# Cablecard Firmware Upgrade?



## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

Anybody encounter this when installing the cable cards?

I was on phone with Cox (phoenix) and when i put in the second cable card, within a minute or so, instead of going to the screen with host i.d. and cable card #, a TiVo screen appeared that says "Firmware Upgrade" and "Upgrading the CableCARD... Cable Card firmware upgrade in progress.

The Cox tech guy couldn't see anything on his end indicating what was going on, and i spoke to TiVo rep who said it is a cable thing and above all else - do NOT unplug or reboot tivo, or remove the cable card.

It's been "upgrading" for 1/2 hour now....

Anyone else have this happen, and how long does it take?

Thanks for any help!

ps on a side note - still waiting to hear from TiVo if i successfully cancelled my order thru them, because I went to Fry's on Baseline in Tempe and they had two in stock (plus a third on the floor in demo mode).....naturally, i couldn't whip out my credit card fast enough....


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## Gregor (Feb 18, 2002)

I've heard there are some firmware updates going to cable cards, but as TivoJerry said, you should let those complete.

No idea how long they take though.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

It's now been an hour.....

the screen changed once and asked me for my zip code again, then right back into the Firmware Upgrade screen.....


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## ahaley42 (Sep 12, 2006)

TW had me power down my S3 and bring it back up and it did something like that on the way back up. Only took about 5 minutes.


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

Please make sure to let us know how it worked out - I've heard that firmware updates can take some time, but never heard of it taking an hour.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

Now at 90 minutes. Cox doesn't seem to see anything on their end. So I'm stuck in one of those great "Cox says it's Tivo, Tivo says it's Cox" situations.

Guess this is what i get for trying to do this myself without a tech here. (My neighbor works for Cox and and got me the cable cards directly. He's never done a cable card install, so has no idea what's up....and the CSR at Cox tech support had never done a cable card install before either)

I do have a service call set up for Tuesday. I'd like to think my screen won't be stuck on this Firmware Upgrade screen til then.....(naturally i will turn off tv and receiver manually if this continues much later.... )


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

jshore said:


> Now at 90 minutes. Cox doesn't seem to see anything on their end. So I'm stuck in one of those great "Cox says it's Tivo, Tivo says it's Cox" situations.
> 
> Guess this is what i get for trying to do this myself without a tech here. (My neighbor works for Cox and and got me the cable cards directly. He's never done a cable card install, so has no idea what's up....and the CSR at Cox tech support had never done a cable card install before either)
> 
> I do have a service call set up for Tuesday. I'd like to think my screen won't be stuck on this Firmware Upgrade screen til then.....(naturally i will turn off tv and receiver manually if this continues much later.... )


I would think if it hasn't done anything in 90 minutes you need to power down the system, then power it back up after a brief pause.


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

My only concern was that the Tivo CSR was adamant that i should NOT unplug the Tivo or unplug the Cable card. To do so would supposedly damage my Series 3.


(Now at 2 hours.)

ps when i press any buttons like "tivo" or "left" or "right" i just get the tivo error noise.


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## Roderigo (Mar 12, 2002)

jshore said:


> My only concern was that the Tivo CSR was adamant that i should NOT unplug the Tivo or unplug the Cable card. To do so would supposedly damage my Series 3.


Sounds like a wedged CableCARD to me...

I wouldn't worry about damaging the Series 3 while the card's doing it's firmware upgrade, however you can hose the card. If you hose the card, you'll see symptoms like you're seeing now (firmware upgrade will never finish).

My guess is another customer removed the card while it was doing a firmware upgrade, and then returned it. Your cable company just put it back in stock, and delivered it to you without getting it unwedged.

The firmware upgrade usually takes around 5-10 minutes, and usually has a timeout of 1 hour. So, when you saw the Zip Code screen, that was after the timeout, and then the card going right back into trying to do a firmware upgrade.


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## slimoli (Jul 30, 2005)

jshore said:


> My only concern was that the Tivo CSR was adamant that i should NOT unplug the Tivo or unplug the Cable card. To do so would supposedly damage my Series 3.
> 
> (Now at 2 hours.)
> 
> ps when i press any buttons like "tivo" or "left" or "right" i just get the tivo error noise.


I had a "cablecard firmware upgrade" last week and after waiting for more than 7 hours I gave up and reset my Mitsubishi 73927. After the reset , I tuned to the cablecard and again got the same msg. Waited for hours again and nothing. Since I couldn't do anything with the TV , I removed the cablecard an called the cableco for service. They told me that they didn't know anything about any firmware upgrade and sent a cableguy with a brand new cablecard. Plugged the new CC and no upgrade msg came up so far, everything working fine.

Please, give us a follow up on this. Thanks.

Sergio


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

So any suggestions on next steps?

Should i unplug tivo, remove the 2nd cable card (which cox says is trying to pair to a Mitsubishi tv - the first cable card is paired to Tivo, according to them) and just see about operating with one cable card 'til Tuesday?

Or should i let this Firmware Upgrade screen continue until Tuesday when the Cox techs arrive?

(I'd love to even have ONE card working right now so i could play around and continue guided setup, start indexing guide info, get my harmony remote working, etc, etc.... then have the Cox techs install a second card on tuesday.)

Thanks for any tips!


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## Roderigo (Mar 12, 2002)

jshore said:


> Should i unplug tivo, remove the 2nd cable card (which cox says is trying to pair to a Mitsubishi tv - the first cable card is paired to Tivo, according to them) and just see about operating with one cable card 'til Tuesday?


That's what I'd do.

Do you live in the same area as Slimoli, maybe you got his bad card


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## jshore (Aug 18, 2003)

well, i bit the bullet and pulled the plug. Before powering up, i popped out the second cable card. Interestingly enough, when tivo powered back up and i did the "test channels" on cable card one, it said there were no channels available.

Continuing guided setup without it just to go in and play with other features. 75% thru "Getting program info" now. Guess i'll have to wait til tuesday and the cox techs to get cable card working... (that' probably when the Series 3 i ordered and supposedly cancelled from Tivo will arrive!)

More updates if anything else weird happens tonight (other than my Sooners losing on a terrible no-call on an onside kick - apologies to any duck fans out there...)


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## slimoli (Jul 30, 2005)

After I got the msg about the firmware upgrade I couldn't make the cablecard work any longer. My Mitsubishi simply went crazy and I had to wait for a new card. Looks like a CC virus...


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## vman41 (Jun 18, 2002)

Since the device is passive, is the cable company sending out firmware patches in a continous loop and the CC picks it up the next time it sees it? Does getting your authorized channels programmed count as a firmware upgrade?


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## bferrell (Jun 22, 2005)

I got a firmware upgrade immediately after the CC was authorized, took about 20 minutes for me. Sorry you're having issues.

Brett


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## classicX (May 10, 2006)

Gregor said:


> I've heard there are some firmware updates going to cable cards, but as TivoJerry said, you should let those complete.
> 
> No idea how long they take though.


Who said it was TivoJerry?


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## Gregor (Feb 18, 2002)

classicX said:


> Who said it was TivoJerry?


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4378476#post4378476


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## Roderigo (Mar 12, 2002)

vman41 said:


> Since the device is passive, is the cable company sending out firmware patches in a continous loop and the CC picks it up the next time it sees it?


Yes, that's exactly what they're doing. In the case of Scientific Atlanta, they're sending it out on a video frequency, so the card has to take over the tuner to access the data stream.



> Does getting your authorized channels programmed count as a firmware upgrade?


Nope. A firmware upgrade is really updating the code that's running on the card. Authorizations are just passing data down to the card.


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## johnner1999 (Oct 26, 2002)

both of my cablecards needed udates - also SA cards (not sure if an other brand is avilable anyway) each lasted about 30-40 minutes. Also had no channels available in TEST MODE. about 3 hours went by (after the firmware finished)

after having CableVision zapping my cards and removing and reinstalling them <knocking on wood> all is working more or less. last night I had to unplug the S3 as it locked up even the time on the front pannel was stopped :-( I hope that is not a common thing!?


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

Yeah, my cards both got firmware updates when first installed. But it only took a few minutes.


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## slimoli (Jul 30, 2005)

I don't get it. How can a cablecard firmware be upgraded if the cablecard slot on the S3 or on any TV is a READER only? How can the card be reprogrammed without a cablecard writer? Maybe that's the reason why if we get the msg "cablecard firmware upgrade from cable operator" there is nothing else we can do and it must be replaced. 

BTW, Just got the msg again, waited for more than 3 hours and gave up. I installed the same CC on my Panasonic plasma and immediately got the upgrade msg as well. It seems that once the msg comes up the card needs to go back to SA or the cableco. My cableco doesn't know anything about this and have no clue on why this msg is being sent. They also can't do anything with the CC but return them to SA.

This is going to be a nightmare if it is spread .

Sergio


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## Bodshal (Jan 4, 2005)

The card is an independent device, with it's own processing unit. It listens to the OOB digital data in the RF signal. Sometimes, there's new firmware in it. So it downloads it (one of the screen talks about "blocks left to download" or somesuch). If it gets it all, it upgrades. If it doesn't, then as some people have seen, it can sit in limbo. Or if the flash in the thing is fubar, it locks up. Or something.

The headend just sends the a image in a loop probably. With no confirmation it arrives safely. What should probably happen is installers should upload any new firmware before they leave the depot, just in case the card needs it and turns out to be duff.

Chris.


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## slimoli (Jul 30, 2005)

Chris

Thanks for the clarification. How long should this upgrade take? I have been waiting for 2 hours and nothing. I have 2 tvs with cablecard slots and just one CC. I am trying the 2nd TV now to see if it makes any difference.

Thanks again

Sergio


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

Ok. I have a question about these upgrades. What happens if the TiVo is recording when this upgrade is applied?


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## Bodshal (Jan 4, 2005)

slimoli said:


> Chris
> 
> Thanks for the clarification. How long should this upgrade take? I have been waiting for 2 hours and nothing. I have 2 tvs with cablecard slots and just one CC. I am trying the 2nd TV now to see if it makes any difference.
> 
> ...


I've never witnessed it, but from what I've read (on this forum) it should be minutes. Like maybe 10 or so.

If it's hours then you may have a problem, and I'm not gifted enough to offer advice on that, sorry. 

Chris.


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## NickIN (Dec 26, 2002)

This happened to me when Brighthouse came to install the cards. The guy said it would take 20-30 minutes and instead of waiting he went out to his truck and brought back a stack of cards and changed them out until he found 2 that didn't need firmware upgrades.


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## slimoli (Jul 30, 2005)

NickIN said:


> This happened to me when Brighthouse came to install the cards. The guy said it would take 20-30 minutes and instead of waiting he went out to his truck and brought back a stack of cards and changed them out until he found 2 that didn't need firmware upgrades.


Yep, after I had the "firmware upgrade" msg the first time the cableguy also gave me one CC that didn't require upgrade, immediately. After 20 days without any problem, I got the msg again. My guess is that this "upgrade request is sent from time to time but when it hits you it's like a plague. I got hit today again and on Monday a new CC will be installed. Obviously I am not confident that the new CC will last for a long time since I had them replaced 6 times this year.

Sergio


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## Roderigo (Mar 12, 2002)

Stormspace said:


> Ok. I have a question about these upgrades. What happens if the TiVo is recording when this upgrade is applied?


Recordings will be cancelled as the CableCARD is grabbing the tuner, and moving it away from the video channel.


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## Roderigo (Mar 12, 2002)

NickIN said:


> This happened to me when Brighthouse came to install the cards. The guy said it would take 20-30 minutes and instead of waiting he went out to his truck and brought back a stack of cards and changed them out until he found 2 that didn't need firmware upgrades.


Ah - now we have another explanation about how all the cards are getting wedged. These cards aren't that robust if the firmware upgrade doesn't go as planned (and yanking a card out in the middle of a firmware upgrade is not "as planned").


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## slimoli (Jul 30, 2005)

Roderigo said:


> Ah - now we have another explanation about how all the cards are getting wedged. These cards aren't that robust if the firmware upgrade doesn't go as planned (and yanking a card out in the middle of a firmware upgrade is not "as planned").


That's true but my experience is that when you get the "firmware upgrade" it never ends. I wonder what are the cablecos doing with the cards replaced...sending to another customer?


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## nicwolff (Sep 27, 2006)

My S3 here in NYC on Time-Warner Cable was fine since a trouble-free install last Thursday, but as of this morning shows the "Upgrading the CableCARD" message - for three hours now - and both cards are "Not in normal operation" if I try to configure them. System Information says both slots are "upgrading firmware".

TiVo customer support just said to call the cable company, Time-Warner ran through the usual routine and scheduled a visit... for Tuesday. This weekend will suck. The TWC operator did say she was going to "track" this problem and escalate it if they get more calls, which seems pretty likely.


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## StephenTRoberts (Sep 26, 2006)

Im having the Same problem in NYC... I already had TW coming out tomorrow... hopefully they will have a resolution by that time


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

nicwolff said:


> My S3 here in NYC on Time-Warner Cable was fine since a trouble-free install last Thursday, but as of this morning shows the "Upgrading the CableCARD" message - for three hours now - and both cards are "Not in normal operation" if I try to configure them. System Information says both slots are "upgrading firmware".
> 
> TiVo customer support just said to call the cable company, Time-Warner ran through the usual routine and scheduled a visit... for Tuesday. This weekend will suck. The TWC operator did say she was going to "track" this problem and escalate it if they get more calls, which seems pretty likely.


Are your cards made by SA or Motorola?


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## jimmythemoose (Jun 5, 2003)

I'm having the same problem with Time Warner NYC. I have a CableCard directly in my TV that gave me the same message this morning. While my TV was "upgrading", I couldn't even change the input to see what was going on with the Tivo (it's hooked up to the same TV so I can have PIP). Anyway, the "upgrade" on the TV had been going on for at least 14 hours until I came home tonight and popped out the TV CableCard. I then was able to change inputs and saw the "upgrading CableCard" message on Tivo. I am able to watch recorded shows from Tivo, but nothing recorded today at all, so the Tivo cableCARDS must have been attempting an update all day, as well.


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## jimmythemoose (Jun 5, 2003)

The person I spoke to said that they know of the problem, they are working on it, and that "every cablecard in Manhattan" is having the problem. No timeframe. When I pulled out the cablecard on my TV and then put it back in, it worked for a few seconds, but then stopped. I wonder why I can't watch OTA channels while the upgrade is happening. I'm tempted to pull out the 2 Tivo cards and watch OTA, but don't really want to fry them.


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## alee (Mar 24, 2002)

TWCNYC Southern Manhattan, both cablecards are also stuck in firmware upgrade mode.

Sucks. Glad I kept my other 2 TiVos... I would have missed a few shows today.

Edit: Looks like whatever TWCNYC did also caused both of my other cable boxes to turn off. Right now, I've got nothing.


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## jimmythemoose (Jun 5, 2003)

I ejected all my cablecards (with the Tivo and TV on) and now can watch OTA. A message came up saying a cablecard has been removed, so hopefully they are okay.


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## macsamurai (Dec 30, 2001)

Is there anyone in Brooklyn (specifically Brooklyn Heights or Cobble Hill would be nice) who is also stuck in a CC firmware upgrade failure? If so - it would help me determine for sure if my cards aren't "paired" properly at the terminal station since I still have nothing but local channels from my cards and I have NOT seen the firmware update message. If others who HAD working CableCards in my area and then lost them because upgrades were sent to ALL the cards, then mine not being provisioned properly would be the only logical explanation as to why a firmware upgrade hasn't affected me. End result is the same of course... I still only have 8 out of the hundreds of channels I should have.

My saga begins here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4417948&&#post4417948


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## alee (Mar 24, 2002)

Anyone in the TWCNYC area getting a signal now are are your S3 units all stuck on the FUGSOD (Firmware Upgrade Grey Screen of Death)? I haven't had a chance to call them again since this morning when they claimed it was Manhattan-wide. It's been a long time.


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## davidtieman (Sep 29, 2006)

Mine worked for about 6 hours after the cable guy left. then i got the message at around 5:00pm it was till running at 7:00. I called tivo and they said to let it set for awhile longer. It was still runing in the morning. I called cox and they said to reset the tivo. I reset but it still says upgrading the cable card. I will wait a couple more hours now that i reset it then i guess i can call cox back. Very frustrating.... I have owned tivo's since they started and this is by far the most frustrating problem i yet had with one. Still have not even seen a tv show on it yet...


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## nicwolff (Sep 27, 2006)

I had popped the cards out of the TiVo so that I could at least use the antenna. On hearing that it was a Time-Warner problem that might have been fixed, I restarted Guided Setup this morning and reinstalled the cards, and they both successfully updated their firmware, and I'm getting most cable channels - but not my premium channels. Although, strangely, I am getting HBO HD and Showtime HD. 

Both cards have "Auth Status: Waiting for CP Auth" in their CP screens, so maybe they'll get that shortly... or maybe I should call TWC for a hit.


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## tboydsto (Dec 31, 2003)

jshore said:


> Anybody encounter this when installing the cable cards?
> 
> It's been "upgrading" for 1/2 hour now....


This happened to my Mitsubishi TV's CableCard. Ended up that the card was fried. I had a Scientific Atlanta card, if that makes a difference.


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## DJ Trey (Oct 2, 2006)

TW Cable in Manhattan did release a stupifying upgrade across the city a few days ago. It also rendered my CableCARD inoperable with the same 'upgrade' message stuck on the screen that others in this post have described. My cableCARD is not in a Series 3 (it is inserted directly into my television), but I figure this message might help others like me who were drawn to this forum by googling the error message like I did. 

Many of us have plasmas/LCD's that are not equipped with the latest batch of software for 100% CableCARD compatability. My television, a Panasonic Plasma, was purchased in Fall 2005 but has had several firmware updates since then. (Until I researched this issue, I didn't even know that our newfangled HDTV's could receive firmware updates). It turns out that if our televisions don't have the latest "operating system" if you will, the CableCARD update will not complete. I know that it seems illogical that our television's operating system could cause the CableCARD upgrade to hang, but work with me for a minute. 

Using the link below, I was able to download the latest Panasonic plasma software to a memory card (formatted per the instructions). I turned the tv on, put the memory card in, watched it do its magic, did the old off-on trick, reinserted the CableCARD and then the blue CableCARD firmware update screen returned -- to my horror. 

But, a short time later, the dreaded blue screen CableCARD upgrade actually finished and the message disappeared for good! 

So, in short, if you have a Panasonic plasma, you must try this solution. And, as a betting man, I'm thinking that some of the other pre-2006 HDTV's out there probably also have downloadable upgrades that will solve some of the problems, especially Samsung. Even if this doesn't work for all TIVO HD owners, I hope you'll find it interesting that, at least this time, TW Cable isn't completely at fault. 

As a new poster to this forum, I am unable to paste the URL into this reply. I am trying to write around the restriction, so I trust you can interpret the address below. The address is: (3w's) dot pasctraining dot panasonic dot (abbreviation for company)(slash)
SpecialApplications(slash)ProductFirmwareDownloads(slash)Firmware(slash)PDP(slash)PX50(slash)PX50_Installation_Guide.pdf


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## boblip11 (Oct 6, 2005)

I have had a cablecard in my Sharp LCD for 18 months now.

This weekend I powered down the media center to pull out the SA Comcast DVR and put in the S3. They are coming out on Wednesday to install the 2 new cablecards. When I repowered the TV, the cablecard would not work.

I called Comcast and they sent out a tech the next day. He brought a new cablecard with an 8/15/2006 date (Sci-Atl). As soon as he put it in the TV I got the firmwawre upgrade screen. It took 7 minutes to complete.

It then took over an hour to get the cablecard to authorize and work. In the end, the problem was traced to the new entries for the two new cablecards...the order entry side had screwed up the provisioning of the old card when entering the order for the new cards.

Unfortunately the tech only brought one new card. I had been hoping that he could do the S3 install on the same trip. The tech was the same one who installed the first cable card 18 months ago....He was great. I asked him to try to get the install on Wednesday assigned to him.

2 more days to go.


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## Necro (Sep 26, 2006)

Ah cableco reps... I had the same kind of thing happen to me. She took down the numbers...then called the tech back and said the numbers were wrong. She got the right numbers and asked if that was all, (no package changes)... 

Cards started worked after about 15 minutes and a TiVo reboot (that second card just wouldn't go until we rebooted). 

After the cable guy left, I noticed I was missing channels. Not surprising. Called the cable co and she sent another update. I could see the cards were getting more progression numbers. About a minute later, there were my channels (except one: Falcons Vision, which I could care less about).


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## eisenb11 (Sep 6, 2006)

nicwolff said:


> I had popped the cards out of the TiVo so that I could at least use the antenna. On hearing that it was a Time-Warner problem that might have been fixed, I restarted Guided Setup this morning and reinstalled the cards, and they both successfully updated their firmware, and I'm getting most cable channels - but not my premium channels. *Although, strangely, I am getting HBO HD and Showtime HD*.
> 
> Both cards have "Auth Status: Waiting for CP Auth" in their CP screens, so maybe they'll get that shortly... or maybe I should call TWC for a hit.


Interesting. I'm a TWC customer in CA. I didn't get the firmware upgrade but I'm having the same problem as you.

I get channels 1-114, HBO HD, Showtime HD and some spotty channels here and there.

I don't get all the rest of the Showtime and HBO channels or other channels like G4, etc...

I wonder if TWC has some common problem that affects the digital channels?


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