Cable company = comcast in Minneapolis MN (full basic non digital)

I just bought a new Pace TDC779X off of ebay and when I plug it into my cable feed it gets stuck on this screen:

V0.01 Pace TDC779X Loader
The ASTB needs to download new software. This could take a few minutes, please be patient.

Tuning to frequency Search: 88000 KHz

I hit select to get the box to scan all the frequencies, so it slowly crawls 50 KHz at a time from 88000 to 147000 and higher.

I have full basic non digital cable (i.e. I plug my cable feed directly into my Samsung 720p plasma upstairs and I get channels 1-99 and HD versions of NBC etc as 11-1, 9-1, etc.) This set up is for a projector, hence the need for an external tuner set top box.

So how do I download the new software if it can't find the frequency on the cable line?
Go to a friend's house who has digital cable and see if the Pace box can find the frequency there?
Is there a way to update the firmware using usb or another connection?
Would my cable company
Can I pull the hard drive and put it into the slave drive slot on my PC and manually put the firmware on it? or is the firmware not stored on the HD?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

The cable co has to enable you to use that box - and I know of no such deal for "privately" bought cable STBs.