ETH Woes - Frustrated with Ceton Support

[mldenison]

I'd been running an ETH for several months with minimal trouble.

I decided to buy another ETH to replace the 4 channel USB tuner.

Since installing it, I've had nothing but troubles:

1 - Original ETH works pretty well except for a need to reboot it every 5 - 7 days. If I don't reboot it, I'll start getting 'New CableCard Detected' setup prompt, followed by 'Subscription Required' instead of a playing channel, any channel.

2 - Running both ETH's, I get unwatchable pixelated shows with stuttering video. And gradual (3 hours) loss of tuners for Recorded TV and Live TV. And the Echo is essentially worthless with no picture.

3 - Running the new ETH is the same as #2.

4 - Connect the original ETH and both the HTPC and Echo are back in business.

I started a support ticket on 4/15 with support. I've just this afternoon sent them the 12th response to their questions and suggestions:

Install various MS hot fixes - no change
Send diagnotics log - everything looks fairly normal
Installlation in WMC - only the original ETH (good), both ETH's (bad), newer ETH (bad). They've asked this three or four times now.
Network topography - they've asked twice now and, no, it hasn't changed from the first time they asked. BTW, I've told them that I have no network issues aside from the ETH's.

Now they, again, want diagnostics logs for each scenario. I've sent at least 4 diagnostics logs already.

The newer ETH is bad. If the first one works and the second one doesn't, it doesn't take a genius.

I'm not sure how you get an RMA out of these folks.

I've got lots of time troubleshooting this for them that could have been well spent on some not frustrating.

[erkotz]

Have you tried setting up the new ETH unit in the exact place of the old ETH unit, using the same cables that you previously used with the old ETH unit, and having the old ETH unit disconnected? If so, what was the outcome of that test?

[mldenison]

Have you tried setting up the new ETH unit in the exact place of the old ETH unit, using the same cables that you previously used with the old ETH unit, and having the old ETH unit disconnected? If so, what was the outcome of that test?

Hi Eric,

That's exactly what I did and had 'Subscription Required' messages along with dropped tuners necessitating a reboot very couple of days.

That being said, I've made a number of changes in the last couple of weeks regarding hardware and I'm now on the third day with no issues with both ETH's and both Echo's.

I replaced my fairly new TrendNet 8 port witch with an Asus 8 port switch.

I purchased a new MSI Z97 motherboard to replace the GigaByte Z87 motherboardfor my HTPC, along with a new Intel LGA 1150 i7 3.5GHZ processor. The GigaByte board was a poor performer.

I, as yet, don't have 100% confidence in the one ETH, but we'll see in a couple of weeks if problems pop up.