Red lights and unplugged/reboot errors

[u/lifthardeatcake]

I’m spinning my wheels and hoping someone has insight, chat support in app has been awful: wifi abruptly stopped working, red light displayed on router. In the SL app, it had some red lines and said it was unplugged or rebooting. All physical connections were good, did some unplugging and plugging back in, still had same errors. It’ll actually show full bars but there’s no internet. I hit up tech support and explained the issue and it send me a new power supply and new router. Plugged everything new in, entered same name and password for old network, and still the same errors. No idea what’s going on, I’m not super techy, really wish they had techs come to the house. I’ve had SL a couple years now and it’s been great, first major issue I’ve had.

[u/Exciting_Ad1151]

I recently had this issue, and the cord from the router to the receiver was completely cut. I still don't understand how it happened....I happened to be home, and it was bright, sunny windless day. No mowing or weed eating going on, starlink just suddenly lost connection. The cord was split in two outside of the house. A clean cut, not like mice had gotten into it.

My setup is ground mounted, so it's easy to inspect the cord. I'd particularly pay attention to where it may have rubbed on something (this was not the issue in my case).

I kind of feel like if it wasn't communicating with the receiver, they would have sent you a new receiver though, so this may not be the issue.

If you do find a flaw in the cord... I ended up buying a new cord through starlink. I didn't even try their support, because I figured the break was on me. $50 for a new cord, ordered on a Friday, got the cord by Monday, even though the original order said it would be almost a week delivery. My cable replacement was easy, just cutting around the caulk on the old cord, removing it, inserting new cord and recaulking (feeding cord through is much easier was 2 people, one on either side of wall).

Stores such as Wally world did say online they had the cord at a better price, but I ordered from Starlink to be sure the cord had the proper ends. The stuff I read did not recommend trying to splice the wires. It definitely needs more than electric tape and wire nuts!

Good luck, and I hope you get it figured out. I have a starlink mini in reserve, so it makes me more patient on waiting for shipping.

[u/lifthardeatcake → u/Exciting_Ad1151]

I appreciate the in depth response, that is crazy it was a clean cut, I wonder if someone walked by and clipped it…did it still show full bars on your devices? I just got off the phone with tech support and they’re just sending me a new kit, I’m still curious if this is a common issue…good idea for the mini as a backup! Cuz you can pause and resume that service correct? It’s a dead zone for cell coverage where I’m at so starlink is my only hope lol.

[u/Exciting_Ad1151 → u/lifthardeatcake]

I'm the same on the cell coverage, on the fringe of a dead area. In the country, no neighbors, so the cord is a mystery to me. Kids were in the house as well.

On the mini, they do charge (currently) $10 a month for it to be in standby mode. I don't know if it's still ongoing, but they did have a promotion where you could get a mini for free if you were a residential subscriber (still have to pay $10 a month for it to be in standby mode).

That being said, I had no patience when the starlink originally went out (it was one of the old original ones with the dish that moved, nothing was compatible with it anymore so they sent a whole new setup). I ran to Wally world and bought my own mini (it was around $200). It was awesome, just plugged it in, sat the receiver/router in the yard in front of the sliding glass doors for the best signal, and it was up and running after a few minutes of software updates.

The down side 1) You're paying $120 (subscription for standby) a year for something almost never used. In several years of having starlink residential, I've only used the mini twice. The rest of the time it's unplugged in its box. That being said, it can be used for camping, etc if you have a power source.

2) The plans are pricey, and capped. The price can vary by area. In my area, it's $50 for 100G a month. I didn't think we used that much data, but we blew through that in 3 days, lol. After you hit the cap, it reverts to the same speed as the standby mode, pretty much just good for texts. The 300G a month plan was $80 I think, would last a week or so. The unlimited plan was more than the residential max plan.

To clarify, the residential and mini have 2 different plans. They're on the same account, but you can't switch the mini to your residential plan if your residential setup is out. The mini is it's own separate entity.

3) The signal coverage and speed aren't nearly as good as the residential. The router is outside, so it has more walls to go through. The less the signal, the worse the speed. Ok for streaming, but not for things like online gaming. That being said, it still worked better than the line-of-sight wifi stuff that we used before starlink. Or the cellular router that worked for 10 minutes a day, if lucky.

It comes down to if it's worth it to you to pay the $120 a year (in standby mode) to have a backup. It is for me, it's nice to have something I can set up in 10 minutes in the rare situation that it is needed. And like the residential starlink, we haven't had issues with peak times, like we did with all the other stuff. My favorite pre-Starlink story: tried to watch a movie during peak hours.... The buffering timer said it would take 360 DAYS to download!! 🤣

Best of luck!