dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
uniqs
76

Teddy Boom
k kudos Received
Premium Member
join:2007-01-29
Toronto, ON

Teddy Boom to Innov8

Premium Member

to Innov8

Re: [Cable] Teksavvy Cable Constant Modem Restart [SB6120]

said by Innov8:

tonytoronto get in touch with "Teddy Boom" here at DSLReports. Specially if you are in Toronto. Great help.

Thanks Innov8!

I can upgrade SB6121s to 1.0.6.1. That did seem to help Innov8, but to be honest I'm a bit surprised. Until Innov8, I thought the 1.0.5.1 firmware (on most SB6121s) was fine. If you have a SB6120 then Rogers has already upgraded you to 1.0.6.1.

There are certainly other causes of this issue, but getting the right firmware is a good first step...
(for those with a DCM475, I'm working on the problem. First I need a source modem to rip a copy of STAC.02.16 from...)

tonytoronto
join:2007-10-31
Toronto, ON

tonytoronto

Member

Yup, i'm already on 1.0.6.0.1, there is a newer firmware version that Comcast pushing out (»SB6120 Firmware Updated (7/19/12)) and seems to help some of they customers with the exact upstream bonding crap, Chances are Rogers will never update any of the motorola modems.
Have another tech coming tomorrow, like the 2 before him will check the tap and tell me signal fine and will again change the cable terminal at the modem and that's it, nothing will once again get done. Weird part all of this, internet been crap for well over month and all of sudden been good for 2 days, nothing on the logs at all, go figure.

Teddy Boom
k kudos Received
Premium Member
join:2007-01-29
Toronto, ON

Teddy Boom

Premium Member

said by tonytoronto:

Comcast pushing out (»SB6120 Firmware Updated (7/19/12)) and seems to help some of they customers with the exact upstream bonding crap,

Interesting.. My most recent FW for these is 1.0.6.3, I'll have to go digging Meanwhile, assuming I find a copy of 1.0.6.6, I suspect Rogers will downgrade SB6120s back to 1.0.6.1 automatically
Teddy Boom

Teddy Boom to tonytoronto

Premium Member

to tonytoronto
said by tonytoronto:

Comcast pushing out (»SB6120 Firmware Updated (7/19/12)) and seems to help some of they customers with the exact upstream bonding crap,

That was easier to find than I expected. I haven't tested it out yet, but I should be able to flash to 1.0.6.6 now. However, as I said, Rogers may just roll you back to 1.0.6.1 on SB6120s. Of course Rogers doesn't do anything for the firmware on SB6121, so owners of SB6121s can try 1.0.6.6 if they like.
corellama
join:2011-05-29
Kanata, ON

corellama

Member

I also have the Motorola upstream channel problem. This morning Teksavvy support said Rogers said my 1.0.5 firmware is not compatible. Teksavvy nor Rogers will be updating it, which is crazy. I bought the modem from Teksavvy 14 months ago, so it's out of warranty.

Teddy Boom are you saying you have updated the firmware on a SB6121? Is this something I can do?

This whole situation is very frustrating.

Teddy Boom
k kudos Received
Premium Member
join:2007-01-29
Toronto, ON

Teddy Boom

Premium Member

said by corellama:

Teddy Boom are you saying you have updated the firmware on a SB6121? Is this something I can do?

It is easy to do if you have the right tools, but it can't be done by end users. I use a JTAG/Flash-programmer to write firmware directly into the flash chip.

They are blaming the firmware, but I'm not certain that the firmware is actually at fault for the problem.

One thing that seems to be missed a lot in the troubleshooting of this problem is doing a factory reset on the modem. Don't do it too often--it will delete the logs, and logs are helpful--but trying it once is important. To do a factory reset on these modems go to the web interface, click on Configuration, and then click the Reset All Defaults button.
(important to try because your modem may be able to find better channels to tune into, and that could clear up the problem. Maybe some other reasons too..)

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

1 recommendation

nitzguy to tonytoronto

Premium Member

to tonytoronto
said by tonytoronto:

Yup, i'm already on 1.0.6.0.1, there is a newer firmware version that Comcast pushing out (»SB6120 Firmware Updated (7/19/12)) and seems to help some of they customers with the exact upstream bonding crap, Chances are Rogers will never update any of the motorola modems.
Have another tech coming tomorrow, like the 2 before him will check the tap and tell me signal fine and will again change the cable terminal at the modem and that's it, nothing will once again get done. Weird part all of this, internet been crap for well over month and all of sudden been good for 2 days, nothing on the logs at all, go figure.

...Might I offer a separate suggestion. With talk of firmwares and whatnot, sometimes its just classic, traditional cable tv troubleshooting that needs to be properly done. Trusting a $100 consumer device to get accurate signal levels is foolhearty at best.

I sometimes wish that techs who troubleshoot cable tv would take some extra time and do a little more digging vs saying "Oh 43 is good" or "Oh 52 is good"....
I was only speaking to EGM92's screenshot and not the others..just as an FYI.

Firmware can't resolve an intermittent signal problem. I'd only say this because it helps, but I don't know if its accurate anymore. Does Rogers still push the analogue channels through? If so, get a small tv if you have one, and just directly connect the coax into it and for starters look at channels 2-6...if they're really grainy and hard to see, that's a signal problem and needs to be addressed. This isn't illegal as far as I can see as this would be for troubleshooting purposes...

If they still broadcast the higher channels in analogue (say 60+ or so) tune to those channels if you can with the tv directly plugged in, if they're grainy and fuzzy as well, it indicates a signal problem and something the tech will need to address...and you can show it to him to see, and perhaps from that standpoint they'll be able to figure out what the issue is...

I know it may be a lot of work for people having issues with Cable, but signal problems manifest themselves in weird ways sometimes. Since when you're looking at that screen its simply a snapshot and not a rolling signal strength indicator, if you see there is an interference or interruption in the signal, you may not see it when looking at the diagnostics...

Again, HTH....also I wouldn't be just blindly updating firmwares and whatnot...there's a reason why Rogers doesn't update their firmware as it can cause unforseen issues...and I know that it can be done, doesn't mean its something you want to do and it may not even solve the root cause of the problem.

The factory reset is a good idea. Also while the modem is plugged in, you can simply unscrew the coax for about 5 minutes, and then the modem will try and retrain onto different channels, when you unplug and replug it in it remembers the last upstream and downstream channel it locked onto and tries those again, and if they are marginal, the modem doesn't care and will try and stick on that frequency.

TwiztedZero
Nine Zero Burp Nine Six
Premium Member
join:2011-03-31
Toronto, ON

TwiztedZero

Premium Member

Nice post nitzguy!