CISCO 4642HD problem

[fbures]

I understand this is not strictly SageTV related, but I am wondering if anyone has come across anything like this:

I have two CISCO 4642HD digital cable receivers connected to Rogers Cable network and controlled via USB-UIRTs.
Since couple of weeks ago (and I believe after an "update" of the boxes' internal software by Rogers) both boxes started to exhibit annoying behaviour:

After some time being on, they both go into deep space. What I mean by that is that while from the outside both boxes are on and look normal, they in fact do not accept any commands including pressing the power off button and do not generate any output. One actually has to press the button twice to turn the box off (to make the on indicator extinguish). This happens in unpredictable intervals and in the vast majority of cases it affects both boxes at the same time. If I do not turn both boxes on and off frequently enough, I end up with a blank recording. That basically defeats the purpose of having a PVR in the first place.

Have anyone ever heard of such problem?

Thanks
Frank

[KryptoNyte]

I have had a 4640HDC exhibit similar issues, as well as it's predecessor, the 4642. After a couple years of problems, and having the cable co out to check things, I finally came to the conclusion that there is a signal (either hot or cold) issue: when the signal is bad the STB's start screwing up because they can't dial in on a particular channel.

Sometimes it only happened on specific channels. After checking all of your own equipment, including cables, splitters, etc, I would contact the cable co first to have them come out and test the line (assuming this is a free service when you're having problems) and see if something has changed on their end. They never admit to a problem, but on occasion, things start mysteriously working perfectly again after you squeak a bit.

I had one station (an HBO premium channel) that they simply couldn't get dialed in, so after about 3 house visits, I called up and just cancelled that part of the service. I'm sure Time Warner/HBO won't miss one more customer - I think that might actually be their company mission statement for this century, "another customer lost is our number one priority."

[Wirenut]

I too have seen this.... more frequently lately. I've found that I can't tune one or two channels I need. It seems hit and miss.