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Community Support

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6.7K Messages

Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 7:48 PM

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How to Troubleshoot your DVR/Receivers

If you're having trouble with your receivers, as listed below, scroll down to find steps to resolve them. For Wireless TV Receiver help, check out our Wireless Receiver Solution page. 

  • Receiver resets

  • Loss of recordings

  • Pixilation

  • Freezing

  • Gear/ Cog, Red X, Client Unprovisioned, or Client Initialization Error

Rebooting the receiver is the quickest way to resolve most service issues:

  • Press and hold the power button(located on the left side of the receiver) for 10 seconds.

  • Unplugging the power cord from the wall outlet for 10 seconds is another option.

 

 

Surge Protectors

Is the receiver plugged into a surge protector? It may be causing: 

  • unwanted receiver resets

  • loss of recordings

  • pixilation

  • freezing

  • complete failure of the receiver

Plugging the receiver into a wall outlet, in some instances, can resolve most picture disruption issues. If you must use a power strip, use the surge protectors that are designed for high powered electronics.

 

Receiver Connections

Make sure all connections (wall to receiver, receiver to TV) are placed firmly into the receiver. 

Note: If you are using a 3rd party switch to connect the receivers, remove it and test. Some switches have been known to interfere with the signal.

 

 

To avoid losing your saved programs, perform the Non-Disaster Recovery for DVR/Receivers:

  1. Unplug the receiver or DVR power cord from the wall or back of the box.

  2. Wait 10 seconds.

  3. Plug in the receiver and DVR.

  4. When three white dots appear on the screen, unplug the receiver/DVR again.

  5. Repeat this process two more times.

  6. Plug the receiver/DVR back in on the third time and leave in. Three white dots appear followed by a gear with a status bar at the bottom of the screen. If the Recovery screen does not appear, repeat the steps above.

If you are still experiencing issues with your DVR after that, perform a Disaster Recovery on the device.

 

Disaster Recovery for DVR/Receivers:
WARNING!: Disaster Recovery steps will cause your DVR to lose all pre-existing data such as: Recordings, Parental control settings, and aspect ratio settings.                                                                                                 

  1. Using the above image as guidance, hold down the Down arrow key + OK key +Power key outlined in red at the same time to power down the DVR.

  2. Continue pressing these keys until a gear appears on the screen and release the Down arrow + OK keys.

  3. If the gear on the TV screen appears, wait until completion.

  4. If the gear on the TV screen does not appear, repeat the disaster recovery process. 

AT&T Community Specialist

*I am an AT&T employee, and the postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent AT&T's position, strategies or opinions.

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4 Attachments

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

After AT&T update their system when I'm watching a DVR programming sometimes when fast-forwarding through commercial it will switch to on demand.

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

Hello, I am receiving a red x1on my main cable box. My name is Linda *****
act.# ***** my phone is
***** and the best email address to reach me at is [edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, etc.]
Thank you!

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

I'm having the same experience. I set my shows to not erase until I erase them. I will see the show in my list of recorded shows and then the next time I look it is gone. I checked to make sure it was set up correctly and it was. It just disappeared. This has happened multiple times. I've had no luck with AT&T resolving my issue.

Contributor

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2 Messages

7 years ago

Thank you for your suggestions. We had an appointment scheduled with an ATT tech again but they didn't show up. The picture still freezes so we got disgusted and switched to Comcast Xfinity. We're getting more channels and faster internet service for less money. Xfinity is being installed today. We figured even if the service is lousy it won't be wors than we currently have with ATT but it will cost less.

Contributor

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2 Messages

7 years ago

Coupe weeks ago our DVR died. ATT sent a new one. During the initial installation of the new receiver/DVR, we had a very brief power outage. Once the power was restored the unit never was able to connect to the U-verse service. All diagnostics produce an "OK" but still no connection, even though the LINK light is green. Did the power outage mess up the initial boot sequence? The on-screen message we get is: "Your TV receiver is temporarily unable to connect to the AT&T U-verse TV service"  The unit attempts to re-connect at least 20-30 times per day (for 2 weeks now) but no joy. Did the power interuption during the initial boot/installation sequence mess things up?

Community Support

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230.7K Messages

7 years ago

Hi @redrelic,

 

Yes, power outages can affect the equipment. If your area is prone to them. we recommend purchasing an ISOBAR surge protector.

 

-ATTU-verseCare

Contributor

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2 Messages

7 years ago

The DVR was plugged into a surge protector. My question is: did the loss of power - during the initialization phase of installation - interrupt the boot process and render the device unusable? The instructions say not to turn the power off to the unit while it is in the installation process, so did this power interruption make the unit a brick? Do I need a replacement? It will NOT connect to the U-verse service...

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

I am having my DVR recording problem in past 3 months and I called the technical support 800 number 3 times but the issue keeps coming back. I even followed the troubleshooting process in the channel 411 almost every few days but the issue is still exist.

The issue is that I could not record and playback the program at all or sometimes it could only recorded part of the program and then stopped.

Any suggestion?

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

why isnt my att uverse working? i have restarted the reciever countless times & it's still showing the same message & giving me only one option : restart receiever but clearly that isnt working. what could i do to fix this issue? thanks

Scholar

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602 Messages

7 years ago

Here is my goal fix these problems without having to erase all of my recordings or replace DVR again.  Any suggestions of what's going on?  @ATTHelpForums

 

Problem/symptom #1 appeared about 10 days ago

  • When attempting to playback recordings the recording goes black and does not play.
  • If you switch and start a different recording it will start immediately.
  • If you go back and attempt to play recording #1 it will now start immediately just fine.
  • I attempted to reset DVR, first by holding down power button for 10 seconds.  The dvr wouldn't turn back on after about 30 minutes.
  • Then I unplugged it, waiting 10 seconds and plugged it back in.  That got live tv working, but it still had not initialized hard drive.
  • Then I tried a 3x unpluging, non-destructive restart.  That got it back up and running.  It seemed to fix the issue, but it came back a couple of hours later.

Problem/symptom #2 I noticed a few days later while trying to diagnose

  • In the uverse android app, if I look at my DVR recordings it will show more recordings than my DVR and other STB's show.
  • The difference in numbers is that the app is showing recently deleted recordings as still being there, which leads to me believe the DVR software is either not properly deleting recordings or the DVR is not communicating properly with the server.

Problem/Symptom #3 a few nights ago

  • One of the VIP 2500 wireless STB completely lost its connection.
  • I was only able to get it working again by unplugging the power from the VEN 501. Then reassociating the vip2500.

 

Equipment in use:

Pace IPH8005 dvr connected via ethernet

Arris NVG589 RG fed via ethernet single pair

2x Moto VIP 2500 wireless STB

Cisco ISB7000 connected via ethernet

VEN 501

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