actradio
12-05-08, 12:14 AM
I have standard Scientific Atlanta (SA) Explorer 8000. I've had for several years now. Earlier this week every channel was gray screen so I did a reboot like I've been told to do before, unplug power cord, wait 5-15 seconds, plug back in.
When I did, it said something like Fr.## where ## was some number and cycled up a bit, then it turned to h.### and cycled up a little past 800 till it would restart the number cycle again. At a certain point a dot would appear between the first and second number h.##*# and continue the cycle. Then another would dot would appear h.#*#*# continue the cycle. Then a period h.#.*#*# would appear below the second top dot continuing the cycle a couple more times when all dots and periods would disappear - h.### but continue cycle again. Every now and then it would freeze on a number like h.097 but then keep going up. Sometimes it would go back a couple numbers then back on up. And other times, the h would be a d - d.### but then back to h.### and cycle. Cable company says that meant the DVR was trying to find a signal. And I can't affect the numbers. Power button doesn't work, random keys don't work, access the system info doesn't work. Nothing but a paperweight that cycles through numbers.
Was talking with someone and they said like I had a bad hard drive with a corrupted disk [not exact words] and it is reaching a partition where the platter is screwed and cycling back over to try and get itself up but can't.
But the kicker is there are videos that I would love to get off because they are for someone close to me and I promised to get a copy to them of the videos. I've been reading for days, and tried to talk to Cox but no avail. Cox says nothing they can do except send tech to house. Tech said nothing they could do. I called SA and they said I would have to have company, Cox, do the calling because they don't have a consumer troubleshooting department, it is only for companies. Cox tech says they don't do that kind of thing. They just take DVR back, ship to SA with nothing, and give you a new one. So everyone is saying I'm boned.
But I am wondering if there is a way to attach it to a pc and get the files off the hard drive and saved for further use or something. I've read the encryption is nuts and can't be bypassed. I've read that it's saves videos in formats that there is nothing to decode them with. And others say you can't hook up to computer.
So, am I boned?
When I did, it said something like Fr.## where ## was some number and cycled up a bit, then it turned to h.### and cycled up a little past 800 till it would restart the number cycle again. At a certain point a dot would appear between the first and second number h.##*# and continue the cycle. Then another would dot would appear h.#*#*# continue the cycle. Then a period h.#.*#*# would appear below the second top dot continuing the cycle a couple more times when all dots and periods would disappear - h.### but continue cycle again. Every now and then it would freeze on a number like h.097 but then keep going up. Sometimes it would go back a couple numbers then back on up. And other times, the h would be a d - d.### but then back to h.### and cycle. Cable company says that meant the DVR was trying to find a signal. And I can't affect the numbers. Power button doesn't work, random keys don't work, access the system info doesn't work. Nothing but a paperweight that cycles through numbers.
Was talking with someone and they said like I had a bad hard drive with a corrupted disk [not exact words] and it is reaching a partition where the platter is screwed and cycling back over to try and get itself up but can't.
But the kicker is there are videos that I would love to get off because they are for someone close to me and I promised to get a copy to them of the videos. I've been reading for days, and tried to talk to Cox but no avail. Cox says nothing they can do except send tech to house. Tech said nothing they could do. I called SA and they said I would have to have company, Cox, do the calling because they don't have a consumer troubleshooting department, it is only for companies. Cox tech says they don't do that kind of thing. They just take DVR back, ship to SA with nothing, and give you a new one. So everyone is saying I'm boned.
But I am wondering if there is a way to attach it to a pc and get the files off the hard drive and saved for further use or something. I've read the encryption is nuts and can't be bypassed. I've read that it's saves videos in formats that there is nothing to decode them with. And others say you can't hook up to computer.
So, am I boned?