Cisco CHS 435HDC MR HD-DVR resets / reboots every 12 minutes

[mancur]

In my kitchen I have:      CHS 435HDC MR-DVR

In my living room I have: CHS 335HDC.

The Cisco CHS 435HDC MR-DVR worked for ~6 months with very few issues.  One day last week it started rebooting repeatedly.  And later that night it wouldn't turn on again.

I received a new CHS 435HDC last week.  After installation and activation, it ran fine but started rebooting itself approximately every 12 minutes.  

Here are sampled reboot intervals:

12:44, 12:42, 12:41, 12:35, 12:40, 12:38 etc.

I know these exact times because when I record a show, the recordings get broken up into chunks of the above sizes.

After spending time with on the phone with Tech Support, they sent me another CHS 435 (my third in a week).  This third DVR is behaving the exact same way -- rebooting approx every 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

Two CHS 435HDC DVRs broken in exactly the same way.  Too much of a coincidence now, especially not finding anyone else reporting this same issue...

Debugging steps I've taken

1. Have run the on-screen In Home Agent (STB / MR-DVR corrections many times)
2. DVRs always pass all self-diagnostics
3. DVR has adequate signal level (24dB)
4. I have tried different wall outlets, locations, hdmi cables, televisions
5. It will reboot even without any HDMI cable connected
6. I have moved the DVR from one room to another, swapping its location with a 335HDC.  This uses a new wall outlet, a new HDMI cable & tv, and a different coax splitter leg.  The 335 works fine in the kitchen, and the 435 still reboots every 12mins in the living room.  (i.e.  the problem follows the 435HDC).  

Questions

1. What would cause two different STBs to reboot at nearly exact 12:40 second intervals??  Is there some internal check?  Signal? Temperature?
2. Has anyone else experienced this?
3. Any ideas?  My next step is to get a home service tech out here...

[prisaz]

With the box in screen saver mode, you can press the OK and left arrow button on the front of the box at the same time for about three seconds.

This should get you to a nice diagnostics menu. If you scroll down to the memory/HDD portion it should show you HDD0 diagnostics that would indicate overheating or errors. Regardless if you are having these issues with the box restarting, I would say you need a replacement.

But third box in a week does not sound right. I would contact tech support and ask for a supervisor or someone a little higher up on the food chain because your issues are ridiculous. I did that and they called me back in 20 minutes, the supervisor had to do some "special" things and hey everything was working great. But mine was an activation issue?

My Cisco DVR has been reliable for the couple of years I have had it. You could always call Verizon and have them reload the DVR prior to getting a replacement, them reloading the DVR is a little more involved than a customer reset though the in home agent, but if you are having drive or hardware issues, this would probably clear all your recordings and reset the box back to factory setting if they have to format the drive. At that point I would want it replaced because it is probably just a matter of time before it quits. But if is is a new box you should not be having these issues. Just my opinion. It could be the new box has been on the shelf for a while and it is trying to update the img build from 10.39 to 10.40 or something else. I had issues adding a CHS 335 a few weeks back and it took intervention on their part to get it activated. I was having issues where it would not activate and was doing weird things.

Also my STB needed to do a firmware update on the Cable Card after it was activated. Have you tried to pull the power plug and the plug it back in after about 10-15sec? Rebooting it and letting it reconnect may initiate another update, like mine did to the CC Firmware.

Contact Verizon

http://www22.verizon.com/content/contactus/