Any cable TV experts?

[Jae]

A non-expert looking for for some insight/understanding:

This afternoon I turned on the television, which is hooked to a Comcast box. It was on for about a minute when it shut down. Only, it wasn't just off, the stand-by light was also off. I tried to turn it on manually, nothing. I checked the cord. There was power. And, I could hear a 'click' whenever I plugged it it. When the cable 'goes down' I will have a blank screen, not a 'functionally dead' television. I tried to go online to trouble shoot only to find that the comcast internet was down as well. As it turned out, both the internet and the television services were out. There was an outage in the area.

The television and the cable box are on the same surge protector, and the box is still on, so it isn't likely a power surge from the electrical service. And, I contacted the television manufacturer. It isn't a reset issue. It is now a wall hanging.

It seems impossible that these two independent events are unrelated - the television dies at the exact moment as the onset of a service outage. Any ideas as what might have happened?

I am sure that comcast will never take responsibility. And, I intend to have the cable box changed out since I don't need risk destroying another television. But, I would really like to know what happens in an outage which could cause this type of destruction of my television.

Thanks!

 

[Chevyman2016]

You can most likely get a free replacement box from them. I always try pushing and holding down power buttons or combinations of buttons to trigger an electronic reset in an electronic unit. A lot of manufacturers use this as a get by tool to cut down on repair equipment costs

 

[KeithM]

I'm not an expert, but I do believe they are connected. I have a friend who works for a company that makes some services Comcast uses, and he told me that Comcast's cable boxes a do some statistics collection so they can analyze how people are using their cable boxes, and I believe that to do it the boxes connected to the internet. So it's possible that somehow the internet outage also cause the cables boxes to go out.

Either that happened, or a power pole that has the Comcast lines on it broke and brought the internet and TV down.

Those are my two guesses

 

[dorke]

Welcome to EP.

It is possible that an outage can damage different devices in different ways even though they are connected to the same surge protector.
The reason being not all devices are equally sensitive nor are they equally protected internally.
Don't immediately blame the Comcast box.

First thing you should notice is how useless is the surge protector you are using.
Another thing,was there a lightning storm when the outage occurred?

What television do you have?