# BOLT: One tuner is not working



## sethmeisterg (Oct 9, 2004)

I'm having a an issue *all of a sudden* on my TiVo Bolt. ONE tuner is not functioning at ALL (all channels show error V53), whereas the other 3 are working just fine. I have Comcast and spent an hour on the phone with them re-pairing the cablecard with this Bolt. We even tried my other cablecard from my Premiere (where all 4 tuners work fine) and the same thing happens (one tuner does not function) when it's paired to the Bolt.
I have 92% signal strength and 37dB SNR on all of my channels (again, tuning any of the other 3 tuners to the SAME CHANNEL works fine, but tuner #1 does NOT). The only thing I can see is that on the Bolt, on the conditional access screen of the cablecard configuration, the line "ActivePrg: <0> 2 3" does NOT include tuner 1, which is the malfunctioning tuner (On the Premiere, that line is "ActivePrg: <0> 1 2 3"). Comcast says they don't have any control over whether this tuner is active -- it's the TiVo box that is supposed to activate and use it, but I'm not 100% sure about that -- I have a feeling that only a VERY senior engineer is going to know the answer to this.

In TiVo diagnostics, the malfunctioning tuner shows Signal Lock YES, but Program Lock NO. There are a few RS Uncorrected errors, but <100, and they're not incrementing. And as I mentioned, this was working fine a few days ago . I've tried going back through Guided Setup, no change. I really, really, am trying to resist the Delete Everything option as I don't want to lose my recordings, but if I have to, I will.

Does anyone have a clue about what could be going on?

Tivo support indicated that my SNR was TOO HIGH (37-38dB) and said they won't look further into this until I can get it attenuated down to a max of 35dB, since that's the "limit" of QAM256. I remember there was an issue with the TiVo HD years ago with too-hot signal, but I thought they fixed that in their RF design . So, I'll try to find my attenuators and give that a shot.

Edit: Found my attenuators and attenuated down to 35dB -- same busted tuner #1.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

I'd unplug it and leave it unplugged for at least 5 minutes.

-KP


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## sethmeisterg (Oct 9, 2004)

Comcast cablecard activation are really competent support people. They helped me fix this. What they had me do was:

1. Remove the CableCard from the running TiVo
2. Power off the TiVo
3. Wait 30 seconds
4. Power on and boot the TiVo
5. Wait a minute
6. Go to the Cablecard menu on the TiVo
7. Reinsert the CableCard
8. They re-paired the cablecard (though it's unclear if they had to, they did it anyway)

I got impatient after the TiVo wasn't tuning channels (searching for signal) after 3-4 minutes, so I repeated guided setup. I'm not sure if waiting longer would have had the same effect, but after guided setup was done, All 4 tuners were functional!


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

sethmeisterg said:


> Comcast cablecard activation are really competent support people. They helped me fix this. What they had me do was:
> I got impatient after the TiVo wasn't tuning channels (searching for signal) after 3-4 minutes, so I repeated guided setup. I'm not sure if waiting longer would have had the same effect, but after guided setup was done, All 4 tuners were functional!


And, pray tell, what are your signal % and SNR for the box now?


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## sethmeisterg (Oct 9, 2004)

JoeKustra said:


> And, pray tell, what are your signal % and SNR for the box now?


Hehe, It's 95% and 38dB. But there's another wrinkle to this. After moving my box back into position, that tuner went out again, so it's possible there's something hardware related going on with the coax jack on the back of the unit . I repositioned the tiro again and that tuner started functioning again. Sigh. So perhaps it wasn't the act of removing and reinserting the card that did anything, but the repositioning of the Bolt itself. That makes sense, but then why would one out of the 4 tuners fail and not ALL 4?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

sethmeisterg said:


> Hehe, It's 95% and 38dB. But there's another wrinkle to this. After moving my box back into position, that tuner went out again, so it's possible there's something hardware related going on with the coax jack on the back of the unit . I repositioned the tiro again and that tuner started functioning again. Sigh. So perhaps it wasn't the act of removing and reinserting the card that did anything, but the repositioning of the Bolt itself. That makes sense, but then why would one out of the 4 tuners fail and not ALL 4?


There is a simple tuner test. Pick a channel. Restart the box. Check Diagnostics. All signals and SNR should be the same since all are on the same channel.

BTW, my first Roamio arrived with two bad tuners. It was educational.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

JoeKustra said:


> BTW, my first Roamio arrived with two bad tuners. It was educational.


I guess that's one way to put it?


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## KDragon (Apr 28, 2017)

I too have been having problems with a lost tuner on my Bolt. Tuner #3 gets nothing, while tuners 0-2 have no problems. This is the second unit that has had a similar problem, the previous one they replaced last summer. 

I did a bunch of diagnostics on my own, then called Tivo support and spent an hour on the phone doing various tasks to diagnose and reset the box. Nothing helped. Finally they said they have to replace the box. Sigh. I asked that they waive the $49 they tried to charge me for the replacement, and they agreed to waive it. They will charge me for the new box, while it is in transit ($242), and will fully refund that money when they receive the old box back. This is the same as what happened last summer.

One interesting thing the agent told me: he asserted that if I had the box plugged into a power strip instead of directly into the wall, that could "damage" the Bolt hardware. Has anyone else heard of this? Can anyone explain how this could damage the Bolt? Thanks.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

KDragon said:


> I too have been having problems with a lost tuner on my Bolt. Tuner #3 gets nothing, while tuners 0-2 have no problems. This is the second unit that has had a similar problem, the previous one they replaced last summer.
> One interesting thing the agent told me: he asserted that if I had the box plugged into a power strip instead of directly into the wall, that could "damage" the Bolt hardware. Has anyone else heard of this? Can anyone explain how this could damage the Bolt? Thanks.


One: ignore that idiot. Two: please buy a UPS.


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## rdrrepair (Nov 24, 2006)

JoeKustra said:


> One: ignore that idiot. Two: please buy a UPS.


Why would you get a slow rolling horizontal line while plugged in to a ups and not one when plugged directly into the outlet?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

rdrrepair said:


> Why would you get a slow rolling horizontal line while plugged in to a ups and not one when plugged directly into the outlet?


A defective UPS? It sounds like interference.


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## KDragon (Apr 28, 2017)

JoeKustra said:


> One: ignore that idiot. Two: please buy a UPS.


Yeah, it seemed wrong to me too. Otherwise, the Tivo support agent was great.


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## Tobester+415 (May 17, 2018)

KDragon said:


> I too have been having problems with a lost tuner on my Bolt. Tuner #3 gets nothing, while tuners 0-2 have no problems. This is the second unit that has had a similar problem, the previous one they replaced last summer.
> 
> I did a bunch of diagnostics on my own, then called Tivo support and spent an hour on the phone doing various tasks to diagnose and reset the box. Nothing helped. Finally they said they have to replace the box. Sigh. I asked that they waive the $49 they tried to charge me for the replacement, and they agreed to waive it. They will charge me for the new box, while it is in transit ($242), and will fully refund that money when they receive the old box back. This is the same as what happened last summer.
> 
> One interesting thing the agent told me: he asserted that if I had the box plugged into a power strip instead of directly into the wall, that could "damage" the Bolt hardware. Has anyone else heard of this? Can anyone explain how this could damage the Bolt? Thanks.


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## Tobester+415 (May 17, 2018)

Exact same issue as yours with my white TiVo Bolt. Tuner 3 has stopped working, while tuners 0, 1, and 2 are fine. 
Today, Comcast visited and found some interference on my condo building coaxial line but isolated the bad drop and stats improved but Tuner 3 is still NO-OP. 

(This is very frustrating as this is my second TiVo BOLT to have an issue with 1.5 years or purchase. The first was a hard drive failure.)


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

I'm sure you've probably tried it, but I installed a Bolt that wouldn't tune on one tuner, but it was OK after a reboot.

It's not at my house and the actual owner may never notice if it started up again...

-KP


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