# Upgraded Roamio, now Comcast card can't be repaired



## Mudflapper (Oct 25, 2014)

I recently upgraded my stock Roamio with a 2TB WD Green drive I mistakenly bought for my Mac a couple years ago. (It's energy-saving features kept it from mounting properly in the Finderenough to make me want to pull my hair out.)

I was hoping to use MFSTools to clone my my drive and expand to the full 2TB, so I avoid repairing my Comcast cable card, and to save all my programs that I hadn't already downloaded with cTivo, but I gave up after getting so confused between all the different versions for Linux and Windows and no support for the Roamio. (I learned the hard way that only v3 does and it hasn't been officially released yet.)

So I was able to get most of my shows back using pyTivo, and surprisingly all my OnePasses were saved (stored in my account on Tivo's servers I take it?).

The only problem I've encountered is my cable card is not working with On Demand or HBO. I called Comcast and they went through the usual steps that do nothing, then I called the cable card provisioning number and gave them the Data ID but they couldn't get it to work either. So I have to wait until Wednesday for a tech to come out. 

I made sure to tell the agent to notate in capital letters that the tech MUST BRING A FEW NEW CARDS WITH HIM or its a waste of time.

But I was wondering if there was something else I can try first to avoid having to deal with a Comcast subcontractor that doesn't give a crap?

I've restarted the Roamio countless times but I never performed a reset with the new drive in it. Would a reset then another call to Comcast do anything?

Thanks in advance.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Mudflapper said:


> I recently upgraded my stock Roamio with a 2TB WD Green drive I mistakenly bought for my Mac a couple years ago. (It's energy-saving features kept it from mounting properly in the Finderenough to make me want to pull my hair out.)
> 
> I was hoping to use MFSTools to clone my my drive and expand to the full 2TB, so I avoid repairing my Comcast cable card, and to save all my programs that I hadn't already downloaded with cTivo, but I gave up after getting so confused between all the different versions for Linux and Windows and no support for the Roamio. (I learned the hard way that only v3 does and it hasn't been officially released yet.)
> 
> ...


I have had this problem and it took a complete cable card reset to fix, this can't be done by the Comcast pairing number, the tech that came to my home had a secret number he called and that person cleared out my cable card so that TiVo though that I had removed the card, the card was re-programed and my TiVo (Roamio plus) then though I had just inserted a new cable card, all works great after that. The tech would not give me the secret number because you have to have your Comcast employee number and job number to use that person, not for the retail customer. Somewhere on this Forum I read that someone was able to sweet talk his way to that high level person, but Comcast does not charge for the service call and now has a 2 hour window, it is not too much of a problem.


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## Mudflapper (Oct 25, 2014)

Thanks for the response, lessd.

I found a thread on the xfinity forums that shed some light on the process as well. If anyone else is having the same problems it might do you some good to check out this link: 

forums.xfinity.com/t5/XfinityTV-and-Equipment/Re-Disastrous-Cablecard-Tivo-Activation-Support/m-p/2377063#M111757

Apparently this person was able to get it done over the phone:

"For anyone who is trying to re-pair an existing cablecard to a new location or new Tivo, don't call Activation again if it fails the first time. Read the documents on the Tivo website to figure out what's not right about your pairing/configuration, and either email we_can_help @ cable.comcast.com or ask the Tivo support rep for the phone number of "Comcast Repair." A capable person will answer the phone promptly, treat you kindly, and help you solve your issue. They are some of the nicest people you'll ever talk to at Comcast. I'm so thankful I found them."


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## Mudflapper (Oct 25, 2014)

I finally contacted a Comcast employee with experience in this matter via private message through the xfinity forums.

He escalated my issue to a national office who took care of the problem remotely and called me to make sure everything was working, and it was.

I asked what the problem was so I could help spread the word, and she told me that changing the hard drive changed the DATA ID, and all 5 Comcast agents I spoke to never asked me about the DATA ID, only the serial number, so Comcast had the wrong IDthat's why On Demand and HBO stopped working.

So if you upgrade your hard drive or even just remove your cablecard and put it back in (I didn't, but they said this might cause a DATA ID change as well) make sure when you call Comcast you tell them that the DATA ID changed and give them that number along with the serial number.

Hope this helps somebody.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

Mudflapper said:


> I finally contacted a Comcast employee with experience in this matter via private message through the xfinity forums.
> 
> He escalated my issue to a national office who took care of the problem remotely and called me to make sure everything was working, and it was.
> 
> ...


I make it a point to always give the Host ID and Data and S/N and make the Comcast person read the numbers back to me before the pairing should start from their end.


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