[chipper]

Thought I would post this.
I am helping a friend with a brand new Ultra. I loaded the Satinfo file then the latest bin. However I had noticed a black patch on the screen whenever I press the remote to enter menu.

I used the repair file posted by Woodcreaker, then loaded the new file. However, the receiver finished the installation successfully but did not revert to 000.0. Instead it riverted to 887.7!!

I loaded Woodcreaker's repair file again and it came back nicely to 000.0. I then tried loading the Factory file found in this forum's Sticky section..same problem INst then 887.7.

Tried different little processes but the same result.
Please can anyone advise on how to correct this.

Please note also that the black patch continues to appear whenever I try to go to the menu. If I switch off from the back it goes away but the moment I try to change from that screen the black patch appears.

[Priestmill]

This is a new Ultra you should do nothing with it as you did.

All you have to do is set it up and scan your sats.

[chipper]

Yes but I did what I did because it wasn't working like it should. I only loaded the Satinfo file as added insurance for getting Amazonas in the list. As far as I know this is neither here nor there, since I just read from Woodcreaker's post that for the Ultra no sat file is required.

Thanks for replying but I am nowhere closer to a solution.

What about the black patch on the screen? And why is it not re-booting completely?

[boboisno1]

Odd are you loading the factory file with the serial cable and loader program and hooking it up directly to your computer?

[chipper]

Yes I have been doing this for years and this is not the first Ultra I have setup.
I am wondering if I could clone it? Another option is to clean off all the old software and reload all the files from scratch. However, as I said before, I need some advice on which files can be used and probably how to proceed.

Anyway, thanks for your reply.

[Priestmill]

Do a factory default. Then load factory file V132 rather than V146.

See if this helps.

[woodcreeker]

Sorry I wasn't here to see this problem. Generally when Viewsats encounter problems it is due to the fact the databases can get corrupted by some improper software flash. The latest factory file needs to be installed for the latest bin files due to the fact the newer bin files were coded for a different and newer bootloader version built into the code of the bin. It is best to load all the latest factory files, which are the latest factory file, the chaninfo.cha file and the satinfo.sat file. I never seen the black screen problem you are describing, and you may have possibly a much older Ultra receiver that had a very old factory file installed on it when you started out. I know that does happen from time to time. I have also narrowed down problems of these sorts down to a bad EEPROM, but generally, these are software related problems. When I usually see zeros in the display, all you need to do is turn on the receiver with the remote. That is the only black screen problem I know about. The 8877 or all 8's in the display are some type of error code messages, and I never really dealt with what they actually meant. I just started reloading the correct files, and the units started working fine after that.

Another quirk about flashing EEPROM chips, which is what we are actually doing here when we write bin files, is sometimes a chip needs to be flashed 3 times. I have seen this happen on a few Viewsat receivers from time to time, and have helped out Moderators on other sites with problems like this in the past. One problem in particular I can remember I had a unit one time that would freeze every 5 minutes. So, I rewrote the bin file a second time. The freezing occurred about every 45 minutes after the second write. Once we wrote the bin file the 3rd time, the freezing went away completely. So, there is a post floating around the web from this practice, written by one of our Moderators here a long time ago. I am not sure if that is posted here, as this is like 3 years old or thereabouts.

Anyway, I still subscribe to the theory of writing Viewsat files 3 times whenever I encounter a problem. At least, this will narrow down the problem if it is software related, or possibly having a bad memory area on the EEPROM.

So, if you keep having problems, let me know what is up, and I can give you links to the right factory files. I would write the latest factory file 3 times, which is V0146 I believe, with a factory default in between each bin file flash and other file flashes. Then write the U00D satinfo.sat file, and then write the chaninfo.cha in that order. You can find the chaninfo.cha file in the original Ultra factory files. Last, write the latest bin file. I am sure once the latest factory file is written 3 times, the other software can be written one time each. Whatever problem you were having should go away.

Hope This Helps !!