Why waste another sick day waiting for a tech to never show up when you can troubleshoot it yourself? Tossed over the transom by some anonymous insider, here’s a how to on solving many problems with your Comcast internet, TV, or digital voice, like a big boy.

“Troubleshooting Comcast Products from the Home

Cable TV:
Tiling: Picture Distortion (Breaking Up) of any sort
90 % of the time results in a technicians visit (Signal Related)

From The Home:
Unplug power cord from wall for 2 Minute During the 2 Minutes , un-twist coax cable from cable box If possible remove co ax cable from splitters in the home
If Issue Persists – Call Comcast Avoid Troubleshooting with Rep -Schedule Service Call (A Signal sent to the box rarely fixes this issue)
Not Authorized:
Message appears on when you are not paying for a channel or if you are paying for a channel and the channel is not being delivered to all cable boxes in the home. If account is temporary disconnected, this message will also appear.

FIX: Call Customer Service to make sure the channel s is being delivered to all boxes in the home or pay for requested channel

One Moment Please:
Attempts troubleshooting steps as listed above.
If Issue Persists: Call Comcast and have them reinitialize and send signal to box. Also check to see if your apart of an outage area. 65 % of the time this issue will result in a ticket or technicians visit.

VIDEO ON DEMAND:
Video On Demand is a great service when it works. When it does not work, the service can be very hit or miss. There are almost a hundred different video on demand errors. Some of the main suspects are

ERR 4/CL-7/S0A00 – 70 % of the time are RF (Signal) Related

Troubleshooting From The Home:
Unplug power cord from wall for 2 Minute During the 2 Minutes , un-twist coax cable from cable box If possible remove co ax cable from splitters in the home
If Issue Persists – Call Comcast have the representative open a ticket & schedule the appointment. When Errors like this occur, On Demand can be very hit or miss IE:
2:12PM : You go to On Demand “Your Order Can Not Be Processed Call Customer Service” 2:13PM : You Go To On Demand Again “Were sorry An Error has Occurred please Call Customer Service and report that CL-7 occurred”
If you are lucky at 2:17PM you keep trying, On Demand may possibly come in. It’s better to call and have the ticket opened and schedule the appointment. If not, the next day you’ll find yourself doing the same thing almost guaranteed.

SRM 9002: Almost always occurs when digital boxes become “Inhibited”.
– Anytime the account goes over $150.00 over the monthly rate this message will appear. It will prevent you from ordering any on demand title or pay per view title with a price next to it.

REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAMMING
http://www.urcsupport.com/index.php?mso_id=65

DTA: DIGITAL TRANSPORT ADAPTER

In some areas of the country you will be required to have this box for any TV in the home that just has a cable connected to it. If Comcast is planning to launch this in your area than you will be required to have this box or you will begin to lose channels. In some areas, the first 2 boxes are free.

Some Error Messages Include:
‘Your service has been temporarily interrupted” or “One Moment Please”
Troubleshooting: You can follow same steps as listed above.
FIX: 55% of time a sending of signal/reinitializing adapter box will restore picture. 45% of time there will have to a technician visit.

DIGITAL VOICE:

EMTA: There are several different models of this modem and the above are just 3 of them. If you have Comcast Digital Voice in the home than you have an EMTA. This box controls your telephone and in some cases your internet if you do not have a separate modem for the internet.

Majority of Quality Issues will have to result in you placing a call into Comcast and having them open a ticket or scheduling a technician. Quality Issues can consist of:
Call Drops Phone cuts in & out You can hear other party but other party cannot hear you Other party can hear you but you cannot hear other party

No Dial tone
If you have 1 or multiple phones in the home, cord less or plug-ins and there is no dial tone on any of the phones. Comcast could tell you that this could be a wiring issue.

Troubleshooting For No Dial Tone:

Behind the EMTA there is a reset button, grab something thin and hold the button and release. When you release make sure the lights on the box all jump and go off and slowly come back on. In order for the dial tone/internet to come back you will need at least 6 lights solid on the box.
If that doesn’t work:
Remove Black/Gray Electric Power Plug from the back of the modem
After you removed the Power plug, look at the front of the modem and if lights remain on than there is a battery inside the EMTA
Remove Battery from EMTA (Battery is Inside) – Compartment can be found on bottom or back of EMTA
Once all lights are off Plug battery back in and then power cord.

2 PART HERE

1A. If you received 6 Lights Good:
Check for Dial tone on all phones & if present than you solved the issue. If not take 1 phone (cordless or plug in) and take the phone directly to the back of the EMTA and locate slot labeled “ ½” and stick the phone cord in. If you are doing this with a cordless phone remember to take base of phone with you and plug it into closest power outlet. If you receive dial tone you still need to call Comcast and schedule appointment in which they will classify as wiring. Only the plugged in phone will receive dial tone until a technician visits. If you do not have the 1.99/3.95 protection plan which is highly recommended with their products than there is possibility of a service charge.

B. but if you receive 2-3 after reset

Call Comcast:
1) If Outsourcer picks up – asked to be transferred to your local call center Have your local call center check for outages and also ask if next day appointments are available in your area. There is no troubleshooting left to do since you covered it all.

If a Different Name appears on CallerID when you call other parties:

Call Comcast:
Have them open a ticket & check their registry. Comcast may tell you that their system shows your name should appear when you are calling other land lines. You may call another land line and clearly see that is untrue. Have them escalate the ticket so they can reach to other providers and check their registry’s & databases. You have to be consistent with follow up for an issue like this. With hundreds of thousands of customers this could easily fall through the cracks and you may find yourself calling back a week later and having them open another ticket. 24-72 hours is the quoted estimated time for a ticket. I do find it a bit odd that once a company issues you a number that the name could still be registered on to another phone provider’s database.

HIGH SPEED INTERNET:
There is numerous trouble shooting steps with High Speed Internet. For now the basics for a consumer will be covered. Most modems will only have 4-5 lights on. If you find yourself with anything less than that:
Check for Standby button on top of the modem and on the front of the modem. Hit button and if that does not solve
Remove Power Plug & un twist co ax from behind modem (1 Minute)
Most modems that deliver less than 4 lights after doing the above steps 95 % of the time will result in a technicians visit unless it’s an intermittent issue(may pop back in on its own). However, if the lights did return and “Page Can Not Be Displayed” message remains than

1. Call Comcast 2. Have them check for neighborhood outages.
3. An associate will walk you through steps on the computer so have that turned on.

COMCAST HOME – NETWORKING
As of this entry if you have a wireless router (Netgear/Linksys) mailed to you or installed to you by Comcast support for this product will be handled by specific support teams. A representative who covers internet support or telephone will no longer trouble shoot the routers with you. Meaning when you call Comcast be prepared to be transferred to a “Comcast Netgear Support” or “Comcast Linksys Support” outsources team.
192.168.1.1 admin password

COMCAST GATEWAY
A Gateway is a modem and a router and if you still have this in your home than Comcast will still provide support for these modems. If you need to find WEP or WPA with these Comcast Gateway’s, on a computer directly connected to the modem or a computer with internet access on the network go to:
192.168.0.1 username: Comcast password: 1234″

Want to get inside of a Comcast customer service rep’s head and tactics for dealing with them? Try “Leaks: How Much It Sucks To Be A Comcast Customer Service Rep.”

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Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues. Consumer Reports.