Remotes quit working.! NICE!

[Chuckles_2]

HVAC servicepeople are familiar with calls where the customer says "There's a problem with my thermostat...it must have stopped working, because I have no heat." Of course the problem is not with the thermostat, but with the furnace. The thermostat just happens to be the thing that people interact with.

[Ponzi]

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oufanindallas wrote:

I think a lot of us had the same issue.  I had it a couple of days ago.  Rebooting the DVR or STB did the trick.  Could have been an update that caused the issue. 

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Just press the "Exit to TV" button, and the devices will respond to subsequent button presses. There's no need to reboot or even turn the devices off and back on.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

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Ponzi wrote:

Just press the "Exit to TV" button, and the devices will respond to subsequent button presses. There's no need to reboot or even turn the devices off and back on.

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Ah-ha!  Very nice.  This makes sense as well, because ...

I believe I read over on DSL Reports that this behavior is a bug related to the Emergency Alert System (EAS).  Apparently there is a bug where if the box is off when an EAS alert (or EAS test) is received, and then the box is subsequently turned back on, the box believes that the EAS banner is on-screen when in actuality, it is not displayed.

Pressing Exit to TV actually clears the "ghost" EAS alert from the screen, allowing the rest of the remote commands to respond.

[pete4816]

Add me to the list with the problem of remotes not working.  Will have to try hitting the back to tv button instead of power off and on.

[sforres5]

I have a simlar problem. I turn on the TV and the "box" and the TV powers on and the box powers on, but the box does not respond to any functions. I have to manually power the box on and off again to make it work , then all is fine. It does this with all remotes and on both TVs in my house. One TV is an old Sony tube and the other is a LCD. I have reset the modem numerous times and made numerous phone calls to Tier 2 tech support (which are pretty nice) Last week they sent a tech out  and he was suppoose to replace the "main DVR box" - well he didn't - but the indications and levels on the line were fine - he saw the problem on one TV (as I left it when I powered it on prior to his arrival) - he said, "I have no idea what's wrong." Since the "box" had rebooted itself a few time, he replace a cable. that problem apparently was solved. Why replace one box, when it's an overall problem in my system. I have never had so many problems with something as I have had with the TV portion of Uverse. I had Direct-TV for over 10 years and never once had a tech to my house - so far I have had at least five techs to my house for various problems for Uverse. I made another phone call to Tier 2 techs 8/22/11 and they want to yet send another tech to my house (which requires a large window of me waiting - then he's an hour late) When they do show up, they don't have a clue what's wrong. PLEASE - AT&T - get with the plan! There's obvioulsy something wrong, if this many people have problems! I should not have to use multiple remoted to make this work. I could just leave the "box" on all the time, but that's pointless.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

Press the EXIT TO TV button instead of turning the box on and off.

[sforres5]

I'll try this method the next time, but I tried just about all of them the last time it did not work on power on - the ONLY way I got it to work, was manually power the box on off and on again - Tnx for the suggestion.

[sforres5]

After some readiing I see there was in fact a Phase 3 software upgrade on the system.  I thought this was the case, as everything was working fine till this upgrade took place. Apparently there are some "bugs" in the roll-out of the soiftware. I have had also a few "blue screen's pop up and a loss of signal since. I sure hope they get this fixed and quick because this is getting really anoying. What's next AT&T?

Thanks

[uverse_frustrat…]

I wanted to see if others have experienced this lately. About 2 weeks ago all the remotes in my home would stop working on the receivers unless I unplug the receiver and then plug them back in to reset them. This was universal across all 4 receivers and their corresponding remotes. I called U-Verse support and, after much digging, the person informed me that an update was sent out to the receivers that caused this problem as it's been noticed by other customers. When I asked if they could roll back the update I was told no.

Apparently, the only way to resolve this is to do what they are calling 'Disaster Recovery' which means they wipe out everything on all the receivers and rebuild them. This includes wiping out all DVR recordings!!

How in the world can such an update go out to the masses without a contingency plan of being able to roll it back??

Has anyone else experienced this and, more importantly, have you been able to get it resolved without their solution?

Thank you in advance!

[Jeffster_1]

Press the "Exit to TV" button on the remote.

This was posted somewhere and it has worked for me.

[uverse_frustrat…]

Thanks Jeffster_1, will give this a try. Is this a temporary fix until a new update comes or is this a permanent one? All I know is that when I hit any of the buttons on the remote all that happens is that the power light blinks on the reciever which tells me that it detects the remote, yet does nothing.

You saying the pressing the 'Exit to TV' will behave differently?

[southern planter]

I have six (5) receivers plus 1 DVR.  Lately some of the receivers lock and you cannot change chanells. We have to reboot each receiver.  What causes this and how do you get it to go away?   Thanks for your response.

[Jeffster_1]

I hope it is a temporay fix and AT&T will have a fix with a update soon.

Here is another post about the problem http://forums.att.com/t5/Receivers/Boxes-don-t-handle-remote-control-presses/td-p/2815613

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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uverse_frustrated wrote:

Thanks Jeffster_1, will give this a try. Is this a temporary fix until a new update comes or is this a permanent one? All I know is that when I hit any of the buttons on the remote all that happens is that the power light blinks on the reciever which tells me that it detects the remote, yet does nothing.

You saying the pressing the 'Exit to TV' will behave differently?

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Yes, pressing EXIT TO TV on the remote should work.  

If you read some of the message earlier in this thread, you will see that the issue is caused by the U-verse box handling of the Emergency Alert System (EAS).  It's my understanding that AT&T is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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southern planter wrote:

I have six (5) receivers plus 1 DVR.  Lately some of the receivers lock and you cannot change chanells. We have to reboot each receiver.  What causes this and how do you get it to go away?   Thanks for your response.

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When this happens, press the EXIT TO TV button on the remote instead of rebooting the boxes.  See the messages above for an explanation the cause of this issue.

[DavidT69]

Is there a trick to the "exit to TV" fix? I worked on one of my TVs but not the other two. The power button off and back on works on all three.

[Me]

Since the phase 3 update I've noticed that about 75% of the time I can't select channels with the remote after turning on U-verse and the tv from that remote.  It happens with both my non-dvr and dvr boxes.  And it happens with my neighbor who also has u-verse.  Note, I think the TVs/stb's need to be off a while to reproduce this as it only seems to happen when I attempt to turn on the stuff after being off from the day before.

The "fix" is to turn off the tv and box with the remote and then turn it on again.  In other words I need to basically turn on the devices twice.

This is not a battery problem.  It happens with two separate installations (although both are using the same vrad).  And most significantly it happens only since phase 3.

So is anyone else seeing this behavior?

I just want to collect more "ammo" before reporting this to u-verse.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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Me wrote:

Since the phase 3 update I've noticed that about 75% of the time I can't select channels with the remote after turning on U-verse and the tv from that remote.  It happens with both my non-dvr and dvr boxes.  And it happens with my neighbor who also has u-verse.  Note, I think the TVs/stb's need to be off a while to reproduce this as it only seems to happen when I attempt to turn on the stuff after being off from the day before.

The "fix" is to turn off the tv and box with the remote and then turn it on again.  In other words I need to basically turn on the devices twice.

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When this occurs, press the EXIT TO TV button on the remote instead of turning the box off and back on, then try the other remote control functions.  It's my understanding that AT&T is already aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

[Me]

Thanks for the tip about Exit.  I'll try it the next time the problem occurs.

[I guess I should have done a search before creating a new thread only to find it moved here.]

[morrow]

Have had phase 3 for awhile now as well as a new dvr due to previous problems.  The latest thing I notice is when I turn on the tv/dvr that eventhough pressing buttons will make the dvr green light blink the commands do nothing.  If I turn the box off and back on again it will work fine.  I have noticed this in TWO different homes now since the phase 3 update.

Any solutions on this?

I also recently had some issues with the dvr and had to do a master reset for it to work again.  It would give a very strange grinding sound that I assumed was the harddrive and would hang with a red gear symbol.  Finally after some rebooting and a master reset it came back on again.  This is a brand new dvr and there are at most 4 to 5 shows recorded at a given time so its not like the hd is filling up.

Last, but not least I tried the new 'fix problems' or whatever it is labled in the system menu and was given a message something along the lines of an error is preventing it from performing the test and could go back and try again or exit... retrying gives the exact same result.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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morrow wrote:

Have had phase 3 for awhile now as well as a new dvr due to previous problems.  The latest thing I notice is when I turn on the tv/dvr that eventhough pressing buttons will make the dvr green light blink the commands do nothing.  If I turn the box off and back on again it will work fine.  I have noticed this in TWO different homes now since the phase 3 update.

Any solutions on this?

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When this happens, press the EXIT TO TV button on the remote.  It is a known issue.

[tamshiukai]

ok

1. with the remote control, if problem persists, try to go to an AT&T company own store, they should be able to warranty out a remote for you if they have it in stock...

2. if the boxes still give you a strange noise, contact tech support to have them troubleshoot it, if replacements are needed, they will send you those so you can replace it....

GOOD LUCK

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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tamshiukai wrote:

ok

1. with the remote control, if problem persists, try to go to an AT&T company own store, they should be able to warranty out a remote for you if they have it in stock...

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There are no U-verse remotes or other U-verse equipment at the AT&T Stores.

[holodeck1]

For over a month maybe more I've had this problem and just spent another 50 frustrating minutes with the ATT support desk trying to explain to them it is not a remote control issue but a problem with the u-verse box. Someone with ATT needs to bring them up to date because they don't have a glue.

Before pulling the power on the DVR I'll try pushing the "Back to TV" button to get this working. Should know in the next couple days.

[beerjunkie]

Push the power button on the remote about 10 times. Get the box back on and try to turn the channel. If that dont work, power cycle the box by pushing the box power button for 10 seconds.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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beerjunkie wrote:

Push the power button on the remote about 10 times. Get the box back on and try to turn the channel. If that dont work, power cycle the box by pushing the box power button for 10 seconds.

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When this occurs, just press the EXIT TO TV button on the remote then try the remote control functions again.

[Bhal23]

I just had UVerse installed Tuesday (now Friday). We were happy to get the service as we just moved and had no TV for almost a month. As the tech was finishing he was going over all the abilities of the UVerse system, including all the functions of the remote. Needless to say, it was working fine. We went to eat later that night and came back to find a remote that did not work. Only thing that it would control was the volume and power of the TV ( TV only). 

So I ordered another one. Got it today. It does the same thing. First time, I think it is the remote. Second time, I believe it is me.

Can anybody help me figure this out?? I need help getting my remote to control the uverse box.

Thanks.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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Bhal23 wrote:

I just had UVerse installed Tuesday (now Friday). We were happy to get the service as we just moved and had no TV for almost a month. As the tech was finishing he was going over all the abilities of the UVerse system, including all the functions of the remote. Needless to say, it was working fine. We went to eat later that night and came back to find a remote that did not work. Only thing that it would control was the volume and power of the TV ( TV only). 

So I ordered another one. Got it today. It does the same thing. First time, I think it is the remote. Second time, I believe it is me.

Can anybody help me figure this out?? I need help getting my remote to control the uverse box.

Thanks.

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Welcome to U-verse and the forum!

The problem is not with the remote.  When this happens, press the EXIT TO TV button on the remote then try the remote functions again.  I understand that this is a known issue that AT&T is working to resolve.

[Bhal23]

Thanks for the response. I tried this the other day on the phone and nothing. Just tried it again and got nothing. 

Thanks, but let's keep trying. 

[smurphy6]

Thanks so much for the input.  Just spent an hour with AT&T support and they claim to not know about the issue.  Mine started at the same time.  I just returned home from a week away and all TV's are doing this.  I have rebooted two receivers (DVR and One other HD receiver).  I will try the Exit To TV solution on the other three.  The EAS issue sounds logical particularly since Exit To TV clears those banners....

Hopefully they will push out a fix soon.  Very annoying....

Thanks again for the help.