Rogers → How do I know if Scientific Atlanta box is working?

I don't have cable and have never had a digital box, so I have no idea how these things work. Someone I know has a small scientific atlanta cable box, and one morning last week they just couldn't get any cable tv signal from it. I went over and putzed with the box and their TV and the box seemed dead. I connected the cable directly to the TV and was able to get about 30 channels, and that was good enough for a while.

There didn't seem to be any LED power lights on this box to indicate that it's alive.

Exchanged the box for another one at a Rogers outlet, and I'm helping over-the-phone to get it hooked back up. After plugging in the new box, and trying to turn it on with the remote - again not seeing any sort of power light. Do these boxes not have something (some LED) to indicate they're working?

After more than 10 minutes of this new box being connected to the cable and power, I still can't get any signals from it on the TV, from either the RCA or cable-out connections.

The box was shrink-wrapped around a piece of cardboard. How does the box know what it's ID number is or what channels it's supposed to be able to receive?

Just a shot in the dark, but it seems that the box is not authorized, or that the "config file" is fubar.

Yea - that doesn't help me. There's no floppy disk or USB port on these boxes for me to feed it a "config file".

Again I ask - is there no power LED on these things?

And what is done at the Rogers store (in the back room, behind the scene, etc) to prepare the replacement box before it's handed to me? Or is no such preparation needed?

How common is it that these replacement boxes (or their power brick?) are DOA when handed out? Do they have any ability (or will) to test them in-store - even if I insist they check it?

Which model number?

Even if the box is not authorized, you should still get a message on the screen telling you such.

> Which model number?

It has this on the back: DTVE940 Explorer e940 (manufactured 07/06/2007) and under the second line of bar-codes is SABPMPRPP.

This appears to be a PDF showing the box: »www.sciatl.com/ExplorerC ··· 4833.pdf

If you hold the box up against a strong light, you can see a small green LED behind the dark plastic front bezel. So far we have not seen this LED turn on. The above PDF document also indicates the location of this power LED.

The original unit had a power supply (brick) that was not part of the AC prong/plug. This replacement box came with a "wall wart" power supply that is part of the AC plug. With both of them, a cord supplying 8.2 volts with a barrel connector is what gets plugged into the power port on the cable box.

I used to have a E940 and I'm pretty sure the green LED turned on when the box was on.

I'm assuming you didn't get a replacement remote with the new box - with this model, the only way to turn it on is to use the Rogers remote. I would check the batteries in the remote, then otherwise try to confirm the remote actually works before exchanging the box a second time. Otherwise, sounds like you've got a DOA box... given this is the second in a row, might also want to try a couple other things like making sure the power outlet it's plugged in to actually works.

I would suggest the OP take the box back to the Rogers store so they can verify it works.

I now have the box, remote and power supply in hand, and the power supply seems to be dead according to my volt meter. Those 3 items were shrink-wrapped to a piece of card board and handed out as a replacement for a non-functioning box being returned. I anticipate returning to the Rogers store where I got this replacement and resolving this situation. I'll probably bring my volt meter.

Does the power outlet work?

No I would suggest he call Rogers and make tem roll a truck.

That would be fine unless it is a problem other than Rogers', then they might get charged.

Excuse me? I'm paying for a service that doesn't work.
Come fix it.
This is not TPIA, though you keep spreading that FUD.

FYI Rogers does charge if the cause of the service failure is due to something that the customer has done or is caused by equipment owned by the customer.

My take is that it's far easier for me to go to a Rogers Store and ask them to check out the box (which they can) than to call support, book a truck for a couple days hence, ensure I'm at home (like take time off work if I am working), be astute for the door because I don't want to risk a "not home" because the guy just drove by and didn't see my car (it's in the garage), so couldn't be bothered to ring the doorbell.

Lots of faulty power supplies out there with this model. 1 in 4 based on my recent installs of them.

Charging a customer is at the discretion of the service technician. A faulty box, will not incur a charge. If we have to pull out crappy self installed splitters, crappy cable. If it's something very blatantly obvious that you did or did wrong, if you moved the box to another room which didn't have cable, if your just trying to get around the installation fee, that's how you get charged. And even then, we don't always charge for it. However, it's the technicians decision. So I recommend being nice to the tech. A-holes have a high chance of getting billed.