Surge damages cable boxes - News

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.

You are correct and I also agree if there is a power outage, un-plug everything to prevent exactly what happened. That should have been plane common sense to unp-lug all electrical items during and electrical storm. It's something like not jumping into a swimming pool without looking to see if there is water in it first Then trying to sue the swimming pool manufacturer when they hurt their head. Unplugging every thing has about the same analogy as that.

Homeowner wrote:

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.

Yes I agree with you. Just a point here though. Usually the power plant normally powers up non- essential places like maybe the stadium first that uses a lot of electricity then maybe the road lights until the electricity is flowing smoothly before they start with the houses. Once the houses are ready to go then the surge would be almost gone. Normally this is how they do it, but I can't say if it was done the time?

There will be some surge, but not as much as if they blasted the houses at full power first. Yet just to be safe things should always be unplugged which I never do except for my computer. I can't live without my computer.

manini wrote:

<quoted text>
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.

Yes, but Hawaii is the first state to switch over from analog which should be next week I thought?

Learned something today. I didn't know you should unplug sensitive electronic equipment after a power outage. Am I the only fool who didn't know this. Don't asnwer that. Anyway, wouldn't it be easier to just turn off all the circuits at the box than trying to squeeze behind electronic equipment to unplug. We have power outages from time to time when no one is at home so how do you guard against that and even with the surge protector you would have to pull your refrigerators and ovens out to reset the surge protector.

Now don't you all miss those good old rabbit ears? No problem with those was there? With the government forcing all of us to go this "new route" it is just costing us more and more money and frustration. Bring back the rabbit ears!

I had no problem tho'. Went around with a flashlight and unpluged all. When TV came up the next day it was a horrid Oceanic picture. Bad colors, kept going on and off, etc. The next day was also bad but late on Sunday the picture "suddenly" go much better. I did not turn on PC till Monday and it seems to be out of whack picture wise. Something happened to some of the screen settings or ??? Must research.... Too bad my PC does not have rabbit ears!

Sue Mason wrote:

Learned something today. I didn't know you should unplug sensitive electronic equipment after a power outage. Am I the only fool who didn't know this. Don't asnwer that. Anyway, wouldn't it be easier to just turn off all the circuits at the box than trying to squeeze behind electronic equipment to unplug. We have power outages from time to time when no one is at home so how do you guard against that and even with the surge protector you would have to pull your refrigerators and ovens out to reset the surge protector.

You are not a fool and you were certainly not alone. And contrary to what some here have said it is not common knowledge. Common sense maybe but not common knowledge.

This holier-than-thou attitude of "I can't believe you people were so stupid" is condescending, juvenile and a sign of ones own need to feel superior.

So much more constructive to offer advice or assistance without putting people down. Mo bettah just be quiet and go stand under a tree during the next thunderstorm.

Instead of unplugging a lot of appliances, flip off the circuit breakers. Everything is all in one place and there's no chance of accidentally missing something.

And as for cable vs phone lines, the phone lines win everytime for reliability. It doesn't take much to knock out Oceanic's internet connections.

Hybrid Driver wrote:

Instead of unplugging a lot of appliances, flip off the circuit breakers. Everything is all in one place and there's no chance of accidentally missing something.
And as for cable vs phone lines, the phone lines win everytime for reliability. It doesn't take much to knock out Oceanic's internet connections.

Good advice here, but I'd feel better getting backup batteries for my computer and electonic entertainment equipment just in case it happens so fast that I can't reach the fuse box quickly enough. Costco backup battery costs about $100 and is cheaper than replacing the computer's power supply box. Wanna guess how many fried computers are now in the repair stores unable to get fixed before the New Year?

Oh yeah. If the TV or computer was ON when the black out hit, you need to pull that plug before you go to sleep. Same for refridge and stove and microwave and on.

manini wrote:

<quoted text>
People should go back to analog service, then you don't need a box.

even if you go digital you don't need a box if you have a modern TV, all you need to d is tune up those rabbit ears, I'm able to catch all the local broadcasts in Oahu in HD with a pair of wire clothes hangers. you just need to know the frequencies(usually similar to analog) and where to point your antenna, here's a site where you can get more info: www.antennaweb.org

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.

I remember way back when, some of the "third-party" cable boxes (the ones that grabs all the channels) had their own built in circuit breaker.

Oh how funny that is everyone elses fault that oceanic cable messed up! I for one did have my box hooked up to a surge protector and even turned the surge protector off!!!!!! In addition my modem was also connected to a surge protector and again, the plug to the surge protector was pulled out of the wall!
Oceanic Cable thinks that its customers are idiots or something! They are reaching to blame someone else! I contacted Oceanic Cable since Saturday evening and could not get anyone in local office. What I got was a message that said that my phone call could not go through! I had to call the National Hotline and they could only tell me that the system was down in my area!

When I finally got through to someone at Oceanic Cable, she must have been a customer service rep, she told me she didn't know why my service was disrupted because the technicians don't tell them that! What a bunch of CROCK!

So you mean to tell me the only reason why those people who have service, does so because they were connected to surge protectors? I don't think so because my parents are not connected to a surge protector! But they will now.....

Oh and I still do not have internet connection or cable and I guess I'm justg part of the 2,000 that will be out of luck!

What a story they give, while I like the person in Aiea, loses money! But Oceanic Cable doesn't care because it's not their fault!

GIVE ME A BREAK.....AND THAT IS WHY I AM CANCELING MY SERVICE!!!!!

Muffin Hanumanong wrote:

<quoted text>even if you go digital you don't need a box if you have a modern TV, all you need to d is tune up those rabbit ears, I'm able to catch all the local broadcasts in Oahu in HD with a pair of wire clothes hangers. you just need to know the frequencies(usually similar to analog) and where to point your antenna, here's a site where you can get more info: www.antennaweb.org

Not only that, but you can get a very inexpensive tuner that hooks up to your computer's USB port that works perfectly. If you hook it up to your laptop you can watch TV even if the power is out.

Also there are adaptors for your analog TV’s that cost about $30.00, but don't tell anyone.

Muhaha, my girlfriend was wearing furry rabbit ears when the power went out...no problem finding reception here!!

beebs wrote:

<quoted text>
I remember way back when, some of the "third-party" cable boxes (the ones that grabs all the channels) had their own built in circuit breaker.

For those that are too young to remember, all appliances had this little red knob in the back that popped out when you overloaded the buggas. Those low tech circuit breakers saved a lot of money. All you had to do was push it back in and everything was good to go.

red button

daaaammmm..

Finally Oceanic makes a public statement about the disruption of service to pocket areas on Oahu. Be sure that you get credited if your service wasn't restored after the power went on. Oceanic made people wait up to 2 hours on the phone just to tell them that "service will be restored sometime today" for several days!