TWC 8300HDC constantly rebooting

[cdnelson]

My wife called me at work today to tell me one of our DVR's keeps rebooting.  I had her pull the plug, wait a while, and plug it in.  Same thing.  It boots...clicks, then starts to boot again.

We've got it unplugged for now, and I'm going to play with it when I get home. I'm hoping to get it back long enough to watch the shows we have on there so we can have a tech come and replace it.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Jack 1000]

My wife called me at work today to tell me one of our DVR's keeps rebooting.  I had her pull the plug, wait a while, and plug it in.  Same thing.  It boots...clicks, then starts to boot again.

We've got it unplugged for now, and I'm going to play with it when I get home. I'm hoping to get it back long enough to watch the shows we have on there so we can have a tech come and replace it.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Firstly, disconnect any external drives from the box if this applies to you.

I would say that it looks like either the box may be going bad or a lose/bad wiring issue.  The best thing to do is if neither you nor your family are planning to watch TV after everyone goes to bed tonight, unplug the box and let it sit unplugged until you get up in the morning.  Than plug it back in and reboot.  If that doesn't work, or the box starts to act up again after doing that, you'll have to call TWC for a box-swap unfortunately.

How old is this box?

Jack

[cdnelson]

I'm not sure how old it is, we've had it for less than a year though.  Fortunately, we've got a duplicate box hooked up.  TWC called me with a promo for a 2nd box free for three months...so we can afford to leave the other one unplugged for now.

[flash]

Mines been doing the clicking reboot thing for a few weeks now. The funny part is..... I've turned the box off (soft power down) and it still does it.
I wonder if they're doing some sorta updates.........

[cdnelson]

Tried it after being unplugged for hours, tried unplugging the HDMI (stranger things have happened), then called TWC.  They tried sending a signal through to force the boot, no dice.

So...I'm waiting for the cable guy tomorrow.  On the plus side, I get to keep my free box for a few more months for the inconvenience....has someone been giving TWC customer service lessons?

[Jack 1000]

Tried it after being unplugged for hours, tried unplugging the HDMI (stranger things have happened), then called TWC.  They tried sending a signal through to force the boot, no dice.

So...I'm waiting for the cable guy tomorrow.  On the plus side, I get to keep my free box for a few more months for the inconvenience....has someone been giving TWC customer service lessons?

Let us know if the cable guy seems semi-competent and what he does for your box/applicable issues like wiring and signal strength.  I'm glad you have a duplicate box!  Is the dup an MDN or OCAP?

Jack

[cdnelson]

Both boxes are OCAP unfortunately...

The tech didn't know anything.  My son asked what OCAP means, and what the box was doing.  When I explained the tech said, "Oh,  thanks!  I never knew that."  :bang:

[Jack 1000]

Both boxes are OCAP unfortunately...

The tech didn't know anything.  My son asked what OCAP means, and what the box was doing.  When I explained the tech said, "Oh,  thanks!  I never knew that."  :bang:

Hahahaha!  Typical TWC ineptness.  So what about your box, boxes, cable, or wiring?  Did he give you a new box?  Anything else?  How is the box working?

Jack

[cdnelson]

He didn't really bother to check much of anything, just put in a new box and activated it.  And it's working fine, if a little sluggish.  It seems like every new box we get is slow for the first week or so.

I did like that he went through and "fixed" the settings on the box for me.  I had to go back in and set the audio for HDMI, as well as take the display setting off of "stretch".

He did talk a little about the new Samsung DVR's coming...but didn't know when.

I'm getting an HD tuner for my laptop (just because I want one), but I thought it might fill the gap for local stations when I turn in the second box.  My laptop has an HDMI out, and looks great on the TV...so I thought why not?

[TiVo HD XL]

This is just an FYI. One thing I've noticed with the SA 8300HDC is that it vibrates a lot. If you set it on a shelf made of cheap wood you'll hear it. Unfortunately, the "feet" on the bottom of it are hard plastic (poor design) unlike those on the bottom of a TiVo HD. The one I have was rebooting itself pretty much every day and had episodes of freeze framing and pixelation especially on PPV HD channels. So I propped it up on top of a smallish hollow currogated card board box and now it only reboots about once per week and the frame dropping and pixelation does not occur as often and hardly ever now. So if somebody is having those types of problems you might want to try propping it up on some vibration dampening material.