Surge damages cable boxes - News

Awww poor people, can't watch football because they were too cheap to buy a surge protector or too lazy to unplug their boxes....bummer.

All you have to do is call up the cable company and get a brand new cable box free.

If the cable company was worried then they would supply a surge protector because you are paying for the service.

Von in Aiea wrote:

All you have to do is call up the cable company and get a brand new cable box free.
If the cable company was worried then they would supply a surge protector because you are paying for the service.

HAR HAR HAR! It's easier to get hold of George Bush than Oceanic. That's why I stay with Hawaiian Telcom. Even with all their problems their still better than Oceanic Cable. I had phone service while the power was out and I was back on line right after the power went back on and my television screen was all black snow.

Lolo wrote:

<quoted text>
HAR HAR HAR! It's easier to get hold of George Bush than Oceanic. That's why I stay with Hawaiian Telcom. Even with all their problems their still better than Oceanic Cable. I had phone service while the power was out and I was back on line right after the power went back on and my television screen was all black snow.

Well you are paying for the service, but if you get it or not that is a whole new issue.

Actually Hawaiian Tel has been pretty good. If they can hang on through these hard times they should come out a winner.

The article is exactly right. If there is a power outage, un-plug everything to prevent exactly what happened. It doesn't take a genious to figure that out. Some probably didn't think of that, which is under-standable, and others were probable too lazy to do it to prevent damage to their electrical things. Well, learn and do it if that happens again.

Von in Aiea wrote:

All you have to do is call up the cable company and get a brand new cable box free.
If the cable company was worried then they would supply a surge protector because you are paying for the service.

Von., I have to disagree with you about the cable company providing a surge protector. That is you responsibility. The cable company only provides service to your house. The rest is your responsibility.

Restoring power to a blacked out neighborhood is pretty difficult. All the fridges kick on at once (BIG Load) and the christmas lights and what ever else is plugged in , a big empty bucket of demand that screams to be filled instantly...at the speed of light. A tip of the hat to the engineers that can bring it back on at all with out tipping the whole shebang back into chaos again. It would be nice if the folks who design the fancy electronics could build some protection into those expensive items.

Richard Swann wrote:

Restoring power to a blacked out neighborhood is pretty difficult. All the fridges kick on at once (BIG Load) and the christmas lights and what ever else is plugged in , a big empty bucket of demand that screams to be filled instantly...at the speed of light. A tip of the hat to the engineers that can bring it back on at all with out tipping the whole shebang back into chaos again. It would be nice if the folks who design the fancy electronics could build some protection into those expensive items.

Good point., but that only re-enforces my point..when there is an electrical outage, unplug everything to prevent overloads and damage. Mahalo and Aloha

That's right, it's the instantaneous startup power requirements that screw the grid up. This is as anyone with a home portable generator knows, something like a fridge may take only 400 watts but on startup, it needs 2000 for a brief fraction of a second.

Glenn Paul wrote:

<quoted text>Von., I have to disagree with you about the cable company providing a surge protector. That is you responsibility. The cable company only provides service to your house. The rest is your responsibility.

Actually it is not only possible but wiser to provide surge protection inside of the cable boxes themselves. Oceanic doesn't do it because it increases the costs of each box. In the long run, it's cheaper to replace blown power supplies in a finite amount of cable boxes than to include the surge protection in all the boxes the provide.

willie wrote:

Awww poor people, can't watch football because they were too cheap to buy a surge protector or too lazy to unplug their boxes....bummer.

Willie., Couldn't agree with you more. Aloha from Northeast PA

What problems? My phone worked fine. My laptop worked fine. I can't wait until Hawaiian Telcom starts up their cable tv so I can disconnect Oceanic completely.

Oceanic is for the birds!

So easy a caveman can do it huh? Now you guys know what I have to go through every day.

Lolo wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually it is not only possible but wiser to provide surge protection inside of the cable boxes themselves. Oceanic doesn't do it because it increases the costs of each box. In the long run, it's cheaper to replace blown power supplies in a finite amount of cable boxes than to include the surge protection in all the boxes the provide.

Lolo., That is a great point. put power surge protectors inside of the cable boxes. Probably would be minimumal cost. Aloha

Linemen are warned too; watch out for current leaking back into the lines from power generators. Incorrect set-up can be a real shocking experience!

Its a common mistake when the inexperienced try to install generators.'Over the counter' rarely can power everything. Get help figuring requirements.

Gasoline has it's own fire hazards. Carbon monoxide can be real dangerous to one's health!

APC wrote:

Linemen are warned too; watch out for current leaking back into the lines from power generators. Incorrect set-up can be a real shocking experience!
Its a common mistake when the inexperienced try to install generators.'Over the counter' rarely can power everything. Get help figuring requirements.
Gasoline has it's own fire hazards. Carbon monoxide can be real dangerous to one's health!

It's so easy a caveman can do it.

Cost of a surge protector --$30.

Cost of missing the Super Bowl -- Priceless!

Luckily I heard the HECO rep suggest to unplug all expensive electronics to avoid damage from the surge as the power was restored.

After the power came back on, our DVR had intermittent sound lapses. So we just followed the instructions on the Oceanic website and rebooted the DVR. Sound works great again.

I have surge protectors plugged into surge protectors. I never unplugged anything and everything worked fine as soon as the power came back on about 5 am Saturday.

The only thing that didn't work was my cable service. I guess Oceanic is not very well prepared.

Von in Aiea wrote:

All you have to do is call up the cable company and get a brand new cable box free.
If the cable company was worried then they would supply a surge protector because you are paying for the service.

The cable company is out of boxes. They'll probably bring their replacement inventory in by boat instead of air freight.
People should go back to analog service, then you don't need a box.