STB not powering on

[Tireman]

I have a STB that doesn't power on with the remote or the power button on the STB unless I unplug the power cord and plug it back in.  Does anyone know if this can be fixed without exchanging it?

[mattheww50]

Not likely. You can try disconnecting and re-connecting, or tightening the coax cable on the back, but other than that, it is usually a hardware or firmware problem.

The way it works is the STB software prioritizes the tasks and the software handlers for various events. The power button is a low priority task, because it really doesn't matter whether it happens in 1 microsecond, or 1 second.

Typically the software gets hung up in some soft of error recovery loop in a higher priority task, and as a result, the lower priority tasks (like on/off) never get a chance to execute to perform the task. It often means something is intermitent, or actually broken in the box, which is why the error recovery process is running in the first place. It is also possible for there to be an error in the firmware, so a software upgrade may or may not help.

You might also try temporarily disconnecting the other connections from the STB, but that's really not much of an improvement over pulling the plug!

Either way, there probably isn't anything you can do about it.

[Tireman]

Thanks for the quick response mattheww50.....

I figured this would be the case but thought I'd ask anyway..... I just hate exchanging DVRs it seems like everytime i've had to do it I lose a lot of recorded shows and then there's the hassle of resetting all the series again.

[Keyboards]

You know that with a DVR you don't save much energy turning it off - right?  The hard drive, tuners, and RF ront end are always on regardless of the "power" switch (in quotes since it really only turns off the audio and video outputs).

Not saying it shouldn't turn off when commanded, just an additional comment.

[Tireman]

Thanks keyboards,

I know it doesn't need to be turned off it's just habit to hit the power button when I'm done watching tv.  Besides my problem is that it doesn't turn on sometimes, but thanks again for taking the time to respond.