| Comcast DVR Box dies with Power outage takes out HDMI and TV Upgraded to the DVR Anywhere box last year. First time the power went out, it killed the box and the HDMI port on my Visio tv. Comcast tech came out and replaced the box and change the hdmi imput to another port. Monday the power company shut off the power for maintenance and the same thing happened but this time it killed the box AND THE TV!.Tech replaced the box (I requested a NEW BOX, no used or refurbished since this was the third time it failed.)The tech said I might have a problem with the AC receptacle. Tv would power up but display no signal. Blueray player connected to the tv would display no signal. The tech said the bluray and tv was fried but he would not put that on his report because they might / could charge me a service call? Really? Their box died and killed my tuner? And he won't include that in his ticket. I bought a AC wiring tester and the receptacle wiring was fine. Brought the tv up from down stairs and the Bluray was fine. I'm pissed! Their box failed due to a power outage and took out my TV. All components were plugged into a Belkin Surge Protector that even has lights indicating "PROTECTED" "GROUNDED"! Here is the kicker: I had my cell phone charger, a Dewalt battery charger, a network switch for the Bluray, and a rechargeable battery charger plugged into the surge protector also and the only equipment that died was the Comcast box and my TV. That was the only equipment connected to the cable. This cable feed is the shortest cable coming off the splitter. It did not kill the cable box down stairs, the tv downstairs, the modem down stairs, the phone system hooked to the modem, the modem down stairs, or the dta box and tv in the back bedroom. The cable feed coming into the house does not have a ground rod or ground connection and no termination box, just a barrel connector. The drop is only 80 feet from the pedestal.
How should I handle this with Comcast? I feel they should replace my 46" Visio TV. |
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| Its a power surge that caused this (a surge from when the power comes back on it is coming back on over voltage for a moment.) Comcast is NOT responsible for acts of nature or the power Co. This happens a lot and everyone want's everything in the house replaced. Once you mention what you want you are handed off to an insurance Co that deals with this everyday. Good Luck |
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| reply to DriverZeke
Seems pretty clear that everytime the power goes out, there's a surge through the cable box. That's not comcast's fault. |
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 gar187erI do this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Dover, DE
kudos:4 | reply to DriverZeke
good luck with that.
whos to say your tv didnt damage the box?
its not as if the comcast tech broke your tv.
while you might have something to go on with the ground block not being there, but is the splitter grounded in your house? also note cable is normally not grounded direct to a rod, its bonded to the house electric.
you can call in and complain (in a civil manner), or post in comcast direct.
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I'm better than you! |
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| No, there is no grounding on splitters either. All my plumbing is plastic too. Plus I have a well. Just seems strange the only devices that died were on that piece of cable which would be the shortest path to ground. To ground the splitter I would have run a wire to the ground side of an electrical outlet. |
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| reply to DriverZeke
This is really weird as your exact same issue happened to me. I have a 46 inch vizio and the power surged and it took out the box and TV via HDMI. The box was an RNG 110. The TV was still under warranty so Vizio sent someone out to fix it at no cost but they said if I didn't have the warranty it would have been $400! What crap! Comcast should have to ground their wires! Nothing else on the same surge died so I know it came through the cable and into the TV via HDMI. What was odd is that the box still worked! The little RNG 110 was still kicking! HDMI was fried on it though, but it would work if I connected it to the TV via composite cables. So we know the surge came from the cable wire and into the HDMI and fried my TV. Comcast doesn't even bury wires by my house as all of our wires are laying on top of the grass outside. 
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"The relationship between what we see and what we know is never settled..." |
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| reply to DriverZeke
Just because a surge came through the hdmi out on your cable box doesn't make it comcast's fault. |
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| said by mariod:Just because a surge came through the hdmi out on your cable box doesn't make it Comcast's fault.
It does when their cables are flapping in the wind outside above ground with no grounding. I don't want anything from them as my TV is fixed but I want them to admit they were wrong. It's like trying to get a dry cleaner to admit anything, IMPOSSIBLE! LOL
5TH
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"The relationship between what we see and what we know is never settled..." |
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| No, it doesn't.
For instance, perhaps the surge came through the power cord to your STB, then went out the HDMI.
Perhaps a nail in the wall nicked both the power and coax line, exposing them, and a power surge jumped from the electric line to the coax, then went through the hdmi to the tv.
Just two simple examples as to why it's not necessarily comcast's fault that a power surge came out the hdmi port of their STB. |
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gar187erI do this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Dover, DE
kudos:4 | reply to FifthE1ement
also he wasnt responding to you. no reason to thread jack.
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I'm better than you! |
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| reply to mariod
Another possibility, particularly in older homes or non-expert renovations, can be reversal of the neutral and hot wires in the electric outlet or perhaps ungrounded two-prong or even three-prong outlets. There are plug in devices that tell you if the outlet is wired correctly. You shouldn't be able to plug in a modern appliance cord into the old fashioned two prong outlets unless an "adapter" is used but I've known folks to file down the wider plug prong on a cable's plug or even cut the ground prong off the three prong plug so it will plug in. Ouch!
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There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
Sherlock Holmes in
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
A. C. Doyle
Strand Magazine, October 1891 |
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| reply to mariod
said by mariod:No, it doesn't.
For instance, perhaps the surge came through the power cord to your STB, then went out the HDMI.
Perhaps a nail in the wall nicked both the power and coax line, exposing them, and a power surge jumped from the electric line to the coax, then went through the hdmi to the tv.
Just two simple examples as to why it's not necessarily comcast's fault that a power surge came out the hdmi port of their STB.
Nothing else on that line was hit and my TV and cable box were the last two on the power strip. If anything came through the power cable it would have hit the first objects on the line, none of which had an issue. And when you hear and SEE a crack of lightning outside your window (which rattles the windows and house) and happens to be exactly where the unprotected cables are, and then the cable box goes out along with the tv and nothing else, let me see?????? You guys are nuts if you think it wasn't the cable wire that started this. Like I said I don't really care I simply want others to protect themselves (i went outside and grounded my wire). And Comcast will blame the power co and the power co will blame Comcast. And you'll blame both, lol. And he didn't specify who he was talking too either way. We can settle this, mario, who were you blasting me or zeke?!  LMAO!
5TH
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"The relationship between what we see and what we know is never settled..." |
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 owlynPremium,MVM
join:2004-06-05
Newtown, PA
 ·Comcast
| said by FifthE1ement:said by mariod:No, it doesn't.
For instance, perhaps the surge came through the power cord to your STB, then went out the HDMI.
Perhaps a nail in the wall nicked both the power and coax line, exposing them, and a power surge jumped from the electric line to the coax, then went through the hdmi to the tv.
Just two simple examples as to why it's not necessarily comcast's fault that a power surge came out the hdmi port of their STB.
Nothing else on that line was hit and my TV and cable box were the last two on the power strip. If anything came through the power cable it would have hit the first objects on the line, none of which had an issue. And when you hear and SEE a crack of lightning outside your window (which rattles the windows and house) and happens to be exactly where the unprotected cables are, and then the cable box goes out along with the tv and nothing else, let me see?????? You guys are nuts if you think it wasn't the cable wire that started this. Like I said I don't really care I simply want others to protect themselves (i went outside and grounded my wire). And Comcast will blame the power co and the power co will blame Comcast. And you'll blame both, lol. And he didn't specify who he was talking too either way. We can settle this, mario, who were you blasting me or zeke?! LMAO! 5TH Electricity takes the path of least resistance, not the order in which it finds things in a power strip. |
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| reply to FifthE1ement
said by FifthE1ement:[And he didn't specify who he was talking too either way. We can settle this, mario, who were you blasting me or zeke?! Not sure how this could be unclear:
reply to DriverZeke
But you're still wrong, too, as owlyn pointed out. And you haven't disproved the idea of jumping lines within the wall. |
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| reply to DriverZeke
Kinda' off topic, but lightening strikes do strange things. Back when I was on dialup and using my computer on a cloudless day I heard a very loud thunder strike. The CRT monitor went dizzy but came back OK. The computer seemed unaffected. The Internet connection was lost so decided to power cycle the router. It was boiling hot! So much for that. I checked other electrical things around the house but found the only other thing damaged was the sprinkler system clock/controller in the basement. There was a hole blown through its case next to the transformer. Cable TV was also out. Called Adelpia and a tech showed by in about five minutes. He must have been in the neighborhood. He went out and checked the pedestal and came back and showed me a small circuit board that was turned to charcoal which he replaced. The cable boxes were OK. None of these devices were on a common house circuit and were many feet away from each other. The house was fairly new and outlets were of the three conductor type and up to modern electrical spec.
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There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
Sherlock Holmes in
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
A. C. Doyle
Strand Magazine, October 1891 |
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| Just some more info.
1. The cable box was a DVR Anywhere box
2. This was the second box of this type to die in less than a year when the power went out.
3. First box died and took out one HDMI port, tv still worked on another port.
4. Second box died when the Power Company turned off the power. No car cash, storm, tree limb, ect. Should have been the least amount of electrical surge since it was intentionally shut off and turned on by the power company.
5. It killed the hdmi output on the second box and all inputs on the tv including the composite video. Like the other gentleman stated the stb still booted up and my wife was able to watch programs recorded on the dvr on another tv downstairs (DVR Anywhere).
6. The outlet was tested with a plugin tester and shows the correct wiring and grounding.
7.Both the tv and stb were connected to a Belkin surge protector that has a "Protected" and "Grounded" lights with both lights on. Tech had suggested the outlet might be wired wrong.
8. All the coax inside is brand new RG6 quad shield from a Comcast contractor installed by me.
9. I was an Aircraft Electrical Systems Specialist in the Air Guard and worked at Fairchild as an aircraft electrician.
10. There is no ground on the cable outside or inside. Splitters wear installed by Comcast tech.
11. Not having a ground or bonding to ground on a CATV cable is a violation of the current electrical code.
12. Nothing else that was connected to the surge protector blew, including a network switch and a laptop connected to the switch.
13. At this point I would just like to know how to prevent this from happening in the future. I not happy hearing allot of people are having the same issue. Read this post on a blog: »ibankcoin.com/woodshedderblog/20···#respond There are no surge protectors for HDMI! |
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| reply to mariod
My coax comes up through the floor. Not anywhere near an electrical line. |
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| reply to DriverZeke
10. There is no ground on the cable outside or inside.
This is what needs to be corrected. It needs to be grounded. would this prevented the issue happening. Maybe.
Ive seen bad house grounds cause issues and the house using a properly grounded cable as the ground.Bad cable ground can cause tiling as one of its symptoms. So if everything is grounded properly most issues can be prevented. |
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gar187erI do this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Dover, DE
kudos:4 | reply to DriverZeke
there is no sure fire way to STOP surges/lightning.
surge protectors are just protectors. they protect, not prevent.
4. when power comes back on, it can kill main line cable equipment, this is the reason i dont leave the scene of a power outage, cause i dont want to have to drive back to fix something. it is NOT a gentle turn on.
6. this just proves that the outlet is not wired wrong, has nothing to do with surges
7. again, they protect, not prevent.
9. ok?
10. again this would be your only standing point. but again, a small one. there is no way to prove this did or not directly affect the damage. honestly, i would say it has nothing to do with it. a surge on the power lines, is a surge of voltage, so your 120 spikes up higher. its not like a lightning bolt came down and burned a hole through your house where the coax enters.
11. yes. but how did that ground come unattached?
13. you cant prevent. if you find a way, the rest of the modern world would love to know.
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I'm better than you! |
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rody_44Premium
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA Reviews:
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to DriverZeke
Preventive maintenance and your power company turned it back on without telling you to turn your breakers off. What nilly willy electric company would even consider that. If its a outage or a problem its acceptable but around here its not acceptable for preventive maintenance. Your electric company should be held accountable for the actions not comcast. If its maintanance you should get a letter saying the elctric is going off at such and such time and to please turn breakers off untill such and such time. More likely scenario is your electric company is having issues in the area that includes a bad neutral somewhere in the line on there end. Your electric should never go off for preventive maintenance unless you are notified. |
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