Hey, remember buttons?
I remember when everything in your home theater setup had a bunch of real honest buttons. They also had a lot of good connectors in the back. I mean, it’s not like you were going to push all those buttons, but wow the button people were really riding high back then.
Yeah, I said it, button people. You know, there are companies that do nothing but make electronic switches, knobs, and buttons. I don’t know who they are but you have to figure that the last couple of years have been pretty bad for them.
You know who else has probably been suffering? The people who make indicator lights. VCRs used to have front panels that looked like this:
You could get the time, the status of the tape, what was going on, the speed, what channel you were recording on, it was a veritable bonanza of information.
Now, you get this:
And that’s if you’re lucky. Of course this is because we can get a lot of information on our phones, but still, it seems like a simple display like this might not be able to tell us everything at a glance. These are multicolor LEDs so at least you get something… but what? Luckily The Solid Signal Blog is here to help you figure out what you’re seeing here. Let’s take a look at the two — count ’em — two LEDs on the front of a Genie 2 and what they mean.
Status LED
The top light is the “Status” LED and most of the time it’s going to be solid green. But, it can tell you a lot more. Here’s a quick list of what the different colors mean. This is the most up to date list and supersedes older lists.
Solid Colors
The light may flash, but if it’s not, this is what it means.
BLACK (or off) This means there is no power to the Genie 2.
WHITE This means that there’s new software available. Pressing and holding the Add Client button will force the software. Basically, don’t do this. You’re better off letting it update on its own schedule. If you see solid white, it should turn to flashing green in about a minute or less.
BLUE This is something you should never see unless you are installing for the first time. It means the system has no clients assigned to it and it’s ready.
YELLOW Something has gone wrong. Usually this means the Genie 2 is disconnected from the dish. Check all the cable paths.
GREEN This is the normal state of the Genie 2 when it’s running.
RED Something is very bad inside your Genie 2. Reboot it and if it doesn’t fix itself in half an hour, replace it.
Flashing Colors
If the light is flashing, this is what you should expect.
WHITE New software is downloading right now. Leave it alone and come back in half an hour and everything will be fine.
YELLOW Something bad happened during a software download. This is rare and if you see this, try rebooting and tracing the cables to make sure they’re all connected.
GREEN Your Genie 2 is booting up. This is normal after a power failure or software update.
RED Your Genie 2 is trying to repair itself. Leave it alone and come back in half an hour. If things aren’t fine, you’ll probably want to call for a replacement.
Wireless LED
The Wireless LED only tells you the state of the built-in wireless video bridge. If you don’t use wireless clients, you don’t really care what it says. But in case you’re curious, here’s the list.
BLACK (or off) The built-in bridge isn’t functioning. This could be normal if you have no wireless clients.
GREEN Everything is fine. This is the normal state.
FLASHING YELLOW Something’s wrong with the wireless video bridge. Don’t hide the Genie 2 behind something or in a cabinet.
Need help?
Call Solid Signal at 888-233-7563 and our experts will help you diagnose all sorts of problems. They’ll also be able to get you the hardware you need to make things right!
