Tonight one of my five TVs had a screen that kept saying 'One Moment Please...This will start soon." I don't know just how long 'soon' is, so I waited for a very long time before I thought to check a couple of other TVs. Ranting to a neighbor about Comcast again I realized I wasn't being fair to the brave tech who seems to have, after four failed before him, solved the Internet/Phone problem for me.and everything seems to be working after a day and a half..
Like and epiphany, it finally dawned on me that the reason Comcast can offer phone service is not because they own lines now; it is because they use the Internet. I began to wonder if Vonage might not have been more reliable and cheaper but am not ready to act on that question just yet.
After an hour of conversation with my neighbor (who has always had the same problem I am currently having, as well as information on a few I probably will have (according to her)) she told me not to schedule a service call. She said, "Wait until 2 AM and then call a tech who can walk you through the problem fix from the 'office' ". However, she also suggested what I have known for years but forgot to do here; shut the power to the box, plug power back and restart it. I reached behind, pulled out the AC plug, counted a slow five, put the power back on, the box on, the TV was back. It had only happened on that one TV that had a cable box connected rather than the other two that had the small converter boxes or the two digital TVs. The analogs worked. The two digital boxes also had no problem. Isolating a problem certainly assists with diagnostics.
It served to remind me about the many times when a computer doesn't work well, unplug the AC and reboot before calling in the cavalry. Sometimes a simple reboot without disconnecting the power works. Why is it that after years of having learned this lesson over and over do I forget it should always be step #1 after checking to see if the power is on? I guess the moral of the story is that 'Older is not always wiser'.
Like and epiphany, it finally dawned on me that the reason Comcast can offer phone service is not because they own lines now; it is because they use the Internet. I began to wonder if Vonage might not have been more reliable and cheaper but am not ready to act on that question just yet.
After an hour of conversation with my neighbor (who has always had the same problem I am currently having, as well as information on a few I probably will have (according to her)) she told me not to schedule a service call. She said, "Wait until 2 AM and then call a tech who can walk you through the problem fix from the 'office' ". However, she also suggested what I have known for years but forgot to do here; shut the power to the box, plug power back and restart it. I reached behind, pulled out the AC plug, counted a slow five, put the power back on, the box on, the TV was back. It had only happened on that one TV that had a cable box connected rather than the other two that had the small converter boxes or the two digital TVs. The analogs worked. The two digital boxes also had no problem. Isolating a problem certainly assists with diagnostics.
It served to remind me about the many times when a computer doesn't work well, unplug the AC and reboot before calling in the cavalry. Sometimes a simple reboot without disconnecting the power works. Why is it that after years of having learned this lesson over and over do I forget it should always be step #1 after checking to see if the power is on? I guess the moral of the story is that 'Older is not always wiser'.
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