2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
avemaria92
Contributor - Level 1

basically what the title says.. I have the old 2500 boxes (and slow guide navigation issues as well).. but another problem I face is that I use the Facebook widget daily to look at my photo albums.. but about 4 times or so per week, upon clicking the Facebook widget, my box will turn itself off and go through the initial download all over again, which takes about two minutes..  more frustrating is that this resets my Facebook login so I have to log in again, which takes another few minutes..  anyone have this happen to them?

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
lacticacidtrip
Specialist - Level 1

I don't use the Facebook widget. But I'm pretty familiar with box resets. I usually get them when doing a lot of searching or On Demand navigation. When it happens once a week or so, I don't think much of it. But when I can re-create the reset by navigating back to the same menu item two or three times in a row, now that's a problem. My guess is that we are experiencing errors in the software. And rather than tell us that something is wrong, or trying to fix itself, the boxes are just programmed to automatically reset. This action might clear the cobwebs and get things working again, but it doesn't actually solve the problem. Here's hoping that they send an error report upstream whenever this occurs. But I kinda doubt it. My suggestion is to keep logging the complaints on here and hope that enough people are experiencing your issue to get Verizon to take notice. Anyone else have an idea?

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
avemaria92
Contributor - Level 1

which boxes do you have?  i'm afraid i'm going to be charged more if I have to upgrade to newer boxes.. I don't think that's right as I feel I should have the equipment needed to give the proper experience for what i paid now.. i'm on contract to have a working service.. 

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
lacticacidtrip
Specialist - Level 1

I have 3 STB's (2500's) with plenty of lag time, and a DVR (6416). I get the resets about equally between the boxes. I want to upgrade the DVR for more storage space. From what I can see on here the new DVR's have their own sets of issues. Not sure about the costs for STB upgrades. Never looked into that.

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
avemaria92
Contributor - Level 1

if you go into your account to the equipment upgrade section, from what i understand the HD boxes have a higher per month cost added if you get them.. 

you say you also have the 2500 boxes.. my problem is in the guide navigation.. literally it takes a full second to respond for each press of the key..  for instance, try figuring out what is on tv in the evening when it's morning..  or when you hold down the up or down button, it'll go forward one space, then freeze and end up on some channel once you take your finger off the button.. it just shouldn't be that way really.. i wish we could see the guide space for space in real time and have it respond as quickly as we press the button on the remote.. my old Paragon cable service from 1990 worked like that.. why can't all powerful Verizon have a fast guide?  honestly this is a disgrace..

this video basically shows what i deal with

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hc4xqniJx4

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
Anthony_VZ
Master - Level 3

@lacticacidtrip wrote:

I don't use the Facebook widget. But I'm pretty familiar with box resets. I usually get them when doing a lot of searching or On Demand navigation. When it happens once a week or so, I don't think much of it. But when I can re-create the reset by navigating back to the same menu item two or three times in a row, now that's a problem. My guess is that we are experiencing errors in the software. And rather than tell us that something is wrong, or trying to fix itself, the boxes are just programmed to automatically reset. This action might clear the cobwebs and get things working again, but it doesn't actually solve the problem. Here's hoping that they send an error report upstream whenever this occurs. But I kinda doubt it. My suggestion is to keep logging the complaints on here and hope that enough people are experiencing your issue to get Verizon to take notice. Anyone else have an idea?


That is curious you can repeat the exact steps to cause the box to reboot like that. I had not heard before of a sequence of navigation that can be done to cause the box to reboot. Please thoroughly describe the steps taken so we can try to recreate it on our end. If your boxes have not been auto corrected to fix this, please complete the following steps. Please press menu, then go to CUSTOMER SUPPORT, then IN HOME AGENT, then SET TOP BOX AUTO CORRECTION. Please let us know if further assistance is required.

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
Anthony_VZ
Master - Level 3

@avemaria92 wrote:

if you go into your account to the equipment upgrade section, from what i understand the HD boxes have a higher per month cost added if you get them.. 

you say you also have the 2500 boxes.. my problem is in the guide navigation.. literally it takes a full second to respond for each press of the key..  for instance, try figuring out what is on tv in the evening when it's morning..  or when you hold down the up or down button, it'll go forward one space, then freeze and end up on some channel once you take your finger off the button.. it just shouldn't be that way really.. i wish we could see the guide space for space in real time and have it respond as quickly as we press the button on the remote.. my old Paragon cable service from 1990 worked like that.. why can't all powerful Verizon have a fast guide?  honestly this is a disgrace..

this video basically shows what i deal with

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hc4xqniJx4


Sorry to hear about the repeated troubles with the box navigation. Have you also gone through the autocorrection as described in my post above? Please do so if not. I did watch the video and can immediately give you a fix for your guide not staying on the FAVORITES option you have picked.

The guide by default returns to listing all channels, unless you change an option to remember the last guide setting that was put in. To do this, please press MENU on your remote. Then navigate to TV LISTINGS. Then go to SETTINGS. Go to LAST VIEWED GUIDE STATE and set that to ENABLE.

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
lacticacidtrip
Specialist - Level 1

Hi Anthony_VZ,

Oh I do so very wish that I could provide you with a detailed sequence of navigation that would repeat the box reboot ‘X’ many times out of 100. That would be awesome. Unfortunately that’s not usually my goal as a TV addict. I am usually looking to forget my troubles, not go looking for more. What I can tell you is this: box reboots can happen at any time of day or night. They can be caused by the type of activity I am doing or they can happen when I’m doing nothing at all. They can be generated from your end, my end, or happen seemingly spontaneously. And because no error messages are displayed either before or after, I have no idea what just happened.

As far as the ones that I have been able to reproduce, these happen mostly when I am using the search feature or the On Demand menus. Sometimes they happen while I am scrolling. But the most reproducible are usually when I use the OK button to select a program for its information page. I press OK, the box goes “click”. After the reboot, I remember what program I wanted to see, navigate all the way back to it, press OK and the box goes “click”. At this point I have to be a real meathead or glutton for punishment to go back again. But I have just to see what would happen. And what happened was “click”. I’m not sure I’ve ever gone back more than a third time. Or if I did, it was working by then.

So, was it a certain combination of buttons? Was it some bad code? Was it the gremlins that live inside the mysterious black box? (I hate those little guys. And yes, they do multiply when you get them wet.) I don’t have a clue. It’s irritating. I live with it. Life goes on.

Ideally, you would have a software program installed on the boxes that logs the last ‘X’ many commands given by the user and the last menus or options accessed before a crash. A sort of black box for the black box. Then after a reboot, an error report containing this information would be uploaded to a central server that would in turn have a program to analyze these reports for similarities and notify you when it finds them. Perhaps something you might want to suggest to your developers while they are working on the next generation of devices.

Now, if you want to pay me for my time and effort, I’d be more than happy to troubleshoot and log. I already have a half-dozen issues with STB/DVR malfunctions and limited functionality that I haven’t taken the time to write out and post to the Idea board yet. For starters, you are telling avemaria92 that she can “change an option to remember the last guide setting”. While this is true, the last viewed guide state is forgotten every time the box gets rebooted, and the guide reverts back to “All Channels”. If she is having an issue with her box getting rebooted all the time, telling her that this will fix her issue might not be the best idea, as it will only last till the next reboot. This problem also used to happen to the channel change mode as well. But a recent update made this setting persistent beyond the reboot. Wherever this setting is now saved, you need to put the guide setting right with it so that it remains persistent after a reboot as well.

Thanks for listening, Anthony_VZ. I will try your SET TOP BOX AUTO CORRECTION and let you know if I continue having issues.

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
lacticacidtrip
Specialist - Level 1

Hi Anthony_VZ, it’s me again.

The auto-correct option you point to has moved. It is now located at:

Menu > Customer Support > Fix FiOS TV Issues > Set Top Box Auto Correction

or

Menu > Customer Support > In-Home Agent > Fix FiOS TV Issues > Set Top Box Auto Correction

Unfortunately, these both take you to another multi-option menu where your only “Fix” is to reboot the STB. Which is exactly what is already happening when we get these issues, and can more easily be done by going to:

Menu > Customer Support > In-Home Agent > Reboot STB

Or you can skip all of the navigation lag and just unplug your box.

Anyways, thanks for your time.

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Re: 2500 box shuts off about 4 times per week when i try to sign into the Facebook widget
lacticacidtrip
Specialist - Level 1

Hi avemaria92,

Sorry to have taken over your thread with so much information not directly related to your questions. In response to what you asked me earlier, yes, I do realize that to upgrade to HD STB’s would incur a higher monthly service fee. I didn’t know/hadn’t researched whether or not there were SD boxes other than the 2500 models that were available for replacements. I doubt it though. Everyone seems to want the HD and are willing to pay for it.

Lag time: Sometimes my STB is as responsive as my DVR. But that’s not most of the time, and that’s not saying that my DVR doesn’t produce plenty of its own lag time. I remember both of them being faster. But much like computers that are constantly being updated with new software, the older models just keep getting slower and slower with each new additional feature added. And yes, it is not uncommon at all for the boxes to seemingly freeze up and do nothing for a while. This leads you to believe that it didn’t receive your last remote command, so you press the button several more times, or hold it down waiting for a response. Meanwhile, like a good computer, it’s storing all the commands up ready to execute them rapid-fire the moment it gets done being hung up on whatever is hanging it. Now it’s continuing to take you places way past your intended destination, and you can’t stop it. Round and round it goes, where it stops, nobody knows. Yep, been there.

A few hints that may help you navigate: Remember that when traveling forward or backward through a guide, the skip-forward and skip-back buttons take you an hour at a time, instead of the normal half-hour. The FF/Rewind buttons take you one day forward/back. The CH+/- button takes you one full page up/down (half a page on the menus). And you can directly choose channel numbers using the digits instead of the arrows. Each less keystroke you use means fewer chances to overshoot your destination. And if you ever have a question of whether or not your box is listening to you, remember that if you watch the box while pressing a remote button, a little yellow light will blink with each command received. The boxes rarely lose more than one command. So if you’ve hit the button 2 or 3 times and see the light blink at least once, stop pushing buttons and wait for the box to catch up.

The suggestion that Anthony_VZ gave you to change the Last Viewed Guide State is a must. Why they don’t make it the default setting is a mystery (unless it’s to keep the kiddies out of the favorites setting that the adults left it in). But as I posted in my reply to him, you will have to do the Guide > Option thing again after every reset until Verizon decides to make this setting persistent beyond reboot. Another setting you may want to change is Menu > Settings > Television > Guide View > Standard. This changes the Full Guide letting you view 2 more channels per page. More channels per page = fewer buttons pushed. (Also, sorry for assuming you were a girl. I assumed because of your SN.)

Hope these suggestions help.

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