The good news & the bad news

rudolpht

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Sep 12, 2003
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The good news on indefinite hold with Voom Tech Support is that supposedly software is being spooled & channels are being added.

The bad news is my box is dead. Sat icon alternating red & green (but working fine, high signal connected to Dish 5000).

I don't know if it is worth getting a new box or dumping it all.

Very frustrating.

Tim
 
One of my box went completely dead today. I am getting a replacement on 2/7. I was getting a few problems with the same box for over a week. If I were you, I would get another. I will not hurt. Thanks for the good news.
 
rudolpht said:
The good news on indefinite hold with Voom Tech Support is that supposedly software is being spooled & channels are being added.

The bad news is my box is dead. Sat icon alternating red & green (but working fine, high signal connected to Dish 5000).

I don't know if it is worth getting a new box or dumping it all.

Very frustrating.

Tim

Is that the problem? I'm getting the same thing with the red and green Sat icon. The only channel I'm getting is 103 and the program it's not corresponding with the PG.
 
Tim,

I forgot to mention that I have another Box so that it did not affect me so much. But given that you only have one, you might want to do the following. This resurrected my other box momentarily for a week. Disconnect your component/DVI cable. Set the resolution of the box to 480i (red button). Get a composite cable and connect the box. This seems to resucitate the box. Once you get all the download and the PG information is complete. You might want to try to connect your component or DVI connection and change the resolution to 720p or 1080i.

Also, another thing that I did was to do a factory reset in 480i only without the component cables connected to the back of the box. It is important to disconnect the cables and change the resolution to 480i and only connect them back when it looks like everything is working. Obviously, this does not guarantee anything because the box I tried this on worked for a week and it's now at the same point. It will work at 480i but if I put the 720 or 1080i it will not work. Try it and let me know what happens. Believe me it's frustrating.
 
Thanks Sean,

Unfortunately (used composite vs SVideo, and at 480i with component & composite disconnected), still same issue. Besides having OTAs scrambled, the channel numbers are flaky, 100, 101, 200-229, then jumps.

Looks like I really am SOL. Wish I had a real date for replacement too!!!

Tim
 
Yup.

Only composite connected, did 1) unplug, 2) replug & factory reset, 3) front panel reset.

Toast.
 
Did you try unpluging the OTA tuner. I don't have any problems compared to other that I have been reading. Even though I only have had it 2 days. I am thinking some problems are being caused because of the addition to the OTA tuner. Which I don't have yet.

Anyway, don't listen to me to much for now because I haven't had this for long.:)
 
Removing OTA did not work..

The saga continues,

It will take until Feb 2 to actually come and drop off a box and pick up the old one. Hard stuff to do I know. They said "They'll install it." That & their 5 minutes and my half a day of missed work really means a lot to me.

Feb 2 is rapidly turning into deinstall day.

Tim
 
Tim,

sorry to hear this. Mine was also fried on my second try. I only could get it to work at 480p or 480i. The real question is why VOOM does not change the policy of having a third party replacing deffective equipment. You would think that they are spending more money for work that can be done with consumers. At least give us the option so that some may opt to do it themselves. In my case, I have asked E* to never send an installer or repair man to my house. They are a waste of time. Let me know what happens on the 2nd of February.
 
Now the box doesn't show any signs/lights of turning on. Unplugged. Maybe it has to be fully dead before being resurrected :)
 
A CSR told me that the reason VOOM does not ship the equipment to end users is that "if it is not "professionally" install, it voids the 2 year warranty that VOOM is giving us as part of the promotional package.
Benji

Sean Mota said:
Tim,

sorry to hear this. Mine was also fried on my second try. I only could get it to work at 480p or 480i. The real question is why VOOM does not change the policy of having a third party replacing deffective equipment. You would think that they are spending more money for work that can be done with consumers. At least give us the option so that some may opt to do it themselves. In my case, I have asked E* to never send an installer or repair man to my house. They are a waste of time. Let me know what happens on the 2nd of February.
 
VOOM Box swap policy

It's an insult that they think we're so retarded that we can't do a simple box swap. Obviously we're all technically inclined enough to be HD savvy. Some of us had to hold our installers hand and help them through it. But we're too stupid to unhook a couple of cables. Thanks VOOM for the complement.

I am pro voom, but "hear me now, and believe me later", I won't let my return guarantee expire. If they don't get all they promised together, I'll be using my $750 toward a new DVR921. By mid march they will be less buggy and easier to get. That's my fallback plan.

Geno

----- Original Message -----
From: Scottbusy
To: VOOM@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 7:26 PM
Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] [VOOM] Re: SOL in MA. Hard crash


This is one of the things that is really bugging me, too. There has
to be a better way for them to exchange a bad box. Why can't they
mail out a new box, and have you mail the old one back ? I believe
DirecTV does this with their protection plan. I have a dead box,
and I have to wait until Wednesday, and now it says snow, and the
installer probably will not show. There just has to be a better way
to simply exchange a box. Even if you need instructions to load the
software and register a new box that could probably be done with
technical support over the phone.

These "bad" early boxes should have been recalled when a bug was
found immediately before they all went bad. Now people have no box.
Their box should have been replaced before the box died. I now have
a second box that I am sure is on death row, and I am just waiting
for it to die soon, too.

Come on VOOM, there has to be a quicker way to get a new box to a
customer rather than having an appointment with the unreliable
Installs, Inc. This, to me, is a big VOOM negative. Mail me a box,
I can install it myself. I have one dead box, and who knows when
Installs, Inc. will make it here to replace it. What a shame.

I'll tell you if the other one dies, too I am really going to be mad.

Scott


--- In VOOM@yahoogroups.com, "Tim Rudolph" <rudolpht@p...> wrote:
> While 3 more reset regimes (unplug, factory reset, front panel
reset),
> with only composite connected, weith OTA out, etc.
>
> The saga continues,
>
> It will take until Feb 2 to actually come and drop off a box and
pick
> up the old one. Hard stuff to do I know. They said "They'll
install
> it." That & their 5 minutes and my half a day of missed work
really
> means a lot to me.
>
> Feb 2 is rapidly turning into deinstall day.
>
> Tim
>
>
> --- In VOOM@yahoogroups.com, "Tim Rudolph" <rudolpht@p...> wrote:
> > Well the Voom Demons finally came to get me, after a good
install in
> > Nov, and more stable service over time.
> >
> > Even with an unplug, factory reset and front box reset trifecta,
I get
> > a red sat icon even though I'm getting supper strength when I
take the
> > same wire and plug it into my Dish 5000.
> >
> > The other bad news is the OTA channels are "unmapped" with a
couple
> > non local channels showing up with no signal.
> >
> > Dish Tech support was trying to be helpful, manual tune, etc.
Said
> > newer boxes were more stable and may need a week to get one. I
can
> > tell this is "my nightmare" waiting to begin.
> >
> > Installs will contact me (yeah, right). So I'll sit & wait for
> > someone to come & swap out a box. That's intuitive right,
> > particularly since it's my sat dish & antenna that's connected
(yes my
> > originaller installer was smart & considerate). I'm supposedec
to
> > call back if Install doesn't call IN A FEW WEEKS!!!!!!!!!! I
would
> > obviously be cancelling well before then.
> >
> > Dawn of the Dead was on tonight, but I didn't know it was
referring to
> > my STB. I don't think it will raise from the dead, though.
> >
> > Supposedly software and new channels are spooling now, which may
have
> > crashed the box to begin with, so maybe folks that work will
have good
> > news to report.
> >
> > Tim
 
Tim,

Did you try emailing Wilt. So far he has been very helpful to me with getting them to instal it and the OTA. Maybe we can help them out. They need to change the way they exchange boxes. The 2yr warranty they provide has nothing to do with a defective box exchange that is a simple plug and play. At most all they need to do is provide instructions and if you screw it up then send the installers over the second time.
 
Well,
with the intervention of a number of folks, including the Install site lead in this region, I am back in business.

Combination bad box (completely dead) and my newer 24" dish getting blown out of alignment (now locked down). The signal was barely enough for Dish, but high winds must have just moved it slightly.

I did already experience two hiccups with the newer STB, but a factory reset followed by front panel rest seems to have settled them down). I am intermittently defaulting to a bad OTA channel (bad that I don't get it on any box), but I can live with that for now.

After having the 921 for a couple weeks it is amazing how much better (despite some quirks) the Voom UI is compared to dish. I think I'll go back to Voom as primary and just use 921 for recording.

New HD news is pretty good.

Thanks all who helped.

Tim
 
Yup. Strange. It used to switch to another no signal OTA, but a front reset fixed it. It doesn't seem like a soft reset is fixing it this time.

Tim