN-031. I wonder if I could have the two LNB's on this dish. That's for another day.

[Jim-S]

I have another situation, I never had to do this since I bought this Mercury II in July of 2007. As you can see from the messages above in this thread I did a factory reset, now when I do a Channel Edit I have to enter a Lock code in order to do anything in the menu. This has never happened before. I have the Lock code but I don't want to do this every time I want to edit. I don't know how to get rid of this? I don't see anything in the LOCK menu on page 17 in the manual to change this.
Any thoughts on this.
Jim

[blindowl1234]

I have a Fortec Dynamic with similar issues perhaps to those everyone else is having. Even deleting and restoring doesn't work. No blind scan. Receiver locks up etc...Finally got it half working. Blind scan is back. The channels don't scroll in numerical sequence #1- thru whatever. I have 10 channels showing up as #1 !!!! I'm currently dealing with a nice gentleman from Fortec who is researching the issues. Having bought this in late January I'll never buy another one. I've only used it a handful of times and it's been problem after problem. I hope somehow I end up with a different receiver from Fortec or Sadoun. $500 in various FTA stuff since last November and I have
No FTA for about 10 days now. Blind Owl

[Jim-S]

I feel for you.............mine is working really good now, my last problem was resolved with a new switch. I went from a 22khz to a DiSEqC, the dish was not moving or it was moving and I wouldn't get a signal unless I went to motorized setup and moved dish to position. Just flakey problems I'm glad it was only a switch.
I had thought the Dynamic was the same as the Mercury II but I guess not. Good luck...............
Jim

[Powrline]

I have a Fortec Dynamic with similar issues perhaps to those everyone else is having. Even deleting and restoring doesn't work.

I hate to ask this but did you reset the receiver and manually re-add all of the satellites (as if you turned it on the first time)?

That is the only thing that fixed my Mercury II (2 times).

I hope that you can get it figured out.

Resetting and manually adding all of the satellites is a time consuming process, but when you are through, you seem to know more about receiving FTA then you did when you started.

Oh yeah, Write down all of your satellites and positions, (ie 93 degrees).

That way you won't be looking at the loooong list of defaults that Fortec put on the receiver and wondering "Did I have that one?".....

Also names change and I have mine listed with additions like ABC feeds etc.

Hope all goes well and you get it up and going!!!

Bill