matt_siegel's profile

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6 Messages

Wednesday, January 8th, 2020 11:00 AM

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XiD-P box is unable to connect to main DVR

I have been having a lot of trouble with my secondary DVR boxes in my home. When I first installed the system (1x XG1v4-A, 2x XiD-P) a few months ago, I was able to get all the TVs working pretty well. It did take several restarts of the boxes, both my main box and the secondary clients to get everything to recognize one another, but it did work. Over the last month or so, however, I've noticed more and more issues on my bedroom TV (one of the XiD clients) and it has gotten to the point where I cannot use that location at all.

 

When I turn the screen on, the picture is usually frozen, oftentimes with a message of "We're not able to connect to this set top box" (Error RDK-03053), and prompting me to restart the box. When I restart, sometimes it will connect (after usually about 10 minutes or so of the "Connecting..." screen) but it will come up and start pixelating/freezing again within 1-2 minutes, and I am back where I started. Many times when I reboot the box it fails to connect and takes me to a screen prompting me to restart again.

 

I have rebooted many times, I have performed system refreshes, I've tightened cables, switched out the coax cables for different ones, switched out HDMI cables for new ones, and even swapped the XiD-P boxes -- taking the one I have in my basement and putting it in my bedroom location. Like I said, it had been working when first set up, but it has gotten more and more problematic to the point where the TV is unusable now. I haven't made any wiring changes, moved any of the TV's or boxes, so it's strange that the degregation has occured.

 

Also interesting -- my main box always seems to be working properly in terms of displaying content, however there does seem to be some wierdness in communicating back to Comcast. When I go to the xfinity site or app, and it shows the status of my equipment, it will occasionally show a "green dot" next to my main box, most of the time it shows no dot. When I try to do something like "Identify this box" it will often fail to send the signal to the box. Also, when I do troubleshooting from the app, it usually tells me that my main box is offline, despite not seeing any isses on that TV itself.

 

Not sure what to do at this point? Has anyone gone through similar issues? Does it sound like a signal issue?

Accepted Solution

Gold Problem Solver

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25.9K Messages

5 years ago

That’s the wrong amp for X1 boxes. The X1 boxes use moca to communicate between the main box and XiDs. That amp is having a hard time passing the moca. Either try a four way splitter, Modem and 3 boxes or the proper amp.

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Gold Problem Solver

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25.9K Messages

5 years ago

Since you installed it, can you give a little background on what you have(splitters, amps etc).

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6 Messages

5 years ago

Sure.  The Comcast line comes into my basement, where it goes into a CommScope  SV-A15-8PRS Digital Subscriber Amplifier (https://www.datasheets.com/datasheet/SVA158PRS-CommScope-50111188).  The amp splits 8 ports out to various coax jacks throughout the house, and has power running to the DC in port, which shows it is correctly reciving power. 

 

This amp was installed when I moved in about 12 years ago (new construction).  I had a Comcast tech set up the original cable tv (pre-X1).  I kept Comcast for a few years, and switched to DirecTV, at which point, the CommScope amp was disconnected, and I ran DirecTV to their SWM Multiswitch and connected the lines for the coax jacks to their switch.  After many years on DirecTV, I switched to X1 a few months back, at which time I routed the cabling back through the amp again.  I first tried using a regular splitter and not using the amp (since I didn't need 8 live ports), but my main box said the signal strength was too weak.  I powered the amp, ran the jacks to it, and according to the signal strength meter in the Comcast Labs section of the XG1v4, the signal is good.

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6 Messages

5 years ago

Wow... thanks for the quick response!  I went ahead and ordered that new amp.

 

I'll connect all the jacks to the same 1 through 8 ports, and I'd leave the Voip out disconnected, right?  Can I use the same power adaptor with a coax connector on it that I had with the other amp?

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6 Messages

5 years ago

Thank you!  

Gold Problem Solver

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25.9K Messages

5 years ago

The voip port is up to you, there’s signal loss on the voip port, no loss on the others. That amp isn’t an amp like the one you have, and is an amp in name only. There’s no signal loss or gain on those 8 ports. The power brick should be the same but I would use the one that comes with if it comes with one.

Put the main box in port 1, the cable box that’s furthest away, in port 2 and so on

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6 Messages

5 years ago

I replaced the amp on Friday.  It's been a few days and I haven't had any issues so far.

 

Thanks so much, @CCAndrew , for your help!

Gold Problem Solver

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25.9K Messages

5 years ago

Glad you got it going!
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