Troubleshooting causes worse problem

So, I was experiencing pixellation and weird reception/audio screeching on several channels.  I called Directv support who suggested that I power off the receiver box, unscrew the coax cable, touch the inner core wire several times to "remove the static", screw it back in and power it back on.  I did all that this morning....now the TV just shows the Directv banner page and "searching for signal"...no error messages.  I called them back, we went through some other setps, ran the diagnostics, everything looked ok, no errors....they have to send a service guy out.  Very frustrating....any ideas?

Fairly simple setup, only one receiver, no DVR, just HD, LNB5.

Thanks