Client Initialization Error

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

For the past couple days I've had to hard reboot the RG about 8 times and the DVR/STB's many times too. "Client Intialization Error" and "Quiet Client" have been showing up on my TV on a blue screen. I've read a couple threads on these same error codes and most were indicating the DVR is on it's way out. But since I'm having problems with all the other STB's too I'm leaning towards an RG problem.

Then today I lost the internet connection too, along with all TV signals, so know it's either in my outside line or the RG (2Wire 3800HGV-B). I checked all the connections and they are tight. Also inspected the outside wiring on the house and appears OK.

It was kind of odd the way this problem started. My wife said the DVR picture froze so I did a hard reboot which fixed it. Going up/down on channels wouldn't work. But once I fixed the DVR it immediatel froze the picture on the kitchen TV. So did a hard reboot on that STB and never did load even overnight. Then this morning everything seemed back to normal and then everything went out.

Kind of ironic when I still had the internet this morning I received a warning from FF when trying to go into email. It said this AT&T/Yahoo email is an untrusted site and not to go into it! What the heck and both my email and line feed is through AT&T!!

These problems probably warrant a call to TS to see what's amiss. Just thought I'd ask others for input to see what might be going on? Thanks!

BTW, when I checked the DVR for recordings ealier today, after it started working, it showed there were none. Then all of the sudden they were all back when I looked again. Also it showed the Y&R as recording but it never did. Wife is not a happy camper on that loss and I better get this fixed quick!

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

Could be a borked firmware upgrade? Did you do a factory reset on the RG? If it's the DVR, you might be stuck with a factory reset there as well (goodby recordings). How about some Uverse Realtime screenshots.

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spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

Maybe time to request a 3801?

That fixed most issues here, except for the CC-dropouts, LOL!

gamegurou · ‎06-03-2012

Sounds like a possible coax issue or the RG. Just means that the tv's and rg's lost logical communication - which could include physical as well.

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

Computer-Joe wrote:

Could be a borked firmware upgrade? Did you do a factory reset on the RG? If it's the DVR, you might be stuck with a factory reset there as well (goodby recordings). How about some Uverse Realtime screenshots.

Sorry for the delay CJ and for some reason I didn't receive any email subscription notices until the last post. I was also thinking it was some kind of download/update that went haywire. Saw a bunch of quirky messages from UV, I've never seen before, on the blue screen and wish I would have wrote them down.

The only thing I did on the equipment was hard reboots and checking all the connections. Service seems back to normal now but do get some freezing channels once in a while, and always have.

Here's the UVRT screenshots and as can be seen in the error table the service went down 2 days ago.

Stats-2012-06-17-00-23-28, client init 1a.png

ErrorTable-2012-06-17-00-21-37, client init 1.png

Bitloading-2012-06-17-00-22-34, client init 2.png

Thanks for any help or advice. Also appreciate the input from others and you may be right Spd about needing an upgrade to the 3801 RG.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

Saturday I noticed alot of freezes on live and recorded TV that resolved themselves in 10 seconds or less Uni. This was a much higher occurance than ever before.

Chris

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AnubisKB · ‎06-19-2012

I am having what seems to be a software/firmware update problem too. Everything was fine with all my receivers last night. Today, none of them work right. But the pipe (inet/phone, etc.) is fine. And the boxes both kinda worked until I rebooted them to fix what ever originally seemed wrong with them; neither will see the network at all anymore.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

AnubisKB wrote:

I am having what seems to be a software/firmware update problem too. Everything was fine with all my receivers last night. Today, none of them work right. But the pipe (inet/phone, etc.) is fine. And the boxes both kinda worked until I rebooted them to fix what ever originally seemed wrong with them; neither will see the network at all anymore.

Why do you think is is a software/firmware update problem? I'm not aware any any current updates being pushed out.

Can you download and install SomeJoe's tool at the link below?

http://www.uverserealtime.com/

Once you install the tool, please post screenshots of the following tabs: IP/Profile, Error Table, Bitloading, & Coax/HPNA.

We can take a look at the screenshots to see if there appears that you might be an issue with your system.

AnubisKB · ‎06-19-2012

thanks for the link - I'll download it so I have it, but I was notified of a network outage in my area since I scheduled a service appt. and then shortly after, everything came back up. So that is that I suppose.

Thanks for the info,

Kurt

TheBUNKY · ‎04-08-2010

I had the same issue over the last week or so. Reboot the DVR, the only TV affected and the RG and it was in a client initialization loop. The DVR would try to reboot for several minutes then the error would pop up. I'd cycle power again on the DVR and the same issue would occur.

With the temperatures rising outside and our old 300 foot of old coax, the tech rewired us and moved our RG to a room closer to where the drop from the pole outside comes inside the house, then ran CAT5 from the newly moved RG to the DVR. So far so good.

The old setup had the drop to the house from the pole, then the 300 foot of old coax run to the RG, then back another 300 foot to the DVR in the opposite end of the house. The STB nearest to the RG wasn't affected, since it was only traveling a few feet from the RG to the STB. However the DVR was at the end of the 300 feet. So basically signal came into the house on a long run of coax, then back to the DVR on the same long run of coax. With the hot temperatures we have here now, we had some signal loss issues to and from that long run along that old coax.

I'd expect as the heat of Summer comes upon us and the longer the runs to your TV drops inside the older homes, the more this issue will arise for the techs to repair.

If the issue occurs during the warmest part of the day, I'd place the blame on old coax.

spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

Hope that fixes things for you. Your setup sounds like my old one, miles of coax underground and through attic. No more live coax from outdoors, but Cat5 from the NID, then phoneline to the RG. It improved things tremenously for a few years, but I kept getting the Client errors recently, and the fix (thus far) was a 3801. We had the 3800 since 2007.

TheBUNKY wrote:

I had the same issue over the last week or so. Reboot the DVR, the only TV affected and the RG and it was in a client initialization loop. The DVR would try to reboot for several minutes then the error would pop up. I'd cycle power again on the DVR and the same issue would occur.

With the temperatures rising outside and our old 300 foot of old coax, the tech rewired us and moved our RG to a room closer to where the drop from the pole outside comes inside the house, then ran CAT5 from the newly moved RG to the DVR. So far so good.

The old setup had the drop to the house from the pole, then the 300 foot of old coax run to the RG, then back another 300 foot to the DVR in the opposite end of the house. The STB nearest to the RG wasn't affected, since it was only traveling a few feet from the RG to the STB. However the DVR was at the end of the 300 feet. So basically signal came into the house on a long run of coax, then back to the DVR on the same long run of coax. With the hot temperatures we have here now, we had some signal loss issues to and from that long run along that old coax.

I'd expect as the heat of Summer comes upon us and the longer the runs to your TV drops inside the older homes, the more this issue will arise for the techs to repair.

If the issue occurs during the warmest part of the day, I'd place the blame on old coax.

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

Interesting about the heat related problems and my setup sounds similar too. Old RG6 coax run through most the house but new crimp on connectors installed w/my service in 2008. Only my living room STB, which is only 4' from RG, has a Cat5e connection and don't know if I ever saw the Client Initialization Error on that one. But once I started doing hard reboots on the RG it was also having problems loading.

I tried to hold off on turning on my 3 power-hog window AC units and may have waited too long. Before I knew it the heat/humidity in this place was way too high which is just great for electronics/cabling. Not sure if it's related but that's when my problems started and turned the AC on to dry things out/cool the house down.

As Chris stated they may have been having mid-west signal problems causing everything to freeze more than often. BTW, thanks for the input Chris.

I'm on my 3rd 3800 RG and they don't seem to last very long around here. As Spd said maybe time for a 3801 upgrade since I'm still having a few freezing problems. Don't know why they seem to be always late at night and maybe that's when the humidity goes up or they are working on things?

Just wonder if anybody saw anything wrong/out of the ordinary w/my UVRT specs?

spd2demun wrote:

Hope that fixes things for you. Your setup sounds like my old one, miles of coax underground and through attic. No more live coax from outdoors, but Cat5 from the NID, then phoneline to the RG. It improved things tremenously for a few years, but I kept getting the Client errors recently, and the fix (thus far) was a 3801. We had the 3800 since 2007.

TheBUNKY wrote:

I had the same issue over the last week or so. Reboot the DVR, the only TV affected and the RG and it was in a client initialization loop. The DVR would try to reboot for several minutes then the error would pop up. I'd cycle power again on the DVR and the same issue would occur.

With the temperatures rising outside and our old 300 foot of old coax, the tech rewired us and moved our RG to a room closer to where the drop from the pole outside comes inside the house, then ran CAT5 from the newly moved RG to the DVR. So far so good.

The old setup had the drop to the house from the pole, then the 300 foot of old coax run to the RG, then back another 300 foot to the DVR in the opposite end of the house. The STB nearest to the RG wasn't affected, since it was only traveling a few feet from the RG to the STB. However the DVR was at the end of the 300 feet. So basically signal came into the house on a long run of coax, then back to the DVR on the same long run of coax. With the hot temperatures we have here now, we had some signal loss issues to and from that long run along that old coax.

I'd expect as the heat of Summer comes upon us and the longer the runs to your TV drops inside the older homes, the more this issue will arise for the techs to repair.

If the issue occurs during the warmest part of the day, I'd place the blame on old coax.

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

Uniblurb3 wrote:
Interesting about the heat related problems and my setup sounds similar too. Old RG6 coax run through most the house but new crimp on connectors installed w/my service in 2008. Only my living room STB, which is only 4' from RG, has a Cat5e connection and don't know if I ever saw the Client Initialization Error on that one. But once I started doing hard reboots on the RG it was also having problems loading.

I tried to hold off on turning on my 3 power-hog window AC units and may have waited too long. Before I knew it the heat/humidity in this place was way too high which is just great for electronics/cabling. Not sure if it's related but that's when my problems started and turned the AC on to dry things out/cool the house down.

As Chris stated they may have been having mid-west signal problems causing everything to freeze more than often. BTW, thanks for the input Chris.

I'm on my 3rd 3800 RG and they don't seem to last very long around here. As Spd said maybe time for a 3801 upgrade since I'm still having a few freezing problems. Don't know why they seem to be always late at night and maybe that's when the humidity goes up or they are working on things?

Just wonder if anybody saw anything wrong/out of the ordinary w/my UVRT specs?

IIRC, the 3800s had a tendancy to run pretty hot to begin with. If they're installed in a rea that exposes it to extra heat (near other electronics), or in an area where it can not dissapate it's own heat (in a cabinet or entertainment center), I'm sure it would shorten it's lifespan.

As far as heat affecting the actual coax itself, I believe basic RG6 is good to 80C (176F), so unless your house is getting very, very warm, I wouldn't worry.

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How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
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I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
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There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
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“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

Computer-Joe wrote:

Uniblurb3 wrote:

Interesting about the heat related problems and my setup sounds similar too. Old RG6 coax run through most the house but new crimp on connectors installed w/my service in 2008. Only my living room STB, which is only 4' from RG, has a Cat5e connection and don't know if I ever saw the Client Initialization Error on that one. But once I started doing hard reboots on the RG it was also having problems loading.

I tried to hold off on turning on my 3 power-hog window AC units and may have waited too long. Before I knew it the heat/humidity in this place was way too high which is just great for electronics/cabling. Not sure if it's related but that's when my problems started and turned the AC on to dry things out/cool the house down.

As Chris stated they may have been having mid-west signal problems causing everything to freeze more than often. BTW, thanks for the input Chris.

I'm on my 3rd 3800 RG and they don't seem to last very long around here. As Spd said maybe time for a 3801 upgrade since I'm still having a few freezing problems. Don't know why they seem to be always late at night and maybe that's when the humidity goes up or they are working on things?

Just wonder if anybody saw anything wrong/out of the ordinary w/my UVRT specs?

IIRC, the 3800s had a tendancy to run pretty hot to begin with. If they're installed in a rea that exposes it to extra heat (near other electronics), or in an area where it can not dissapate it's own heat (in a cabinet or entertainment center), I'm sure it would shorten it's lifespan.

As far as heat affecting the actual coax itself, I believe basic RG6 is good to 80C (176F), so unless your house is getting very, very warm, I wouldn't worry.

Thanks CJ. I learned 3-4 years ago the RG best be in the open and I have it in a location where air can get to it with it standing on end.

As far as the RG6 goes I'm more worried about the old coax on the outside of the house, attached to the splitter, where the rain/sun can beat down on it. I know the rubber compression connectors are supposed to stop condensation from forming in the splitter connections themselves but I never really liked everything exposed like it is. I've brought this to attention to the techs when they visit and concesous is, "it will work".

Computer-Joe · ‎09-19-2008

Uniblurb3 wrote:
Thanks CJ. I learned 3-4 years ago the RG best be in the open and I have it in a location where air can get to it with it standing on end.

As far as the RG6 goes I'm more worried about the old coax on the outside of the house, attached to the splitter, where the rain/sun can beat down on it. I know the rubber compression connectors are supposed to stop condensation from forming in the splitter connections themselves but I never really liked everything exposed like it is. I've brought this to attention to the techs when they visit and concesous is, "it will work".

Spend a couple of bucks and get yourself a roll of friction tape, that's the rubber electrical tape that sticks to itself, comes with a plastic strip you have to remove. On a good hot dry day, tighten all the connections on the splitter, and wrap the entire splitter body and each connection and out each cable 2-3 inches. Keep the tape slightly stretched as you apply it.

__________________________________________________________
How can you be in two places at once, when your not anywhere at all?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really want to become a procrastinator, but I keep putting it off.
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There are three kinds of people, those that can count, and those that can't.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature has made them." :Bertrand Russell

spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

Did the CIE finally go away, Uni?

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

Yeah Spd, I hadn't had any problems/received the CIE prompt every since our dry heat drought-type conditions started over a month ago. But read the below quote from one of my last posts:

"I tried to hold off on turning on my 3 power-hog window AC units and may have waited too long. Before I knew it the heat/humidity in this place was way too high which is just great for electronics/cabling. Not sure if it's related but that's when my problems started and turned the AC on to dry things out/cool the house down."

The exact same thing just happened and once the high humidity rolled in, with the house opened up, my problems started again. All I've done the past 3 days is do hard reboots of the RG/DVR/STB's to try and stop the pixalating/sometimes freezing pictures on my sets. But now that the AC has dried the house out the problems have stopped for a while.

I kind of have a theory on what might be going on. This house in the woods is a pollen/dust pit. With fine tree pollen coming in through the screens, along with limestone dust from the gravel drive and dust from the mostly dead yard, we do our best to keep the dust down. In addition to constantly running the sweeper/dusting things I also run my shop vac over all the electronic equipment once per month. But I'm not so sure this keeps the dust from getting into the equipment. So when the humidity goes up it may mix with the dust on the circuit boards, or other connections, causing malfunctions. Or maybe the equipment is overheating from this scenario? Just a guess on my part but it is strange my problems seem to be humidity related combined with heat.

Think I'll get TS out here to replace the RG. I'm also going to have them take a look at the splitter although I just read in a post they don't supply/replace them anymore. Not sure if that's true or not. If nothing else I need to cover it, along with the connections, with friction tape as CJ already suggested.

While these problems were occurring I did take screen shots with UVRT. Not sure if it would help to post these stats since they do show errors and uncorrected blocks. For all I know the problems could be in the outside lines.

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

Update. While I was no longer seeing CIE prompt, my internet connection started going down. So called TS on Weds (8/1) and mentioned my TV picture freezing/pixelating sometimes along with a bad internet connection. I convinced the rep I had rebooted the RG/DVR/STB's so many times it wasn't necessary. She ran a test, showed I was having line problems, and set up an appt the same day from 4-8pm.

Received a call from the prem tech at 7:30pm and said he was in route but 25 miles away. Excellent tech named Cody showed up right before 8pm. I showed him my UVRT stats and he was one of the few techs who took interest. He replaced the RG with another Moto 3800HGV-B and said it was remanufactured. I asked if he didn't have any new one's, including the 3801, and he said they don't give them any new RG's/DVR's anymore and they're all remanufactured.

I mentioned the VIP 1200 STB in my basement maybe having a problem and asked if he had any of the new wireless Cisco STB's? He immediately changed it out with a Cisco ISB 7005 and connected the WAP (Wireless Access Point) to the RG. He said these STB's have great range and showed me the 5 lights lit up on the front showing the signal strength. He also said the frequency on the signal is very specific to the WAP so it does not interfere with any other wireless devices in the house. I asked if the PQ is better going through the ISB7005, compared to the VIP 1200, and he said no. Nice that I'll be able to take my small TV and the wireless STB outside if I want.

It was pretty nice of this young man to change the STB out for free of charge since TS said I would need to pay $49.95 to upgrade to the wireless 7005 STB. They will ship you the upgrade STB, and you send your old one back, for this price. This is just for the upgrade and not if you're getting a replacement for a bad STB.

I then showed Cody the splitter on the outside of the house and said after 3 1/2 years in the weather I'm not sure if it's still good? He immediately changed it out with another new "Holland 5-1500Hz" splitter and said, "they don't last forever". Great tech and when I've showed this splitter to the few other techs who have been here they just shrugged their shoulders and said, "looks good to me.". I've also read in the forum that the prem techs don't carry new splitters and you have to buy/supply your own. Not true in my area!

The tech also said he could see a bridge tap on my line and turned in a ticket for line tech to come out the next day first thing in the morning. Cody gave me his cell phone number and said to call him if I see anymore problems.

Don't believe I've ever had a better prem tech here and Cody was excellent. He was super knowledgeable and willing to replace anything I pointed out as potential problems. Also was interested in the UVRT stats and we had an in-depth discussion on closed captions. He did learn something new in the CC's cannot be passed through any of the UV boxes on a HD signal when using component cables or HDMI.

Since the line tech was not here by noon the next day I called Cody and TS. It's evident there's still problems with communications between the TS reps, prem techs and line techs. The TS rep I spoke with said my case # was closed as repaired and a line tech won't be showing up. So she made me open a whole other case number/work order to schedule a prem tech to come out. This was even after I told her the prem tech work was completed and I need a line tech to remove the bridge tap on my line. Believe only a prem tech can turn in a ticket for a line tech and TS must not have anything to do with it. Cody cancelled the prem tech who was supposed to show up and kept me posted about when the line tech would show up.

The line tech showed up later that afternoon and it just happened to be a phone tech I've known for 30 years. Has 43 years in with AT&T and Charlie ran some more extensive tests on my line. The loop test he ran showed there was no bridge tap on my line which was a relief.

So my service is running great again and better than it's been for a long time. I received 2 TS phone calls the day after the line tech showed up which was a nice follow-up to make sure my problems have been resolved. These calls were something new I have not seen before so it's nice they are following up to make sure my problems were fixed.

It may be worth mentioning the TS reps I spoke with said you cannot receive new equipment from them if it's not available to the prem techs in your area. This includes the 3801 RG and the larger HDD 2250 DVR. I had specifically requested the 2250 since the firmware/software may have a work-a-round installed for using closed captions. This was request was to no avail in going through TS.

A truck roll charge is now $99.95 in my area if the problem is in your own wiring or something you caused. Seems pretty high compared to $45 a year or 2 ago. I was getting kind of sick of every TS rep I talked to telling me this but I'm sure it's just part of their script.

It's also evident U-verse is cutting back on both their number of employees and the equipment provided to existing customers. The prem techs used to be stationed only 8-10 miles away but now their home base/shop is 25 miles away. I've also never seen a 4 - 8pm time slot for prem tech appointments and it always used to be 8am - noon or noon - 4pm. Also as Cody pointed out all their equipment is remanufactured rather than new equipment I used to receive as replacements. This excludes the wireless STB's which are new equipment/not rebuilt.

Sorry for the length but wanted to post the specifics. I'm a happy U-verse customer again as far as service goes.

talon_psi · ‎08-12-2012

Browsing the boards for some specific info and came across your post about swapping the stbs for the IBS7005 and thought I'd ask how you're fairing with the new setup? I can scare you with multiple scenarios I've been chasing down but it would only a) give me away and b) show I've been doing some things frowned upon.

Anyway, any feedback would be appreciated. Also, if you have a plethora of 2WIREXXX wireless networks surrounding your house, get ready for interruptions and problems but it can all be fixed by tuning your internal wlan correctly, forgo the expensive calls.

And good to hear people like Cody are still out there.

Uniblurb3 · ‎09-14-2009

To tell you the truth I haven't been using my new Cisco 7005 wireless STB all that much since I have it installed in the basement. But when I have used it I'm not seeing any of the problems yet I've read about. There's a hodge-podge of real old/half-new electrical wiring in this 95 year old house with lots of line noise/interference. But the Tripp-Lite Isobar Surge Suppressors I've installed on almost all of my electrical equipment are doing a real good job in filtering this noise/interference out.

I really need to move the wireless STB upstairs where it would be used a whole lot more. Also want to give it a try outside. Don't believe I'll run into any neighbors 2WIRE networks since I live in the woods/middle of a 500 acre park with the nearest neighbor w/UV 1,000' away.

Yeah, not many like Cody around and nice there's still some excellent techs who go beyond the call of duty.