Voice control not working

[EtB123]

I'm trying to help my elderly neighbor and customer service is absolutely no help. Her remote won't respond to voice commands. All other functions work, on/off volume. If we push the mic button it tells us "somethings not right, try again later". We've paired, unpaired, paired again,  made two calls to Customer service totalling 1.5 hours with no resolution. Their response is go get new remotes. I took the remote from her bedroom and tested it there and it responded to voice commands. I brought that remote out to the living room and paired it with the tv out there (replacing the remote that wouldn't respond). It did not respond. Took it back in the bedroom and paired it to that tv and it worked again. This leads me to believe that this isn't a remote issue. My neighbor just wants to speak into her remote.  She can't seem to get the hang of using the guide or just entering the channel number. This is important to her and I can't seem to get any resolution.  Please help!

[CCAndrew]

Try swapping the box out or resetting the box, that’s the last thing to try to troubleshoot

[Rustyben]

adding ...

the remote is 'RF' (radio) paired to the set top box. taking one that is paired to box 'A' to box 'B' still works box 'B' if it is in range. There are commands to issue/press on the remote to reassign a remote to a different set top box. On the original problem. I seldom have the problem you are describing, and until yesterday it had been some months since the last time. last night I had problems on 2 set top boxes giving the same problem 'something's not right' and that 'off sound' from the remote. after trying the button 3-4 times it then worked. It could be that the server that the set top box sends the voice message to for decoding was overloaded or rebooting, etc. 

[EtB123 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for suggestions. I unplugged from the power and restarted.  Works fine. Sometimes it's the easiest things. "It ain't got no gas in it." - Carl, Sling Blade